1) We have all too often talked about how the local, county, and state politicians in Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois have failed the residents of the city of Chicago. It has turned the city into a lawless and very dangerous place to live. For a number of years, more people have been killed and wounded in Chicago than in any other U.S. city.
And apparently the carnage is still underway:
- During a single recent weekend, an amazing 66 Chicago residents were shot.
- Four of those 66 died from their wounds.
- And the shootings do not just happen in the early morning night hours: “Police told Fox News Digital that three people were shot in the 0-100 block of East 108th St. at around 2:30 p.m. on July 23, which is outside the Universal Community Missionary church,” it added.
And as people and businesses leave the city, the tax base and the tax revenue goes down. This results in higher taxes and fewer government services which drives more people out of the city. And this financial death spiral concept is why we still believe that Chicago will be the next major city to go bankrupt due to the ineptness of the politicians that have been running it.
2) The real estate company, Redfin, recently published a report that showed the ten cities across the country that Americans are most desperate to relocate out of:
- San Francisco
- Los Angeles
- New York City
- Washington DC
- Seattle
- Boston
- Detroit
- Denver
- Chicago
- Minneapolis
- All of these cities are in high tax states which are made worse by additional, onerous city and county taxes.
- Crime rates, homicides, and violence have been rising sharply in many if not all of these cities.
- Many of these cities implemented the inane “defund the police” theory which made their citizens less safe as police resources were reduced.
People and businesses just want to be free to go through their existence, free from onerous taxes, onerous government regulations and to feel safe and secure in their homes and out in the streets. If those requirements are not met, they are going to execute plans to attain those goals, a trend that the Redfin data prove to be true.
And as we stated in the first point above, as residents and businesses leave an unsafe, highly taxed city, they take their tax base contributions with them which reduces a city’s tax revenue which means higher taxes and fewer government services which drives more people out of those cities and the financial death spiral is then in play.
The Redfin data proves this point when you look at the cities where these people are fleeing to:
1. Miami, FL
2. Tampa, FL
3. Phoenix, AZ
4. Sacramento, CA
5. Las Vegas, NV
6. Cape Coral, FL
7. San Diego, CA
8. North Port, FL
9. San Antonio, TX
10. Dallas, TX
What do these cities have in common:
1. Miami, FL
2. Tampa, FL
3. Phoenix, AZ
4. Sacramento, CA
5. Las Vegas, NV
6. Cape Coral, FL
7. San Diego, CA
8. North Port, FL
9. San Antonio, TX
10. Dallas, TX
What do these cities have in common:
- Seven out of the ten cities are in states where there is no state income tax unlike the cities being fled listed above which are in states which all have that extra state income tax burden.
- To my knowledge, these cities did not go through anywhere close, if at all, the defund the police craziness the cities like Chicago, NYC, and the others went through, which helped keep police resources available and on the job.
- Many of these cities where people are heading to are in states with far fewer business regulation burdens than other states which makes them attractive to businesses and their employees.
People want to be free and safe. And will take matters into their own hands if those two principles cannot be met where they currently live. The Redfin data proves it.
4) I was a little surprised that Portland did not make the Redfin top ten list when it comes to residents leaving. The city has been racked by riots and lawlessness and a very big homeless population problem. Thai has resulted in highly frustrated residents as they try to keep themselves, their families, and their property safe:
- The city is infested with broken down cars, piles of uncollected garbage, and RVs in residential areas of the city, much of which is driven by the homeless population.
- A recent local TV news station recorded the despair of some of the city residents - Christinia Hartnett: “I want to cry. I just want my house back. My lawn is now becoming a public bathroom. I live in a nightmare neighborhood.”
- Resident David Berkson: “It’s really scary.”
- There are a whopping 1,900 homeless encampments just in a single Portland neighborhood.
- “Tess” has lived in the same neighborhood for 35 years and told the TV news crew that she has had to install security cameras around her home and boarded up her front windows after they were smashed by some homeless people: “Scared because I don’t know what they’re going to do next.”
- Cliff Pearce, an employee at the city’s Bucket Brigade Sports Bar and Restaurant, said that customers have to avoid people overdosing on drugs on the sidewalks in front of the bar.
- Unfortunately, the political class and people running the city government appear clueless in how to fix the problem and provide the basic service of protecting the lives and property of its citizens.
- For example, the city’s housing director, Shannon Callahan, is about to step down from that post but actually proclaimed the following tripe in anticipation of her leaving the job:“I can truly say that the work we do at Portland Housing Bureau, alongside our community partners and jurisdictional partners, changes lives for the better. It has been a privilege to work with the dedicated, passionate, and exceptional team of public servants at the bureau.”
Has she really changed lives for the better? I don’t think so. The homeless population has grown despite whatever policies she put in place and the crime and fear of the rest of the city seems to have grown substantially. So out of touch with reality in her own city.
Again, surprisingly Portland did not make the top ten list of cities where people are fleeing from given the failures of the local politicians.
5) But Seattle did make the bad top ten Redfin list and that should not be surprising. The city politicians for a number of years defiled their police department, disrespected them, criticized them and as a result a number of things have happened:
- So many people are getting out of Seattle because of safety and quality of life concerns that the city made the top ten of cities where people are leaving.
- And the disrespect that local politicians have shown the Seattle police force has resulted in a crisis situation:
- City police staffing levels have gotten so low that the city has had to put aside millions of dollars to bribe police officers to both stay on the force or join the force.
- Over 400 police officers have left the police force over the past few years because of horrible working conditions and no support from city politicians.
- Even the mayor admitted that the current depleted force has caused a crisis "where basic services cannot be delivered swiftly and effectively."
- As of a few short months ago there were only 954 police officers on the city force, the lowest number in over 30 years.
- A smaller force requires a lot more overtime and stress on current officers which lowers morale and which leads to more officers leaving the workforce.
That will do it for today. People want to be free and be safe, businesses want their employees to be happy and be safe. Apparently, that message has not reached many politicians across the country and as a result, many of the nation’s largest cities are facing a mass out migration crunch that will make life more miserable, less safe, and more expensive for those that remain behind. And eventually, those cities will collapse into bankruptcy as their tax base dwindles and their population of productive citizens goes elsewhere.
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