America's Declining Big Cities

President Trump’s attack on Rep. Elijah Cummings’ home city of Baltimore may have been “crude,” as Joel Kotkin says, but they did draw national attention to the plight of America’s largest cities. They drew attention to the simple fact that America’s big cities are disintegrating, falling apart, becoming a national disgrace. (via Maggie's Farm)

The reason, Kotkin explains, has much to do with virtue signalling leftist politicians who care more about fighting climate change and leading the Resistance against President Trump than about fixing what’s broken in their cities.

Why do these politicians do what they do? They are mired in the quicksand of identity politics, as we all know. But, more obviously, they do not know how to build anything. When you do not know how to build you feel resentment toward those who do. And you believe that the only way to cover up your shame is to destroy what others have built.

Kotkin describes the reality of our cities:

Baltimore represents an extreme case, but sadly it is not alone. Last year our three largest urban centers — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — lost people while millennial migration accelerated both to the suburbs and smaller, generally less dense cities. These demographic trends, as well as growing blight, poor schools, decaying infrastructure and, worst of all, expanding homelessness are not merely the result of “racism” or Donald Trump, but have all been exacerbated by policy agendas that are turning many great cities into loony towns.

They might consider themselves principled, but these local politicians are mere incompetents… doing what they need to do to cover up the fact that they do not have a clue.

Kotkin continues:

Economic growth generally is not much of a priority for the woke urban political class. In New York, Rep. Ocasio Alexandria Cortez’s allies succeeded in driving Amazon’s new headquarters out of her district. Meanwhile her socialist comrades in Seattle have helped persuade the on-line giant to relocate more of its employees out to a massive new building in the suburb of Bellevue while the Emerald City hosts a rising homeless population.

Business leaders look at AOC and ask themselves whether they want to locate a hub in a place that abuts her district. The virtue-signaling bigots of the Squad will inevitably compromise the good name and the reputations of the people who live in their districts. What happens to the reputation of Somali-Americans when their chosen representative is Ilhan Omar?

Among the other urban problems, a city like New York has been losing its middle class. It has been losing families with children. The reason is simple: the city is too expensive. If you have to choose between sending your child to a substandard dysfunctional public school or going broke sending your child to a private school, you will naturally pick up and move to the suburbs. And you will do so even though New York City does not have the crime problem we see in a place like Baltimore.

Kotkin is correct to say that it’s all about local governance, and about the fact that these cities have been taken over by the radical left. We should all get over the habit of calling these politicians progressive. The last thing they care about is progress. They are dedicated to destroying the system, whether democracy or capitalism or the patriarchy:

Resolutions on sanctuary cities, condemnations of Trump tweets, social justice demands and boasts about combating climate change do little to improve tangibly reality that cities like Baltimore or even superstars like San Francisco, Washington, and New York.

Only when grassroots people and concerned businesses decide to challenge the urban status quo and the virtue-signaling political class can decay and the relentless bifurcation of our cities be reversed. After all, large and powerful companies, like Amazon, can always pack up and migrate to less insane political environments. But those with a strong stake in the local economy and neighborhoods have fewer options. It will be up to them, to restore our cities’ historic role as places for both families and middle-class economic aspiration.

And yet, the more the cities lose the middle class, the more the lower classes will become dominant… and will vote for imbeciles like AOC. As for the rich, keep in mind that 1% of the population of New York City pays 40% of the city taxes. If the rich spend six months and a day in Florida they will seriously diminish their tax bills. And they will wipe out the city budget.

Let's not overlook the fact that, considering how badly the radical left has failed in America's big cities, it wants to bring the same policies to the rest of the country.