It's easy, living out here in the Alaska woods, to feel a little disconnected from American urban life, and to be honest, most of us out here prefer it that way. Because of that, I may seem an odd one to be writing about the state of America's urban areas. I had a mostly rural youth, and while I lived and worked in urban areas for many years, now I'm back where I belong, in a house out in the woods. Oh, we have our issues out here in the boonies as well; every place does. But all in all, most of us stick together, look out for one another, and get by pretty well.
So why am I concerned about America's cities? Because, throughout America's history, the cities have been vital parts of the American culture, the American way of life, and of American prosperity. For many years, America's great cities were the world's great cities: San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, just to name a few. But these cities are now falling apart; under decades of Democrat rule, under decades of incompetent leadership; they have fallen far and fast, to the point where they may be beyond the point of no return.
Case in point: Several of our major cities have mayors of staggering incompetence, and New York seems primed to double down on stupid by electing an actual communist.
First, Chicago.
America's Second City had not, it seems, suffered enough under the incapable Lori Lightfoot. The voters of that city leaped from the Lightfoot frying pan into the Brandon Johnson fire. The city is failing to meet payrolls on time, and the Chicago Police Department is claiming this is by design:
Chicago Police Department brass accused Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration of deliberately slowing down paychecks for dozens of employees this summer in a fiery email that warned the city was jeopardizing its compliance with the federal consent decree.
Police Department Deputy Director Ryan Fitzsimons emailed multiple officials in Johnson’s budget office June 2 to alert them of the department’s overdue A-forms, paperwork required to process paychecks for new hires and promotions. After following up the next day to confirm that police recruits were not getting their first paychecks, he sent an additional message June 10 saying Johnson’s budget office was purposely sitting on the forms.
Mayor Johnson has vowed to resist Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in their task of detaining and deporting illegal aliens, while the city spends $400 million on housing illegals. Chicago is broken. People - productive people, at any rate - are leaving. None of this will change until the people of Chicago change their voting patterns.
Next, Los Angeles.
Under Mayor Karen Bass, we saw the disastrous non-response to the dreadful Pacific Palisades fire - the mayor wasn't even in the country. She, like her Chicago counterpart, has been resisting the Trump administration's efforts to bring illegal immigration under control, and has been vocal about it, while also being vocal about her apparent ignorance of the Constitution. As RedState's own Nick Arama recently wrote:
Um, no, it's not unconstitutional to go after "people selling fruit and working at car washes." They don't get a special exemption from the law. If you entered illegally, you can be detained by ICE. That didn't start under President Donald Trump; that's the law. Why do Democrats act like they don't understand that?
They may well understand it; they just don't care. And, as with Chicago, Los Angeles is broken. People are leaving, not just Los Angeles, but California. High taxes, high energy costs, astronomical real estate prices; LA, the former City of Angels, is left to the politicians, the illegal aliens they protect, and the sprawling homeless encampments. None of this will change until the people of Los Angeles change their voting patterns.
Read More: The Downfall of America's Cities: The Broadway of the Bronx
The Downfall of America's Cities: New York Women and Vigilantes
And finally, New York.
The Big Apple has fared somewhat better with Eric Adams as mayor than it did under his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, on whom New York's finest famously and literally turned their backs. But Mayor Adams is struggling to hold his seat after changing his registration to Independent. New York Democrats have chosen as their standard-bearer Zohran Mamdani, a self-professed "Democratic Socialist," which is a euphemism for a Communist. He's proposing one wackadoodle commie idea after another, from putting social workers on 911 calls and instituting government-run grocery stores.
Mayor Adams is the better choice. Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, would likewise be a better choice, but his campaign is a long shot. Even former Governor Andrew Cuomo, still in the race as an independent, would be a better choice - that's the fine pass New York has come to.
There's one hopeful note; as my colleague Bob Hoge recently informed us, national Democrats may be preparing to put Mamdani's crazy train on a siding.
(House Minority Leader) Hakeem (Jeffries) is not the only spineless New York Democrat who is afraid to take a stand and is hoping for some new poll to tell them what to do: Gov. Kathy Hochul and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have also not endorsed Zohran—but neither have they strongly condemned his ruinous Marxist ideology or his antisemitism.
Schumer has said that he will meet with Mamdani soon, but no date has been set. He's presumably waiting to see which way the wind will blow.
But, this is New York, whose population has drifted left after the Giuliani/Bloomberg years, when New Yorkers were safe and the city, prosperous. And, like Chicago and Los Angeles, the producers in New York are leaving; if Mamdani is elected, watch for that trend to accelerate. And, again, none of this will change until New Yorkers change their voting patterns.
A fish rots from the head. Our major cities are suffering under incompetent leadership, and more to the point, incompetent Democrat leadership. This is a political party that renounces reality in matters like taxation, energy, law enforcement, real estate, and anything that involves market forces. They are ignorant of the Constitution, ignorant of the law, ignorant of economics. Decades of incompetent management have resulted in many of the major problems plaguing our cities, and the few lessons in successful government, like New York under Rudy Giuliani, seem to go unheard.
Until the voters in these cities change their voting patterns, matters will only get worse. There's an opportunity for local Republicans in these cities to make the case for a better way, but will those voters listen? So many of our cities are increasingly hollowed-out shells, with only a few (leftist) elites left, along with the homeless, illegal aliens, and the dependency class. The productive have left: For Florida, for Tennessee, for Texas.
Is it too late for our cities to change?
