1. Scott McKay of the American Spectator argues that this decay is deliberate. He calls it "weaponized government failure." In a nutshell: the kleptocrats in city governments realize that the middle class is the biggest political threat to them. So make the city unlivable for them, drive them out, and leave behind a class of those dependent on the kleptocrats, and which is likely to be atomized, uneducated, and unmotivated to challenge. This entrenches the kleptocrats for life. Better to rule over a wasteland where they can still skim money than actually have to perform productive work outside politics.
2. St. Louis' decline began in the 1960s. It was on a somewhat shallower trajectory than Detroit's, but downtown was dying by the 1990s when I moved there (while teaching at Wash U Olin) and it was clear it was never coming back.
Decline is a choice. It’s the ethos of our time. America’s “Fundamental Transformation” continues apace. Thanks Obama! Meanwhile, the US Federal government is a gangster organization which thrives o propaganda, threats, bribery, and money laundering. Go figure. But all is not lost. Look at how Giuliani was able to revive NYC. Collectively, people need to decide. Do they want to work toward a brighter future, or do they want to be parasites sucking from a dying body. The existence of this nation depends on a critical mass of citizens’ answer to that question.
Jeff, it appears that the blue cities are going to have to go a lot further toward anarchy and bankruptcy (whichever comes first) before the voters there are willing to accept what is necessary to rectify their situation. And while I agree with you that face to face collaboration is far superior to virtual interaction, I don't believe the density of cities is required to achieve that. We as a larger society appear to be willing to let cities go and work / route around them. The future is not urban.
And still, mayors like London Breed of the ruined SF, still talk about "re-imagining and revitalizing" their cities--which of course is just extracting billions from the feds for more boondoggle projects. Never a word about the squalor and crime that destroyed the city in the first place.
I'm sure you have all heard of the Curley Effect, but as you say, its point is that they would rather rule over ashes, if that's what it takes. https://www.nber.org/papers/w8942
Great post Mr Carter! We're on the "road to serfdom". Nothing changes until the cities go bankrupt and the voters wake up! The overall effect this has on the country is what worries me!
Have a friend that had a restaurant in downtown St Louis in the Metropolitan building beautiful view of the arch and river voted one of the top itialin restaurants in St. Louis had to close and move in 2018 no one was going downtown back then.
X's @ericgarland has been tracking Mizzou corruption for years, particularly St. Louis' corruption, which includes East St. Louis, IL. Your fellow Manny's diner from election day is from that area, as you might recall. St. Louis corruption is of a far starker level than our good old fashioned Chicago Machine level corruption, as Mr. Garland has now instructed me. (He's totally off on a NeverTrump bender right now, but his earlier St. Louis stuff is gold.).
Homelessness is a big part of what is destroying our cities.
The major issue in homelessness is not the lack of housing. It's the refusal of society to say no. No, you can't camp in this city. No, you can't shit in the streets. No, you can't panhandle aggressively. No, you can't shoot up publicly and leave your used needles lying around. The fact that we are not going to allow you to destroy our city by doing these things is not our problem. It's your problem. You can solve your problem by not doing drugs, getting help for your mental problems, getting a job, and sharing rent with others so inclined until you can afford a place of your own, probably in a lower cost community. This is not going to happen because the people we have elected allow the homeless to wallow in their victimhood rather than accept personal responsibility for their self destructiveness.
As our nation begins to hopefully experience a "return to center theory" being played out in reality, whereby the majority veer slightly left or slightly right and then return to center every decade or so, hopefully we'll see some of these issues addressed, because people in positions of authority are finally being brought back to center and brought back to reality. The issue is in the past few decades that the numbers of extremists has probably grown from tenths of a percent to about 5% on each side and that's scary, because extremists on either side are very dangerous.
You know it's gotten really bad when private schools in big cities are starting to act more progressive in some cases than the public schools and you're very familiar of course with Parker and they are a perfect example of that. The past decade has shown a sad decline in their willingness to practice principles instead of kowtowing to progressive policy.
Last but not least, we simply need a better accounting in terms of checks and balances in expenditures in big city budgets and that's been a problem for years and the company that can figure out a way to utilize artificial intelligence to point out corruption is going to do very well, but I think it's 50/50 that it will happen.
• Brandon Johnson is actually trying to speed up the property development process. Hopefully the initiative will succeed. The NIMBY coalition is a weird one, though. It includes some of Johnson's normal allies and a lot of upper middle class north siders.
• IMO letting Amazon take over retail will be viewed as a really dumb mistake. Much like letting newspapers die. Or letting streaming take over music. Shopping centers were great. Amazon's 'enshittification' is real.
• Not just STL that's looking to attract visitors. If WFH is going to die then hopefully the death is swift.
