Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned Sunday against turning the city of Austin, Texas, into a “San Francisco copycat.”
“Austin should be its city, not a San Francisco copycat,” the billionaire tweeted.
Musk was responding to a Fox News report earlier Sunday about the proposal in Austin to bulk up the city’s police department and a series of reports on the city’s record number of homicides in 2021.
Proposition A, a ballot measure for the Nov. 2 election backed by the group Save Austin Now, would require at least two Austin police officers for every 1,000 residents and would provide officers with an additional 40 hours of police training each year on topics such as weapons proficiency and active shooter scenarios.
It comes after the Austin City Council voted in the wake of the George Floyd protests last year to cut up to $150 million from its police department budget – a little more than a third of its total budget – and reinvest that money into other public services. Since then, the city has experienced a nearly 71% increase in homicides.
Musk made headlines earlier this month after he announced Tesla’s headquarters will be moving to Austin from Fremont, California, in part because of the cost of living.
“I’m excited to announce that we’re moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas,” Musk said during Tesla’s annual stockholders meeting on Oct. 7.
He said the electric car maker will “continue to expand in California, significantly – but even more so here in Texas.”
“It’s tough for people to afford houses and a lot of people have to come in from far away,” he said. “We’ve taken it as far as possible but…there’s a limit to how big you can scale it in the Bay Area.”
“Here in Austin, our factory’s like five minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown, and we’re going to create an ecological paradise here because we’re right on the Colorado River,” he added. “It’s gonna be great.”