Free Republic

What is the shelf life of a freshly baked donut? Two days, tops. But when it comes to an entirely different kind of donut—one that Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom described early in the pandemic when he measured the exodus of people from city centers to city suburbs—there appears to be no expiration date.... Since the pandemic, the country's 12 largest cities have cumulatively lost 8% of their downtown dwellers. Three-fifths of the households that left moved to nearby suburbs... What does this mean, then, for the country's biggest cities? Painful choices that will likely involve cutting spending, raising taxes and...

Pop star Lizzo has sparked an uproar after she promised that America would look like Detroit if Kamala Harris was elected to the White House. The singer, 36, who hails from Motor City, appeared alongside the Democratic presidential nominee at Western International High School in the city. The star, real name Melissa Viviane Jefferson, said: 'I'm so proud to be from this city, you know they say if Kamala wins then the whole country will be like Detroit. 'Proud like Detroit, resilient like Detroit. The same Detroit that innovated the auto industry and the music industry. Put some respect on...

Church Street, a prominent area in Burlington lined with boutiques and upscale restaurants. They admitted that in recent years, the idyllic downtown on Lake Champlain has become an area where significant numbers of homeless people congregate. Among them are individuals addicted to hard drugs like fentanyl, families who have been negatively affected by the economy, as well those who have turned to crime to support their lives on the streets. ... Vermont itself has seen a 500% uptick in drug overdose deaths in the last ten years. Local outlets have reported that first responders have been overwhelmed by the number...

Barack’s wife has decided to make herself an authority on white flight. The problem is that she’s utterly misinformed about it. SNIP Of Michelle’s many hypocrisies — Gilbert documents them all — none struck me as viscerally as her self-appointed role as the Torquemada of so-called “white flight.” In her 2018 bestseller, Becoming, and on the arena tour that followed, Michelle laid out her version of “white flight.” Although largely progressive boilerplate, Michelle added her own angry edge. At a 2019 Obama Foundation Summit, Michelle was at her finger-wagging best. “As families like ours, upstanding families like ours, who were...

The rising social disorder and crime of the 1970s and 1980s drove out not only hundreds of thousands of residents from New York City, but also many businesses. Within a few years, entire communities lacked basic amenities like supermarkets and drugstores; empty storefronts littered shopping districts. That started to change only when crime began falling in the 1990s and neighborhoods rebounded—first in New York and then in other big cities—prompting national retailers to begin setting up shop in places that they had once avoided. Thousands of stores and tens of thousands of jobs blossomed in New York alone thanks to...

We’ve covered the idea of an urban doom loop in places like San Francisco and New York. Today the Washington Post has a story up which argues that it’s actually midsized cities which are in the most danger of falling into a doom loop.In Indianapolis, the technology giant Salesforce is paring back a quarter of its office space in the tallest building in Indiana, where it has been a key tenant for the past six years. In Atlanta, the private investment giant Starwood Capital defaulted on a $212 million mortgage on a 29-story office tower. And in Baltimore, a landmark...

Hayes Point was intended to revive San Francisco's struggling downtown...The $1.2 billion tower was halted after developers failed to find tenants...Hayes Point was one of the few remaining construction projects underway in San Francisco, and its halting comes as a major upset to city officials after they introduced measures to revive the downtown area around it.

A short video, titled “Instant Regret Driving Through Gang Territory in This Hood,” has received 2 million views on YouTube. Click here to see it. This is the sad future of many young black and Hispanic men. If black lives matter, they sure as heck don’t to these young savages. Can you imagine making a turn down a block, and suddenly you're seeing your life flash before your eyes? My former wife and I found ourselves in a similar live risk situation one night: We turned down a block, and found ourselves in front of a young black male who...

It’s a question that most Americans who follow the news ask themselves daily: “How can the residents of so many of the nation’s largest cities keep supporting local officials who tolerate the ongoing destruction of their communities?” Why this May, for example, did the citizens of Chicago -- a city where 21,000 students cannot demonstrate a basic competence in reading, science, and math -- choose the teachers union-backed candidate, Brandon Johnson, for mayor? Especially when Johnson’s chief opponent, Paul Vallas, had promised the electorate sensible school reforms? Why, a few years earlier, did San Franciscans elect a mayor, London Breed,...

There is so much wrong with America’s cities, it’s hard to see why any contributing member of society would live and/or work in one of them. Some of the issues arise from far-Left local governance while others are generated by more widespread Leftist policy. These are coupled with an organic workforce evolution, as the USA transitions from an industry-based to an information-based economy. The result is urban areas caught in a downward spiral — and, as with any sinking vessel, threatening to suck everyone nearby down with them. First, quick refresher on the compounding problems of urban areas. Chief among...

