The failures of Great Society programs produced a flurry of reforms in American cities 30 years ago: from school choice to community policing to welfare reform. Today, high-cost and dysfunctional cities from New York to San Francisco are suffering from missteps exacerbated by the recent crises, and need to be reformed.
Before COVID-19 separated place of work from place of residence for millions of workers, larger cities could afford to be unaffordable. Their leaders could champion progressive notions of “equity” while quietly pricing out the middle class, just as they could decry “racist cops” while silently relying on police to keep their streets safe. Two years after the summer of 2020, things have changed. …
Urban leaders who have treated cost-of-living concerns, crime and schools as unworthy of their attention are discovering that many residents no longer find their cities worthy of their continued loyalty, or tax dollars.
As crime rates soared, urban elites downplayed the crime problem that every urban resident knew was worsening. They defunded or restrained the police as violence skyrocketed. People fled urban areas and others stopped moving to them.
Between 2020 and 2021, roughly the same share of Black residents left large cities as moved into the suburbs.
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