Free Republic

Detroit for the fourth year in a row, is ranked as the "most dangerous city" in America according to Forbes online. The statistics indicate that Detroit suffered about 2,137 acts of violent crime per 100,000 residents. However, when we rank the extraordinary crime levels for each of these 'dangerous' cities, we noticed a startling trend in our quick research, and we weren't the only ones who noticed it, apparently. You see, each of these cities has one commonality being that each is also led by a Democrat Mayor, and these days you know what Democrat actually means.... "Liberal." Indeed, if...

Many qualities separate the best-run and worst-run cities. But perhaps the most important is access to jobs. The economies of the best-run cities fall into two categories. They either have a booming industry or are near other major urban areas that create employment opportunities. The worst-run cities simply do not have the same access to jobs. 24/7 Wall St.Â’s analysis of the best-run and worst-run cities demonstrates that encouraging businesses to prosper and create jobs is the most important function of local government.Read the Best-Run Cities in AmericaRead the Worst-Run Cities in America24/7 Wall St. has completed its first...

Forget Wal-Mart and skip your local gun show. The murderers of tomorrow will not be found wearing orange vests at your local sporting goods store. They won't have NRA memberships or trophies on their walls. You won't find them in America. Look for them in Obamerica. 67% of firearm murders took place in the country's 50 largest metro areas. The 62 cities in those metro areas have a firearm murder rate of 9.7, more than twice the national average. Among teenagers the firearm murder rate is 14.6 or almost three times the national average. Those numbers are from six years...

9. Chandler, Ariz. > Violent crime per 1,000 people: 2.86 (14th lowest) > Poverty rate: 8.2% (6th lowest) > Adult population graduated from high school: 91.5% (13th highest) > Credit rating: Aaa (stable outlook) > Population: 236,775 Chandler is one of the newest large cities in the U.S. The city was incorporated in 1951, but the population did not truly expand until very recently. In 1980, Chandler, which is located within the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, had a population of 30,000. Now, it has a population of 247,000. There are countless examples of cities that experienced this level of growth,...

Despite the global economic slowdown, Asia's cities are continuing to widen the perceived technological gap between its American counterparts. The juxtaposition is visible from the moment your feet leave the plane. Many of the airports in Asia's biggest cities are stunning, engineering marvels — and make those in the U.S. seem outdated. Has America's early leadership in technology and engineering evaporated? Or is it hidden at first glance? 1) The Shanghai Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) floats on magnets and is the world's fastest commercially operated train, traveling at speeds up to 268 mph. 2) Seoul's local government has launched a $44...

Four more years! Four more years! Reuters: ******** Retailers moving into old downtown buildings, an abundance of freshly planted greenspaces, and a stream of new jobs in Knoxville, Tennessee, are all signs to Mayor Madeline Rogero that for the last year prosperity has been blooming in her city. "We feel very good about how we're coming out of this recession," Rogero said. "We see new interest. We see new development that's occurring. We're optimistic that this recovery is going to continue." Knoxville is a member of a very small club. Three and a half years since the 2007-09 economic recession...

[snip] Under the ordinance, stores will be prohibited from offering customers plastic bags for carrying out purchases and will be required to charge a dime per paper bag. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2015, the price of paper bags will go up to 25 cent each. [snip] "Most of the comments I've gotten to date are not only supportive, but they are really enthused about it," said Moura, adding that the only complaint he's heard involves the paper bag charge. County officials are hoping as many of the bans will go into effect as possible by April 22, which is Earth...

Government programs designed to help the poor have destroyed generations of American families, schools, and culture. One would think that repeated bad economic news and the downgrading of families that inhibit job growth would lead people to find a better solution to help them out of their impoverished condition. Instead, they vote for the same type of politician who blames the wealthy, calls for tax increases, and wonders why poverty goes up, businesses move out, and crime and illegitimacy soar. The following ten cities have a great deal in common. The first thing is their poverty level. The second is...

New Yorkers love to complain about how expensive their city is, but a new study reveals that the Big Apple is more affordable for middle class families than places like Cincinnati, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, or Portland, Oregon. New York is the tenth most affordable major city for middle-income homes -- thanks to high median incomes and the city's expansive transportation system, according to a report by the Center for Housing Policy and Center for Neighborhood Technology. New York wasn't the only surprise on the list. The most affordable city, according to the study, was Washington, DC, which is another notoriously...

