Know Your Enemy

Are Progressives to Blame for Urban Disorder? (w/ Hayes Davenport) [Teaser]

Jan 5, 2025

Explore the tension between progressive policies and urban disorder in major cities. Discover how conservatives exploit fears of chaos to shift blame onto progressives. Hear firsthand accounts of activism in LA and the challenges faced by elected officials pushing for change. Delve into the debate on whether perceptions of crime and homelessness contribute to a rightward political shift. Finally, consider alternative solutions that have gained public support while addressing the root causes of these issues.

03:59

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Quick takeaways

Perceptions of urban disorder have shifted blame onto progressives, complicating their ability to address systemic issues like poverty and crime.

Proactive measures, such as deploying safety ambassadors, reveal public support for compassionate approaches to improving urban safety and reducing crime.

Deep dives

The Impact of Progressive Governance

Progressive governance in urban environments has shifted the perception of issues like homelessness and crime from bureaucratic failures to ideological decisions. Instead of viewing situations such as retail theft or street encampments as signs of a malfunctioning system, they are now interpreted as deliberate choices driven by ideology. This transformation has led to a focus on compassion for individuals' rights, often resulting in inaction as officials hesitate to intervene in what they view as suffering. The narrative suggests that those in power prioritize empathy over direct action, despite the increasing challenges faced by city residents.

The Impact of Progressive Policies on Urban Disorder

4min

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Right wing movements thrive by cultivating fears of disorder. Conservatives depict blue cities as sites of rampant crime, chaos, and iniquity. And often enough, it is progressives — with their overdeveloped empathy and concern for the poor and criminalized — who take the blame. Recently, a rising chorus of voices on the center-left, including figures like Ezra Klein, have embraced the thesis that perceptions of disorder in cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco have contributed to America’s rightward turn. But is that accurate? And can anything be done about it?

In this episode, Sam is joined by organizer, writer, and podcaster Hayes Davenport to discuss his experiences fighting against this sort of backlash in Los Angeles. As soon as Hayes had helped his friend Nithya Raman get elected to the LA City Council in 2020 and joined her staff, conservative forces in city government mobilized to thwart her pro-tenant agenda and blame the tiny faction of progressives on the council for rising crime and homelessness. How did they respond? What can the past few years in LA politics teach the American left? And can we imagine a leftist politics that short-circuits the right’s effort to use disorder to undermine our efforts to address its underlying causes: government neglect, poverty, and exploitation. We discuss!

Further Reading:

Hayes Davenport, "Ezra Klein is wrong about this," Big City Heat, Dec 9, 2024.

— "Violent crime is down. Why are so many people mad about it?" Big City Heat, Dec 16, 2024.

— "Sects on the Beach: The 2024 Santa Monica City Council Race," Big City Heat, Nov 1, 2024.

— "The Last LA Election When Crime Was Going Up For Real," Big City Heat, Nov 11, 2024.

Emily Badger & Alicia Parlapiano, "Is the Urban Shift Toward Trump Really About Democratic Cities in Disarray?" NY Times, Dec 6, 2024.

Jill Cowan, Serge F. Kovaleski, & Leanne Abraham, "How a New City Council Map of L.A. Turned Into a Political Brawl," NY Times, Sept 3, 2023.

Koko Nakakjima & Phi Do, "California and Los Angeles County are getting tougher on crime. Here are the maps that show it," LA Times, Dec 30, 2024.

Jay Caspian Kang, "Who Really Controls Local Politics?" NY Times, Oct 11, 2021.

— "How Homeowners’ Associations Get Their Way in California," NY Times, Oct 14, 2021.

— "A Leader They Didn’t Choose," NY Times, Oct 18, 2021.

Subscribe to Hayes's podcast: Hollywood Handbook and Friends.