San Francisco is known as a Reliably liberal city As in most of America, but the editor of the Los Angeles Times believes there are signs the City by the Bay has tilted toward the center, as voters are upset by rising crime rates and drug use and shaken by Covid-era shutdowns.
LA Times published an excerpt The headline on Thursday read, “San Francisco has shifted to the center. Can a progressive still compete there?” Times audience editor Daphne Karabatur began the article by asking, “Has famously liberal San Francisco moved so far to the right that it can’t accept an old-school progressive for mayor?”
The LA newspaper wrote that the presidential election is coming up soon and “resentment over the progressive agenda is surfacing in an unexpected place: the San Francisco mayoral election.”
“My colleague Hannah Wiley looked at the race this week and found that only one of the five candidates in the race, Aaron Peskin, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, is running on a progressive agenda. And he’s a weak candidate,” Karabatur wrote, worrying, “What does all this mean? Is San Francisco no longer a bastion of progressive politics? What is progressivism, anyway?”
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Current Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Aaron Peskin. (Getty Images)
According to the Times, Aaron Peskin, considered the most progressive of the Democrats running for mayor, is seen as an “underdog” compared to current Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed, former interim Mayor Mark Farrell, Levi Strauss successor Daniel Lurie, and SF Board of Supervisors member Ahsha Safai.
The LA Times article noted that San Francisco was “famous for being at the forefront of progressive political discourse,” but in recent years has “lurched toward the center.” Voters approving ballot measures to broaden police surveillance powers and impose drug screenings on people receiving county welfare benefits are mentioned as examples of the community distancing itself. Both examples were pushed forward by current Mayor Breed.
In addition, “San Francisco’s slow recovery COVID-19 pandemic According to Karabaatur, “This has overturned the city’s culture and shaken voters’ confidence in the city’s leadership.”
The article also stated that San Francisco’s “advanced tech class has led the rightward shift.”
“In recent decades, it has not been uncommon for San Francisco to elect a mayor from among centrist Democrats as well as a more progressive Board of Supervisors. Tech executives and wealthy business owners are pouring money into the campaigns of moderate candidates — including current candidates other than Peskin,” Karabatur wrote.
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San Francisco is known throughout most of America as a liberal city. (iStock)
Karabatur believes that “a growing number of voters,” including powerful tech giants, “want to see more punitive measures against the sprawling tent camps and retail and property crimes that have eroded their understanding of a safe, functional city.”
Karabaatur then tried to explain what “progressive” actually means nowadays.
“Peskin said he joined the race to keep San Francisco a ‘guideline’ for the artists, creatives, immigrants and LGBTQ+ leaders who have defined the city for decades, and that he is fighting to reestablish San Francisco as an affordable city for working-class people,” Karabatur wrote.
“He has promised to prioritize low-income housing and expand rent control, and has said he wants to open more treatment facilities and expand shelter capacity for the homeless,” Karabatur added. “But he also preaches ‘neighborhood preservation’ and opposes efforts to amend zoning rules for certain neighborhoods to allow for denser housing.”
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Homeless people are seen in the fight against fentanyl problems on February 26, 2024 in San Francisco, California, United States. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu)
The author wrote that to some residents, Peskin deserves the label “progressive” when it comes to housing, but others believe his “approach reflects an unprincipled, even conservative, approach to the city’s housing crisis.”
“Whether Peskin is a textbook progressive is up to interpretation — including his own. He told the Times he is willing to challenge that label and support a controversial November ballot measure that would overturn a 2014 voter-approved law that reduced some nonviolent drug and theft offenses to misdemeanors,” Karabatur wrote.
“It just goes to show that very few candidates fit into a single box, no matter how much they try to claim or avoid it,” he said. “It’s policies, not labels, that will define the next few years of San Francisco’s political landscape.”
