If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to hire private security
Conn Carroll
San Francisco’s Sunset District hadn’t been represented by a non-Asian for over 20 years until Supervisor Joel Engardio knocked off the Democratic incumbent this past fall.
“We should all pay attention that San Francisco, the most liberal place in America, is saying enough. We want safe streets. We want good schools. That should tell anyone — pay attention,” Engardio told CNN.
Engardio was helped in his campaign by many in the Sunset District’s Asian community, including Allene Jue, who said until 2020, she always just picked the most Asian-sounding name on the ballot. “They care about policies that don’t really help someone who just lives in the city and just wants to be safe, who wants their kids to be educated well,” Jue said about San Francisco Democrats. “They forgot the core problems for regular people. I wanted to do something to try to change and take that power back. It was fear and frustration, a lot of frustration, that I turned into action.”
Asian Americans continue to vote for Democrats more often than they vote for Republicans. In 2022, 58% of Asian Americans voted for Democrats, compared to 40% for Republicans. But compare that to 2018, when 77% of Asian Americans voted for Democrats and 23% voted for Republicans.
The tide is turning.
“Asian Americans feel like Democrats are focused on the wrong things, that they’ve let ideology run amok,” civil rights attorney Charles Jung added. “If Democrats don’t redouble their efforts to focus on core Democratic issues, they will lose people of color over time.”
Even better, the CNN crew filming the story on Asian Americans trending conservative got to experience San Francisco’s crime wave firsthand. While they were inside City Hall interviewing Engardio, their rental car was robbed.
“This happened in four seconds,” CNN reporter Kyung Lah told Erin Burnett. “The reason why I know it was exactly four seconds is because we hired professional security to watch our cars, because this is so pervasive. It is such a shared experience.”
“It’s amazing,” Burnett said. “I hope everyone heard what you say, that you have to have hired security to shoot a story in San Francisco, California. That is an incredible thing just on its own.”
Yes it is.
In the 1960s, people sang, “When you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair.” The 2020s version is: “When you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to hire security for your car.”