Given that I am still a content denizen of a small rural community in Alaska, I remain an odd one to be writing about the state of America's urban areas. If you've been reading my work at all, you know I grew up in a rural setting in Iowa, and today I am and will remain a happy rural dweller. I have little love for cities, despite having lived in them for four decades. I find them unpleasant; crowded, noisy, and smelly. I like the clean country air of the Susitna Valley, and if that means I have to put up with the occasional overnight low around 30 below, 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: Oakland, California, which serves as a staggering example of the utter failure of liberal/progressive Democrat governance. This is a city beset by problems, and the municipal government seems to have nothing even approaching a clue as to how to deal with them.
First and foremost among those problems is crime. Oakland has one of the highest crime rates in the nation; violent crime, including robbery, assault, as well as property crimes. Mayor Barbara Lee is trying to take credit for some decrease in Oakland's crime rate, but in matters like this there's a big difference between "better" and "less horrible." Mayor Lee is in the position of praising "less horrible." This is key:
Oakland reports solving a smaller share of its crimes than any major U.S. city for which figures could be found. Its violent crime clearance rate fell from 28% in 2010 to 10% in 2025 — far less than the statewide rate — and its combined clearance rate across all Part I crimes was 2% in 2024. The national average was far higher, around 20%.
What's more, the city's police department is badly understaffed.
The Oakland police department’s operational strength is currently only around 546 active-duty sworn officers — far below its total number of 678 budgeted sworn officers. Only around 618 of those budgeted sworn positions are filled, and of those that are filled, approximately 72 are on various forms of leave or other non-active duty status.
A look at the crime rate map of the entire San Francisco Bay area is revealing. Much of this area is having issues with crime, homelessness, open-air drug use, and more; but Oakland stands out like a big, glaring, red sore on this map. A lack of law enforcement, a lack of resources to resolve crimes, all are contributing to Oakland's problems; as is a mayor who encourages us to celebrate the move from "horrible" to "less horrible," when a modern American city should be moving from "good" to "great." That's not nearly the brag point Mayor Lee seems to think it is.
Then, there's this: The trash problem.
What would happen to a city if its government effectively stopped enforcing laws protecting public space and private property? Oakland, California, has been testing the proposition. Many have heard about Oakland’s extraordinarily high violent-crime rate, which, despite recent declines, remains roughly four and a half times the national rate and the worst among California’s big cities. But in recent years, the city has also struggled to enforce laws against illegal dumping, burglary, car break-ins, and squatting.
As a result, much of the city is “buried under trash,” according to a recent government report, which found that the city collects some 20 million pounds of illegally dumped debris—47 pounds per resident—annually. Oakland also has the highest level of property crime of any large U.S. city. It solves these crimes at a rate of just 0.1 percent—meaning that one in every 1,000 property crimes reported to the Oakland police produces an arrest—compared with rates of about 10 percent in San Francisco and 13 percent in Berkeley, respectively.
This isn't some Third World feces-hole, mind you. This is a modern American city, right here in this, the greatest nation in human history.
I've driven through Oakland — neither stopping nor getting out of the car, mind you. That was in 2017, and things were already bad. Sprawling homeless encampments, piles of debris, sketchy-looking characters seemingly on every street corner. It was a great feeling to cross the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, and that latter city, mind you, was already at the stage of handing out poop maps to tourists at that point; I still have one of those around here someplace.
Here's the thing: The success or failure of any major city is due to the capabilities and competence of the city's leadership. Oakland's leadership appears to have nothing of the sort. They are, to a person, liberal or progressive Democrats, if not outright socialists, and it is on them that Oakland has descended to the state it is in today.
Oakland and other progressive-run cities, like Portland, are the endgame. This is what progressive and socialist rule will bring to all of us: Crime, waste, chaos. Whether feature or bug, this is the inevitable end. The only solution for the suffering people of Oakland would be to change their voting habits, but that's about as likely as the mayor of Oakland suddenly sprouting wings.
