Blue Cities Must Be Fixed
"Anarchy is not a form of welfare."
What It’s About
Noah Smith traces the rise and fall of liberal-leaning U.S. cities, attributing their decline to permissiveness around urban disorder, fiscal mismanagement, and chronic housing shortages. Smith argues that progressive governance has failed to enable important markets or effectively deliver public services, diminishing quality of life and fueling voter backlash against Democratic leadership.
Upshot
Smith calls out:
- Permissive Urban Disorder: A tolerance for public nuisances, petty crime, and visible homelessness has made city life unpleasant, triggering economic decline and population loss
- Fiscal Mismanagement: Overly generous contracts, bloated bureaucracies, and inefficient spending have depleted resources without delivering adequate public services or infrastructure
- Housing Policy Failures: Restrictive zoning and anti-development policies have severely limited housing supply, inflating prices and driving out middle-class residents
Did you know? New York City spends four times more per mile to build subway lines than Paris—yet half its bus riders don't even pay fares, illustrating how fiscal mismanagement erodes urban quality of life
Why It Matters
Smith’s critique points out the contradictions between the ambitious aims and limited efficacy of standard progressive governance, especially at lower levels of government
Who Wrote It
Noah Smith is an economist and blogger.