Philadelphia and Pittsburgh: No Longer Shining Cities on a Hill

Progressive policies have laid waste to Pennsylvania’s two largest cities as crime, rampant drug use and homelessness have consumed both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Pittsburgh is running full speed into the abyss as progressives gain more political power, and Philadelphia suffers from a George Soros-backed District Attorney’s soft on crime approach that has enabled the lawlessness.

In recent days the spotlight has been placed on Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by Fox News and the Washington Examiner. What the spotlight revealed was truly disturbing.

The Fox News report focused on Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood which has degenerated into an open-air drug market. The details are graphic:

“In Kensington’s open-air drug market, users were passed out on the pavement, covered in scabbing or oozing flesh wounds from xylazine with fresh blood running down their arms from injecting themselves with needles. Some users were spotted wandering around in a stupor through a busy road.”

The neighborhood is emblematic of a larger crime problem plaguing the city. Violent crime has spiked, with over 500 homicides last year. Broad & Liberty reports property crimes are also on the rise:

“Retail theft jumped up 52 percent, going from 9,371 reported incidents in 2021 up to 14,533 incidents in 2022. It’s an all-time high for that subcategory going back to 2015, according to an analysis of eight years of annual data published by the PPD.

Auto thefts increased 36 percent from 2021 to ‘22. While that year-to-year increase is certainly significant, the longer trend is even more concerning, as auto thefts in 2022 were roughly three times more than the baseline years of 2016-2019. While an upswing in carjackings would contribute to that figure, it would not account for most of the increase in total auto thefts.”

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is one of several George Soros-backed D.A.s around the country whose progressive policies have decimated the cities they are sworn to defend. Krasner was impeached by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives during the last session of the General Assembly, but never stood trial in the state Senate.

Meanwhile, at the other end of Penn’s Woods the City of Pittsburgh has its own problems with crime and urban decay. Writing in the Washington Examiner Salena Zito described the downtown scene:

“A drive throughout the city in mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and in the evening found a city in decay. Homelessness isn’t hidden, it is prevalent. Patches of open-air drug markets are brazenly conducted, the smell of urine and feces is prevalent, and reports of small businesses calling it quits grow in frequency.

Somedays the Pittsburgh Renewal Truck will pull up to unload a crew to clean up the feces and needles . . . the crew is an effort by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, a private nonprofit civic organization formed by local businesses to clean up the city’s decay.

In short, they are treating the symptom of a disease the city refuses to address.”

In her article Zito lays blame for the situation at the feet of current Mayor Ed Gainey who, she reports “after taking office in January of 2022 has done little to nothing to address the city’s collapse.” Gainey is one of a growing number of progressives who have displaced traditional Democrats in public office in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Their ideological fervor and fealty to Left-wing special interest groups prevent them from taking the practical steps needed to address the city’s problems.

In Pittsburgh the situation is poised to become even worse. Traditional Democrats split the vote in the May Primary for Allegheny County Executive allowing socialist-progressive Sarah Innamorato to win the nomination. In heavily Democrat Allegheny County she is favored to win the General Election. In the same Primary incumbent traditional Democrat Stephen Zappala was defeated by Soros-backed progressive Matt Dugan. Zappala secured the Republican nomination by write-in setting up a November rematch.

The bottom line is that as far as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have fallen the stage is set for things to get worse, especially in the Steel City. Traditional Democrats in Allegheny County seem to have no answer to the rise of the party’s socialist-progressive wing which is posed to control all the levers of power thus further implementing the policies that have driven the decay.

Regions rot from the city core outward. Recent statistics show a significant jump in the crime rate in Delaware County which borders on Philadelphia. Suburbanites need to turn a wary eye to what is happening in the state’s largest cities. Neither city is likely to abandon its progressive path. That means the problems will only spread and get worse, much worse.

(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly American Radio Journal and Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail address is [email protected])

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