Urban Degeneracy And Failure
As cities slowly fall to pieces, they are increasingly becoming no-go zones for investors and business, except for those who see opportunity investing in suddenly distressed properties; barely ten per cent of US companies are interested in investing in large urban areas. -Joel Kotkin
Even the New York Times admits that, in the past decade, cities have gone from “engines of growth and opportunity” to places where class relations are increasing fixed, with only the upper end of the income spectrum doing well.
Gotham’s one percent earns a third of the entire city’s personal income. That’s almost twice the proportion for the rest of the country.
But such class disparity is becoming the norm; in the tech haven of San Francisco, which has the worst levels of inequality in California, the top 5% of households earn an average of $808,105 annually, compared with $16,184 for the lowest 20%.
-Joel Kotkin 
San Francisco Democrat Mayor London Breed appears to have reversed course on her support for defunding the police, a far-left movement that is well outside the mainstream, and is now calling those same progressive policies “the bulls*** that has destroyed our city.”
- Ryan Saavedra
As you may have heard, shootings and murders are up around the country. That’s especially true in Philadelphia which had already recorded more murders this year than either New York City or Los Angeles.
Progressive DA Larry Krasner’s response to that spike in violence has been denial.
Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports Krasner’s office is in chaos after 261 attorneys have decided they’d had enough of working there and quit. That’s out of an office of about 340 lawyers.
-John Sexton
Liberal, Crime, Violence, Guns, Degeneracy, Threats, Law, Theft
The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) recently warned residents about new ways criminals are gaining access to peoples’ homes and luring them into carjackings...
According to MPD, carjackings are so common that it’s no longer safe to exit a vehicle if it’s involved in a fender bender. MPD described “bumping into your car” as a means of “how carjackers lure victims.” After your vehicle is bumped, “you might be tempted to pull over — only to have your car taken,” the police warned. “Stay inside with the windows shut and the door locked and, if you feel a threat, drive to the nearest police or fire station.”
MPD’s message also offered some safety tips to help Minneapolis residents avoid becoming victims of crime. For example, they advised people who carry weapons to keep them on their person. “The tool or weapon must be at hand at the moment needed (not in a bag, under the car seat or in the glove compartment) and you have to know how to use it properly,” the email said.
Democrat, Liberal, Crime, Government, Guns, Incompetence, Theft
Democratic Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon was the victim of a carjacking in Philadelphia's FDR Park on Wednesday afternoon.
She had her car, purse, wallet and phone stolen but was not injured, her office confirmed. Scanlon was walking to her parked vehicle and was approached by two men driving a dark-colored SUV, WPVI reported.
The crime comes after an Illinois state senator and her husband were also carjacked on Tuesday night in a suburb 20 minutes outside of Chicago.
'Wednesday afternoon, at around 2:45 p.m., Congresswoman Scanlon was carjacked at gunpoint in FDR Park following a meeting at that location,' Scanlon's spokesperson Lauren Cox said in a statement.
Degeneracy, Assault
A woman was allegedly raped on a suburban Philadelphia train last week while police said there were "a lot of people" around who "should have done something."...
According to authorities, the incident was caught on surveillance video that showed bystanders on the train when it happened who "did nothing."...
Commuters who use the train were shocked to hear about the incident. Shane Brown told CBS Philadelphia, "they need more security, they really do. They really need a lot of security because it's getting bad out here. You can't even get on the bus."
Liberal, Degeneracy, Drugs
Multiple city workers on Mass and Cass have ended up in the hospital in recent weeks with a nasty stomach bug as sanitary conditions on Methadone Mile reach an all-time low, the workers' union says as reports from the Mile include sick rats and live roosters.
One worker at the Boston Public Health Commission's engagement center who wished to remain anonymous told the Herald he'd caught a brutal illness that laid him out for the entirety of last week... "This place is not the cleanest place in the world, fruit flies everywhere. You got rats running around everywhere"...
