Towards a New Liberalism for San Francisco

San Francisco needs a New Liberalism, not the failed progressivism of old

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San Francisco values used to mean openness to experimentation, a live-and-let-live attitude where everyone could thrive and live fulfilling lives surrounded by all kinds of different, weird, wonderful people. There was a feeling that US culture was stuck in the past and had to change, and San Francisco was leading the way. Nowadays, “San Francisco values” is shorthand for crippling dysfunction in city hall, filthy and dangerous streets, unaffordable housing, and infrastructure that costs 10 times as much as budgeted.

Many words have been wasted trying to convince progressives that their policies are actually regressive, but I'm not interested in that debate. No one is going to take back progressivism from the preservatives holding office. If you call yourself a progressive and your policies make our lives worse, then admit it: progressivism has failed us.

We need a New Liberalism in San Francisco

We need to cast aside the politics of sounding right instead of being right. We should not be renaming our schools under false historical pretenses. Preventing new housing construction doesn't help the poor or homeless. Letting people overdose and waste away on our sidewalks is not more humane than building shelters and mental health facilities. And tolerating crime as people "just making a living" isn't how we create a safe and prosperous society.

New Liberalism means political leaders who reject the sound-good policies of progressives and instead embrace sensible, outcome-driven policymaking. We shouldn't make every government decision through dozens of community hearings dominated by a vocal minority. We shouldn't enable the American local government vetocracy that stops construction of new bike lanes, new bus lanes, new hospitals, or new apartment buildings. We shouldn't ignore experts to appease busybodies.

New Liberalism means repealing laws that slow down or stop new small businesses from opening, especially to recover from COVID-19. Let's continue the liberalization of our laws that allow what we've all learned to love during the pandemic to continue: sidewalk dining, drinking in the park with friends, safe and slow streets for our kids to bike on, and to-go cocktails. We've seen what liberalizing our city looks like, let's not fall back to the dysfunctional progressivism of old.

New Liberalism means welcoming new immigrants to San Francisco. It is one of the most wonderful cities in the world, and more people should live here. We need to repeal the exclusionary and regressive laws that stop, slow down, or increase the cost of new housing in our city. It should not take several years to get building permits when it takes just a few months in other, more affordable cities in the US and around the world. We must liberalize our land-use laws.

New Liberalism means standing up to entrenched and corrupt interest groups. We need leaders unafraid to stand up to the Board of Education, who at the behest of the Teachers Union are keeping kids at home. We must demand that our kids get back in school full-time. We need leaders who will push back against ignorant "renaming committees" that rewrite our history based on faulty reasoning.

We need to stop the career politician pipeline that treats our public schools as a stepping stone to higher political office. They use our kids as a stepping stone, and once they step over them they never look back. All of these politicians used your kids to further their careers: Matt Haney, Jane Kim, Sandra Lee Fewer, Shamann Walton, Norman Yee, and Eric Mar. And you can be sure the same people wasting millions of dollars on removing murals and renaming schools while keeping your kids out of school will soon run for higher office. Now Alison Collins, the Vice President of the School Board, is suing the already beleaguered SF Unified School District for nearly 100 million dollars because she’s pissed off about being held accountable for her racism.

I've had enough. It's time for a New Liberalism in San Francisco.