“Progressive Paradise”

“Fuck no, I wouldn’t vote for it again,” says a previous proponent of Measure 110, the 2020 law that decriminalized drugs and which the Oregon legislature reeled back this week. How did we get here?

When I moved to Portland in 2004, the junkies in downtown’s Pearl District, romanticized in Gus Van Sant’s 1989 Drugstore Cowboy, had been replaced by farm-to-table restaurants and a flagship REI store. Portland was on the up, a media darling poised to become the next great American city.

Then came the record scratch that was 2020.

Via Hotair

Employees at Macy’s flagship San Francisco store in Union Square have blamed its planned closure on shoplifting – despite mayor London Breed claiming crime was not a factor.

The Union Square store announced earlier this week it will be closing its doors after 77 years as part of a plan to close 150 locations across the nation over the next three years. It did not cite a specific reason for the decision.

Judge Engoron (and I always want to call him Erdogan, which I’m sure is Freudian) may have dealt an economic death blow to New York when he ruled against Donald Trump to the tune of almost half a billion dollars. Businesses and ordinary people have announced they intend to boycott New York, whether for self-protection or principle. But what happens when it’s the governing body that engages in boycotts? That turns out to be just as much of a death blow. The tale of San Francisco’s decision to boycott 30 states because the city disagreed with their politics is a wonderful example of leftist hubris and the economic havoc it wreaks.

Chicago has a problem with retailers closing their doors, pulling up stakes, and getting the hell out of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods.

This is what real progressive thought is, and brilliantly expressed here by Erica Le Bon. The newly created monster is moral narcissism, and its spirit animal is the chimera of 'empathy'@glukianoff @epkaufm @andrewdoyle_com @JaniceFiamengo @Fox_Claire https://t.co/lTR1yfkiUO

— Sean Bw Parker (@seanbwparker) February 19, 2024

There have been murmurs for at least the last ten years about the potential for civil war in the United States.  Polls have shown that roughly half the country believes that future conflict is likely.  The intrusion of unchecked government power into every crevice of our private lives has transformed politics into a high-stakes cage match in which furious citizens fight to survive.  Because government exerts so much control over citizens, winning control of government has become an existential imperative.  Such zero-sum thinking has fractured society and pitted Americans against one another.

The recent announcement that Ian Jacobs, a scion of the famous Toronto-based Reichmann real estate clan, was coming to buy upwards of $900 million of San Francisco real estate, has offered the beleaguered California city a rare moment of hope. Some suggest that we could see a repeat of New York’s recovery from its nadir in the 1970s, during which the Reichmanns made a fortune gobbling up depressed buildings shortly before the city’s resurgence.   

Hell of a bet given the state is woke crazy.

Oakland, California, is ceding control of its local commerce to criminals, due to a Soros-backed prosecutor and chronic short staffing at the Oakland PD, which cannot recruit enough new cops to replace retirements and resignations — despite six-figure starting salaries. There’s more going on than that, though. The departure of two prominent restaurant chains from the city reveals a horrifying pattern that the national media entirely miss.

San Francisco’s oldest toy store, which inspired the Pixar classic “Toy Story,” is permanently shutting its doors after nearly a century in business with the city’s widespread crime and violence problem playing a significant factor.

Jeffrey’s Toys broke the news Friday it will be closing up shop at the end of February, marking the end of an iconic 86-year run.