As I am still a denizen of a small rural community in Alaska, I remain an odd one indeed to be writing about the state of America's urban areas and Democrat/leftist (but I repeat myself) jurisdictions. If you've been reading my work over the last few years, you know I grew up in a rural community in Iowa and am now a content rural dweller myself. I have little time for cities, despite having lived in them for four decades. I find them unpleasant; crowded, noisy, and, to be honest, they smell bad. I like the clean country air of the Susitna Valley, and if that means I have to put up with the occasional lynx getting into the neighbor's chickens and the ruckus that ensues, that's fine.
So, why am I still worried about America's cities? Because our cities are the beating hearts of our nation. Much of the country's economic activity happens there. Urban areas host much of the country's industry and academia. What's more, our cities used to be the pride of the nation, but that's less the case now. Case in point: Several of our formerly great cities are plagued by what we would normally associate with the Third World: Unregulated, uncontrolled, illegal street vendors. These people sell merchandise, doubtless some of it stolen by the plague of professional shoplifters, and more alarmingly, they sell food of doubtful origins and even more doubtful safety.
Watch this expose video from the dedicated Nick Shirley, just to see how these things are going in Mayor Zohran Mamdani's New York City:
Note that Mr. Shirley exposes an entire street of vendors and, worse, fraudsters, many of whom are not American citizens, many of whom may well be peddling stolen merchandise, and none of whom are paying taxes. The city of New York is tacitly allowing this, and in so doing, is encouraging more of this kind of thing.New York City is rife with these illegal vendors. Recently, street vendors took over the famous Brooklyn Bridge.
Dozens of unlicensed vendors have illegally swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge to hawk cheap New York City souvenirs and fruit cups — while their licensed competition, including disabled veterans, say they’re being pushed out and unable to make a living.
The Post counted roughly 42 vendors across the historic span on Sunday and spotted one brazenly spreading out dozens of New York canvas bags directly in front of a “no vending allowed” sign.
Even children are in on the scam.
Pint-sized peddlers as young as 11 are among the dozens of illegal vendors hawking goods on the Brooklyn Bridge — bumping even licensed military vets.
“They are everywhere,” one stunned tourist told The Post.
It is belaboring the obvious to note that none of this is legal. The food vendors in particular are concerning. We have regulations on food handling and preparation for a reason. Every city has a board of health or a similar function that inspects and approves restaurants and other legitimate food service businesses, and there are state agencies and federal regulations governing food service. My father-in-law ran cafeterias in various federal buildings for over 60 years, and you'd better believe he was inspected at least annually. But these street vendors are not inspected; their wares are of unknown quality, and their preparation is very likely suspect. This is medieval stuff here; the public health is at risk here.
And yet, these cities allow this.
This isn't confined to New York. In the once-Golden State, Los Angeles contends with similar problems with illegal street vendors.
Dog-eaten meat, rats and urine: Stomach-churning details of 10K LA street food complaints revealed https://t.co/CUuqXD2Ia7 pic.twitter.com/G6MSDLh4kw
— California Post (@californiapost) August 30, 2026
This is a Third World-level operation. Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has ordered the LAPD to stop issuing citations to street vendors. Other West Coast cities, including the Bay Area cities and San Diego, contend with similar issues, and like Los Angeles and New York, these things happen because these cities ignore it or, worse, as Mayor Bass has done, encourage it. These illegal vendors squeeze out legitimate, lawful vendors, of the sort New York in particular used to be famous for. They pose a risk to public health, especially the unlicensed, uninspected food vendors, as we see in Los Angeles. They don't pay taxes. They don't submit any business registrations.
And yet, these cities allow this.
Furthermore, it is not "racist," as the leftist city governments would claim, to note that a majority of these illegal street vendors are recent imports from the Third World. When you import the Third World, you become the Third World, and in New York, in Los Angeles, in San Francisco, we are seeing that proven true daily.
These cities, and others, are slipping into that Third World, and their Democratic elected officials are greasing the skids.
Our major cities decline continues apace. And the majority of voters in these cities, as we have recently seen in New York, and as we will doubtless see in Los Angeles in their upcoming mayoral election, keep putting the same lunatics back in charge of the asylum. The people who live in those cities, as well as the people who visit, are the ones paying the price.
