When America returns to “normal,” what will become abundantly clear is that our big cities are no longer even marginally clean or safe.

Who Wants to Be A Cop?

Nationwide police will determine that is no longer worth getting killed, fired, spat upon or put in prison to answer a 911 call, writes Victor Davis Hanson in NRO.

In the age of Zoom and Skype, the bustle of the city may not be able to be fully replicated, and the drama of the live classroom relived, but tele-business still can be conducted well enough without having to navigate around the feces of Market Street, or the looting, shouting, and burning of Seattle.

Anarchy Sure Is Fun

A Mayor de Blasio or Durkan and a Governor Inslee or Newsom were more or less indifferent when “brick-and-mortar” livelihoods were wiped out. Observably, they expressed very little outrage. Preventing the recurrence of anarchy might alienate the looters and burners, and especially their appeasers and contextualizers.

If one wishes to endure watching the torching of the Oakland Mercedes-Benz dealership, one can do it on YouTube in Red Bluff without smelling the burning plastic four blocks away.

And when the NFL coaches take the knee this fall during the National Anthem, it will be far more out of sight and out of mind in Hawthorne, Calif., than when living in Silicon Valley.

The Blue Paradigm of Crime, Debt, Taxes

Our big cities are governed by a blue paradigm that fairly or not will now be increasingly synonymous with crime, debt, and high taxes that ensure bad services. Most city dwellers by needs and habit will still stay there.

But millions will increasingly seek to avoid cities and will appreciate their virtual upsides from a distance without having to endure their real downsides.