Let’s be brutally honest, shall we? And I mean to cast no aspersions on Walmart, but when even Walmart finally packs up and skedaddles out of your city, it’s a strong indication that your city is in pretty bad shape. And when Lori Lightfoot is your mayor, you live in Chicago, and you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Closing stores isn’t rare for Walmart, particularly given its more than 5,000 stores nationwide. As ABC affiliate WLS-TV in Chicago reported the giant retailer closed 160 stores over the past couple of years, but with 5,000 stores the company has to be flexible and the bottom line is, literally, it has to go where the business is, and just as importantly, leave where it isn’t.
The company declined to provide specific reasons to local media for the closure of the three stores, but Walmart’s decision is just one more reminder of Greater Chicagoland’s decadelong decline.
Chicago’s population and tax base have shrunk for nine straight years, while crime continues to soar. Yet, the city is about to adopt no-cash bail, which makes it nearly impossible for police to enforce the law against thieves. Businesses don’t like that, of course, but guess who does? Her picture “might” be below.
As the Washington Examiner reported, census estimates show that Illinois has lost roughly 300,000 net residents over the aforementioned nine years. 300,000 people don’t just decide to pack up their crap and leave their homes — even for better weather. Three hundred, or maybe even three thousand, but not three hundred thousand.
That’s a significant trend, and in the Windy City’s case, it’s not only troubling as a single issue; it shows no signs of easing and likely won’t — as long as Lightfoot remains mayor. Three stories covered by RedState in just the last 30 days point to the once-proud city’s ongoing demise:
Homeless Encampments Overtake O’Hare Airport, Workers Say ‘None of Us Feel Safe’
Crack Crime-Stopper Lori Lightfoot Offers ‘Concrete Solution’ to End Crime in Chicago
Mayoral Candidate’s ‘Public Safety Is a Human Right’ Slogan Has Triggered Leftists
And Chicago, of course, isn’t the Lone Ranger among major U.S. cities where violent crime, homeless encampments, rampant public drug abuse, overdose deaths, and violent rioting (AKA: “peaceful protests”) are out of control, but 100 percent of these cities share one thing in common: Democrat-run city governments. Sorry, my Democrat friends: with zero exceptions.
Even crazier, left-wingers — Democrat politicians, in this case — have never learned to avoid Einstein’s most basic definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. And even worse, for example, Democrats push for universal cashless bail, “defunding the police,” and repeatedly releasing repeat offenders to the point that Democrat-run cities might as well install revolving doors on jail cells.
And what about the long-term impact of the Democrats’ draconian COVID lockdowns?
Great question — and an even greater explanation, via Washington Examiner:
Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and similarly mismanaged cities “coasted,” as the Atlantic put it, “for decades on the knowledge that firms and workers were being pulled inexorably toward their downtowns.”
But then, left-wing Democrats’ hypocritical rule-by-COVID-panic convinced many businesses that it wasn’t worth paying for large downtown offices as workers shifted to remote or hybrid-remote work.
Various reports reveal that companies are cutting their downtown office space and letting leases expire. Commercial real estate prices in Manhattan have fallen more than 7% in a year, yet half the available space stands empty.
Thing is, none of this madness requires the brainpower of Albert Einstein to figure out.
The Bottom Line
The dirtiest of the Democrat Party’s dirty little non-secret secrets is this: Democrats know full well that their crime policies amount to little more than ineffectual slaps on the wrist — and they don’t give a damn about it. One might even argue that Democrats are glad that their insane policies don’t work.
Why? Because the only thing Democrats care about is the ballot box and ginning up more “woke” votes.