In the wake of Tuesday's election results, which included many local measures, the San Francisco Chronicle banner headline said it all:

PROGRESSIVISM IS OUT -- FOR NOW

Voters make it clear: S.F. can no longer be called a progressive city

They wrote that like it was a bad thing.

Other newspapers in other cities would be more likely to write: 'Failed Progressivism Given the Heave-Ho by Angry Voters,' or 'After Turning City into a Hellhole, Progressive Regulations Get the Boot.'

But despite having to step over bodies of drug addicts on their way to work, that's not how the Chronicle's headline writers "think."

They know very well who their audience is, and what we learn now is that it doesn't seem to include the ordinary voters of San Francisco. They, too, have to step over bodies, fight off muggers, run from open air (and illegally present) drug dealers, repair car windows after smash-and-grab robberies, endure continuous home burglaries with no cops to chase the criminals down, watch their world-famous gourmet restaurants shut down one after another, and see their malls and even corner drug stores call it quits due to robberies, too, that is, if the store goods aren't encased behind locked glass enclosures, available only if one can find a clerk to open them. All that, and constant vigilance to avoid stepping into the poop in the streets, so poop maps and apps come in handy.

Sound like a place you'd want to live in? Not to normal people, and that's complete with the nation's highest housing costs and taxes.

So no surprise, they voted 'yes' for measures Mayor London Breed put out.

According to the Chronicle:

Proposition C — Real estate transfer tax exemption too close to call

Backed by Mayor London Breed, this proposition would give buildings converted from commercial to residential a transfer tax exemption the first time they are transferred to new owners. The idea is to encourage these conversions in the city’s struggling downtown. 

At last count, the measure had 53.9% support, a probable pass.

Proposition E — Police policies and procedures wins

Another Breed-championed measure, this change to San Francisco Police Department procedures will give police officers more latitude and power, and rein in the Police Department’s oversight body, the Police Commission. 

This one got 59.9% support.

Proposition F — Drug screening for city welfare recipients wins

This controversial measure asked voters whether the city should require city welfare recipients who struggle with addiction to enroll in treatment to continue to receive cash assistance through a county program.

This one got 63% support. The bums drawn like moths to a flame from other places, going to the bathroom in people's doorways seem to bother people the most. Disempowered cops stuck at desks filling out paperwork also got some healthy opposition.

What we have here is a rather surprising swing to the right in this radical left-wing city. Someone got the wakeup call and voted to at least improve things without voting for a Republican.

While few are going to change their registration in that rock-blue city which has been that way since around the Summer of Love of ... 1967, (Eric Hoffer and Tom Wolfe wrote about how disgusting it had gotten in those years) this obviously represents another break in the lunacy of the left, another jolt to sanity.

Two other events portend the same thing, the recall of soft-on-crime, Hugo Chavez-linked, son-of-domestic-far-left-terrorists Chesa Boudin, who had been elected district attorney and promptly let the predators roam, and the incoming group of actual moderates, linked to Silicon Valley money which propels that city, to win the mayor's office themselves by November.

The Chronicle links these measures to support for Mayor London Breed, and calls them her victories, but that seems farfetched. The ideas are what propelled the victories and Breed came along for the ride since she's not the worst one in that ruling elite, and she had to know that they were or would be popular with voters. The Chronicle notes that she still sports a 71% disapproval rating from voters, so the moderate are marching in.

Change is incremental in general on the political front, so this is one more brick on the path to sanity for that city. Call it a baby step. They must be tired of being a laughingstock. They must be tired of stepping in poop and avoiding eye contact with drugged out bums laying derelict in every park and gutter. They must be tired of replacing their car windows. Maybe they wanted to ride a cable car again without getting robbed, or go to a drugstore. Whatever it was, it is progress, real progress, just by shutting progressivism out.

Let's hope it keeps going.

 Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License