[QuantumChaos]

“You can’t legislate your way out of a red-hot housing market, but the Board of Supervisors is trying to mitigate the damage,” Ms. Wolf said. “This is a big problem. If you don’t care about poor people, you should care about tourism, which is our No. 1 industry. You have to have a service class, and they have to have somewhere to live. If we’re all white yuppies, we’re not so interesting.

The arguments against rent control aren't premised on not caring about poor people - they are based on not privileging those poor people who happen to live in San Francisco. Being poor has a whole range of potential negative consequences, and that's why we have things like welfare, progressive taxes, and EITC.

Also, rent control benefits a lot of people who aren't poor, for no obvious welfare reason.

Regarding the need for service workers, the market can deal with that: wages will increase if enough workers leave due to rent prices. The outcome will involve higher prices for those services, but according to the second welfare theorem, it will still be an efficient outcome (please look up the second welfare theorem if you are busy typing "efficient for who?").

On the cultural side, I can see the potential benefits from having a mix of different incomes in a city. But statements like if we’re all white yuppies, we’re not so interesting betrays a certain animus towards Whites.