At the heart of this grassroots movement is a group called GrowSF, launched by Steven Buss and Sachin Agarwal—two unassuming millennials who were simply fed up with the “dysfunction” of a “city in decline.”

When I asked them during a Zoom meeting last week to describe what it was they were advocating, their language was future-oriented about the need for “change” in the city—but the change they were calling for sounded a lot like a return to the mainstream, capitalist, multiracial liberalism that we all came of age with.

When I told them that it seemed like they were offering a reskinned version of “Change You Can Believe In,” they laughed and didn’t object.

“I’d love for you to describe us as simply ‘the Obama coalition.’ We are lifelong Democrats who want our government to work better,” Buss said…

Whether it’s the Chinese-Americans and other parents who were upset at the school board for shutting down programs for high achievers, or the young professionals starting families who just want to be able to afford somewhere to live, or the working-class residents of the Tenderloin who are sick of their neighborhood getting turned into a drug-filled porta potty, it’s liberals who are sick of the bullshit and just want to say “Yes We Can to opportunity and prosperity” for their families and their communities. They are the ones driving San Francisco’s political vibe shift.