San Francisco, once a beautiful California city, is now home to one big homeless shelter with drug-infested streets thanks to progressive leadership and soft-on-crime policies. The city’s politics have driven a massive number of people to move out, with many citing they don’t feel safe in their neighborhood anymore.
However, in a change of events, Mayor London Breed (D) is finally taking action to turn the city around in hopes of reconnecting with lost voters.
As Breed seeks reelection for a second term, the Democratic mayor sees a significant uptick in polling as she focuses on tackling crime and homelessness. According to a new poll conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle, Breed is up 13 percentage points— a stark change from what it was earlier this year.
In February, a poll found that Breed was only 18 percent of likely voters’ first choice. However, as of now, 28 percent of voters have indicated their vote for the incumbent.
Breed has taken a different approach to her policies this time around, as her progressive leadership no longer resonates with the city’s residents. She has sought to crack down on open-air drug use and pushed for the clean-up of homeless encampments. The mayor recently worked with Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) in a new executive order that requires local officials to dismantle homeless encampments in their jurisdiction.
Before providing alternative housing options, she ordered one-way bus tickets for homeless people after reports found that the number of homeless people moving to San Francisco from other states had increased from 28 percent in 2019 to 40 percent.
Breed has also ordered law enforcement to increase sweeps of homeless encampments set up on public property. In the past week, police officers issued 13 citations.
In January, the mayor’s approval rating was just 29 percent, with the majority of respondents blaming Breed’s policies on the state of San Francisco.
However, Breed still has the race to lose. Her opponents, former San Francisco supervisor Mark Farrell and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Laurie, are confident the mayor will fail under the city’s ranked-choice voting system, in which voters can rank candidates by order of preference on the ballot.
