The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

On Tuesday of this week, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom announced that according to a study by the city’s Department of the Environment, San Francisco had cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent between 2000 and 2005. Which sounds impressive until you begin to look at what is really happening in San Francisco.

The USA Today has a front page story out today reporting that: “Among large counties, San Francisco lost the highest percentage of whites with that group dropping 17% from 2000 to 2007.” But if you look at the table that accompanies the article you will also discover that, not counting New Orleans, San Francisco also lost the 3rd most minorities from 2000 to 2007. In other words, San Francisco is just plain loosing people. According to the Census Bureau an estimated 32,692 left San Francisco between 2000 and 2006.

And who has been driven out? The middle class. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier this June: “The number of low- and middle-income residents in San Francisco is shrinking as the wealthy population swells … Many worry it’s increasingly turning San Francisco into an enclave of the rich, where nurses, firefighters, cops, teachers and other professionals aspiring toward homeownership or in need of cheaper rent can no longer afford to stay.”

No wonder Speaker Nancy Pelosi feels so empowered to prioritize polar bears over lower energy costs. The working class people hardest hit by high energy prices are fleeing her city and being replaced by wealthy childless households who can easily afford $4 a gallon gas.