“Progressive Paradise”

San Francisco’s brazen crime, open drug use and trashed streets have made even the most progressive of the city’s famed liberal residents demand a return to law and order as they seek to recall the woke district attorney.

News of attacks on Asian American seniors, burglarized restaurants, and boarded-up storefronts in the city’s once-vibrant downtown greet the citizens of the City by the Bay on a near-daily basis.

And that was before a series of headline-grabbing crime stories in which mobs of looters smashed windows and grabbed luxury purses in the downtown Union Square shopping district.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Caitlin Foster fell in love with San Francisco’s people and beauty and moved to the city a dozen years ago. But after repeatedly clearing away used needles, other drug paraphernalia and human feces outside the bar she manages, and too many encounters with armed people in crisis, her affection for the city has soured.

“It was a goal to live here, but now I’m here and I’m like, ‘Where am I going to move to now?’ I’m over it,’” said Foster, who manages Noir Lounge in the trendy Hayes Valley neighborhood.

A series of headline-grabbing crime stories — mobs of people smashing windows and grabbing luxury purses in the downtown Union Square shopping district and daytime shootings in the touristy Haight-Ashbury — has only exacerbated a general feeling of vulnerability. Residents wake up to news of attacks on Asian American seniors, burglarized restaurants, and boarded-up storefronts in the city’s once-vibrant downtown.

Chicago’s Loop encompasses the city’s central business district, which is also the second largest commercial business district in America (or so Wikipedia tells me), filled with restaurants, offices, retail stores, hotels, and historic attractions. It lies at the heart of Cook County, the same county that elected Kim Foxx, the Soros-designated district attorney who doesn’t believe in prosecuting crime. When you couple Foxx’s aversion to enforcing the law with generations of people who have grown up without any moral grounding, you get a weekend in the loop complete with beatings, a shooting, and general misbehavior.

Usually at this time of year, San Francisco’s luxury stores are decked with holiday garlands. Instead, they’re boarded up after widespread “flash mob” looting turned Union Square — the city’s most fashionable shopping district — into an area resembling a blighted neighborhood in Detroit.

“It’s a ghost town,” said Michelle Tandler, a San Francisco native and high-tech entrepreneur, whose photos of the stores barricaded in plywood went viral on social media this week. “Every store has a security guard. People are going to lose their jobs. And these things have a ripple effect.”

Two weeks ago, San Francisco was the first of several progressive cities hit by smash-and-grab mobs of thieves, sometimes as many as 80 in a group. Video from the San Francisco looting of Louis Vuitton shows criminals walking casually out of the store, goods in hand. Other cities hit include Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis.

I encourage you to read Michelle Tandler’s Twitter posts. SF is even more fecked than we know. She’s a self described “moderate liberal” but not for long I suspect.

If you want to see my notes they are linked in this Notion Doc.

However – to summarize there were a few categories of critical responses:
1. You are evil
2. Rich/businesses/property is evil
3. Gov/System is broken
4. This is justified
5. Misc/other https://t.co/THsFFdrbfN

— Michelle Tandler (@michelletandler) December 5, 2021

Do read her notes.

American cities on the Democrats’ watch are drifting away from civilization. The most obvious problem is the rise in crime, everything from murders to mass retail theft. Just open any Chicago or New York newspaper to see what I mean. But the decline in civilization happens in smaller ways, too, as a story out of San Francisco perfectly illustrates.

Nearly 40 people were shot by Sunday in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago during the 2021 Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

At least two of the shooting victims succumbed to their wounds.

“What do Democrats really do when they have all the power?” The New York Times asks that question in a video from earlier this month, and … Democrats and progressives will not enjoy the answer.

San Francisco’s mayor and police chief have promised “changes” after a night of massive looting, a crime becoming more and more common in the city, and one that’s driving businesses away.

Numerous stores, including Louis Vuitton and Bloomingdale’s, were hit on Friday night as part of a massive looting spree hitting businesses in the California city’s Union Square.

In a Saturday press conference addressing the attack on businesses, Mayor London Breed promised “changes” to the area that will limit car access after the “horrible” night of crime. Police Chief Bill Scott similarly pointed to infrastructure changes as a measure that will prevent future mass robberies.

A clothing store on the South Side of Chicago (the baddest part of town) ran into some trouble recently. Thieves came along during the night, smashed out the store’s windows, and ran off with all of the merchandise they could haul out. Of course, this is such a common occurrence in the Windy City these days that it’s almost not worth mentioning. But in this case, something happened in response that could almost inspire a bit of hope in the city’s beleaguered citizens and business owners.

Chicago’s wealthiest neighborhoods are not safe from the crime wave plaguing the Windy City and are being deprived of much-needed violence prevention funding, an Illinois lawmaker raged, after he shared harrowing footage of a drive-by shooting right outside his front door.

Rep. Jaime Andrade, 49, posted video from his Ring doorbell showing two vehicles driving into his a picturesque street lit only by porch lights in the North Side neighborhood of Albany Park.

Within seconds, dozens of loud gunshots go off one after the other. One car appears to back away while another is heard speeding off in the distance.

Portland, Oregon is nearly dead last on the list of cities where tourists and conventioneers want to spend money and time. And it makes sense. Portland is circling the drain.

The leaderless city from which police are fleeing, where Antifa thugs are ascendant, and which people in nearby towns avoid, is dying before our eyes.