CRISTINA OSMENA: Does Chesa Boudin’s recall spell hope for a more rational San Francisco?

Before I breathe a sigh of relief made of words that even the ultra-liberal, soft-on-crime, defund the police contingent has even shown its own limits with the ridiculousness of its ideology, first let’s go over what it took to get here.

San Francisco’s population declined 6.3% during the pandemic, the most of any city in our country, according to The Real Deal, a real estate paper in San Francisco which, in turn, was citing US Census data. Other cities in the Bay Area–Daly City, Redwood City, San Mateo, South San Francisco, and Cupertino–also saw drops. This kind of population drop will affect things like city income tax revenues, which San Francisco charges, school funding from the state, infrastructure funding. The school district is broke. Cops don’t want to work there. Pedestrian life is a game of dodging the violent schizophrenic while not stepping on human feces. People who have the option voted with their feet and moving trucks. That is why it is so very hopeful that those who have remained have put on the brakes on all this leftist insanity.

This is not a victory for the right. Republicans represent a rounding error from 10% of registered voters. The recall of the over-woke school board members followed by the recall of Chesa Boudin is a sign that liberal culture is putting its foot down with their own extremists. And, let’s face it, a district attorney that is soft on crime is nothing short of ridiculous.

San Francisco used to be a vibrant city. The gentrifying areas had the look of grit and the undercurrents of invention and modernity. It made for a really cool combination. The pandemic changed all that. It ported the tech entrepreneurs and their employees elsewhere. After years of pricing out all other subcultures to accommodate the tech workers, nothing remains to give the city its cultural appeal, nothing remains to restore the merits of city living. In New York City, the arts have returned to play the role that makes it such a draw. There is Broadway and off-Broadway, museums and galleries, street performers, small scale gigs, literati, fashion, etc. San Francisco has tent cities.