Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani's rise as New York's mayor has become a source of hope for liberals in San Francisco, once an incubator of a host of modern progressive ideas.

But it also is a reminder of how far the city has drifted from the political influence it once wielded.

At recent meetings organized by socialists and progressive groups in San Francisco, the contrast with New York loomed large, Politico reported Friday.

Activists repeatedly pointed to Mamdani's victory as evidence that left-wing politics can still thrive in major U.S. cities — just not, at the moment, in San Francisco.

Mamdani, who was sworn in on New Year's Day, rode a wave of progressive enthusiasm in New York, campaigning on free public buses, expanded child care, and widespread rent freezes.

His rise has energized national left-wing activists and shifted attention toward New York as a new center of progressive political power.

But progressives in San Francisco have suffered a string of defeats over the past five years, amid voter frustration over homelessness, street conditions, crime, and drug addiction.

Moderate Democrats, often backed by wealthy tech investors, have won repeated victories, reshaping the city's political landscape.

Former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, a leading progressive who lost last year's mayoral race, blamed tech interests for the shift.

"The takeover is classic," Peskin told Politico.

"San Francisco is the jewel in the crown of the crypto and tech industries. They want this to be the symbolic elite tech capital of the world."

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, a moderate Democrat and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, has focused on austerity measures, expanding policing, reviving the city's struggling downtown, and supporting the booming artificial intelligence sector.

Lurie spent more than $9 million of his own money during the mayoral race.

Even as moderates celebrate their gains, progressives here say they feel increasingly sidelined — and outpaced — by counterparts in New York, where the left has benefited from a larger, more working-class electorate and a media market that is far more difficult for wealthy donors to dominate.

"New York is so massive the left can survive and thrive despite hostile spending," Jen Snyder, a San Francisco consultant who volunteered on Mamdani's campaign, told Politico.

San Francisco progressives argued that Silicon Valley interests have poured tens of millions of dollars into local elections, saturating the city's airwaves with ads blaming the left for the city's post-pandemic struggles.

The city's political losses have been tangible.

In 2022, voters recalled progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin and three school board members.

Moderates later secured a majority on the Board of Supervisors, unseating democratic socialist Supervisor Dean Preston in a district that includes Haight-Ashbury, long considered a progressive enclave.

Meanwhile, Mamdani is hardly an outlier in New York. The city now has nine democratic socialist state lawmakers and three democratic socialist city council members in office, underscoring the left's institutional strength there.

San Francisco's decline as a progressive stronghold has reshaped its national image.

Once a favorite target for conservatives, the city is now cited by moderates as a cautionary tale, while Republicans increasingly focus their attacks on Mamdani and New York's leftward shift.