“Progressive Paradise”

In the 1970s, many people said that suburbanization would spell the end of Canada’s downtowns.

But that didn’t happen. In cities big and small, business leaders rolled up their sleeves and went to work. “Downtown revitalization” was their rallying cry. The bright, upscale shopping mall was one of the big initiatives that kept Canadians commuting downtown through the 1980s and beyond.

But in 2025 there is a darker cloud hanging over Canada’s downtowns. It is so worrisome that the suburbanization threat of over 40 years ago looks rather tame.

Under Mayor Tishaura Jones, radicalism and corruption have decimated the Gateway City.

Shame has become an inescapable undercurrent in the daily life of St. Louis. Mayor Tishaura Jones, once celebrated as part of a progressive trio with former prosecutor Kimberly Gardner and former congresswoman Cori Bush, now stands as the last member of a vanguard whose radical policies have shadowed the city and region.

Though she calls herself a “reluctant leader,” Jones is no stranger to St. Louis’s infamously corrupt politics. Her father is a local political stalwart who propagated minority contracting as the city’s comptroller before resigning in disgrace and pleading guilty to federal tax fraud for embezzling from his juvenile nephew. In 2021, the younger Jones was elected as the city’s first black female mayor amid vainglorious hype about “black girl magic.” She previously served in the Missouri statehouse and as the city’s treasurer. 

Has there been a time in recent memory when the mayors of America’s biggest cities are as collectively unpopular as they are right now? Karen Bass in Los Angeles, Brandon Johnson in Chicago, and Eric Adams in New York are all in their first terms, yet in their short time in office they have squandered so much of the support that got them elected that they now sport disapproval ratings that would have made President Biden blush. Bass and Johnson already face recall efforts, and the leaders of New York’s city council have discussed how they might remove Adams from office amid his legal troubles. Though their circumstances differ, the three mayors are alike in one key respect: they were elected in one-party progressive towns where reform has become increasingly difficult because large groups of citizens vote based on demographic categories like race, ethnicity, or gender, and then discover that they don’t like the results of the policies they chose. What, if anything, will voters learn from these mayors’ failures?

The two largest cities in the United States are Los Angeles and New York City. Both are dominated by Democrats and, last week, both provided excellent case studies in negligence and corruption. In the City of Angels, dereliction of duty by municipal officials has caused 40,000 acres of residential and commercial property to go up in flames. In the Big Apple, a corrupt district attorney and a politically compromised judge set fire to the credibility of a once respected legal system. If it seems farfetched to connect these events, consider that 27 of the 30 largest U.S. cities are controlled by Democrats who have raised maladministration and lawfare to art forms.