Author of "City on the Edge: Technology, Politics and the Fight for Soul of San Francisco." Ex-Reuters, LAT, SF Standard, Industry Standard.
San Francisco
Joined May 2008
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Jonathan Weber retweeted
@WeberWest just finished City on the Edge and really loved it - moved here in 97 to work at an interactive agency (CKS Partners) and enjoyed some Standard parties back in the day - so many ppl i know in the book - a great read i finished it in two days!
A lot of telecom bubble vibes here…
Investors Turn on Data Center Builders as Rising Interest Rates Dampen the AI Trade newcomer.co/p/investors-turn…
For 30 years I've watched tech companies try to sell the "smart home." Maybe Apple's efforts will end differently. Or maybe, no one worries that much about how to turn the lights on.
It was fun & enlightening to be part of this discussion, thanks @skaushik100 for
making it happen! I learned a lot about Seattle and hopefully my book about SF shed some light.
Starting in the ‘90s, insular tech companies started abandoning their isolated suburban campuses and instead began planting themselves in the hearts of progressive cities like Seattle and San Francisco.
In doing so, they traded their nerdy image for creative class cool, and at first Big Tech’s colonization of Belltown and South Lake Union and the Mission and other similar urban neighborhoods in the core of once down-at-the-heels blue cities seemed like a marriage made in heaven.
Prosperity bombs begat urban revitalization, and the marriage of the countercultural cosmopolitanism of these cities with the libertarian-tinged techno-optimism of the companies made for - at first - a gushy love affair.
Then the backlash set in. The cost of living and of housing in these cities skyrocketed, gentrification drove displacement. “Die Yuppie Scum!” and “Fuck Amazon!” became the rallying cries of disaffected progressives, particularly after tech moguls started cozying up to Trump.
So in our latest BCB episode (link to follow) we explore how the once torrid tech bromance got so strained or sour, and where things are likely to go in the future. Super interesting conversation with our all star panel, who offered up lots of sharp insights and some colorful anecdotes. taped live earlier this week at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle.
Jonathan Weber retweeted
Starting in the ‘90s, insular tech companies started abandoning their isolated suburban campuses and instead began planting themselves in the hearts of progressive cities like Seattle and San Francisco.
In doing so, they traded their nerdy image for creative class cool, and at first Big Tech’s colonization of Belltown and South Lake Union and the Mission and other similar urban neighborhoods in the core of once down-at-the-heels blue cities seemed like a marriage made in heaven.
Prosperity bombs begat urban revitalization, and the marriage of the countercultural cosmopolitanism of these cities with the libertarian-tinged techno-optimism of the companies made for - at first - a gushy love affair.
Then the backlash set in. The cost of living and of housing in these cities skyrocketed, gentrification drove displacement. “Die Yuppie Scum!” and “Fuck Amazon!” became the rallying cries of disaffected progressives, particularly after tech moguls started cozying up to Trump.
So in our latest BCB episode (link to follow) we explore how the once torrid tech bromance got so strained or sour, and where things are likely to go in the future. Super interesting conversation with our all star panel, who offered up lots of sharp insights and some colorful anecdotes. taped live earlier this week at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle.
Heading to Seattle! postalley.org/2026/09/23/liv…
Don’t really understand why people are so mad that we don’t have an ugly-ass Star Wars museum on a prime waterfront spot at Crissy Field. sfstandard.com/2026/09/22/sa…
Doing these interviews was fascinating, highly recommend the report!!
HUGE: Introducing Newcomer’s VC Sentiment Report: Unfiltered Insights from Silicon Valley’s Top Venture Capitalists newcomer.co/p/introducing-ne…
I'll be talking 'City on the Edge', AI and politics with author & podcaster Andrew Keen at Manny's on Wednesday Sept. 16, then with underground artist and Burning Man co-founder John Law at Best Bookstore on Thursday Sept 17. Next week on Sept 22 I'm joining Critical Mass founder (and City on the Edge character) Chris Carlsson and author Paulina Borsook , whose "Cyberselfish" is enjoying a revival, at 518 Valencia Street. I hope you'll join us!
Chamath…pathologically unable to see past his personal interests.
“We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.”
Dario makes the case to stop open source and concentrate enormous technological and economic power with Anthropic.
darioamodei.com/post/we-must…
Don't take advice on AI policy & China from housing lobbyists.
I'll be at Best Bookstore in Union Square — the great new venture of @sarahcuda and Paul Carr — on Thursday, 9/17, talking "City on the Edge' with John Law, SF underground artist extraordinaire & a hero of the book! Please join us!
Jonathan Weber retweeted
I think this a compelling argument that lots of smart people make and believe and I think it is just flatly wrong.
1. Anthropic — an AI lab that broke away from OpenAI bc of AI safety concerns many years ago — did suddenly not decide that AI safety was important, like, three days ago.
2. Rather than see the commercial viability of the open weight models causing the fears of RSI, I think one should consider that a third variable — AI progress — is leading to BOTH better open weight models AND greater AI automation/autonomy without alignment, and it’s freaking some people out.
There is a kind of UChicago/Wharton Brain approach to this story, which sees any effort to increase safety as a regulatory capture strategy. But at least consider the possibility that rising evidence of AI abilities and RSI might actually be scary to the people closest to the fire.
All the regulations being floated by frontier model companies must be viewed through the lens of them losing tokens to Open-Source models.
The timing of these regulations seems to line up perfectly with Open Source closing the gap significantly (but not completely) — and @nvidia going all in on open source in the last 60 days.
If we’re gonna regulate, why don’t we require that last year’s frontier models and weights be open-sourced?
Jonathan Weber retweeted
For two years @pmarca has been making up an obvious lie about a Biden WH meeting that led him to support Trump. I and others have repeatedly asked him to reveal who was in the meeting to try to verify his wild claims. Now the truth is out: politico.com/news/magazine/2…
Writing teaches you how to think. The idea that there's no problem with students using AI for writing is absolutely nuts. And to say that is not to be "anti-AI".
Jonathan Weber retweeted
New jam-packed Friday newsletter here at @NewcomerMedia!
A main item from @WeberWest: Tim Cook Was a Great CEO. The Tech Industry Needs a Statesman.
Plus a caution on alignment risk evaluators from @Cain_Hillier, G20 breakdown from me, notes on OpenAI Astra from @cityofthetown newcomer.co/p/tim-cook-was-a…
