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San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities Kindle Edition
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National bestselling author of APOCALYPSE NEVER skewers progressives for the mishandling of America’s faltering cities.
Progressives claimed they knew how to solve homelessness, inequality, and crime. But in cities they control, progressives made those problems worse.
Michael Shellenberger has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirty years. During that time, he advocated for the decriminalization of drugs, affordable housing, and alternatives to jail and prison. But as homeless encampments spread, and overdose deaths skyrocketed, Shellenberger decided to take a closer look at the problem.
What he discovered shocked him. The problems had grown worse not despite but because of progressive policies. San Francisco and other West Coast cities — Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland — had gone beyond merely tolerating homelessness, drug dealing, and crime to actively enabling them.
San Fransicko reveals that the underlying problem isn’t a lack of housing or money for social programs. The real problem is an ideology that designates some people, by identity or experience, as victims entitled to destructive behaviors. The result is an undermining of the values that make cities, and civilization itself, possible.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper
- Publication dateOctober 12, 2021
- File size5322 KB
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From the Publisher
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Customer Reviews |
4.7 out of 5 stars
5,508
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4.6 out of 5 stars
2,179
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Price | $17.69$17.69 | $15.99$15.99 |
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“San Fransicko is outstanding. Michael Shellenberger pries loose the truth about homelessness and housing in America in this myth-shattering book — and proposes tested, humane alternatives that work.” — Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb
"San Fransicko is a lucid lesson in how self-serving ideological fads yank progressivism into a ditch, creating misery in the name of enlightenment. Shellenberger shows us one of the keys to running a city: knowing the difference between virtue signaling and getting results." — John McWhorter, linguist, writer for The Atlantic and The New York Times, and associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University
"Civilized urban life is a precious accomplishment — difficult to achieve and easy to squander. In this humane and reasoned book, Michael Shellenberger diagnoses the mistakes progressives made and maps out a practical, evidence-based path to improvement.” — Steven Pinker, author, Enlightenment Now, and Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
"In his compassionate, pragmatic, and truly indispensable book, Michael Shellenberger takes on the devastation of the urban environment. The sprawl of chaotic tent encampments populated by psychotic and addicted people is a daunting problem — one that too many progressive authorities don’t know how to solve. Or, worse, don’t really want to. Shellenberger lays out a humane blueprint to help the suffering, revive the cities, and restore civic order.” — Sally Satel, M.D., Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and Lecturer, Yale University School of Medicine.
“In this compelling and well-written book, Shellenberger challenges many long-held shibboleths about how we think about cities and social policy. Required reading for us liberals as we try to reimagine what cities should do, look like and whose interests they should serve.” — Dalton Conley, Henry Putnam University Professor of Sociology, Princeton University
“What explains the shocking breakdown of public order in many of America’s leading cities? Michael Shellenberger, with the erudition and iconoclasm he is known for, shows how catastrophe can result when good intentions are combined with bad ideas. San Fransicko is devastating.” — Michael Lind, author of The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite
“San Fransicko peels back layers of “progressive” rhetoric with peer reviewed science and data to show that the vast majority of California’s unsheltered residents suffer from drug and alcohol addiction, and complex medical conditions, that cannot be solved by a key to a hotel room or higher cash stipends. Fierce bullies who make a living “protecting” the homeless status quo are the villains of this catastrophe, enabled by the feckless electeds and hippie nostalgia of Baby Boomers. Enough.” — Jennifer Hernandez, civil rights lawyer
About the Author
Jonathan Todd Ross is a writer and an Earphones and Audie Award-winning voice actor. He has lent his voice to numerous anime television shows, including Yu-Gi-Oh! and Sonic X.
Michael Shellenberger has spent his entire career working with environmental organizations. He is a managing director of American Environics, a social values research and political strategy firm. Shellenberger is the coauthor, with Ted Nordhaus, of a number of books, including Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility and Break Through: Why We Can't Leave Saving the Planet to Environmentalists.
Product details
- ASIN : B08SMFSL5M
- Publisher : Harper (October 12, 2021)
- Publication date : October 12, 2021
- Language : English
- File size : 5322 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 411 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #154,303 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Michael Shellenberger](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/4m49mu46kngdb4lj7m6491icd0._SY600_.jpg)
Michael Shellenberger is a Time Magazine "Hero of the Environment," Green Book Award winner, and the founder and president of Environmental Progress. He is the best-selling author of "Apocalypse Never" and "San Fransicko" (HarperCollins, October 2021).
"Apocalypse Never is an extremely important book,” says historian Richard Rhodes, who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Making of the Atomic Bomb. “Within its lively pages, Michael Shellenberger rescues with science and lived experience a subject drowning in misunderstanding and partisanship. His message is invigorating: if you have feared for the planet’s future, take heart.”
He has been called an “environmental guru,” “climate guru,” “North America’s leading public intellectual on clean energy,” and “high priest” of the environmental humanist movement for his writings and TED talks, which have been viewed over five million times.
Shellenberger advises policymakers around the world including in the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In January 2020, Shellenberger testified before the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives.
He has been a climate and environmental activist for over 30 years. He has helped save nuclear reactors around the world, from Illinois and New York to South Korea and Taiwan, thereby preventing an increase in air pollution equivalent to adding over 24 million cars to the road.
Shellenberger was invited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2019 to serve as an independent Expert Reviewer of its next Assessment Report, to be published in 2022 his most recent Congressional testimony on the state of climate science, mitigation, and adaptation.
