World leaders are descending on San Francisco this week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. In the lead up to this global event, Democrat San Francisco and California officials, including Governor Gavin Newsom, made sure to have the Golden City shine brighter than it has in decades. 

But don’t take our word for it. Just days ago at a press conference, Newsom, alongside failing San Francisco Mayor London Breed, said  the quiet part out loud: “I know folks say, ‘oh, they’re just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming into town.’ That’s true, because it’s true.” 

Under California Democrats’ failed leadership, San Francisco – the hometown of Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Newsom – has become synonymous with open-air drug markets, a homeless crisis, and brazen smash-and-grab crimes that have resulted in shuttered businesses and scores of residents moving away.

But now, with Newsom’s new buddy, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and the man Newsom’s dying to replace, President Joe Biden, coming to town, Democrats have finally decided to clean up the city after years of decline. 

San Francisco residents are rightfully annoyed and asking why this isn’t always how things are done, with one man telling KTVU , “what about the people who are here year round, local, hardworking working class Bay Area folks?”

Unfortunately, it seems not all of the city’s problems could be fixed with a quick, surface-level facelift, as one foreign news crew has already learned the hard way: