The Detroit Template

Foot-voting on parade.

You know what happens to a once-vibrant city when criminals are allowed to run rampant and it adopts the “Blue model”: bloated city government, extravagant salaries and pensions, corrupt dealings with contractors, oppressive regulation of businesses, flight to the suburbs, higher taxes on the remaining citizens and businesses, more flight to the suburbs, etc., etc., etc.

If you don’t what happens, here it is:

That’s Detroit. A city 50 miles from where I grew up but a light-year away in character from the well-run, low-crime cities of my youth.

Detroit’s not the only major city to experience a significant decline. But, so far, it’s the worst of the lot.

Portland seems to be riding the same death spiral.