Big City Blues

St. Louis, Baltimore, Oakland, Philadelphia, Newark…the list is long…and sad...

(Abandoned Rowhomes in Baltimore City. Source: Getty Images)

Bill Bonner, reckoning today from Poitou, France...

When you're alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go downtown
When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know, downtown

~ Made famous by Petula Clark

Not any more. Who wants to go downtown, now?

You go downtown…you lock your car doors. You dodge the junkies…you pay off the squeegee kids so they won’t damage your car…you watch your step to avoid twisting your ankle on the broken pavement…or stepping into something that shouldn’t be there…you skirt the ‘unhoused’ people…and keep an eye out for rats…  

…and then you get out of there as soon as possible!

Yes, America’s downtowns are downers – run down…down at the heels…down and out…and let down by their own governments. For hundreds of years, cities have been centers of production, commerce, education and commerce. It’s where the smart, handsome and rich people went to make their fortunes…and where the out-of-towners went to gawk and have a good time.

Ecumenical Apoliticism

But last week, cometh the Tweet: 

You hear about how bad San Francisco is. I was filming a shot of my father, Shelby Steele, and in the ten minutes we were gone our SUV was broken into and nearly $15k of cameras stolen. Called 911 & they hung up twice.

Cities are prominent victims of democracy. In the 1960s, the ‘War on Poverty’ directed billions of dollars to help end ‘urban blight.’ Poor people moved to the cities to get in on the loot. The middle class moved out to avoid rising crime. Politicians found they could win city elections by offering more and more ‘free stuff.’  

Democrats tend to be better at pandering to the poor. And probably no democrats were better at it than those of Flint, Michigan. In 2016, filmmaker Michael Moore, visited Flint and tweeted: “Flint has voted for Dems for 84 straight yrs…what did it get us?”

We can answer that. It got them undrinkable water and an unlivable city.

But Moore, of course, missed his own point. He wanted to arrest Michigan’s Republican governor!

Here at Bonner Private Research we don’t take sides. Our contempt for the political class is ecumenical. But we can’t help but notice how democratic politics has destroyed our own home town – Baltimore – along with many others. As a child, we remember the city as a place to work, to shop, to go to movies, theaters and restaurants. Baltimore had a steel mill…an auto plant…Black & Decker tools…and dozens of nationally-known brands. McCormick spices infused the air around the inner harbor…and the sounds of workmen were everywhere.

Taxes, Crime, Corruption and Incompetence

Now, the factories are closed…the retail shops are closed…and the downtown area often seems like a ghost-town. Even the tourist attraction – the Inner Harbor – seems neglected and shabby.  

What happened?  

Detroit elected its last Republican mayor in 1957. Chicago’s democratic machine has been in control since the 1920s. St. Louis, Baltimore, Oakland, Philadelphia, Newark…the list is long…and sad. Big cities are run for the benefit of their ‘deciders’ and their employees, not for ‘the people’ who live there. Good people leave town…the holdouts fight a lost cause battle against taxes, crime, corruption and incompetence.  

Forbes Magazine looked at San Francisco’s payroll back in 2020:

We found truck drivers loaded up with $262,898; city painters making $270,190; firefighters earning $316,306; and plumbing supervisors cleaning up $348,291 every year. One deputy sheriff earned $574,595 last year – including $315,896 in overtime.

On average, the city’s 44,526 employees received pay and perks costing taxpayers $131,335 apiece. Four out of ten – 18,749 city workers – received a compensation package exceeding $150,000 per year.

What You Pay For

Typically, cities pay too much for services…and get far too little. Unionized employees end up with chubby checks and fat pensions. But the kids can’t pass normal proficiency tests…the potholes aren’t fixed…and the streets are unsafe.

Meanwhile, income earning, tax paying win-win businesses are replaced by nonprofits and government agencies. Then, under the strain of paying for past services, cities cut back on current services…making themselves even less attractive to young families. Tax revenues fall.

The National Bureau of Economic Research calls it the “biggest fiscal problem” facing America’s cities. As the workforce ages, pension promises become harder and harder to keep.  

But that is just the beginning of the blight now infecting urban centers.  

Stay tuned...

Regards,

Bill Bonner