{"id":25917,"date":"2023-04-12T12:47:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T19:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=25917"},"modified":"2023-04-12T13:45:42","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T20:45:42","slug":"the-new-mayor-of-chicago-and-the-lessons-for-progressives-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/04\/12\/the-new-mayor-of-chicago-and-the-lessons-for-progressives-in-san-francisco\/","title":{"rendered":"The new mayor of Chicago and the lessons for progressives in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A progressive beat a ‘tough-on-crime’ candidate in the nation’s third-largest city. What does that say about SF in 2024?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By TIM REDMOND<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

APRIL 6, 2023 (48Hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not from Chicago, and other than stops in O\u2019Hare and a couple of one-day conferences and teaching gigs, I\u2019ve only spent time there once, on my way to San Francisco in 1980. The first night, while we stayed in a friend\u2019s house, somebody broke into our car and stole everything we owned\u2014tent, sleeping bags, clothes, car stereo, Grateful Dead tapes \u2026 as they said back in the day, Bummer Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cops told us we were stupid to leave anything we cared about in a car parked on the streets of Chicago. Lesson learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mayor London Breed is running to the right. That didn\u2019t work in Chicago. Photo by Ebbe Roe Yovino-Smith<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But something remarkable and important happened in that city this week: A progressive candidate who was unafraid to say the more cops and more arrests and more people in jail isn\u2019t the best way to solve the crime problem won the mayor\u2019s race. He was facing a candidate who portrayed himself as a law-and-order tough guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, I\u2019m not a student of Chicago politics. But pundits all over are saying there are lessons here for progressive Democrats, particularly after the opposite thing happened in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And maybe there\u2019s a lesson here for San Francisco progressives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incumbent mayor, London Breed, has of late taken positions a lot closer to the Chicago loser, Paul Vallas, than to the winner, Brandon Johnson,<\/a> who had the endorsement of Bernie Sanders. A year before her re-election campaign will have to start in earnest, she has moved considerably to the right<\/a>, particularly on criminal justice and economic issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the polls don\u2019t look good for her: Every survey I have seen, she has high negatives across the board, and very low positives. And now she can\u2019t blame crime on Chesa Boudin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know who, of anyone, is going to challenge her from the left. Sup. Ahsha Safai is pretty clearly going to run, although he told me recently that he hasn\u2019t made a final decision. But he\u2019s never been a progressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also the weird Daniel Lurie<\/a> thing. Lurie posted a series of tweets a couple of weeks ago talking about how he had \u201cmade the choice\u201d to rebuild the city.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have made my choice. We have to rebuild our reputation and our city. It\u2019s going to take time and grit but it will be worth it.<\/p>— Daniel Lurie (@DanielLurie) March 19, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>