Good morning:
This week, City Journal’s Christopher F. Rufo and Haley Strack published a stunning investigation into the taxpayer-subsidized buildings registered sex offenders are living in throughout San Francisco, and their proximity to parks, schools, daycares, and neighborhoods with a high concentration of children. Together, Rufo and Strack visit these buildings, interview the sex offenders living in them, and ask neighborhood residents what they think about trying to raise their families in an area crawling with convicted pedophiles and peddlers of child pornography.
“California didn’t always let sex offenders live so close to children,” they write. In 2006, California voters passed a ban that prevented them from living within 2,000 feet of schools and children’s parks. “But a group of San Diego sex offenders sued the state, claiming that the blanket restrictions made it hard for them to find a place to live. In 2015, the California State Supreme Court agreed.” While some California jurisdictions are finding ways to enact new restrictions and make their neighborhoods safer for families and children, San Francisco is moving in the opposite direction.
Read the full investigation below.
Meanwhile, California lawmakers are renewing their push to overturn Proposition 209, which prohibits the state from engaging in racial, sex, and ethnic discrimination. For decades, senior fellow Gail Heriot has defended Proposition 209 and co-chaired the original campaign. This week, she lays out in the Daily Wire the new proposal to entirely remove Prop 209 from K–12 education. “The most obvious effect,” she writes, “will be that it will no longer forbid discrimination in admissions to gifted and talented programs — which, pre-209, was all too common in California.”
Elsewhere in this newsletter, fellow Rafael A. Mangual explains the current case law and legal landscape surrounding automated license-plate readers (ALPRs) for the Daily Wire. His column addresses critics of ALPRs who argue that, first, ALPR networks violate the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment and, second, the potential for government abuse is too high to risk using this technology. Mangual answers each charge in stride.
Finally, check out senior fellow Robert Henderson’s chilling column in the Free Press on the habits of mind of Maoist China, habits that he finds are alive and well today in the United States.
Continue reading for all these insights and more. Kelsey Bloom
Editorial Director |
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How Communism Kills Kindness
By Robert Henderson | Free Press | Photo by -/XINHUA/AFP via Getty Images
“Communism is on the rise in America. More than that: It is being celebrated.
“With the midterm elections just over one month away, at least eight congressional candidates with avowedly socialist perspectives are poised to take office, polling well ahead of their opponents in states from New York to Colorado.
“Think there’s no connection between socialism and communism? Think again. Nearly half of the members of the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) leadership body identify as communists. As Stu Smith reported earlier this summer, “Members with Communist political tendencies now significantly shape the DSA’s leadership.” In their December 2025 newsletter, members of the DSA’s Red Star Caucus celebrated Mao Zedong’s 132nd birthday. “All of which raises some natural questions: Where is this revolutionary romance coming from? And as it steadily seeps into our leadership class, where will it lead?” |
Why The Case Against ‘Flock Cameras’ Is Wrongheaded
By Rafael A. Mangual | Daily Wire | Photo by Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance via Getty Images
“On Wednesday, Senator Josh Hawley (R—Mo) presided over a widely watched hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism. The topic was a hot one: Flock cameras. While it’s not unusual for Senate committees to take up heated policy debates, anyone hoping Wednesday’s hearing would provide more clarity and guidance on how to evaluate the arguments for and against the cameras left without real insight from the witnesses called to testify. “While the harshest critiques and most sensational anecdotes took center stage, the hearing room lacked reasoned counterarguments and important context. …
“So what should be done? First, access to ALPR systems should be restricted to law enforcement agencies. Second, those agencies should adopt clear and meaningful auditing protocols. Third, access to historical queries should require supervisor approval in certain circumstances. …
“These are the kinds of fixes state and local policymakers should consider in response to the recent backlash surrounding ALPR cameras.” |
California Democrats Want To Bring Back Racial Discrimination In Education
By Gail Heriot | Daily Wire | Photo By Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
“California lawmakers are obsessed. For decades, they’ve been trying to kill off Proposition 209, which prohibits the state from giving preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity. They want the power to discriminate — and they can’t understand why voters keep refusing to give it to them.
“With all California’s problems — from homelessness to wildfires to a deteriorating infrastructure — one might expect state legislators to spend their time more wisely. But in Sacramento, identity politics is king. Racial preferences — often dressed up as slavery reparations — get priority; real problems don’t.
“The latest assault on Proposition 209 was authorized on a strict party-line vote in late August. If approved by the voters, it will make the 30-year-old initiative inapplicable to most aspects of public education — the heart of the initiative. Even this partial repeal would be devastating for California.” |
San Francisco’s Frat Houses for Pedophiles
By Christopher F. Rufo and Haley Strack | City Journal | Photo by City Journal
“San Francisco, California – It’s Tuesday morning at Little Learners Daycare in downtown San Francisco. Teacher Wendy herds bright-eyed toddlers, amped up after playtime in the courtyard, back inside. They’re laughing and swatting at each other playfully, oblivious to the pack of pedophiles lurking nearby.
“Four hundred feet away, dozens of registered sex offenders live at 111 Taylor Street. Wendy knew that the Tenderloin, where she operates her Mandarin-immersion daycare, was dangerous. It’s a hotbed for illegal drug activity and homelessness. But she didn’t realize that sex offenders live so close to her daycare—or that taxpayers fund their housing.
“More than 25 percent of sex offenders in San Francisco with addresses in the Megan’s Law database live in taxpayer-subsidized buildings. Many live near a park, school, or daycare, or reside in a neighborhood with a high concentration of children. They do all of this despite statewide efforts to ban concentrating pedophiles so close to children.” |
New York Can’t Take Growth for Granted
By Adam Lehodey and Edward L. Glaeser | City Journal | Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
“A city’s success depends on its ability to attract talented people and enable the exchange of ideas, goods, and relationships. At these tasks, New York City has long excelled. Its extraordinary concentration of people and firms has generated opportunity not only for those who live there but also for millions beyond its borders.
“Increasingly, however, New Yorkers feel that the city’s economy no longer works for them. Housing remains expensive relative to incomes, job growth has been sluggish, and residents face some of the nation’s highest taxes. Some fear that New York may be losing the dynamism that has long justified its costs.
“Without that dynamism, New York risks becoming a museum: its buildings and institutions will remain, but its people will go elsewhere for opportunity. Population growth across the broader metropolitan area has already been essentially flat for the last half decade. The city can no longer take growth for granted.” |
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Before you go: Kenneth Schrupp on Fox Business.
Schrupp, a California-based investigative reporter for City Journal, reports on how illegal immigrant households in the Golden State can collect more than $100,000 in tax-free cash and benefits. That is on top of any under-the-table wages the household earns. |
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