BLUE CITY BLUES: Kevin O’Leary slams ‘wasteland’ San Francisco over store closures, bad policies: ‘It is not America anymore.’

The T.V. personality said that you must “blame the top manager” as well as city administrators and mayors for the current standard of living—or lack thereof.

O’Leary, a vocal critic of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “lack of executional skills,” didn’t mince words when discussing the poor policies put in place by the state’s chief.

Recently, California’s $20 minimum wage hike has become the latest thorn in many businesses’ owners’ sides.

“It’s a mistake, it’s a Gavin Newsom mistake,” O’Leary said when discussing the newly enacted law.

“It’s not just fast food and convenient dining that’s shutting down because they’re unprofitable at $20 a minimum wage. Lots of other businesses are leaving that state,” he continued.

O’Leary admitted that he doesn’t invest in startups in California anymore.

That last item is a big tell. Sacramento’s Bay Area cash cows like Google, Facebook, and Apple aren’t about to pull up stakes and leave California. But the companies that will someday displace cash cows like Google, Facebook, and Apple will be founded in other states.