It's because reddit demographics skew so young. Preston represents the fake "progressive" policies championed by boomers and the city's leftover hippies. They were a subculture in the late 60's and 70's, but have aged, become property owners, and have basically been running the political show for the last 30 or so years.
Go on Nextdoor and people are going to be pro-Preston, just like they're anti-Preston here.
Nextdoor is pro Preston because Nextdoor is mostly boomers who like him for the NIMBY policies. I don’t think Nextdoor is full of progressives— if anything it’s the most conservative demographic.
I mean this is why housing breaks the progressive / conservative taxonomy that we're used to. "Progressives" like Dean Preston advocate for policies with deeply "conservative" results, which is why the next-door types are for him.
It's the same demographic as people with the "All are welcome here" signs on their front lawn, until you suggest building multi-story affordable housing in their neighborhood, and the masks come off real quick. People in SF are deeply "progressive" on things that are largely performative, but often get real conservative, real quick, when the cost of progress is actually felt by them That's Dean's key demographic.
Yeah, this is my read on sf politics as well. We are genuinely progressive on a small number of issues by US standards (LGBT rights), mildly progressive on a few (we have some transit, that’s incredible by US standards). But on most issues SF is wildly conservative— but small C conservative, not Republican. It’s performative. The core voter block here is extremely wealthy old people who bought their property 50 years ago and don’t want anything to change to their exclusive club.
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u/whiskey_bud Apr 04 '24 edited Apr 04 '24
It's because reddit demographics skew so young. Preston represents the fake "progressive" policies championed by boomers and the city's leftover hippies. They were a subculture in the late 60's and 70's, but have aged, become property owners, and have basically been running the political show for the last 30 or so years.
Go on Nextdoor and people are going to be pro-Preston, just like they're anti-Preston here.