Posted on 03/30/2017 6:23:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
Having lived in three of the nation’s most dangerous cities – Detroit, Baltimore and a short stint in Chicago – I’ve seen the remains of some once-great American metropolises. Outside of pockets (the north side of Chicago, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the small, surging sections of downtown Detroit among them), their better days were behind them by the time I came along. But I could see the shells of what once was.
Still, seeing the aftermath and living through the decline are two entirely different experiences. Until a time machine is invented, I never will fully know more than the second-hand stories echoing from the shells of these lost cities.
Hope springs eternal, though much slower as time passes. I’ve seen some rebirths in the midst of decline. But with each new story of a horrific crime or crazed city government initiative, a root is ripped from the future.
As I said, I’ve only seen these cities after they had passed their prime. My time wandering the hull of Michigan Central Station in Detroit in the middle of the night with friends never will replace the firsthand knowledge of living the spectrum from its glory days till now.
That’s why I was both saddened and grateful for an email I got this week from a listener to my radio show. The decline in my lifetime is nothing compared to what a man named Sandon Cohen has lived through in Baltimore.
Mr. Cohen has lived his whole life in Baltimore, as did his parents. But he can’t anymore; he just can’t.
It’s not so much that he changed. His city did. The attitudes, the economy, the government now all make his hometown unrecognizable from the way it was for most of his life.
The Baltimore City Council recently passed a resolution reaffirming its status as a “welcoming” city, which is code for being a sanctuary city. The new mayor mercifully vetoed an attempt to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour in spite of the struggling city economy and devastating unemployment rate. It’s suicide through politics.
Cohen has seen it all, lived it all. And he can’t be a part of it anymore.
When I read his email I quickly responded to ask if I could reprint it here, saying the testimony of someone who lived something always will be more powerful than someone else reciting statistics and second-hand stories. He graciously agreed.
The following three paragraphs were written by Cohen, a life-long Baltimore resident, but they could’ve been written about any major city under decades-long progressive Democrat control.
I have always resided in Baltimore City. So did my parents. My grandparents also lived in the city for most or all of their lives. I worked downtown for nearly thirty years. After my parents died six years ago, I moved back into the house which they had acquired in 1959, shortly before I was born, in the Arlington or Glen area of the city. While I would have preferred to live in this beloved home for so long as my health permits, I can no longer avoid the conclusion that my wellbeing requires that I move away. The causes are frequently topics of your programs.On the afternoon of January 12, in broad daylight, three young men attempted to carjack me in front of my house. They struck me, knocked me down, and managed to take my car keys. They seemed shocked when I resisted and denounced them and fled without my vehicle when my screams attracted the attention of a neighbor. The police who responded were sympathetic and professional but ultimately of little assistance. They admitted to being overwhelmed due to the increasing levels of crime and the decreasing size of the police force. Due to this occurrence and the reports of many similar incidents throughout the city, I have since felt fear every time I have had to leave the house or travel in or near the city and spend as much time as possible indoors.
Your station reported a few days ago – to my horror – that Mr. Young, the president of the City Council, has proposed that funds be taken from the police department to reduce the deficit in the school budget. I have heard no proposals from the members of the Council that would result in the hiring of additional police or otherwise deal realistically with the level of crime and other problems that have beset the city. Instead, they spout collectivist ideology that experience has long discredited, placing burdens such as an unjust minimum wage upon such producers of goods, services, and employment as remain in the city, while inviting unskilled workers from overseas to compete with those who were born in the city to compete for the shrinking number of jobs that will remain available to them. How can “progress,” however defined, be achieved in an environment where no one is safe from crime and in which more people will be driven to crime by the lack of opportunities for entry level workers and by the contemptible philosophy of certain members of the Council that those who find themselves in need are somehow the victims of those who do not? Where do the members of the Council expect to obtain funds necessary to provide public education and other legitimate government services for those who remain after law abiding taxpayers such as me leave, as hundreds of thousands have left over the last fifty years?
Someday, hopefully, residents of these cities will wake from the coma induced by grand, undelivered promises and realize new politicians implementing the same failed policies is not “change,” nor a “new direction.” It undoubtedly will be too late for some, but it doesn’t have to be too late for them all.
Cause of death was an overdose of Democrats.
Consider the list: Baltimore, east side of DC, Memphis, Detroit, downtown Birmingham, Chicago, Cleveland.
Hellholes need infusions of fresh demon blood - - illegals, criminals, and 'elites' are 'welcome'...
Lol...I always thought big cities were an anomaly in nature and are doomed to devolve into jungles. God never meant people to live that way IMO!
Such doom and gloom. All that’s needed to fix everything is more illiterate unskilled refugees familiar with IED making.
I have Lived and Watched the downfall of Southern California for the last 45 years. In not too many years I will retire and Move permanently to my Home in Arizona
The cause of death was the glowBULList Free Traitors™ ripped the industrial heart out the USA and gave to Asians, on a silver platter. Now cites are not economically viable and we blame the Democrats? Ludicrous.
As long as the politicians can rob Peter to give to Paul they will always have Paul’s vote. In today’s big cities there are more “Pauls” then “Peters”.
Perhaps the simplest solution is to restrict the right to vote to taxpayers (as our founding fathers did when they allowed only property owners to vote)
And Pittsburgh’s Mayor in the Closet is trying to turn us into San Francisco on the Allegheny.
The movie Gran Torino. Except that had a happy ending.
I’m guessing that St. Louis will soon be on that list.
Our civilization is in the beginnings of another huge transformation. The industrial revolution brought people from the farms, which where themselves disappearing, to the cities in search of work. The cities grew because there was a concentration of work and workers. Then, Democrats discovered that the concentration of work meant taxes and the concentration of workers meant voters who could be bought by making the work side of the equation pay even more for the labor. The work side began moving away from the cities. Worse, what it means to work is also in a transformation. It used to mean getting hot and sweaty moving things through a process that eventually produced a product. Now, it often means either answering questions, like a phone operations center for your product, or it means sitting at a desk punching keys where the product is something that didn’t exist fifty years ago, an app, say. Much of the more modern work doesn’t need to be in a city. Many software providers live dozens or hundreds of miles away from cities.
Now, cities could still be viable, but not when it costs outrageous amounts to be there and you have to jump through ridiculous hoops to remain. (I’m talking to you, San Francisco.) At some point, people move their work to someplace where they can either not be bothered by Democrats, say China, or they evolve their business into something that doesn’t need the infrastructure and amenities of a city. Democrats killed the Golden Goose.
GlowBULL Free Trade came to you courtesy of the Democrats.
NAFTA became reality thanks to Bill Clinton. If Bush 41 would have been re-elected the Dems would have dug-in, and it would never have been ratified.
Cities arose because workers needed to be close to work and had little transportation alternatives. That ended in the 50s. Since then, cities survive largely as economic parasites.
If you're heart isn't broken enough over the decline of our cities, watch this short video on Dying Detroit.
I’m not so sure about that anymore. I see incompetent and irresponsible Democratic rule in these dumps as a symptom of the problem, not the cause of it. Cities decline for complex reasons, and the real question we should be asking ourselves is whether or not they’re all even worth saving.
Ever wondered what it was like for Romans living in Empire as it declined?
Well, here you go...
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