There is so much wrong with America’s cities, it’s hard to see why any contributing member of society would live and/or work in one of them. Some of the issues arise from far-Left local governance while others are generated by more widespread Leftist policy. These are coupled with an organic workforce evolution, as the United States transitions from an industry-based to an information-based economy. The result is urban areas caught in a downward spiral — and, as with any sinking vessel, threatening to suck everyone nearby down with them.

Although this may seem to be an article focusing on Chicago, please realize Chicago is only being used as an example of the moral decay and corruption in virtually every major city in the United States. It serves as a stark warning to relocate if you are in one of these areas. As noted by ReallyGraceful in the video above, Chicago, Illinois, ought to be “a haven of the United States.” The third largest city in the U.S., it’s filled with world-class architecture and technological advancements. It’s a center for manufacturing and transportation industries and has become a tech sector...

Bill Walton recently welcomed Star Parker and Winsome Sears to his video podcast for a discussion of why so many black Americans continue to vote for the failed liberal agenda. Here is a transcript of their conversation, edited mostly only for style and clarity. Bill Walton: Welcome to “The Bill Walton Show.” Race just seems to dominate so much of our political debate in the United States. Today, I want to explore and learn about the past, present, and future state of black America. Who has the better policy answers, conservatives or liberals or libertarians? What’s been the impact of...

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s withdrawal from the presidential race last week is a lost opportunity. A successful de Blasio effort in the Democratic primaries—his was anything but—could have sparked a necessary national debate over signs of rising disorder in American cities. We haven’t returned to the bad old days of the 1970s and 1980s. The troubles of that era had many causes: disappearing jobs, changes in social welfare policy, changes in cultural attitudes, deinstitutionalization of the mental health system, drug wars, crack cocaine, a surging crime rate—all intersecting to drain the vitality of neighborhoods and stamp countless urban...

You may not like the messenger, but embedded in the recent political dust-up about the crime, poverty, and despair in Baltimore were some undeniable truths. If nothing else comes out of this latest debate, the bright light is now shining on a very inconvenient reality: Liberal policies have failed the people of Baltimore and inner cities everywhere. As the daughter of a former welfare recipient who spent my early years growing up in government housing, I know the truth of that statement more than most. For decades, politicians have repeatedly promised urban communities good jobs, good schools, and safe neighborhoods....

The President referred to Baltimore, MD as "a hellhole," and the nation erupted in anger. Within hours, snowflakes whined that it was hurtful, offensive, insulting, and unpresidential. Within days, people started talking about the facts, though, and the President was redeemed. The many statistics on crime, unemployment, poverty, and urban blight prove that, by any objective standard, Baltimore is indeed a hellhole. The proper political question isn’t what to do about a politician’s statement; the proper question is what to do about the facts? BALTIMORE ISN'T UNUSUAL. We should begin by acknowledging another truth; whatever can be said about Baltimore...

San Francisco’s homeless problem has become so grim that tourists wonder if they’ve just wandered into a seedy neighborhood. Last year, a Reddit user posted that he had “walked past numerous homeless” people who were “screaming and running all over the sidewalk near Twitter HQ.” He asked, “Is this normal or am I in a ‘bad part of town?’” The City by the Bay’s homelessness problem is profound even for California, where as much as 30 percent of the country’s homeless live. Municipal officials estimate that 5,823 such persons live in San Francisco, but health-care workers say the more accurate...

The Dems want to pin the Confederate Flag, KKK, Great Depression, urban decay, and harsh marriage laws on the GOP... pin the tale on the Donkey instead!

NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) — Three people were killed and five others were injured in separate shootings in Newark this weekend, authorities said. Lisa Parker, 36, of Orange, died at the scene following a shooting at 11:30 p.m. Saturday on South Orange Avenue, police said. Three other victims were in stable condition Sunday at University Hospital. The shooting occurred at a nightclub, CBS2 reported. There is no word on a motive or whether police know who was behind the violence.

One of the architectural quirks of certain cities on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. is the solo row house. Standing alone, in some of the worst neighborhoods, these nineteenth century structures were once attached to similar row houses that made up entire city blocks. Time and major demographic changes have resulted in the decay and demolition of many such blocks. Occasionally, one house is spared - literally cut off from its neighbors and left to the elements with whatever time it has left. Still retaining traces of its former glory, the last house standing is often still occupied.