Along the same vein, “What has become of western cities” is “rich and expensive”. And if by conservative you mean “want less government regulation against building homes” then I think you’re right.
The lived reality is that the city stopped making even the pretense of enforcing the law. Theft and assaults regularly happen in broad daylight and law enforcement mostly doesn’t bother. The prosecutors won’t prosecute much short of attempted murder these days; no point in arresting people if they are going to be immediately released. People stop reporting crime because at best their insurance premiums will increase and at worst they will be loudly accused of oppressing the downtrodden or some such twaddle. There is no ROI. Many women who have lived in these communities a long time no longer feel safe.
Anecdotally, this is driving a lot of people to move into the high rises with real security from high-density neighborhoods like Capitol Hill where having your building invaded by miscreants happens surprisingly often. People put a lot of value on being able to live in a place where they feel secure, and so anyone that can afford it is retreating behind secured walls.
I also happen to follow court data and the idea that 'they won't prosecute much short of attempted murder' is just ludicrous.
Hmm, sentence seems a bit light, no?
Particularly Rio, Buenos Aires, and Asuncion.
Rio is don’t take your phone out if you don’t want it to get stolen.
BA is you might get mugged at night.
Asuncion is you can forget your phone at a cafe and someone will run after you to give it to you but don’t go to the bad areas or you’ll get killed.
Oddly Asuncion is the poorest city of them all, but also by far the most conservative. In Rio the women will rob you, in Asuncion not even the Venezuelans who live on the street will rob you.
What would you say has become of Seattle?
I have a relative in public safety(fire) who deals enough with cops to know that the problems are not coming from cops feeling spurned. A combination of lax laws and an almost pro-crime judiciary sent things into a spiral. Things finally got bad enough that PNW liberals are becoming more pragmatic and it looks to be improving. Time will tell.
I'll say that, in the case of Seattle, I don't believe overall stats show the region is less safe than, say, the 90s. The 90s were sort of peak crack cocaine and street gangs. Having lived through that time and remembering the crimewave, I think the issue now is that crime back then was mostly in bad areas and didn't affect most middle or upper class folks. Now, especially after the gentrification and return to downtowns, middle and upper class folks are more exposed to crime. The meth and fentanyl epidemics are also helping to push crime into more suburban areas.
With all that said, and hopefully not to ruin my other points, I'll say I am leaning more conservative these days after seeing what has become of western cities(from San Diego to Seattle, I've visited them all fairly regularly over the past few decades). I don't think every problem is fixable via public policy, but damn, we're doing something wrong here.