Decades of Democrat Control Put San Francisco Into a Death Spiral

In the eternal debate about whether progressive-socialist political and economic policies work, conservatives have always pointed to once-prosperous countries destroyed by such ideas. Venezuela is an obvious example and, beyond there, Cuba, Greece, North Korea, and so on. Sadly, one need not even look beyond the borders of the United States. San Francisco crime is so out of control that some federal workers have been instructed to work remotely because it is too dangerous for them to travel to the office. At one time, the City by the Bay was considered a jewel among modern American cities, and it has been always close to the glitzy, glamorous Hollywood movie industry. Today, if one were to lean on big-screen analogies, however, San Francisco is more Mad Max than Harold and Maude.

On Aug. 4, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued what the San Francisco Chronicle described as a stay-at-home recommendation for its local employees. Why? Because the immediate area around the department’s office is a virtual no-go zone, overrun by drug dealers and users. The HHS offices are located, appropriately, in the downtown Nancy Pelosi Federal Building.

The memo to department employees, written by HHS Assistant Secretary for Administration Cheryl R. Campbell, said in part: “In light of the conditions at the (Federal Building) we recommend employees … maximize the use of telework for the foreseeable future.”

There’s no getting away from the reality that San Francisco is a dying metropolis. Progressive district attorneys and Democrats who have controlled the city for decades have refused to crack down on crime. In fact, their response to the rampant lawlessness has become increasingly lenient. This is because progressives insist that criminals are merely victims of an unfair and unjust society. Make no mistake, crime, disorder, and chaos have been deliberately allowed to flourish. It is a long-established tactic of the extreme left to foster crises and then blame “capitalism” for those catastrophes.

Several other major Democrat-run cities across the United States are trending in the same direction. While most of the others are experiencing increasing violence, San Francisco's crime has more to do with drugs, homelessness, and hopelessness. Blaming capitalism or other perceived injustices in modern American society is misleading, to say the least. San Francisco has been the stronghold of progressive thought and policy since the 1960s. If Democrats had a better way of doing things, then this city, more than any other, would be a shining example of how progressivism improves people’s lives.

In 2022, residents finally and emphatically recalled George Soros-backed District Attorney Chesa Boudin. But this was a case of too little, too late. Some of the largest retailers are shuttering stores. Nordstrom Rack, Anthropologie, and Uniqlo have all abandoned their San Francisco locations. High-dollar shops in the famous Union Square, including Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and others, have been ransacked multiple times in broad daylight.

John Chachas, the owner of Gump’s, another luxury retailer, spoke about a “profound erosion of this city's current conditions” and suggested that 2023 might be the last of his company’s 162 years in San Francisco. In an open letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D), and the Board of Supervisors, Chachas described San Francisco as “unlivable for its residents, unsafe for our employees, and unwelcoming to visitors.” In part, Chachas blamed the pandemic response for the city’s decline, saying, “The ramifications of COVID policies advising people to abandon their offices are only beginning to be understood."

While San Francisco crime is still not comparable to that of some of the most lawless cities in America, the complete failure of the city’s leaders to manage its many social problems is creating something resembling a modern urban wasteland – the kind of conditions already found in other Democrat-controlled cities like Detroit, MI. The Census Bureau estimates that the population of San Francisco fell by around 7.5% over just a four-month span in 2022 – between April and July. Those who can are leaving. But what about those without the means to relocate? They will be the unlucky ones, doomed to scrape an existence in a dying, boarded-up, trash-ridden city overrun by drug addicts and dealers, the homeless, and the predators.

This is not about capitalism or inequality or any other of the left’s flimsy excuses: This is about a political party that has, time and time again, utterly failed the people it claims to champion. But, of course, one could argue that the residents of San Francisco have only themselves to blame. Elections, as they say, have consequences.