Escape From New York, Etc. Big progressive cities suffer another year of declining population.
Population loss from big cities slowed last year, the Census Bureau reported last week. Was it trying to bury the lead? The bigger news is how Covid lockdowns, crime and the rising cost of living are causing an exodus from big progressive cities.
According to the latest Census data, New York City lost 468,297 people between April 2020 and July 2022, about 5.3% of its population. That’s more people than live in the city of Miami (449,514). Other big losers include Chicago (81,313), Los Angeles (76,529) and San Francisco (65,522). San Francisco lost a larger share of its population (7.5%) than any other major city.
Population decline in these cities slowed but notably didn’t reverse in 2022 after lockdowns were lifted. City leaders blame remote work, but can you blame workers for not returning to offices when they face high taxes, high housing costs and declining public order? Chicago logged 41% more crimes last year than in 2021, and crime is up 43% so this year.
CME Group CEO Terry Duffy recently revealed that his wife was the victim of a carjacking in broad daylight in Chicago. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin last year cited Chicago’s crime surge as the reason he moved his hedge fund to Miami, after first considering New York City. One colleague had been punched by “some random lunatic” in the head, he noted. Another had been robbed at gunpoint.
You can dismiss these as anecdotes, but no one wants to become one of them. “We have violent crime that’s happening in our restaurants,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told the Economic Club of Chicago last year. “We’re seeing homelessness issues in our restaurants. We’re having drug overdoses that are happening in our restaurants.”
It’s not much different in San Francisco, where a giant Whole Foods in downtown closed last month. Tech workers complain about maneuvering around human feces, needles and the homeless. Public safety has improved in New York City under Mayor Eric Adams, but there are still far too many random assaults by the mentally ill, often hopped up on drugs.
Democrats who run America’s big cities have long taken for granted that businesses and workers would be attracted to their cities’ energy and culture. The pandemic and its aftermath have changed that calculus, but progressives haven’t changed their policies.
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