# Do San Francisco, Los Angeles, et alii prove the failure of progressivism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 5, 2023, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-san-francisco-los-angeles-et-alii-prove-the-failure-of-progressivism/988101 "2023-08-05T12:37:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2023, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-san-francisco-los-angeles-et-alii-prove-the-failure-of-progressivism/988101/1 "2023-08-05T12:37:46Z")
And maybe California as a whole and apparently my hometown of Seattle is going into the crapper. Of course I’m talking the modern day progressivism not Bull Moose politics. And this is not meant to be an indictment of general Democratic ideals but the ultra left-wing part of the party like Warren, Sanders and AOC. It seems like when the Progressives are in charge for a long time and are fairly secure in running a state or city, we see the same results: People taxed into emigration. So basically those with money and assets leave for greener pastures taking their greenbacks with them. High crime. Imagine that when you defund he police and go soft on things like vandalism and theft, you get more crime. Homelessness. Why are there so many homeless in LA, SF, Seattle, etc. Studies say it is the lack of affordable housing. I contend that many (but not all) of the reasons for the absurd rise in housing prices are due to progressive rules on building such as cost of permits, required ineffective use of property (such as required parking in limited space) among others. Some blame the inability for the city to physically grow such as in Seattle or San Francisco but that is not the case in Portland, Los Angeles and Denver. Note I don’t know enough about New York City to know if they have a homelessness problem (or how progressive or moderate they are in city government) but I do know that homelessness cannot just be blamed on large cities - Dallas has a population of 1.3 million but less than 4500 homeless. By contrast Portland has a population of about half that (650,000) but almost twice as many homeless (7500). The issues of homelessness are complex enough that depending on how this thread goes, it may need its own thread on the relationship between city politics and homelessness populations. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-san-francisco-los-angeles-et-alii-prove-the-failure-of-progressivism/988101)._