Category Archives: failed city

Portland, Oregon, failed city

Posted on August 21, 2023 by | 6 comments

Homelessness runs rampant in Portland, Oregon.

Democrat-run Portland (for over four decades), Oregon is a failed city. Since defunding the police, crime is up.

Open-air drug use and fentanyl is rampant, so much so that there are open-air fentanyl markets. Measure 110, approved by voters in 2020, was suppose to be the magic cure-all by decriminalizing drugs and establishing a drug addiction treatment and recovery program (funded in part by the state’s marijuana tax revenue and state prison savings). That isn’t working as in Multnomah County, fatal opioid-related overdoses saw a fivefold increase between 2018 and 2022,

This year the mayor’s budget calls for spending over $43 million to address homelessness.  Yet between the decriminalizing of drugs, drug addiction treatment services and millions dedicated to the homeless, those afflicated with drug addiction do not seem to want the taxpayer assistance. Case in point (from The Daily Mail):

“Portland’s first sanctioned homless ‘park’ has just NINE residents despite having room for 55 a month after it opened – as shocking images show drug-addled people taking over the sidewalks”

Unused Portland homeless shelters.

Details from the article:

“Portland‘s first sanctioned homeless ‘park’ is less than 20 percent full a month after opening as shocking new images show drug abuse and illegal campsites continue to plague its streets.

Oregon‘s largest city is in the midst of a devastating humanitarian crisis, with its homeless population up almost 50 percent since 2019 to more than 5,000.

The uber-woke local government is pinning its hopes of reversing the trend on a raft of costly new shelters. (Which cost $27 million for three official homeless shelters.)

But when DailyMail.com visited earlier this month, two of its flagship sites sat largely empty, with the majority of its drug-addled homeless population preferring to remain in unsanctioned campsites across the city.”

Read the whole story here.

I don’t claim to have the best solution(s) to end homelessness and open-air drug use. How about instead of decriminalizing drug use, maybe the City should arrest individuals and as part of their punishment they be mandated to attend drug addiction treatment as an alternative to fines/jail times?

I do know that decades of democrat solutions to end homelessness and drug addiction aren’t working. I also know that democrats are famous for their dedication to spending millions of taxpayer dollars that never achieve their stated goals. There’s a saying for that:

DCG

6 Comments

Posted in Crime, Democrats, drugs, failed city, failed state, safety, Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , ,

Los Angeles, failed city

Posted on August 16, 2023 by | 1 comment

Los Angeles is run by democrats. It therefore has the pleasure of being one of the worst cities in America. In other words, another demorat-run failed city.

The streets of Los Angeles

It’s a combination we typically see in blue cities: high crime (some data suggests that Los Angeles is more dangerous than before the Wuhan virus outbreak and lockdowns), rampant homlessness (despite spending billions of dollars), and open drug use on the city streets (in particular, fentanyl pouring across our open southern border).

LA County DA George Gascon (demorat)

Throw into the mix a Soros-funded district attorney, George Gascón. There was a second effort to recall him last year, which failed due to 27% of the signatures being invalid. (Funny how demorats care about signature validation when it affects one of their own).

The final touch? Proposition 47, which basically allows shoplifting $950 worth of merchandise with no consequences. Also, Los Angeles has a zero cash bail policy now, too. You’ve got the perfect recipe for a failed city!

And there are plenty of criminals willing to take advantage of the democrat policies that plague Los Angeles. Case in point:

Gascon speaks at the 0:48 mark: “…and we will use every tool available under law when there is an arrest made.”

Quite the qualifier there. LAPD says that last year, only about one quarter of these “smash and grab” robberies led to an arrest. Again, they are very careful with their statements. How many of these arrests actually led to a prosecution and conviction?

I sound like a broken record here but when are voters going to realize the obvious?

DCG

 

1 Comment

Posted in Crime, Democrats, drugs, failed city, safety

Tagged , , , ,

California, failed state: Swarm of masked thieves rob L.A. Nordstrom of $100k

Posted on August 15, 2023 by | 8 comments

The (UK) Telegraph reports,

Dozens of masked thieves used bear spray to take down security guards before stealing around $100,000 (£78,800) worth of goods from a department store in California.

A gang of between 30 and 50 people descended on Nordstrom, a high-end clothing store, at the Westfield Topanga Mall in Woodland Hills, near Los Angeles.

They used bear spray to incapacitate security guards before they made off with handbags and designer clothing, according to the Los Angeles Police Department….

Footage of the incident circulating on social media shows intruders wearing hoods and masks darting between aisles while staff look on.

It follows a spate of similar raids in Los Angeles and other major US cities.

