The Regression of America’s Big Progressive Cities
5th August 2019
Joel Kotkin looks at the record.
Baltimore represents an extreme case, but sadly it is not alone. Last year our three largest urban centers — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — lost people while millennial migration accelerated both to the suburbs and smaller, generally less dense cities. These demographic trends, as well as growing blight, poor schools, decaying infrastructure and, worst of all, expanding homelessness are not merely the result of “racism” or Donald Trump, but have all been exacerbated by policy agendas that are turning many great cities into loony towns.
Used to be that Democrat urban political machines enriched themselves while providing goods and services to the inhabitants who kept them in office. Now they’ve cut out the ‘goods and services’ part of that formula.