Mayor Ed Lee shares his vision for tech in SF

A Q&A with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.

Technology has emerged as a central issue in San Francisco's mayoral race, chiefly because it's emerged as a central issue in local life. It's the sector generating jobs and sucking up empty real estate. It already employs a substantial portion of the population. And it provides the products and services that connect, entertain or enlighten many more residents. All of which is why mayoral hopefuls are jockeying to cast themselves as the tech candidate. They're playing up their tech bona fides, reaching out to young engineers, lining up gold-plate industry endorsements, and - at least in one case - claiming credit for just about every lease that gets signed. But technology is also the sector generating many of the divisive policy issues of the day, like cell phone tower construction, AT&T's recently approved utility boxes and the tax breaks being granted to certain young businesses. The outcomes of these hotly debated topics bear real weight on local lives - from whether we can get cell phone service to whether jobs come or go.