- San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Elon Musk is not “above the rules,” Bloomberg reported.
- Breed said that Musk’s antics at X, formerly Twitter, detracted from other things the city offers.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed doesn’t appear to be a fan of Elon Musk’s recent antics at X, the company formerly known as Twitter.
After local police crashed the company’s attempt to take down the Twitter sign outside of its headquarters, Breed said even Musk can’t dodge the rules.
“As for Twitter and what’s happening there, I think the challenge we’re running into is no one can be above the rules,” the mayor last week told Bloomberg. “No one minds that you want to do something different and creative with your space, but you can’t just do it like changing your sign, obstructing traffic and not even asking anyone for a permit.”
At the time, the San Francisco Police Department told Insider that officers responded to “a possible unpermitted street closure” but later determined it not to be a police matter.
Then, over the weekend, the social media company replaced the Twitter sign with a massive flashing “X” on the top of its office building, which upset some of X’s neighbors. The same X sign was taken down on Monday after the Department of Building Inspection served X a Notice of Violation for working without a permit and for the building being unsafe.
The city of San Francisco received 24 complaints about the light-up sign, including that the sign was “poorly constructed” and disturbed nearby residents, CNN reported. And the Department of Building Inspection said it was denied access to X’s roof multiple times.
Breed told Bloomberg that X is drawing attention away from the other things the city has to offer.
“Twitter, now X, represents one thing in San Francisco, but we have so many other incredible companies and so many other important parts of our city that hardly get any attention,” Breed’s office said in a statement Monday to the news outlet.
The city “will continue to stay engaged with the property owner of the building to ensure they follow the city’s process for timely notifications, permit requests, and other procedural matters,” she added.
Musk has been critical of San Francisco in the past, but said on Monday that it was “important for more people to come to work in San Francisco or the rest of the city can’t survive.”
The X sign is one of many issues Musk is facing in San Francisco. The company has been sued over allegations it has not paid rent at the San Francisco building, as well as had several lawsuits filed against it by former employees.
Spokespeople for Breed, Musk, and X did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.
