America Downtown neighborhoods were


San Francisco Back From the Brink


New mayor saving city by cutting crime, cleaning streets, and ending woke policies.


I BY JOHN FUND


n 2018, the stunning defeat of New York Rep. Joe Crowley, the No. 3 leader of House Democrats, by 28-year-old activist Alexandria


Ocasio-Cortez in a Democratic primary was an early sign that socialism was surging in America’s cities. The force behind AOC’s victory was


the Democratic Socialists of Ameri- ca, which provided critical support through a massive grassroots network. It has since gone on to be a driving


force in electing radical former Rep. Karen Bass as mayor of Los Angeles in 2022; teacher union official Brandon Johnson as mayor of Chicago in 2023; and securing this year’s upset nomina-


tion of Zohran Mamdani to be mayor of New York City. The catchy media story is that social-


ism is on the march in America’s cities. But there is a counter narrative. Because left-wing government sim-


ply doesn’t work, there comes a point when voters revolt against it and plump for sanity instead. The decline of American cities isn’t inevitable. Just look at San Francis- co, which was once hailed as the most beautiful and even romantic city in America. But over decades of progressive rule,


San Francisco became either a laugh- ingstock or a horror show in the minds of many Americans.


filled with mentally ill homeless people, human feces, and broken drug needles. The city’s finances were a disaster;


crime was rampant and woke leftists captured the district attorney’s office and the city’s school board. Businesses began to flee San Fran-


cisco. By 2023, 11 major retailers, including Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Whole Foods, had closed stores in the city. “So many stores shuttered in down-


town SF. Feels post-apocalyptic,” Elon Musk, a former resident, tweeted. “The philosophy that led to this


bleak outcome will be the end of civili- zation if extended to the world.” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie


Dimon visited San Francisco last year and warned its residents that “any city that doesn’t do a good job, it will lose its population — just tax more and more, it doesn’t work. You should be saying ‘I want an efficient government.’” Dimon was right. San Francisco


had 875,000 people in 2020; by late last year it had only an estimated 827,000. It was the city with the second


highest number of people leaving in the country, exceeded only by Los Angeles. There were fears the city was enter-


ing a “doom loop,” in which declining business activity in its chaotic down- town would combine with a drop in tourism to create a cascading failure. But even as Dimon issued his


warning in January 2024, the seeds of change had been planted. In 2022, San Francisco voters


recalled District Attorney Chesa Boudin, the son of two members of the 1980s militant radical group the Weather Underground, for neglecting the prosecution of crime. That same year, two-thirds of vot-


ers recalled three members of the city school board for radicalizing the cur- riculum. The November 2024 election was a


OCASIO-CORTEZ BASS 12 NEWSMAX | NOVEMBER 2025 JOHNSON MAMDANI


real turning point. Moderates captured a majority of the city’s Board of Supervisors and,


CITY/PEETERV©ISTOCK / LURIE/AP IMAGES


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