S.f. Tax Day Protest Marches On Twitter

The protesters passed a craft beer hall, an artisanal burger joint and a 754-unit luxury condominium project that didn't exist before the city in early 2011 offered a tax break to entice businesses to move to the long-forlorn stretch of Market Street and parts of the Tenderloin - areas where the aroma of stale urine would often drift past clusters of men smoking in front of boarded-up storefronts. 'Remarkable' successMayor Ed Lee, business leaders and many others in the city count the Mid-Market tax break as a "remarkable," if still emerging, success story. Since the tax break was approved, 18 technology companies, 17 small businesses and eight arts venues have opened in the area, according to Lee's administration. "The decades of disinvestment and abandonment by the public and private sectors in Central Market are over, and we will not turn back the clock on our promising efforts to create a healthy, vibrant and economically diverse community" in the neighborhood. [...] in a city with stratospheric rents and an income gap that is growing faster than anywhere else in the country, tax benefits for tech companies are a convenient target for progressives on the city's political left, including the Service Employees International Union Local 1021. In October, before Twitter's initial public offering, a Chronicle analysis conducted with certified public accountant Jim McHale projected the cost to the city from Twitter's tax break was $56 million when factoring in stock options.