San Fransicko

Why Progressives Ruin Cities

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San Fransicko

By: Michael Shellenberger

Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross

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About this listen

National bestselling author of APOCALYPSE NEVER skewers progressives for the mishandling of America’s faltering cities.

Progressives claimed they knew how to solve homelessness, inequality, and crime. But in cities they control, progressives made those problems worse.

Michael Shellenberger has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirty years. During that time, he advocated for the decriminalization of drugs, affordable housing, and alternatives to jail and prison. But as homeless encampments spread, and overdose deaths skyrocketed, Shellenberger decided to take a closer look at the problem.

What he discovered shocked him. The problems had grown worse not despite but because of progressive policies. San Francisco and other West Coast cities — Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland — had gone beyond merely tolerating homelessness, drug dealing, and crime to actively enabling them.

San Fransicko reveals that the underlying problem isn’t a lack of housing or money for social programs. The real problem is an ideology that designates some people, by identity or experience, as victims entitled to destructive behaviors. The result is an undermining of the values that make cities, and civilization itself, possible.

Civics & Citizenship

Economics

Environmental Economics

Homelessness

Politics & Government

Sociology

Urban

Social justice

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Published in 2021, this book nails San Francisco!
I was there in 2001, and it hasn’t changed in those 20 years. I thought the city was a rotten dump full of misfortunate people, and this book describes their lives.
I was there in 1989, and it was just a crummy.

People love to say, “ah, that’s just the Tenderloin”, but the truth is that every mile of this city is miserable.

The only place I’ve every witnessed someone defecating into a urinal is San Francisco! Twice!!
There is a lot about public defecation in this book. It’s probably the biggest spectator sport in SF.