The Rot of Western Cities: A Post-Apocalyptic Future? By Chris Knight (Florida)
America's major cities, once beacons of progress and culture, are decaying into shadows of their former selves, and the rot is spreading across the West. From Boston's open-air drug markets to San Francisco's collapse into lawlessness, urban centres are spiralling into chaos, with some teetering on the edge of becoming unsalvageable, burnt-out husks fit for little more than post-apocalyptic movie sets. This isn't just a failure of policy; it's a civilisational decay, rooted in broken governance, cultural erosion, and unchecked crime, that threatens to render our cities ghost towns of a postmodern zombie flick.
Michael Snyder's grim snapshot of 2025 America paints a vivid picture. In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu's 2022 initiative to hand out crack pipes has turned Beacon Hill, the city's "ritziest" neighbourhood, into an open-air drug market. Cobblestone streets, once a symbol of historic charm, now host rampant drug use, with locals blaming Wu's policies for the surge. New York City, despite Mayor Eric Adams' tough-on-crime rhetoric, saw a 28% spike in total crimes from 2021 to 2024, with felony assaults up 29% and car thefts up 36%. Chicago's gang members outnumber police ten to one, with a 14-year-old gang member telling Vice that simply standing outside risks death. Los Angeles' MacArthur Park, once a vibrant community hub, is now a "drug-infested hellhole," while Encino residents beg Mayor Karen Bass for help after deadly home invasions. San Francisco, ranked the worst-run city in the nation by WalletHub, limps along with abysmal safety and economic metrics. Even beyond cities, a rural Florida "house of horrors," saw foster children caged by their guardians, a chilling reminder that moral decay isn't confined to urban sprawl.
This isn't just America's problem. Western cities like London, Paris, and Melbourne face similar woes: rising crime, homelessness, and eroding public spaces. The symptoms are universal, overwhelmed police, emboldened criminals, and leaders who seem more adept at excuses than solutions. The West's urban cores are rotting, and the stench is unmistakable.
What's driving this decay? First, governance has collapsed under the weight of ideological mismanagement. Policies like Boston's drug paraphernalia handouts or San Francisco's lax enforcement reflect a progressive fantasy that compassion can replace accountability. These experiments have backfired, turning streets into havens for addiction and violence. In New York, despite Adams' claims, crime stats tell a story of failure, with quality-of-life infractions surging alongside violent felonies. Leaders choose optics over results, leaving cities to fester.
Second, cultural erosion, amplified by universities, fuels the rot. As James Alexander argued, academia's Left-leaning bias churns out ideas that vilify Western traditions while excusing chaos in the name of "equity" or "inclusion." Publicly funded scholars produce divisive narratives, like "decolonisation" or "reparations," that undermine social cohesion, justifying lawlessness as resistance. This intellectual rot trickles down, shaping policies and public attitudes that normalise urban decay as a form of social justice.
Finally, unchecked crime is both symptom and cause. In Chicago, gang violence makes everyday activities, going to a restaurant or funeral, life-threatening. In San Diego, a pastor's alleged predation on minors via Grindr exposes a broader societal sickness. The Florida case, where foster children were caged, shows how far moral decay has spread. When crime goes unpunished, it breeds more crime, hollowing out communities until only the desperate or defiant remain.
Some cities may already be beyond saving. San Francisco's last-place ranking in governance, with its 146th place in safety among 148 cities, suggests a point of no return. Los Angeles' MacArthur Park, once a jewel, is now a cautionary tale of what happens when drugs and crime overrun compassion. Memphis, with 7,700 violent crimes in 2023, and Detroit, with 5,503, top lists of America's most dangerous cities, their neighbourhoods crumbling into urban wastelands. Across the West, similar patterns emerge: London's knife crime epidemic, Paris' no-go zones, and Melbourne's rising gang activity paint a bleak picture.
If this continues, the future looks like a dystopian set piece. Abandoned buildings, like those in Detroit, will multiply, becoming squats for drug lords and gangs. Entire districts could become ghost towns, populated only by the lawless or forgotten. The imagery isn't far-fetched, think The Walking Dead meets Escape from New York, where once-thriving cities are reduced to eerie, violent shells. Snyder warns that without a course correction, the entire nation risks this fate, and the rest of the West isn't far behind.
Reversing this requires ruthless clarity. Governance must prioritise law and order over ideology, crack down on crime, not enable it with free syringes. Cultural narratives, especially from universities, need rebalancing; public funding shouldn't bankroll anti-Western crusades but foster scholarship that unites. Community policing and economic investment, as seen in Memphis' recent crime drops, show results. But the will to act is fading. Snyder's call for a "long, hard look in the mirror" is right, Western societies must confront their failures, from coddling criminals to glorifying decay. If not, Western cities will become the post-apocalyptic sets of tomorrow's nightmares.
https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/lets-check-in-on-what-life-is-like
"Have you noticed that virtually all of our major cities are poorly run? I believe that the condition of our largest metropolitan areas is a warning. If we don't straighten up, the entire country will soon resemble our core urban areas. Thankfully, there are millions of Americans that strongly support a return to "law and order", but unfortunately "law and order" is the opposite of what we are witnessing in our biggest urban areas right now. In this article, I would like to check in on what life is like in America's crime-ridden major cities in 2025…
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Let me start with Boston.
Three years ago, Mayor Michelle Wu started handing out crack pipes and other types of drug paraphernalia to addicts, and now Boston's "ritziest and best-known neighborhood" is essentially an open-air drug market…
Residents of Boston's ritziest and best-known neighborhood are fuming at the city's Democratic mayor – blaming her policies for rampant open-air drug use in the upscale area.
