Americans Attacking American Powerhouse Cities

By Kevin Reed

We hear it all the time.

“Woke Hellholes.”

“Sanctuary City Madness.”

“Out of control lawless wasteland that’s soft on crime.” And so on. A specific subset of Americans making pointed verbal, and now policy-based as well as physical, real world attacks on American cities. Why do “patriotic” Americans attack their own cities? Seems odd behavior from a flag-waving, self-described “patriot.”

One thing to notice with these attacks is that they are always emotion-based verbiage with the intention of getting an emotional response out of their targeted listeners, watchers, or readers. To the angry podcasters, broadcasters, writers, or social media posters, these cities are “crime-infested, out of control no-go zones” with “filthy third world conditions” and “degenerate policies” that “coddle criminals” with “tents everywhere” while “people defecate in the streets.”

“San Fransicko” as those who attack US cities call the beautiful city of San Francisco.

“HOLY CRAP THAT SOUNDS BAD! I’d better take the beltway around the city to the camping site, or better yet, stick to the country roads where the good people are and common sense rules!”

Whenever someone is trying to elicit a negative emotional response from you, the information you’re consuming is highly suspect to be deliberate misinformation. That has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with human nature and the basic rules of manipulation. If it makes you angry, check the factual content against reliable independent sources. Often, you’ll find massive chunks of missing context or flat out wrong information. The objective is to make you mad and control you - not to inform you.

The emotional attacks focus around the real -life, complex challenges of running large, diverse cities and include things like homelessness, high cost of living, crime, infrastructure, social services, and so on. Favorite target cities include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston. The cities targeted are always Democratically run, so that spawns references such as “failed blue city,” “liberal stronghold,” “Democrat-run disaster,” and so on, while conveniently leaving out the very few large cities that Republicans run, like Dallas or Miami, which face the same exact challenges.

But politics aside - are these cities failed?

New York goes back and forth with Tokyo as the city with the world’s highest GDP. LA is steady at third globally. Chicago comes in around number seven. These are global economic powerhouses. Within the US, of the top ten cities with the highest GDP, 9 out of 10 of them are these so-called “liberal shitholes.” Which seems odd they’d be called that, since they are clearly kicking ass for the USA. The targeted cities, in order of GDP, are NYC, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington DC, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, and Seattle.

It seems to make even less sense when you take a look at the only large GDP city in the top ten that are never mentioned by these critical attackers: Dallas, which is, not surprisingly, Republican-run. And when you take a moment to look, Dallas struggles with the same exact issues: homelessness and housing affordability; crime and public safety; infrastructure and traffic congestion; climate change impacts, insurance, and so on.

Take politics completely off the table, and it seems that Americans who are patriots - pro-USA patriots - would observe that all of these cities are part of the nation’s diverse team of workhorses that spread across the USA from cities to agriculture to resource development, construction, tech, food, culture, tourism, and everything else that builds our GDP and nation’s strength.

One of the top GDP cities globally, New York.

Urban, Democrat-led areas are often accused of being “takers,” but in reality, they are the economic engines funding the rest of the country. The next time someone claims cities like San Francisco, New York, or Chicago are a “drain,” it’s worth pointing out they’re actually subsidizing the very parts of the country that (contain a large number of people who) call them “Democrat-led disasters.” The tax money that builds rural highways, keeps farm subsidies flowing, and supports small-town healthcare comes from cities like these, and flows into states like Mississippi, Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, Montana, Louisiana, Indiana, and North Dakota.

These cities are cultural melting pots that thrive on diversity. Many have Immigrant-owned small businesses that dominate many neighborhoods. The cities offer global cuisine, music, art, festivals, events, and most importantly, perspective input and context to the challenges that we all face. Diversity of ideas is a strength. Over 40% of NYC residents are foreign-born—yet it’s one of the safest large cities in the U.S.

“Seattlegrad” or “Antifa zone” as those who attack US cities say about the mountain and water-nestled tech giant Seattle.

These cities are often cultural capitals as well. Broadway shows, Hollywood movies, Chicago’s music, Seattle’s tech culture, are all valuable, and all generate massive revenue streams. They offer museums, public art, festivals, public parks, iconic architecture, and are part of the global stage for ideas, design, and performance.

You’ll hear people say “Well what about livability?” Except this ignores a key problem - housing affordability. Lots of people want to live there, it’s why real estate is so high. Despite the noise, millions choose to stay or move in. People pay a premium to live in these cities, and the “urban exodus” narrative is often overblown—many residents have returned post-pandemic. Tourists keep coming in record numbers.

But what about all the businesses fleeing the cities? While some high-profile companies made headlines by moving headquarters, the big cities often targeted by critics remain economic powerhouses. They're attracting billions in venture capital, launching new businesses, and drawing in talent from around the world (or at least as much as they can given changes in US leadership). Instead of failing, they're evolving—and still leading across finance, tech, entertainment, biotech, healthcare, cloud computing, AI, energy, clean tech, media production, and so on.

“Chiraq” (Chicago + Iraq) as those who love to attack US cities call the massive cultural hub that is Chicago.

And you can take this approach with each city individually. Chicago gets slammed for violence and is a favorite target. But Chicago and the surrounding area is home to 35 Fortune 500 companies, some of the best food in America, world-class universities, a vibrant music and food scene, a rich cultural legacy, lots of green spaces and walkability, cool architecture, and a ton of other things that people who live and visit love about the great American city of Chicago. Like Boston, they even have a great band named after the city.

As Americans, we can look at the positives of these powerhouse cities, and recognize that any large, diverse population of people, whether in the USA or abroad, will have city-sized challenges to go along with all the city-sized benefits. That would seem like the common sense we always hear about, right? But you know what they say: ‘common sense isn’t so common.’