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The great cities of America were once beacons of prosperity, culture and business. But today, many of them – especially those run by the soft leadership of progressive, criminal leadership, are paying amazing financial prices for the policies they invest Criminals lead the community.
It’s not just feeling unsafe when you walk to dinner or shopping downtown. Crime has a balance sheet. In cities with poor leadership, this balance sheet is bleeding red ink every day.
Retail Exodus
Let’s start with retail. U.S. retailers lost $112 billion in 2022 due to theft, up from $94 billion the previous year, according to the National Retail Federation. In fact, in a recent study conducted by the NRF, the average number reported by retailers increased by 93%. Shoplifting incident Every year in 2023 to 2019, the dollar loss increased by 90% due to shoplifting during the same period.
Too many cities in the United States pay amazing financial prices for the policy of making criminals ahead of their communities. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
It’s more than just a rounding error – it’s the size of the GDP of medium-sized countries disappearing because stores can’t keep items on the shelves.
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The big retailers are not still. Target only San FranciscoPortland and New York. Walgreens closed dozens of stores in San Francisco. Nordstrom evacuated from the city center.
These are not “couples” stores without resources. These are billion-dollar companies that think retreating is better than keeping bleeding. Does this seem crazy to you, there are many of these retail stores that have to lock in most of these cities so people don’t rob, knowing they will never be arrested.
The next theft was a double blow: the job disappeared, and so did the business tax revenue. In San Francisco, commercial vacancies in downtown are now as high as 34.8%. An empty storefront means lost wages, loss of traffic and a decline in city budgets.
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When leadership shrugged at rampant shopping burglaries, the real victim was not the company—the local community that lost its economic engine.
High-end property value is declining
Crime will not stop on the register. It penetrates the community and destroys the biggest financial asset most Americans have: their homes. exist Chicagoneighborhoods plagued by violent crime and open-air drug dealings are seeing a decline in value in high-end apartments and homes. Lower property values equal lower property taxes, which means less funding is available to schools, parks and infrastructure.
Violence and tourism prices
In New York, the cost of incarceration of a person is $925 a day, or more than $337,000 a year. However, instead of addressing the root causes of crime, city leaders continue to spend money in the cycle of arrest, release and repeated crime. The cost of overtime at the NYPD is spinning as officers try to do more with fewer things, while politicians wear the ability to enforce the law.
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Tourists are not stupid. If you are not safe in Times Square or Union Square, you will be taking out holiday dollars elsewhere. Conventions avoid cities with lawless reputations. This means Lost hotel taxloses restaurant revenue and loses brand value by spending decades of building a reputation.
2 million fewer visitors from other countries are expected to travel New York City This year, in 2025, this could cost the Big Apple $4 billion in foreign travel dollars.
Especially for New York City, the bet is huge. If you like it Zohran Mamdani – Who has advocated cuts to police budgets – by their way, the expenses will only increase. Execution payments in the nation’s largest cities will mean higher crime, lower investments, and billions of dollars out of budgets. This is the secret to financial disasters.
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Bottom line
The cost of crime is more than just something stolen from store shelves. It is measured by unemployed jobs, lower property values, higher taxes, surge in public health costs and a dissipated reputation. Bad leadership in Blue City is turning America’s once great city center into a warning story about what’s going to happen to you Stop enforcement of the law.
If local leaders do not prioritize public safety, they will not be surprised when businesses, families and capital walk away. Because in the end, real crime is not only happening on the streets—it’s within the budget of the Blue City, and in the case of billions of dollars, the cost of chaos is measured.
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