San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities
“Under book of the year, I have a very recent choice, which is San Fransicko. It's already, I think, very influential.”
Why it is worth your time
San Fransicko is Michael Shellenberger's 2021 book on homelessness, addiction and crime in San Francisco and other West Coast cities. Shellenberger, an environmental writer who ran for California governor in 2022, argues that progressive policies on housing, drugs and policing made these problems worse, and that cities should adopt stricter enforcement and treatment requirements. Sacks named it his book of the year on the Dec 23, 2021 episode and said it was already influential. San Francisco politics is a constant theme for him, and he backed the 2022 recall of district attorney Chesa Boudin. It suits readers who want the case against the city's current approach, set out in one place. Critics disagree on the evidence. Housing researchers argue the book misreads the Housing First studies and selects its data, and the tone is partisan. The caveat is that Peter Dreier, writing in the American Prospect, argued the book distorts facts to suit its case and ignores housing costs as the main driver of homelessness.
