I recently traveled by car to Baltimore to seek medical testing at Johns Hopkins Medical Center.
I was shocked to see the many empty and boarded-up buildings between the Inner Harbor area, the athletic arenas for baseball, and football and the Johns Hopkins Medical campus.
We stayed at the hotel located at the north-east corner of the campus, which was very pleasant. Hospital security staff advised us to avoid the subway system between the harbor and the campus and to not walk that distance, though it is only a little more than a mile.
We used an Uber service on this advice between the hotel and the harbor.
On the route I noticed beautiful old narrow row homes well maintained only blocks from deserted buildings.
I grew up in New York City and lived in three of the boroughs over my lifetime. I was aware of neighborhoods to avoid due to crime, but never felt unsafe during those times. I routinely used the New York City subways without concern.
That was before the COVID crisis left many with a sense of dread and fear.
I went to college in St. Louis and visited Chicago many times during that period. I had little fear then, though I avoided crime-ridden neighborhoods. I have visited Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco many times over the years.
But now I am much more cautious.
I have traveled to Albany and Troy, New York, and Washington, D.C. many times over the last 15 years. I have noticed decline in older neighborhoods with greater police presence in the tourist areas. The economic activity in the downtown regions has waned due to increased retail theft. Further, the lack of prosecution by lenient progressive district attorneys and cashless bail reforms has encouraged more crime. Despite reduced reporting (because of fewer prosecutions) by city officials of crimes to the FBI, many residents do not feel safe.
So why am I writing about this situation which is well understood by American Thinker readers?
I want to simplify the discussion about the decline of our great cities preventing the Democrats from seizing another issue in the 2024 campaign. Kamala Harris and her supporters will blame the urban decline on racism, capitalism, white supremacy, historical economic divide between white persons and minorities, and American republican constitutionalism. Though there are elements of all these issues affecting the conditions of American cities these are not the major cause of the decline I have witnessed.
The cause is intentional and ideological and found in communities run by progressive Democrat mayors. The Great Society programs pushed by President Lyndon Johnson accelerated the growth of urban slums after a period of economic energy following World War II. Marxist philosophical programs have furthered urban decline during the past three decades and was given an additional push by the Obama administration. The Biden administration has furthered this effort through its border policies, excessive targeted domestic spending, and rhetoric. Defund the police efforts have shrunk these forces of protection.
The chaos these mayors and DAs have created via additional crime, declining economic opportunity, racial division, fewer prosecutions, and increased taxation allows these above narratives to appear real.
Kamala Harris represents the most extreme version of progressive politicos, which makes it harder to distance herself from these policies.
In 2020, then-California Sen. Harris supported the defund police movement, supported the BLM movement, and donated funds for defense of the rioters following the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis by officer Derek Chauvin.
These are strange efforts for a former DA claiming to run against a convicted felon in the 2024 presidential race.
But she has previously rebranded herself over her career trying to hide her intersectionality between race and critical theory, a hallmark of identity politics. Electing Harris will continue the trend that has damaged our great cities, which could be engines of economic activity.
This academic effort to rewrite American history is contained within the prejudices of its authors. Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project, claiming the origin of our nation begins with the arrival of the slave ship White Lion, argues that transportation building projects were an extension of racist policies to divide urban centers.
Ibram Kendi is another academic attempting to find race as the cause for American urban ills.
Race is not the essential cause of urban devastation. It does not explain the decline in very white cities Portland and Seattle, nor Hispanic cities in the southwest. Encouraging the Antifa movement in the northwest is a tactic of the Democrat left. Many families leave for safer environments.
Homeless encampments in cities encourage chaos. This ignores the needs of homeless veterans. Politicians have prioritized illegal immigrants over citizens in search of population for census analysis and future voters. This is a progressive program to regain lost congressional seats. making these zones unsafe.
The analysis of disparity in earned income fails to acknowledge welfare system transfer payments in poor urban centers, equalizing disposable income of these populations. These communities have greater restrictions over gun ownership but continue to experience higher gun violence. South Chicago experiences gang violence minorities attacking other minorities.
Where is the racism when such cities are governed by Black mayors and DAs?
In places such as Baltimore, the 2015 death of Freddie Gray while transported by Black police officers sparked riots. The city was under the management of Black mayor Stepanie Rawlings-Blake and DA Marilyn Mosby but did not stop the damage that destroyed neighborhoods still evident today.
Perhaps a better explanation for this city’s decline can be found in the high percentage of drug-addicted residents based on drug decriminalization. With penalties non-existent, drug addicts will flourish, particularly if they are paid as they are in San Francisco, and blighted communities will follow. They will see a dearth of investment and increased poverty.
Detroit represents a city that has lost massive economic resources as middle-class suburban flight followed. A city that had 1.8 million residents in 1950 now has less than 650,000. Again, transportation policy and the interstate highway system are blamed by revisionist historians.
To be sure, there were racial aspects but the principal cause for this movement was a desire for larger homes, more land, and better schools for their children unaffordable for the middle-class families in congested urban environments. One’s prejudices color the analysis and distort the rendering of human behavior.
The riots of the 1960s caused more urban slums. Politicians under the rubric of urban renewal tore down deteriorated neighborhoods depriving these residents of affordable housing. Communities built public housing for these persons. This furthered urban blight and segregation. These projects became a site for increased drug use and crime.
In Baltimore, I could see this effect. Passing the massive prison complex as I entered Interstate 83 going north I saw a city in crisis. Increased dependency upon rental housing means less home ownership and personal investment in the community. This leads to lower personal pride and a willingness to destroy property, resulting from jealousy and anger.
This short discussion of the urban decline must include the most pernicious problem.
The breakdown of the family is the hidden cause of poverty among many women and children. In urban areas abandonment by fathers has allowed gangs to mentor young males seeking a sense of belonging.
The permissive, progressive criminal justice system has encouraged these criminals to use juveniles as the conduits for thefts and drug sales.
Gangs grow with future hardened criminals. Then minorities and poor whites are subject the more victimization.
This is the aim of critical theorists who want to create chaos, making these communities more dependent and captives of politicos, with a feeling of helplessness.
This is a more honest cause for the denigration of the great American cities.
Image: Ron Reiring, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
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