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Comment by user249 | Hacker News Reader

Bari Weiss is a conservative. Michael Shellenberger in 2021 published "San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, a criticism of progressive social policies."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Shellenberger#San_Fran...

I wish someone would explain to me why conservatives love to single out San Francisco as a special kind of American hell hole due to Democrat policies. The only thing I can think of is Nancy Pelosi is from there and they are much triggered by her.

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Do you have any rebuttals to the article, besides "the person who made the argument is from Tribe B, and the city belongs to Tribe A, therefore we can ignore it"?

Even if the article is about San Francisco, do you have anything to refute what's happening or are you just going to put your head in the sand?

A lot of SF’s problems are common along the large West coast cities, but the bay area has often held itself out as a vanguard of progressivism (Berkley, Haight Ashbury etc) so fairly or unfairly it will always be a standout that draws criticism.

It may have to do with the fact it use to be used as an example of a great progressive city and changes its gone through. I grew up about an hour and a half from San Fran. The city was amazing. Everything about it. The people, the shopping, the food, the entertainment, the culture, just the overall feel. I loved taking day or weekend trips even if it was just to walk around. The majority of the area was this way imo. Sure there were still bad parts of town but they were completely overshadowed by the good areas. Over the years, the good areas have gotten smaller and the bad areas have significantly grown. There is rampant drug use and crime. There is a massive homelessness issue. Most woman I know do not feel safe in a lot of the area.

Whether all these changes are due to Democrat policies, I do not know. But it makes a good talking point for conservatives to use when talking about democrat controlled cities.

I genuinely don't understand why preventing people from doing the most addictive and damaging drugs in public without any help is a conservative standpoint...

Legalising weed, fine, there's an argument to be had, but leaving these unfortunate mentally ill people to kill themselves on public streets is nothing to do with conservatism or liberalism IMO.

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