The BPHC's engagement center is effectively a large tent out behind a homeless shelter in the heart of the open-air drug market in the South End known as Mass and Cass or Methadone Mile.
San Francisco Democrat Mayor London Breed appears to have reversed course on her support for defunding the police, a far-left movement that is well outside the mainstream, and is now calling those same progressive policies “the bulls*** that has destroyed our city.”
2021: Admitting That They Have A Problem...
And progressives—I count myself as one of them—do ruin cities.
In many cities — Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco, St. Louis, New York — “progressive” district attorneys have worked assiduously to restrain law enforcement.
In California, where it is no longer considered a felony to steal anything worth less than $1,000, there has been a surge in property crime, including a huge rise in car thefts. San Francisco, for example, has seen the drug store Walgreens close ten outlets since 2019, citing elevated levels of theft and weak law enforcement.
-Joel Kotkin
Democrat, Liberal, Crime, Degeneracy, Economy, Vandalism, Jobs, Theft
Throughout the pandemic, we've heard Portland city leaders talk about how they're tackling the city's most significant issues, including homelessness and crime, but few are willing to set a timetable.
For one business owner in North Portland, it's already too late. Tom Leaptrott owns a steel forging operation in Cathedral Park. He closed the shop ten months ago. The buoy swivels used by the Coast Guard and the decommissioned drill presses will be gone in 30 days, either scrapped or moved to his new location in Southwest Washington. It's something the Portland-native says he never imagined would happen.
"We've owned Columbia Forge for over 20 years. It's been here for 70 years," said Leaptrott. "We had to move out because of, basically, a lack of leadership from City Hall and the inability to stop crime and enforce trespass and make it livable."...
"The last year, it's really gotten bad," said Leaptrott. "They're trying to steal metals and all sorts of things, and they break in just to vandalize sometimes. It's really, really awful."
Liberal, Violence, Guns, Character, Degeneracy
The city’s firefighters could soon be wearing bulletproof vests.
The local firefighter’s union said its members now encounter more and more threats when they respond to emergencies. Officials said firefighters have even been attacked and hurt at the scene.
The plan to get bulletproof vests has been in the works for years, according to the union, and they’re needed now more than ever.
San Francisco in 2021...
Max Mara, Harry Winston, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Hublot, Lacoste, Neiman Marcus, Yves St. Laurent, Fendi, Ferragamo, Gucci...all boarded up as if at war.
Blue America Survival Guide
D.C. Police: "GIVE UP YOUR CAR!" and "Don’t argue" in the event of a carjacker issuing a threat with a weapon.
Liberal, Crime, Incompetence, Oops, Murder
Murder and other crimes have surged in major cities following the efforts to defend and rein in police activity following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year, according to a law enforcement report.
In Minneapolis, police activity following Floyd’s death while in custody dropped 42%, and possibly as a result, murders surged 64%, said the report from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund shared with Secrets.
The report said that in 10 major cities where cops were sharply criticized, police activity dropped 48% since June 2020 and murders rose 56%.
Societal Decay
In the widely read November 2011 Atlantic cover story, entitled "All the Single Ladies," singleton Kate Bolick declares that "it's time to embrace new ideas about romance and family--and to acknowledge the end of traditional marriage as society's highest ideal."
Seattle: Peace, Love, and Tolerance
Other officers responded and found a group of 25 to 30 gathered in the intersection, setting up fencing and putting up caution tape. They painted "F--- The Pigs" on the street and on a nearby building.
City slickers are more likely to be psychotic — or so says a study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, which found a correlation between people who exhibit darker personality traits and a preference for urban over suburban and rural areas.
Using the crowdsourcing website Prolific, researchers at the University of Derby surveyed 304 UK-based adults on their preferred geographical setting, how connected they felt with nature and their personality type. The resulting data showed a correlation between socially averse personality traits — like sadism and narcissism — and being partial to inner-city living.
-Hannah Frishberg