Republican politicians have blamed soft-on-crime policies in Democrat-controlled areas for a rise in crime….

The same Nordstrom store was hit two years ago by a group of five masked robbers who pepper-sprayed a member of staff and made off with about $25,000 worth of goods….

Just days earlier, another flash-mob style robbery took place at a Yves Saint Laurent store in Glendale, just north of Los Angeles.

The thieves stole around $300,000 worth of goods, according to the local NBC News network.

Starbucks has already closed six of its branches in Los Angeles amid safety fears. They include two spots near Hollywood Boulevard and another near Santa Monica Boulevard.

The coffee shop chain said issues with chronic homelessness, vandalism and theft were driving factors for the closures….

Karen Bass, the Democrat mayor of Los Angeles, called the robbery “absolutely unacceptable” and vowed the perpetrators would be “held accountable”…. [Blah, blah, blah]

See also:

~E

8 Comments

Posted in Crime, Democrats, failed city, failed state, The Left

Tagged , , ,

Seattle, failed city (part 3)

Posted on August 10, 2023 by | 9 comments

Liberals ruin everything they touch.

One of the many homeless encampments throughout Seattle.

I grew up in a suburb of Seattle, which even though has been ruled by demorats since 1969, use to be a semi-safe place to visit. As kids, we lived across the lake and would bus it to downtown Seattle to visit the Center, food fairs and even concerts.

Now, I’d never venture anywhere to downtown due to rampant crime, homelessness and open drug use on the streets. You can read more about the failures of demorat-run Seattle in my parts 1 and 2 that I’ve posted here.

Democrat Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell

The current demorat mayor, Bruce Harrell, had promised to address the city’s many issues, of course. Yet after a year and a half in office, absolutely nothing has improved in the city.

I was just in Seattle in May (for a funeral) and saw the disaster with my own eyes. But don’t just take my word for it.

Take the word of a 23-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department, Lieutenant Jessica Taylor, who says that “criminal are running this city.”

Jason Rantz from KTTH radio reports that Taylor resigned, sending the Seattle Police Chief a scathing 15-page letter. Take a look at what Taylor has to say:

“Chief Diaz, let me tell you, the state of the Seattle Police Department and this city is a disgrace,” she wrote in the letter she shared with the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “The toxic mix of the Seattle City Council’s absurdity, the spinelessness of the Mayor, the leniency of the prosecutor’s office, and your failed leadership has accelerated this city’s downhill slide straight to rock bottom. The problems were already brewing before you came on the scene, but since your arrival, it’s been a free fall into anarchy & chaos.”

Taylor also blames the Seattle City Council for playing politics and catering to the radicals in the region.

Read the brutal resignation letter here.

Seattle just had a primary election for Council members and, of course, all the incumbents appear to be safe and in strong positions heading into the November election. Nevermind the fact that the city they govern is a hot mess.

The cognitive dissonance in democrats is astounding. By committing even further to their beliefs, they will NEVER learn this important lesson:

DCG

9 Comments

Posted in Crime, Democrats, drugs, failed city, safety

Tagged , , , ,

Too little, too late: Oakland NAACP calls for state of emergency over soaring crime

Posted on August 3, 2023 by | 4 comments

Progressives never think through to the cosequences of their “brilliant” propositions. Any one with a brain could have told you that the Defund the Police movement which began in 2020 after the death of Saint George would have disasterous consequences. Proof: See here, here, here and here.

Now Oakland citizens are learning the hard way that actions have consequences. From The Daily Mail:

“Oakland NAACP leaders have called for a state of emergency over soaring crime in the area, as they blame the defund the police movement and the George Soros- backed district attorney for the rising violence.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branch president Cynthia Adams called on local officials to come together with local and federal resources to tackle the mounting public safety issues in the district.

She wrote a letter alongside Bishop Bob Jackson of the Acts Full Gospel Church to ring the alarm about the shootings, robberies and murders that have become a common occurrence in the district. 

The NAACP letter comes as North Oakland has seen a a 22 percent increase in robberies and 18 percent increase in violent crime this year.

Murder levels abruptly spiked from the 78 seen in 2019 to 109 in 2020 – the same years calls for defunding the police, spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement, were introduced in earnest. 

Last month, Oakland cops urged residents to secure their homes – including by trimming hedges and shrubs so thieves have nowhere to hide – amid a rise in brazen burglaries while residents are inside their homes.”

Read the whole Daily Mail article here.

Soros-backed Alameda County DA Pamela Price

The Alameda County DA is Pamela Price, who was elected in January 2023. George Soros heavily funded her races through his California PAC.

