I don't think they're refusing to acknowledge that there are economic benefits helping the city. What they're doing is pointing out who those benefits are helping (newcomers from elsewhere), and who they're hurting (people who've grown up here and possibly have to leave). You're right, and they're right, because neither set of points runs at cross purposes. But minimum_wage's (and everyone else's according to the votes) refusal to acknowledge that these things are linked to very specific and obvious economic benefits is baffling to me.
No but I completely disagree with that. First of all, not everyone leaves. A lot of local "anti-gentrifiers" simply adapt. And they sure as shit benefit from the city's growth, whether they're farsighted enough to see it or not. If you're forced to leave -- absolutely forced -- then maybe you don't benefit at all. (Although if this process is inevitable then I'm not at all sure about that.) To be fair many more people have been forced to leave SF from the sound of it than Austin.