In a comment to my blog post on San Francisco, Micah described his enjoyment of San Francisco but mentioned as one of his points the notion that San Francisco is very liberal in its politics. I think that that is a pretty generally held belief. He supports this by describing a man with a megaphone yelling at a crowd of sleeping homeless in the park across from the Ferry Building.
Now, I enjoy San Francisco as a place to visit. I too share Micah’s notion that San Francisco is home to a lot of folks that might think differently from me on some issues. But that is why we have local governments. They can run the place however they want and more power to them. Mostly, it’s just another characteristic which gives San Francisco character for visitors and makes it home for residents.
If San Francisco needs to identify stairs as historic in order to justify telling us not to sit on them, it is certainly fine with me. I just found it amusing because it’s not something I see in Sacramento, for example. Micah seems tolerant as well of demonstrations aimed at the homeless.
It did make me wonder what other visitors to San Francisco might have observed that helps San Francisco live up to its stereotype as a liberal stronghold. If you have visited San Francisco and found yourself amused, annoyed or otherwise aware that San Francisco politics are unlike most other cities in the United States, please add a comment and share it.