Less than two months after the citizens elected Price, they’d already had regrets. Back in March prosecutors were quitting over her radical agenda. And the families of crime victims were calling for the ousting of Price following the her failed bid to slash a sentence in a triple murder case.

I suppose I can’t blame the voters for electing Price when her vision as a district attorney sounded plausible. She promised to “end gun violence,” “restore trust in our criminal justice system,” and “establish prosecutorial accountability.”

Yet if voters had done their homework, they would have seen the first red flag that was backing from George Soros. Also, several red flags on her platform such as:

  • “…support a Conviction Integrity Unity to evaluate unfair prosecutions and excessive sentencing practices with a special focus on racially-biased prosecutions.”
  • “Stop over-criminalizing our youth.”
  • “…pursing comprehensive alternatives to incarceration for those who come in contact with the criminal justice system.”

But I don’t expect the majority of democrat voters to be well informed. Between them voting (D) for decades and the intentional misinformation of the media, democrate-run cities are now facing the consequences of their actions.

As they deserve. One day, maybe, just maybe, voters will realize the cold hard truth:

DCG

4 Comments

Posted in Crime, Democrats, failed city, safety

Tagged , , , , , ,

Career criminal shot & killed after hospital standoff in failed Portland, Oregon

Posted on July 24, 2023 by | 7 comments

Liberal cities and states are disintegrating before our very eyes. Portland, Oregon is an example of the consequences of elections.

In May 2020, Portland city commissioners voted to cut nearly $16 million from the police budget in response to complaints about police force and racial injustice. As a result: Portland had a 300% increase in murders from July 2020 to February 2021. In the first two months of 2021, 17 people were  murdered — a 1,600% increase from the one murder reported during the same time period in 2020.

In 2022, Portland’s homicide number was higher than the city’s 20-year average.

It doesn’t help these demorat-run cities are electing Soros-backed prosecutors who refuse to properly punish the criminals.

Case in point: A career-criminal, PoniaX Kane Calles, shot and killed a security guard at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Portland on Saturday. He was subsequently shot and killed by police in the neighboring city of Gresham. Calles had made threats to staff at the hospital in the days leading up to the shooting.

Calles (formerly Reginald Kane Jackson) had a lenghtly criminal record (which began in demorat-run California) that included:

  • Attempted second-degree assault (for stabbing a man in the face with a knife; he was placed on probation for three years)
  • Reckless driving
  • Driving with a suspended license
  •  Third-degree criminal mischief (prosecutors dropped the charge)
  • Attempted murder
  • Robbery
  • Battery
  • Disorderly conduct
  • Vandalism

Calles also had mental health issues (obviously).

Read the whole sordid story of this criminal’s background here at The Oregonian.

No amount of new gun laws would have stopped this guy. He was also ordered to undergo drug treatment and have a mental health evaluation. Obviously that didn’t happen or change his behaviors.

The only solution is to punish the criminals. Or try electing bureaucrats and politicians who care about punishing criminals and preserving law and order in their cities. Yet I’m not going to hold my breath that liberals will learn to do that in the near future. They never learn:

DCG

7 Comments

Posted in Crime, Democrats, drugs, failed city, safety, The Left

Tagged

San Francisco, failed city part 2

Posted on July 18, 2023 by | 5 comments

Time and time again we see demorat-run cities that are in utter chaos: Rampant homelessness, public drug use, and increased crime. See examples here, here and here.

Man caught pooping in aisle of a Safeway store in San Francisco.

San Francisco is one of those progressive cities that tops the list of failed cities. Not only are their streets dangerous and covered with feces, tax-paying citizens are held hostage to the criminals.

Shoplifting is all but legal in California so now stores are forced to lock up goods to prevent theft. Enjoy your shopping experience, tax-paying citizens!

From Daily Mail:

“Theft has become so bad in San Francisco that some stores are now padlocking shut their freezers and tying metal chains to ensure the doors remain closed overnight. 

Video shot by one potential shopper at a local Walgreens in the city sees aisle after aisle of products locked away behind Perspex and glass, out of the reach of thieves.

Even lower value items such as toothpaste and tissues are kept under lock and key, such is the rampant theft that has been occurring in many of the city’s pharmacies and supermarkets. 

At one particular location, on 16th Street and Geary Blvd, the freezer doors are entirely chained up, with staff concerned thieves will come into the store overnight to empty the contents.

Shop workers have already reported a problem with thieves coming in to the store as many as 20 times a day to fill their bags full of products including items that need to be kept at cool temperatures such as frozen pizza and ice cream. “

Read the whole story here.

