{"id":432780,"date":"2026-08-14T13:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/432780\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T13:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:22:21","slug":"why-san-francisco-voters-are-optimistic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/432780\/","title":{"rendered":"Why San Francisco Voters Are Optimistic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nForwarded this email? Sign up<\/a> for free to have it sent directly to your inbox.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"City<\/p>\n

Good morning,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nToday, we\u2019re looking at\u00a0how San Francisco voters feel about the city\u2019s prospects, Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s disdain for philanthropy, and what Republicans should focus on ahead of the November elections. \u202f<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nWrite to us at editors@city-journal.org<\/a> with questions or comments.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/a><\/p>\n

\nPhoto credit:\u00a0Smith Collection\/Gado \/ Contributor \/ Archive Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\nDuring a recent Manhattan Institute focus group, San Francisco residents described, variously, being held at gunpoint, bitten by a stranger, pushed off a bus, and robbed. They noted the public drug use, mental illness, and car break-ins that have become rampant around the city in recent years.<\/p>\n

\nEven so, they are hopeful. \u201cParticipants who had lived through San Francisco\u2019s worst pandemic years described cleaner streets today, a busier downtown, returning companies, and a city that felt more serious about restoring order,\u201d Jesse Arm and Christopher F. Rufo write. \u201cTheir optimism was cautious but real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nNearly everyone pointed to affordability as an unresolved issue, and a few residents still felt the city was moving in the wrong direction. But most praised Mayor Daniel Lurie for his leadership and willingness to focus on basic governance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the encouraging lesson of San Francisco\u2019s recovery,\u201d Arm and Rufo observe. \u201cA city does not have to change parties before it can change direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nRead more<\/a> about what voters had to say.<\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s civic culture runs on philanthropy. From operas to museums, food banks, universities, and world-class hospitals, private donors are key players in making the city a magnet for people from across the country and around the world.<\/p>\n

\nBut democratic socialists like Mayor Zohran Mamdani don\u2019t believe in philanthropy\u2014they believe in heavy taxation and government spending. \u201cThe mayor\u202fdoesn\u2019t\u202fwant to\u202fask\u202fwealthy corporations and people for more money so much as take it\u2014gleefully,\u201d writes<\/a> Nicole Gelinas.<\/p>\n

\nHence, the mayor\u2019s mass firing, earlier this month, of the advisory board of the Mayor\u2019s Fund to Advance New York City\u2014a philanthropic vehicle transformed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg into a multimillion-dollar funder of everything from hurricane relief to arts facilities to poverty-reduction and summer-jobs programs for youth.<\/p>\n

\nThe problem with Mayor Mamdani\u2019s philosophy is that \u201cgovernment money, even in a high-tax, high-spend city, is never infinite,\u201d writes Gelinas. \u201cMamdani should not alienate the city\u2019s donor class,\u202fbecause he can\u2019t replace it with city government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nSocialist candidates are winning elections nationwide, but Republicans are betting on securing midterm victories simply by showcasing how radical the Democrats have become. Steven Malanga warns that this approach is misguided. Anger against incumbent Republicans can outweigh voters\u2019 concerns about socialist policies, giving Democrats an advantage even when their candidates hold unpopular views. With Democrats leading generic congressional polling and showing greater enthusiasm, Republicans must address voters\u2019 economic concerns and offer a compelling alternative rather than simply warning that Democrats are worse.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s emerging is one of the most unusual midterm elections in decades, in which some extreme candidates with views considered unpalatable may ride to victory on a wave of anti-incumbent anger,\u201d Malanga writes. \u201cRepublicans don\u2019t have much time to turn things around\u2014and imagining that they can succeed without offering voters a better version of their own agenda is likely a losing proposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nRead more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is a natural consequence of one-party rule. There are no competing interests within government to push back when things go wrong because whatever serves the interests of the \u2018party\u2019 becomes their first priority.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A quarterly magazine of urban affairs, published by the Manhattan Institute, edited by Brian C. Anderson.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 Manhattan Institute, All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forwarded this email? Sign up for free to have it sent directly to your inbox.\u00a0\u00a0 Good morning, \u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-432780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}