If you don't protect Supreme Court justices private homes from violent protestors, you might be living in a pre-Marxist society
1. Scott McKay of the American Spectator argues that this decay is deliberate. He calls it "weaponized government failure." In a nutshell: the kleptocrats in city governments realize that the middle class is the biggest political threat to them. So make the city unlivable for them, drive them out, and leave behind a class of those dependent on the kleptocrats, and which is likely to be atomized, uneducated, and unmotivated to challenge. This entrenches the kleptocrats for life. Better to rule over a wasteland where they can still skim money than actually have to perform productive work outside politics.
2. St. Louis' decline began in the 1960s. It was on a somewhat shallower trajectory than Detroit's, but downtown was dying by the 1990s when I moved there (while teaching at Wash U Olin) and it was clear it was never coming back.
Decline is a choice. It’s the ethos of our time. America’s “Fundamental Transformation” continues apace. Thanks Obama! Meanwhile, the US Federal government is a gangster organization which thrives o propaganda, threats, bribery, and money laundering. Go figure. But all is not lost. Look at how Giuliani was able to revive NYC. Collectively, people need to decide. Do they want to work toward a brighter future, or do they want to be parasites sucking from a dying body. The existence of this nation depends on a critical mass of citizens’ answer to that question.
Jeff, it appears that the blue cities are going to have to go a lot further toward anarchy and bankruptcy (whichever comes first) before the voters there are willing to accept what is necessary to rectify their situation. And while I agree with you that face to face collaboration is far superior to virtual interaction, I don't believe the density of cities is required to achieve that. We as a larger society appear to be willing to let cities go and work / route around them. The future is not urban.
And still, mayors like London Breed of the ruined SF, still talk about "re-imagining and revitalizing" their cities--which of course is just extracting billions from the feds for more boondoggle projects. Never a word about the squalor and crime that destroyed the city in the first place.
I'm sure you have all heard of the Curley Effect, but as you say, its point is that they would rather rule over ashes, if that's what it takes. https://www.nber.org/papers/w8942
Great post Mr Carter! We're on the "road to serfdom". Nothing changes until the cities go bankrupt and the voters wake up! The overall effect this has on the country is what worries me!
I went to a reit convention at the Fairmont yesterday
I was rerouted by police twice
Because there was gunfire
WTF
This is like Iraq
Have a friend that had a restaurant in downtown St Louis in the Metropolitan building beautiful view of the arch and river voted one of the top itialin restaurants in St. Louis had to close and move in 2018 no one was going downtown back then.
X's @ericgarland has been tracking Mizzou corruption for years, particularly St. Louis' corruption, which includes East St. Louis, IL. Your fellow Manny's diner from election day is from that area, as you might recall. St. Louis corruption is of a far starker level than our good old fashioned Chicago Machine level corruption, as Mr. Garland has now instructed me. (He's totally off on a NeverTrump bender right now, but his earlier St. Louis stuff is gold.).
Homelessness is a big part of what is destroying our cities.
The major issue in homelessness is not the lack of housing. It's the refusal of society to say no. No, you can't camp in this city. No, you can't shit in the streets. No, you can't panhandle aggressively. No, you can't shoot up publicly and leave your used needles lying around. The fact that we are not going to allow you to destroy our city by doing these things is not our problem. It's your problem. You can solve your problem by not doing drugs, getting help for your mental problems, getting a job, and sharing rent with others so inclined until you can afford a place of your own, probably in a lower cost community. This is not going to happen because the people we have elected allow the homeless to wallow in their victimhood rather than accept personal responsibility for their self destructiveness.
Great article, thank you.
As our nation begins to hopefully experience a "return to center theory" being played out in reality, whereby the majority veer slightly left or slightly right and then return to center every decade or so, hopefully we'll see some of these issues addressed, because people in positions of authority are finally being brought back to center and brought back to reality. The issue is in the past few decades that the numbers of extremists has probably grown from tenths of a percent to about 5% on each side and that's scary, because extremists on either side are very dangerous.
You know it's gotten really bad when private schools in big cities are starting to act more progressive in some cases than the public schools and you're very familiar of course with Parker and they are a perfect example of that. The past decade has shown a sad decline in their willingness to practice principles instead of kowtowing to progressive policy.
Last but not least, we simply need a better accounting in terms of checks and balances in expenditures in big city budgets and that's been a problem for years and the company that can figure out a way to utilize artificial intelligence to point out corruption is going to do very well, but I think it's 50/50 that it will happen.
A couple points and a couple articles.
• Brandon Johnson is actually trying to speed up the property development process. Hopefully the initiative will succeed. The NIMBY coalition is a weird one, though. It includes some of Johnson's normal allies and a lot of upper middle class north siders.
• IMO letting Amazon take over retail will be viewed as a really dumb mistake. Much like letting newspapers die. Or letting streaming take over music. Shopping centers were great. Amazon's 'enshittification' is real.
• Not just STL that's looking to attract visitors. If WFH is going to die then hopefully the death is swift.
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/opinion/chicagos-loop-can-be-revitalized-opinion
• A great article from Arthur Brooks on trust and civic virtue:
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/922831
Also about St Louis u can drive 10 minutes tho the hill and find homes for over a million dollars.
Ferguson being one of the early AnteFa/BLM test runs