by 
For
generations,
the
ultra-rich
in
big
American
cities
have
been
willing
to
go
along
with
progressives
and
their
policies.
But
now,
as
urban
areas
across
the
country
depopulate
and
lose
jobs,
some
of
those
oligarchs
–
from
San
Francisco
and
Los
Angeles
to
Boston
–
appear
to
be
increasingly
willing
to
take
on
the
Left.
And
in
some
places,
they
have
already
had
considerable
and
surprising
success.
These
efforts
contradict
the
prevailing
Democratic
trend,
as
evidenced
by
the
recent
choices
for
the
leadership
of
the
party.
The
Democratic
National
Committee’s
obsessions
with
race
and
gender
seemed
to
one
party
veteran
“like
outtakes
from
a
humanities
seminar
at
a
small
liberal
arts
college”.
While
moderates
still
represent
a
larger
group,
a
growing
proportion
of
Democrats
identify
as
being
on
the
Left,
as
the
party
shrinks.
Progressive
stances
taken
within
the
party,
and
parroted
by
clueless
Biden
operatives,
have
much
to
do
with
Democrats’
high
disapproval
ratings.
But
the
party’s
heart
still
belongs
to
the
favourites
of
the
Left
–
Bernie
Sanders,
Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez,
and
Elizabeth
Warren.
Yet
when
it
comes
to
running
cities,
it’s
clear
to
many
in
the
commanding
heights
of
the
party
–
particularly
donors
–
that
the
passions
of
the
heart
have
led
to
a
less
effective
brain.
Once
strong
backers
of
progressives,
taking
the
knee
during
the
George
Floyd
era,
the
Democratic
bourgeoisie
–
aghast
at
urban
decay
–
have
decided
to
try
to
save
their
cities.
Nowhere
is
this
clearer
than
in
San
Francisco,
the
epicentre
of
progressive
insanity.
There,
tech
entrepreneurs
worked
to
get
rid
of
Left-wing
prosecutor
Chesa
Boudin,
and
last
year
helped
to
elect
as
mayor
Daniel
Lurie,
scion
of
the
Levi
Strauss
fortune,
as
well
as
some
more
moderate
members
of
the
Board
of
Supervisors.
Lurie’s
candidacy
reflected
growing
concern
even
among
the
city’s
famously
progressive
business
elites
with
the
almost
Dickensian
lunacy
on
the
streets.
Lurie,
of
course,
faces
major
challenges
in
his
efforts
to
restore
San
Francisco’s
lustre
and
risks
being
labelled
by
progressives
as
promoting
interests
that
are
fundamentally
selfish.
But
one
has
to
be
blind,
or
perhaps
a
member
of
the
Democratic
Socialists
of
America,
to
not
see
the
ruination
of
a
great
city
that,
in
recent
years,
has
lost
branches
of
national
businesses
like
Safeway,
Old
Navy,
Anthropologie,
Whole
Foods,
Nordstrom
and
H&M.
San
Francisco’s
office
vacancy
rate
has
reached
record
highs
–
and
this
in
a
city
that
not
long
ago
seemed
to
be
among
the
best
positioned
for
the
digital
age.
Critically,
Lurie,
who
spent
almost
$9
million
of
his
own
funds
on
his
campaign,
will
run
an
administration
less
connected
to
progressive
non-profits
and
the
powerful
public
employee
unions.
In
a
place
like
San
Francisco,
it
greatly
helps
to
fund
your
own
campaigns.
Yet
“Baghdad-by-the-Bay”
is
not
the
only
city
suffering
from
progressive-generated
decline
and
its
consequences,
such
as
wealthy
individuals
bailing
to
low-cost
places
such
as
Florida.
Traditional
big
blue
cities
like
New
York,
Los
Angeles
and
Chicago
are
also
those
whose
workers
are
most
likely
to
have
embraced
hybrid
or
totally
remote
working,
while
more
jobs
of
all
kinds
are
headed
to
much
faster
growing
suburbs
and
exurbs.
Over
the
past
five
years,
finance,
business
services,
business
management
and
even
tech
have
shifted
from
New
York,
LA,
Chicago,
Boston
and
San
Francisco
to
places
such
as
Austin,
Dallas,
Salt
Lake
and
Raleigh-Durham.
Read
the
rest
of
this
piece
at
Telegraph.
Joel
Kotkin
is
the
author
of
The
Coming
of
Neo-Feudalism:
A
Warning
to
the
Global
Middle
Class.
He
is
the
Roger
Hobbs
Presidential
Fellow
in
Urban
Futures
at
Chapman
University
and
and
directs
the
Center
for
Demographics
and
Policy
there.
He
is
Senior
Research
Fellow
at
the
Civitas
Institute
at
the
University
of
Texas
in
Austin.
Learn
more
at
joelkotkin.com
and
follow
him
on
Twitter
@joelkotkin.
Lead
photo:
Thomas
Hawk,
via
Flickr,
under
CC
2.0
License.
Go to Source
Author: Joel Kotkin
