Tony Bennet may have left his heart in San Fransico but if the late great crooner were still with us, I would have suggested he pick it up ASAP. 

San Fran is about to hit the skids more than it famously has over the past few years.

Case in point, as my colleague Ward Clark wrote about just this past Saturday: San Francisco's Meltdown Continues: Homeless Convicted Pedophile Operates Drug Giveaway Near a School.

From that post:

It is becoming apparent that the City by the Bay may be too far gone. The residents of that metropolis keep putting the same lunatics in charge of the asylum, and "asylum" is certainly an apt term these days for much of the Bay area. Oh, sure, some local business geniuses have decided that a marketing campaign is the answer to the city's woes, but if that isn't this month's greatest example of whistling past the graveyard, it will do until a better one comes along. 

Joseph Moore's open defiance may be the final symptom of the city's decay. Oh, he was finally arrested, on Friday. But it will be surprising if the unrepentant Moore isn't back out on the streets in short order, no doubt to set up his drug bazaar in a new location.

As of 1 p.m. Moore was being booked with charges pending, said Sgt. Kathryn Winters, a spokesperson for the Police Department. He did not yet appear in booking records for the San Francisco County Jail. The arrest followed an undercover investigation launched by Capt. Chris Canning of the Richmond District police station, who sent a team out to confront Moore and tell him to clear his structure, Supervisor Connie Chan wrote in an email to constituents on Friday.

It's hard to think of a time in American history when our major cities have been in this precipitous decline. Crime rates are rising, housing prices are through the roof, and there is actual piracy going on in the Oakland harbor. 

At least the impeccably coiffed Governor Newsom has the time to visit Israel.

Much like Ward's recollection of his Dad and his Uncle's impressions of San Francisco, I had heard nothing but good things about the city up until about five years ago. Having never visited the area I took it on the eyewitness experience of those who talked about it previously and that it was an incredibly pleasant place to visit and was a must-see destination.

Now it sounds like it would take more than Nash Bridges on steroids to help clean up the city in its current condition and things are about to get worse.

I came across this article, which has convinced me that the city by the bay is one I will never want to visit. 

San Francisco's mayor has ordered city departments including police and public health to propose budget cuts of $206 million by next week in a desperate attempt to reverse the stricken city's 'doom loop' spiral into economic collapse. Law enforcement budgets in the city, which is ravaged by homelessness, drugs and a downtown business exodus, face cuts of $27.6 million, while the public health department could lose a further $25.9 million, according to a DailyMail.com analysis.

The fire department must propose reductions of around $10.5 million to meet the mayor's demand, while city's crumbling Municipal Transport Agency must find savings of $15.5 million, a review of official figures suggests.

In a letter dated October 11, Mayor London Breed ordered departments to propose massive cuts to this year's budgets in order to prevent San Francisco reaching a $500 million deficit by 2025.

The radical cuts mark an embarrassing change of tack from Breed, who is now forced to tear up the record-breaking $14.6 billion annual budget she signed off just three months ago. Department heads across the city have until Thursday, October 26 to propose their cuts.

"Doom loop'"spiral into economic collapse indeed.

How has it happened that one of the most prosperous cities in one of the most prosperous states in the most prosperous country has absolutely fallen apart like this in less than two decades? (I could actually probably pull up the numbers and say in one decade, but I'm going to be a little bit generous here.)

The answer.

Quite simply the policies of progressive Democrats like Gavin Newsom, Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi have absolutely doomed California and San Francisco to the current miserable state that they're in. There is no other logical explanation for how this once proud city has spiraled this fast into this muck.

If there is a crazy, idiotic idea cooked up by some socially ill professor in a college anywhere in this country, the leaders in San Francisco and California are willing to adopt it and run the areas that they represent into the ground.

Just take Nancy Pelosi, who, quite frankly, is synonymous with San Francisco and has the ever-so-adorable nickname "San Fran Nan." Pelosi has been a representative of this area since 1987 which means over the past 36 years, she has watched this once-great American city absolutely tear itself apart.

Of course, Pelosi and her ilk would be quick to point at others for the demise of San Francisco.

The rich are somehow not paying enough in taxes, and they are somehow stealing money from the people who are living homeless on the streets, taking drugs, and drinking booze because of these facts. Yet all the while, Nancy and Paul Pelosi have become quite comfortably rich themselves while Nancy's position in the House of Representatives has served her and her family incredibly well.

How these proposed cuts of $206 million will ultimately affect San Francisco and the people who are served by those services is yet to be determined. Yet how can the results not spin the city into a bigger spiral than it's already in?

I have always joked with my friends who live in California that if I were to ever visit, it would be a short stay because the state is, of course, famously prone to earthquakes. 

As a Midwestern boy born and bred, we don't have the issue of the ground shaking from underneath us and having to take cover — however that is done in an earthquake. We might have a tornado or a flood and, of course, in the winter of snow storms but for all those things, you're usually giving a heads up and more than enough time to prepare.

However, now if I ever do visit California, the visit will be much shorter because there's no reason for me to go and visit San Francisco and visit the streets where Mr. Monk solved so many of his cases.

I would be too saddened to visit a city where so many people who have gone before me had so many warm memories and nice things to say and then compare it to the current depravity that the city is allowing on a daily basis.

If Tony Bennett were still alive and he had still left his heart in San Francisco, there's no doubt that it would be broken with its current state and the cuts that are coming to this once proud city.