Plus: A Sonoma County wildfire was quickly put out, and a fast food franchise was denied a new space in one Bay Area city.
Twitter’s Market Street headquarters was once a thing of hyperlocal lore and wonder. It was perched in SF’s downtown corridor, served as a physical navigation point — “keeping on going down Market, past the blue Twitter Bird” — and held cache; it was ostensibly the cool social media company to work for (outside then-Facebook’s monopoly). That all faded into obscurity when Tesla CEO and manchild Elon Musk took ownership of the company in April 2022.
The ensuing two years saw, quite literally, everything good and celebrated and beloved about Twitter decay, courtesy of one man’s insufferable ego. Gone are the avian nods and Twitter’s brand-specific blue color tones, now replaced with a hypernormative marble pattern and a name change to X …, which denotes nothing. The decision to gut Twitter represents one of the worst, most costly business decisions in recent memory, eviscerating a recognizable global brand and, in place of that familiarity, replacing it with decisions made around “yes” people … and those afraid of putting forth any criticism … because their work visas could be in jeopardy.
At long last (and after months of complaining by Musk), X finally cleared out of its San Francisco headquarters this past Friday — the very last day of its lease agreement allowing the flailing social media company to operate inside its 1355 Market Street address.
Unlike Musk’s arrival to the office, which had him carrying a kitchen sink and employees glaring him down, he and X’s skeleton employees’ departure was hushed. Employees seen leaving the building declined media interviews, and much of the decor in the space was carried away.
Though it’s unclear if X will continue to pay its rent at a multi-floor suite inside the address — it lease in the Shorenstein- and the JPMorgan Chase-owned building remains active — X confirmed it will maintain its satellite offices in the Bay Area.
The decision to move X’s headquarters out of California came after the State approved school protections for transgender youth; it’s expected X’s yet-announced new headquarters will be in Austin, Texas.
So long, X. And may your blinding, eye-straining sign that tortured rent-controlled tenant across the street from your former headquarters never see the (moon) light again.
What else transpired over the weekend? Let’s take a look.
- Berkeley could be getting a new, high-density high-rise. The proposed 26-story apartment complex, which recently received approval by the City’s zoning commission, will have at least 11% of its 456 proposed units be affordable housing. More info.
- This Bay Area city said “absolutely not more fast food joints.” Brentwood recently denied the development of a proposed Popeyes location, the City citing that there’s already an overabundance of fast food eateries in the metro. More info.
- A fast-moving fire in wine country was quickly snuffed out Sunday. The 40-acre Cougar Fire was first reported around 2:20 p.m. near Sonoma Raceway; by 5 p.m., the fire was put out by local firefighters. More info.
Feature image: Courtesy of [at]datarade on, ironically enough X
