A San Francisco startup founder claims he’s been forced to relocate his office after dog attacks — including one that sent his friend to the hospital with a “really bad” leg wound.
Anto Patrex, founder of AI robotics startup Cosmic Brain, says he’s relocated his firm from a tech incubator space on Market Street to the safer Dogpatch neighborhood after he and a friend were attacked by dogs within the span of a few days.
“Two weeks ago I was walking down Sixth Street, and there was a bulldog I didn’t see that came out of a wheelchair — it rushed at me and bit my leg,” Patrex said.
“The week after, my friend was walking through the same street and was bit … it was a very bad wound, he was rushed to the hospital,” he added.
“There have been a lot of dog cases in the area.”
Patrex elaborated in an X post, saying the frightening dog encounters along with “shattered car glass on every block” and other crimes had led him to move his office after 12 months.
He attached videos from local X creator JJ Smith depicting blight in the area surrounding his office location.
The techie described an incident in which several engineer friends were waiting in line for ice cream when a crazed man managed to rip down a road sign, attempting to strike bystanders with it.
“They ran — everyone carries pepper spray,” Patrex said.
City data shows dozens of dog attacks in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, with 74 attacks reported between January and September, KRON4 reported.
In September, a woman was mauled by a pitbull and left with life-threatening injuries in a horrifying incident caught on video. In the disturbing footage, bystanders screamed and desperately tried to pull the beast away before police officers finally secured the dog.
The animal collapsed and died at the scene.
San Francisco’s Sixth Street corridor, located near downtown and the Tenderloin neighborhood, is a notorious hotspot for drug dealing and petty crime.
Market Street, San Francisco’s main thoroughfare that was once a world-class retail destination, has struggled with drugs and street crime, particularly at night.
The main drag was once home to Twitter, Uber and Block, but tech companies have fled the area or gone remote, leaving the area littered with vacancies. The mid-Market area had a 32% vacancy rate in the third quarter of this year, according to Kidder Matthews.
Patrex said he’d prefer to work downtown in order to more easily meet investors and partners, but he and his colleagues needed to be “safe.”
“That sucks too,” he said.
