Blue cities throughout the U.S. are struggling. Sometimes their solutions are making their problems worse.

Conservative scholar and journalist, Christopher Rufo convened four focus groups with voters in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He and his team were trying to find out how to persuade voters to support policies that will truly help their cities.

They found that terminology is important. “The use of phrases such as ‘illegal aliens’ and ‘law and order,’ are seen as “right-wing-coded terms” which can immediately shut down constructive discussion.

Better, he says to define problems as “rooted in failures of care and concern.”

What Mr. Rufo’s team gleaned from these focus groups is that it’s important to frame the issue carefully and then offer common-sense solutions that will survive in progressive, urban settings that are most in need of sound conservative governance.

Case in point: San Francisco.

When Daniel Lurie became mayor in January 2025, the city was plagued with carjackings, robberies, gun assaults, smash-and-grab shoplifting and homeless encampments. A tool that might have helped solve the crime problem was prohibited in 2019 when San Francisco became the first major city to ban police from using facial recognition technology. Crime shot up, exacerbating the exodus of families and businesses from the Bay Area.

In an article for The Washington Post, San Francisco real estate investor Max Raskin says Mayor Lurie, a democrat, has “eased restrictions on the use of drones and facial recognition for law enforcement,” effectively reversing the 2019 ordinance and passed “a kitchen sink ballot initiative that gave flexibility to the city’s police department.”

Mayor Lurie also launched an initiative to increase police hiring and has worked in cooperation with federal and state officials to get drugs and dealers off the streets.

This democrat mayor of the country’s most liberal city is implementing the conservative principle that says “if you get crime right, everything else will follow.” Max Raskin says “It’s working.”