Shellenberger is a leading environmental journalist who has broken major stories on Amazon deforestation; rising climate resilience; growing eco-anxiety; the U.S. government’s role in the fracking revolution; and climate change and California’s fires.
He also writes on housing and homelessness and has called for California to declare a state of emergency with regards to its addiction, mental health, and housing crises. He has authored widely-read articles and reports on the topic including “Why California Keeps Making Homelessness Worse,” “California in Danger.”
His articles for Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, and his TED talks ("How Fear of Nuclear Hurts the Environment," "Why I Changed My Mind About Nuclear Power" and “Why Renewables Can’t Save the Planet”) have been viewed over six million times.
Shellenberger was featured in "Pandora's Promise," an award-winning film about environmentalists who changed their minds about nuclear, and appeared on "The Colbert Report." He debated Ralph Nader on CNN’s "Crossfire" and Stanford University’s Mark Jacobsen at UCLA .
His research and writing have appeared in The Harvard Law and Policy Review, Democracy Journal, Scientific American, Nature Energy, PLOS Biology, The New Republic, and cited by the New York Times, Slate, USA Today, Washington Post, New York Daily News, The New Republic.
Shellenberger has been an environmental and social justice advocate for over 25 years. In the 1990s he helped save California’s last unprotected ancient redwood forest, and inspire Nike to improve factory conditions in Asia. In the 2000s, Michael advocated for a “new Apollo project” in clean energy, which resulted in a $150 billion public investment in clean tech between 2009 and 2015.
He lives in Berkeley, California and travels widely.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book meticulously researched and well written. They also say the author presents a number of ideas in a very human and realistic way.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book meticulously researched, compelling, and lays out his arguments well. They also appreciate the wealth of statistical evidence and real-world anecdotes. Readers say the book outlines concrete and compassionate steps to a way out of this degradation.
"Love this book it broke everything down by providing factual statistics and the brainless policies that will quickly destroy quality of life in any..." Read more
"...The book has loads of cited data sources coupled with human anecdotal stories to underscore the inhuman suffering caused by ill conceived policies..." Read more
"...So I give it high marks for that. He lays out his arguments well...." Read more
"...There is much comparative analysis and insider interviews with principle administrators of homeless related programs, homeless advocates, and a..." Read more
Customers find the writing style well written and intelligent. They also say the author advocates an intelligent, non-ideological response to a significant problem.
"...Overall, it's a quality read. He misses the mark on some of his takes in my opinion, but that doesn't take away from the book in and of itself." Read more
"...I would have given 5 star. It's very well written...." Read more
"Michael Shellenberger has a writing style that is engaging, and easy to get caught up in...." Read more
"...Very well written and researched unbiased book written by a very liberal man who laments the downfall of a city he loves...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the plot. Some find the story solid, easy to read, and engaging, while others say there are too many anecdotal stories to buffer the author's point.
"...The story is solid, however. Most of these people are not necessarily homeless due to economic reasons...." Read more
"...Despite it being heavy on stats, there's a little too many anecdotal stories to try to buffer his point...." Read more
"Don't be turned off by the title, the argument is strong on what we're doing wrong in SF and other cities, and Michael and his team detail a great..." Read more
"...As a San Franciscan, I can say that the stories are not overblown. If anything, they’re understated...." Read more
Reviews with images
![I'm "progressive" and agree that SF needs an overhaul. Here for it.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/transparent-pixel._V192234675_.gif)
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Shellenberger makes you think about the problems in a real way. And I agree much more with him than I might disagree.
Shellenberger goes to great lengths on this latter point -- this book is in no way a polemic. He is a natural optimist, and clearly a deep-feeling person, and I wish I could share his optimism. However, I do not. While Shellenberger presents some pretty detailed survey data showing that California voters strongly support the types of reforms he suggests, he fails to ask why do we then have the political leadership we do, not just in San Francisco, but statewide? This is a circle that must be squared, if there is any chance for things to actually change. It is not enough for, as he says, Californians to want public order -- they have to be willing to put people in power who will deliver on that promise. There is no evidence they are willing to do that, or have the requisite understanding of how to that, if they are willing.
In terms of who they cede power to -- not just elected officials, but who they listen to, and allow to influence them and make decisions about their lives -- the majority of the California electorate seems sadly similar to an abused spouse in a toxic relationship. When things get bad, their abuser sweet-talks them and promises to be better, so they stick around and the cycle repeats. Sometimes the abused spouse manages to escape the relationship, but all too often, the situation does not have a happy outcome. I am not confident our situation here will.
To understand this fully, Shellenberger's book should not be read in isolation. Two other books that will help lay a foundation for the circumstances Shellenberger describes are "The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure" by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, and "Hollowed Out: A Warning about America's Next Generation" by Jeremy Adams. The books of John McWhorter (mentioned several times in this book), which were prescient, are also of great use.
As a final note, I will mention a detail I found sadly ironic. By Shellenberger's work is (or was) a chronically homeless man named Stephen who has been here for nearly two decades. It appears Shellenberger has encountered the man regularly and at times tried to help him (much as I would expect). Stephen is clearly not in good shape, but what struck is that Shellenberger states he "spends his days drinking alcohol while playing a video game on his smartphone."
I think that sums things up. The people in control of our society here -- those the electorate gives control to -- have for decades refused, and still refuse, to take the necessary measures to see that Stephen gets meaningful help. But they do ensure he has a smartphone.
Yep, that’s about the size of it.
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