Four (4) US Cities made the top 50 most dangerous cities in the world and for various reasons but ostensibly for their dangerous murder rate level. I have highly excerpted this article. The entire list can be found at: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-dangerous-cities-in-the-world-2012-10?op=1 Looking at the top 50 most dangerous cities in the world here is the list of those US cities and who is leading them, you will most likely NOT be surprised: #48 Baltimore: Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake (Democrat) City has been led by democrats since 1967 #43 Saint Louis: Mayor Francis G. Slay (Democrat) City has been led by democrats...

Earlier, this year, a Mexican think tank — the Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice — released a study ranking the world's most violent cities in 2011, and the results were astonishing. The 20 most violent cities were all in Latin America. The USA had some alarming scores too, led by New Orleans at 21. Other dangerous cities were located in Africa. None of the top 50 was in Europe or Asia, despite great unrest in those regions. The ranking is based on murder rate per capita in 2011.

Suburbanites of Ohio, listen up. As swing voters in the ultimate swing state, you will have an outsized impact on this election. President Obama has pledged to govern in the interests of middle-class voters like you. With so much resting on your shoulders, that is a promise you should scrutinize with care. What exactly are Obama’s plans for Ohio’s suburban communities? The answer may shock you. President Obama aims to help Ohio’s Democrats bail out your state’s struggling cities by forcibly transferring suburban tax money to urban treasuries. It’s a bold plan to redistribute the wealth of Ohio’s suburbs. It...

Plans to create a neo-liberal start-up city in Honduras with its own laws, tax rules and police force suffered a setback on Friday when the economic guru who inspired the project said he has been unable to act as its guarantor and watchdog.

“Cities come and go.” That’s the message from Rupert Murdoch, who spoke recently about immigration at an event hosted by the New England Council in Boston. This view found disagreement from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who advanced a vision of giving citizenship to any foreigner who would move to Detroit and homestead, reasoning that immigrants would establish a new economy and revive the city. Mayor Bloomberg was being guided by the prevailing sense that government can solve the problem of dying cities; it’s just a matter of finding the right solution. Detroit cannot be revived to the economic power it once...

Virtually no location in the U.S. is 100% safe from dangerous weather. According to the National Weather Service, the combination of flooding, lightning, tornadoes, tropical cyclones, snow/ice storms, extreme heat, extreme cold, high winds, and rip currents claims almost 600 lives each year in the U.S., on average. Of course, catastrophic events in any year (Hurricane Katrina, spring 2011 tornadoes) can skew the averages. However, there are locations in the U.S. where the weather is generally "safer."

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE www.nationalreview.com Burn Down the Suburbs? By Stanley Kurtz August 1, 2012 4:00 A.M. Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities, by Stanley Kurtz, from Sentinel HC. President Obama is not a fan of America’s suburbs. Indeed, he intends to abolish them. With suburban voters set to be the swing constituency of the 2012 election, the administration’s plans for this segment of the electorate deserve scrutiny. Obama is a longtime supporter of “regionalism,” the idea that the suburbs should be folded into the cities,...

A handful of local officials in California who say the housing bust is a public blight on their cities may invoke their eminent-domain powers to restructure mortgages as a way to help some borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth. Investors holding the current mortgages predict the move will backfire by driving up borrowing costs and further depress property values. "I don't see how you could find it anything other than appalling," said Scott Simon, a managing director at Pacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, a unit of Allianz SE. Eminent domain allows a government to forcibly acquire...

In many ways, the contemporary history of America's economy is really a story about cities. Metro areas rise and fall with each generation, buoyed or sunk by the industries and trends that support them. The chart below, from the McKinsey Global Institute, does a beautiful job telling that story. On the left, we have the top 30 U.S. metro areas ranked by real GDP as of 1978. On the right, the top 30 for 2010. That cross-hatch of red and blue lines shows just how much churn there has been in the economy. But I think there are three main...

During the housing bust, two hypotheses made the rounds. The first one stated that the American attachment to homeownership is over. The second one was homeowners are going to eschew suburbs in favor of the convenience and vitality of urban living. I don’t believe either of these to be true. Yes, the homeownership rate crested at almost 70 percent in 2004, just before the housing bubble burst, and is now down to 65 percent. But this retrenchment doesn’t represent a rejection of the premise of homeownership. The current level of homeownership is now around its long-term historical average. Frankly, homeownership...

New FBI data shows that violent crime rates are improving across America, but among cities with the highest crime problems, murder rates continued to rise in 2011. The FBI finds that violent crime dropped 4% in 2011, compared with a 5.5% drop in 2010. The 2011 FBI crime data shows that violent crime rose in more than half of the cities that have among the highest rates in the country. In seven of the 10 cities, murder rates increased. In eight of the 10, burglary went up. Many are cutting police forces through planned layoffs and attrition. More than half...