Beacon Hill, known for its preserved early 19th century brownstones and cobblestone roads famously saved from the wrecking ball, is now facing a new crisis: an alarming uptick in drug-related incidents.
Infuriated locals have laid blame squarely with Mayor Michelle Wu, who launched an initiative to hand out free crack pipes, syringes, and other drug paraphernalia to addicts on the streets in 2022.
In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams continues to insist that he is tough on crime.
But the total number of reported crimes in New York City has increased by 28 percent since the end of 2021…
Felony assaults rose by 29 percent, car thefts by 36 percent and robberies by 20 percent from the end of 2021 to the end of last year, according to the most recent year-end NYPD statistics.
And newly released data covering all 34 crime categories — including quality-of-life infractions like trespassing and graffiti — show total infractions grew 28 percent, from 454,404 at the end of 2021, just before Adams took office, to 580,338 at the end of 2024.
That puts crime back at a level not seen in a decade, and New Yorkers are taking notice.
In Chicago, gang members outnumber the police by more than ten to one.
A very young gang member that was recently interviewed by Vice admitted that it is dangerous to simply stand around outside because you could literally be killed at any moment…
Members as young as 14 years old walk the streets with handguns, warning it's dangerous just to be outside. "This is our everyday life. Everybody just running around in chaos," one member said.
"This, right here, right now, is dangerous," he added, referencing standing outside in the group. "Going to restaurants, that's dangerous. Going to the laundromat, dangerous. Going to funerals, dangerous."
To keep each other safe, members "move like the military," he said, and going to jail is the least of their concerns.
"I'd rather be in the cell than dead," another young member said.
Conditions are quite chaotic on the west coast as well.
A shocking string of violent home invasions has prompted community leaders in Encino to beg Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for help…
Encino community leaders on Thursday asked Mayor Karen Bass to increase security following a deadly home invasion and a string of other break-ins in the San Fernando Valley hillside neighborhood.
"American Idol" music supervisor Robin Kaye and her rock musician husband, Tom DeLuca, were killed in their Encino home by an intruder earlier this month. The Hayvenhurst Avenue home of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Teddi Mellencamp was also targeted last week by three intruders who jumped a fence and entered the property.
Two other burglaries occurred in recent weeks, including an incident on Ostrom Avenue, where a homeowner shot a 14-year-old intruder, according to residents.
Good luck getting any help from Mayor Bass.
At this stage, the entire city is a nightmare.
Just look at what has happened to MacArthur Park. In the old days it was so beautiful, but now it has become an extremely violent drug-infested hellhole…
Once a jewel of this crowded, vibrant, bustling immigrant community, MacArthur Park has fallen into decay, overwhelmed by the crises that afflict Los Angeles and so many other cities: drugs, homelessness, crime, blight. The result has been an alarming downward spiral, driving out families and turning the park into a drug market, with all its attendant violence.
Writ large, the struggle for the park is even larger. If Los Angeles cannot reclaim this piece of ground, cannot bring safety and community back through the city's mix of enforcement and compassion, then those remedies may have lost their power, and sterner measures may be required for communities to live in peace.
But if you think that Los Angeles is run poorly, you should compare it to San Francisco.
One recent study determined that San Francisco is actually the worst run city in the entire nation…
San Francisco is the worst-run city in the nation, according to a report by WalletHub.
Several other California cities also ranked in the bottom 10 of 148 cities, including Stockton (138), Los Angeles (139), Long Beach (140), Fresno (141), and Oakland (146).
The finance website created a "Quality of Services" score of 36 metrics split into six categories, which was then measured against 148 of the nation's most populated city's per-capita budget.
San Francisco came in last overall, ranking 89th in financial stability, 137th in education, 102nd in safety, and 135th in economy.
If we don't reverse course, eventually the whole country will go down the same road that California has gone.
And that would not be a good thing at all.
Down in San Diego, the pastor of a local Episcopal church was recently caught trying to hook up with "14 and 15-year-old boys"…
San Diego pastor busted by @peoplevpreds for allegedly messaging who he thought were 14 and 15-year-old boys on Grindr.
Reverend Roger Haenke, with St. John's Episcopal Church, was seen emerging from his home with his husband after being confronted.
The San Diego pastor and professor admitted to using the gay dating app before smacking away the camera.
There are predators everywhere.
Our society is literally teeming with them.
I feel so badly for children that are trying to grow up in the extremely sick and twisted environment that we have created for them.
And sometimes the biggest monsters live far away from our large metropolitan areas.
For example, authorities in a rural portion of Florida recently discovered a "house of horrors" where foster children were literally being caged up…
Stomach-churning details have come to light after a family of four was arrested for allegedly abusing and caging nine foster children, one of whom was just seven years old.
Brian Griffeth, 47, Jill Griffeth, 41, and their biological adult children, Dallin Griffeth, 21, and Liberty Griffeth, 19, were arrested in Fort White, Florida, a small town outside of Gainesville, on July 22 for the alleged crimes.
They all face felony charges of cruelty towards children for the alleged horrific abuse inflicted against the kids living in the so-called 'house of horrors'.
The tremendous evil that we are witnessing all around us should send us running in the opposite direction.
We desperately need to change direction as individuals, and we desperately need to change direction as a society.
Because if we just keep on doing what we have been doing, we won't have a country.
We need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and realize what a mess our nation has become."
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