Cities who have eyes wide shut....

 

 

 

 

"Many of cities have become like a Necropolis - literally cities of the dead..."

This morning on the news, one pundit said, "Boy, it seems like every year now we have a problem in in one of our major cities." The other pundits agreed with him. And it usually involves race. However, as I addressed yesterday, race is the only the numerator to the problem - poverty is the denominator.

I have addressed the issue of Detroit before. This city should be the poster child of what can happen to a large and successful American city when benign neglect sets it. It becomes a disaster. Detroit, like some other larger cities in America, have become "hollowed out". However, Detroit is not alone. Camden, New Jersey and Youngstown, Ohio are two more examples of failed cites. When the "money" leaves, so does the middle class. Some have called this "white flight" to the burbs. What is left are all the ingredients of poverty. However, the strongest ingredient for growing poverty is neglect, the benign neglect of the local, state and national government.

Some cities which have not failed have become bifurcated - become two cities in one. A great example is Chicago. A city which still has lots of money and opportunities. However, it is also a city which has a huge drug and gang problem. A problem which results in the untimely deaths of hundreds of young black men every year. This past weekend alone, which was a typical weekend, 28 were shot with 7 being fatal. It is like that year after year. However, the city leaders always put on a happy face. Touting what is good about the city. The opportunities. All of this while the cancer of poverty and despair grows in the "other" parts of Chicagoland.

Last year at this time, nationwide unemployment for black teenagers was almost 42%. In some schools in Minneapolis, the graduation rate for blacks is about 50%. Rents for what little affordable housing is available keep going up, while opportunities stay static or decline. In many cities, all the ingredients are there for one spark to set off a firestorm. And that is exactly what has happened in Ferguson.

To answer the pundit's question this morning - there is no way to keep our cities from erupting on a yearly basis. That is, until we fix what is wrong with them. We have persistent problems which will not fix themselves. We need vision to see them, to find them, and then to fix them. Benign neglect only allows us to look at them with our eyes wide shut.

Socialists have said some of our cities have become a Necropolis - an ancient Greek word meaning "city of the dead." We are better than that. We can fix this. We have to.