I have a new piece @FreeBeacon this morning, about the defeat of Chesa Boudin, and why quality of life still matters:
freebeacon.com
freebeacon.com
@FreeBeacon One of the interesting paradoxes of our moment is that while San Francisco is often identified by conservatives as a flag ship for criminal justice progressivism gone awry, it's actually doing okay in terms of violent crime.
Other cities have experienced record-high homicide and shooting rates over the past few years, as my colleague @Rafa_Mangual noted. San Francisco, by contrast, is probably about as safe, violent crime-wise, as it was in 2018.
wsj.com
wsj.com
What sets SF apart, rather, is *disorder.* A shoplifting wave, a vibrant open-air drug market, the nation's largest unsheltered homeless population, and endemic public drug use.
For decades, leaders like Boudin have argued that such issues are not their problemโand decried as racist anyone who disagrees.
I disagree on the merits, but I think the lesson of Boudin's recall is a more practical one, namely that /voters/ care about disorder. We've known this for decades: Wesley Skogan's classic survey of community meetings, for example, shows how disorder is top of residents' minds.
So even if you think that a Boudin-style project is a good one, the lesson you still need to learn from this is that *disorder matters*. Indeed, because disorder is widespread whereas violence is concentrated, it probably matters /more/ to voters' perceptions of leadership.
If I were a liberal, I would frame this a @mattyglesias style "popularism" take: if you want real criminal justice reform to stick, you have to be keep the streets clean.
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