Don’t feel too bad for most of the citizens though. They voted for this. And have voted for this for decades. They never learn:

DCG

5 Comments

Posted in Crime, Democrats, drugs, failed city, safety, The Left

Tagged ,

Priorities for Seattle bureaucrats, a failed city (Part 2)

Posted on May 24, 2023 by | 2 comments

A typical freeway sighting in Seattle.

Demorat-run Seattle is a failed city. Massive homelessness, crime, tagging and a fentanyl crisis (among other issues).  Yet residents repeatedly elect ineffective demorats, some how expecting a different outcome.

Yet nothing, absolutely nothing will change.

Proof of the insanity of demorats in Seattle, via the latest headlines:

“Seattle Police recruitment falls short as response times increase.”

From the MyNorthwest.com article:

“Since 2020, the department has lost 515 officers and hired 190. Many have retired, but others said in exit interviews they did not feel supported by the city during the “defund the police” movement following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Due to officers being spread thin, police call response times have increased, with the highest priority calls taking an average of 10 minutes to get a response. “

“Gun violence rising on Washington State highways.“

I know this expands outside of Seattle yet again, demorats are in charge of that state. The demorat governor has passed multiple gun control laws which have had absolutely ZERO impact on crime. And Seattle’s gun crime is on the rise as well. From the article:

“Washington State Patrol (WSP) reports 396 separate incidents of gun fire on highways that state troopers patrol so far this year. Gun violence has increased from 459 shootings in 2018 to 1,058 in 2022.“

So what is the Seattle City Council doing to address the crime, drugs, homelessness and the fentanyl crisis? Take a look:

“Seattle City Council passes stronger tree protection ordinance.“

“The Seattle City Council has passed a new Tree Protection Ordinance. The ordinance aims to preserve and expand Seattle’s urban canopy while allowing for new construction. “After half a decade of work, we have finally passed tree protections that will preserve, protect, and expand our urban tree canopy,”

This legislation takes a One Seattle approach to balance prioritizing tree canopy while also allowing for the development of needed housing – crucial for progress on climate goals, homelessness efforts, and housing affordability.”

Seattle people never learn…

DCG

2 Comments

Posted in clueless, Crime, drugs, failed city, The Left

Tagged

Washington, D.C., failed city

Posted on May 23, 2023 by | 4 comments

This is the third in our series of posts on failed cities — all “blue” cities run by Democrats. See “San Francisco, failed city” and “Seattle, failed city“.

Steven Edginton writes for The (UK) Telegraph, May 10, 2023:

When thinking of Washington DC, grand monuments and museums might come to mind, however, in recent years, America’s capital has become more renowned for its growing homeless population and rising crime.

“Crime here has exploded, people do not feel safe,” Isaac Smith, an Emergency Medical Technician in DC, told The Telegraph for a documentary film about the capital.

“I have a bullet hole through my living room,” Mr Smith continued.

“I hear gunshots frequently and I live right next to an elementary school. There’s a bullet hole in one of the [school’s] windows.”

Violent crime in DC has risen by 10 per cent since 2022, which includes a 15 per cent increase in homicides.

Mr Smith blames the Democrats, who have dominated the city’s local politics for decades, for the rise in violence….

Washington DC has also experienced a 12 per cent increase in homelessness in the last year.

Homeless encampments have appeared across the city, including at some of DC’s most famous landmarks such as Union Station and near the Washington Monument.

The rise in homelessness and crime has led some to leave the city.

Boris Ryvkin, a former resident of DC and a Republican advisor, says he moved due to poor local government services.

“I left DC because of taxes, crime, terrible public services and just terrible government,” Mr Ryvkin told this newspaper.

“The city council and the mayor have completely failed and I joined the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people literally just across the river to Virginia and Maryland,” he continued….

“What’s happening in Washington DC and in other American cities in terms of homelessness is basically the same thing that’s happened in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Vancouver, other progressive West Coast cities,” Michael Shellenberger, an independent journalist who has written about San Francisco’s recent drug epidemic, told The Telegraph.

He continued: “You have very progressive members of the city councils, of the governing bodies of those cities, that have decided that certain laws should not be enforced against people deemed to be victims.”

“So you’ve seen city council members in Washington DC have demanded that people be allowed to camp illegally on the sidewalks, [and] not be required to come inside to shelters.”

“That’s even though we know that you’re three times more likely to die as a homeless person if you’re living outside, unsheltered, than if you’re inside.”

“So when you see this increase of tents around places like the train station, around subway stops, it’s almost always because there’s some political momentum behind not enforcing basic laws.”

~E

4 Comments

Posted in Crime, failed city, The Left

Tagged , ,