San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities

Contact Your Elected Officials

National bestselling author of APOCALYPSE NEVER skewers progressives for the mishandling of Americaโ€™s faltering cities. 

Progressives claimed they knew how to solve homelessness, inequality, and crime. But in cities they control, progressives made those problems worse.

Michael Shellenberger has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirty years. During that time, he advocated for the decriminalization of drugs, affordable housing, and alternatives to jail and prison. But as homeless encampments spread, and overdose deaths skyrocketed, Shellenberger decided to take a closer look at the problem.

What he discovered shocked him. The problems had grown worse not despite but because of progressive policies. San Francisco and other West Coast cities โ€” Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland โ€” had gone beyond merely tolerating homelessness, drug dealing, and crime to actively enabling them.

San Fransickoย reveals that the underlying problem isnโ€™t a lack of housing or money for social programs. The real problem is an ideology that designates some people, by identity or experience, as victims entitled to destructive behaviors. The result is an undermining of the values that make cities, and civilization itself, possible.

Buy It Now!

Review

โ€œSan Fransicko is outstanding. Michael Shellenberger pries loose the truth about homelessness and housing in America in this myth-shattering book โ€” and proposes tested, humane alternatives that work.โ€ โ€” Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb

“San Fransicko is a lucid lesson in how self-serving ideological fads yank progressivism into a ditch, creating misery in the name of enlightenment. Shellenberger shows us one of the keys to running a city: knowing the difference between virtue signaling and getting results.” โ€” John McWhorter, linguist, writer for The Atlantic and The New York Times, and associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University

“Civilized urban life is a precious accomplishment โ€” difficult to achieve and easy to squander. In this humane and reasoned book, Michael Shellenberger diagnoses the mistakes progressives made and maps out a practical, evidence-based path to improvement.โ€  โ€” Steven Pinker, author, Enlightenment Now, and Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University

Buy It Now!

“In his compassionate, pragmatic, and truly indispensable book, Michael Shellenberger takes on the devastation of the urban environment. The sprawl of chaotic tent encampments populated by psychotic and addicted people is a daunting problem โ€” one that too many progressive authorities donโ€™t know how to solve. Or, worse, donโ€™t really want to. Shellenberger lays out a humane blueprint to help the suffering, revive the cities, and restore civic order.โ€ โ€” Sally Satel, M.D., Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and Lecturer, Yale University School of Medicine.  

โ€œIn this compelling and well-written book, Shellenberger challenges many long-held shibboleths about how we think about cities and social policy. Required reading for us liberals as we try to reimagine what cities should do, look like and whose interests they should serve.โ€ โ€” Dalton Conley, Henry Putnam University Professor of Sociology, Princeton University

โ€œWhat explains the shocking breakdown of public order in many of Americaโ€™s leading cities? Michael Shellenberger, with the erudition and iconoclasm he is known for, shows how catastrophe can result when good intentions are combined with bad ideas. San Fransicko is devastating.โ€ โ€” Michael Lind, author of The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite

โ€œSan Fransicko peels back layers of โ€œprogressiveโ€ rhetoric with peer reviewed science and data to show that the vast majority of Californiaโ€™s unsheltered residents suffer from drug and alcohol addiction, and complex medical conditions, that cannot be solved by a key to a hotel room or higher cash stipends. Fierce bullies who make a living โ€œprotectingโ€ the homeless status quo are the villains of this catastrophe, enabled by the feckless electeds and hippie nostalgia of Baby Boomers. Enough.โ€ โ€” Jennifer Hernandez, civil rights lawyer

Buy It Now!

About the Author

Michael Shellenberger is the nationally bestselling author ofย Apocalypse Never, a Time magazine โ€œHero of the Environment,โ€ the winner of the 2008 Green Book Award from the Stevens Institute of Technologyโ€™s Center for Science Writings, and an invited expert reviewer of the next Assessment Report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has written on energy and the environment for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Nature Energy, and other publications for two decades. He is the founder and president of Environmental Progress, an independent, nonpartisan research organization based in Berkeley, California.

Book Knowledge
Book Knowledgehttps://www.thethinkingconservative.com/previews/books-magazines/
Book Knowledge shares books, magazines and other sources that help us grow in our knowledge of conservatism and help us make a difference in our country.

250 Countdown

Those 56 intrepid men who signed put their very lives, honor and fortunes on the line. There was no auto-quill to accommodate their signatures.ย 

How the Senate Parliamentarian Changed the OBBB

An unelected bureaucrat does a important job in the U.S. Senate. Elizabeth MacDonough enforces senate rules on Trumpโ€™s โ€œOne Big Beautiful Billโ€.

Bioterror Roundup: CDC Director Nominee Is a Monster + New mRNA Pregnancy Studies

Bioterror Propaganda Roundup: The latest updates on the โ€œnew...

The Sacred Honor of the 56

Today we're celebrating the sacred honor of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Alligator Alcatraz: A Bold Step Toward Secure Borders

Alligator Alcatraz funded through FEMA, represents a decisive move by the Trump admin to address illegal immigration with efficiency and resolve.

New White House Faith Office Aims to Ensure US Is Beacon of Freedom for Others

The White House Faith Office wants to see the United States as the leader in advancing religious freedom, its faith director Jennifer Korn said.

Federal Reserve Rates Are Too High, Says Former World Bank Chief

Rates should be between 0.25 and 1.75 percent rather...

Newly Naturalized Citizens Say What American Freedom Means to Them

Nearly 820,000 people pledged allegiance to the United States and became naturalized citizens in 2024.

Noem Waives Environmental Restrictions to Fast-Track Water Barriers in Rio Grande

DHS Sec Kristi Noem waived federal environmental laws to fast-track construction of 17 miles of waterborne barriers in the Rio Grande in South Texas.

Trump Indicates Legislation for Hiring Illegal Aliens on Farms

Trump to allow illegal immigrants who work on farms to continue working to prevent unnecessary disruptions to farming across the country.

US Keeps Pressure on Chinese Goods Amid Vietnam Trade Deal

Transshippingโ€”rerouting goods through a third country to disguise the origin of the productsโ€”is a focal point of trade negotiations with Asian markets.

White House Report Reveals Top Earners, Staffers Working for No Salary

The Trump admin released its yearly report that shows the salaries for White House staffers, also revealing officials who arenโ€™t accepting salaries at all.

Transportation Secretary Urges Governors to Remove Political Messages From Crosswalks, Intersections

Duffy sent letters to governors, mayor of D.C., and gov of Puerto Rico urging them to remove political messaging from intersections and crosswalks.
spot_img

Related Articles