The Bonfire of the Progressive Vanities

Liberals say they want ‘livable’ cities, but their policies produce high taxes, crime and chaos

By Allysia Finley. Excerpts:

"Thanks to declining ridership—owing also to remote work and population flight—mass transit systems across America are bleeding red ink. New York’s subway ridership was a third lower last year than in 2019. Ridership on California’s Bay Area Rapid Transit is down about 60% from before the pandemic.

Most mass-transit systems had budget problems before the Covid lockdowns owing to generous union contracts that inflate wages and benefits and limit efficiencies. A “telephone maintainer” for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority earns on average $42.24 an hour and gets a Cadillac health plan.

Some $280 billion in federal pandemic and infrastructure dollars for public transportation systems helped paper over their deficits, but that money is running out. So is the more than $550 billion in Covid relief that flowed to states and local governments. Cities and their Democratic friends in state capitals are thus looking to hike taxes. See New York’s new $9 congestion tax on drivers who enter Manhattan’s business district, which is intended to raise $15 billion for local transit.

The Chicago City Council recently passed a budget that aims to raise nearly $182 million in revenue by increasing taxes on cloud computing, streaming services, parking and ride-hailing. The city is also installing more cameras to ding speeders. Meanwhile, Mayor Brandon Johnson this autumn ended the city’s contract for a gunshot-detection system that helped police catch gangsters.

Cities across California are plotting new taxes to rescue their public-transit systems and pay for soaring pension bills. “BART going into a death spiral is a very real possibility if we don’t find the resources to keep it running,” a Bay Area transportation official said this year.

One such “resource” is drivers. A California law taking effect on Jan. 1 bans parking or idling within 20 feet of a crosswalk. Democrats claim the goal is safety, but the more likely object is to force people to take public transit and raise more ticketing revenue from unwitting offenders. The law’s supporters notably include public-transportation agencies and climate groups.

Democrats love to talk about making cities “livable,” by which they mean reducing the number of cars. But their high taxes, crime and chaos have become unbearable. It’s no surprise they are losing population, which has been offset in part by an influx of migrants from south of the border. Adding insult to injury, migrants receive better public amenities than taxpaying natives."