Note: For some reason the WordPress editor has totally glitched and the first attempt, published at noon today (12JUL21) was totally botched up. So here is another try.

Readers of this commentary know we here at TPOL are NOT lovers of urban areas.

But as time goes on, our distaste for the places and their “culture” and “society” and especially government grows by leaps and bounds.

Consider San Francisco.

A few years back, Proposition 47, passed in 2014 by the wonders of Californian “democracy,” triggered a still-growing wave of shoplifting, especially in the woke and so-called progressive (regressive) City of San Francisco. It is not just that an increasing percentage of the city’s population is insane by (old) standards, but that the power-hungry politicians feed on the situation, promote it, and actually trigger it. The bureaucrats, the politicos, and their fellow gangsters treat urban areas as their own fiefdoms to be exploited, using the excuse of protecting people (and disgustingly, the claim of protecting their rights) and seeking to end the evils of modern capitalism and the American system.

The shoplifting is just one symptom of the madness, but a highly visible

one. A video on Twitter (I was referred to by a friend – not on that social media myself) shows a gang of ten people – ten criminals. Stealing handbags in broad daylight from a Neiman Marcus store in the heart of Babylon-by-the-Bay. Yes, they are wearing masks and they are running, but they know they have little or nothing to fear. Police do not even attempt to stop or arrest the perps – who would be just one more example of catch and release.

It is no wonder that a recent survey reported that 44% of San Franciscans plan to leave the city (and perhaps even the State). (Although mainstream media and academia seem to be working overtime to refute this, according to a story seven days later.)

The filthy condition (physical, mental, and moral) of San Francisco is perhaps extreme but different only in scale from those of dozens of other cities. And they are not limited to the Coasts: these conditions are found in the Heartland as well – in Flyover Country. We’ve seen it personally in cities in Colorado and New Mexico, and we’ve seen the conditions get steadily worse.

And it is NOT limited just to Democratic Party regimes.

Nor is it limited to the urban core. It is NOT just Albuquerque, but Bernalillo and the other suburban towns around it in New Mexico. It is not just Denver, or even Denver and Aurora. It is both the inner and outer suburbs: Arvada, Golden, Greenwich Village, and increasingly the more remote farm-towns turned bedroom communities: Bennett and Strasburg, Sedalia and Parker, Hudson and more. Ramping-up (and increasingly unreported) “minor” crime like vandalism, petty theft, and more. Increased domestic violence. Vicious verbal attacks, sometimes turning physical. And as a result, overloading of the various response agencies.

This appears to be the case in every MAJOR urban area in the Fifty States – and many smaller ones. From New England to Southern California, and from Puget Sound to South Florida. And even the Heartland: Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City, Salt Lake City. More and more.

American cities are dying – worse, they are killing themselves. It is NOT

just a matter of government stupidity and actions. It is leaders, businesses,

residents – and not just the underclass or the poor. I have met with and spoken with dozens of people fleeing inner suburbs for outer suburbs, or even to the “exburbs” – places like Bosque Farms and Sandia Knolls and Moriarity around Albuquerque. Places like Broomfield and Fort Lupton and Keenesburg around Denver. I am sure every urban area has such problems: it is a disease spread by parasites on society and the economy. People, especially with families, are fleeing to “safer areas.” But all too often these areas are still ruled by the very county (and State) governments that have turned their old neighborhoods into places of horror.

What is to be done?

Fortunately, with modern technology, we are no dependent on these monstrous urban areas for many essentials. At least, the capacity exists for the services they provide, and the goods produced there, to be provided in far smaller and much less densely populated areas. And not just rural hinterlands: true rural areas and even frontier areas.

So at least one thing that can be done is what is already happening: Abandon these dinosaurs. And avoid creating small versions of them. Don’t just flee Albuquerque for Santa Fe or even Farmington: instead go to places like Las Vegas (the New Mexico Las Vegas, NOT Lost Wages, Nevada), Raton, Vaughn, Gallup or Socorro. Don’t run to Colorado Springs or Pueblo or Grand Junction: search out places like Limon and Burlington, Poncha Springs, Kremling, and even Sterling and Brush. We don’t want to turn still-tolerable small urban areas (examples, at least to some, like Rapid City and Sioux Falls and Sioux City and Gillette) into copycat urban areas.

Another thing? Seek actively to decentralize: build futures for your children and grandchildren that do NOT encourage them to flock to the big urban areas. Whether for education or employment. Yes, the “big bucks” are enticing, but most of us can learn the price demanded in sanity, safety, moral and ethical soundness, and more – is just not something we want to pay. Or have our children pay.

And don’t let the current crop of people (belatedly) fleeing the cesspools like SF, LA, KC, DFW, etc. bring the same habits and attitudes that made those places stinking sewers to YOUR town: teach them early and quickly about liberty and freedom – especially freedom from government and privilege. Let the parasites die with the cities they are killing.