Is Montgomery County going the way of broken San Francisco?

A decade in the past,
San Francisco
was among the many choicest actual property within the nation. Its data financial system fueled an city renaissance. Town boasted extra billionaires than every other. Housing was expensive and tight, however that didn’t cease younger engineers from flocking to the Bay Space. They got here for the town’s cultural choices, its cosmopolitan and various inhabitants, and good public colleges. Lowell Excessive Faculty in San Francisco, for instance, ranks increased than Walt Whitman Excessive Faculty in Bethesda, whereas KIPP San Francisco Faculty Preparatory outranked Bethesda-Chevy Chase Excessive Faculty.

At this time, nonetheless, San Francisco is in irreversible decline.

The mayor and metropolis council have embraced each progressive fad. The board of schooling rubber-stamped each union agenda. Fiscal duty fell by the wayside. Actuality didn’t dissuade the ideologues who had an iron grip on metropolis governance. Working example: a draft reparations plan that might pay black residents $5 million. Politicians typically imagine their very own spin, however residents noticed actuality. As politicians postured, residents fled. Vacationers, a few of whom have been victims of random avenue crime, now not come. Companies have shuttered. Conventions select different venues. The monetary district is a ghost city. Homelessness is rampant. Discarded needles and rubbish pile up. Gavin Newsom, the previous San Francisco mayor who’s now California’s governor, final week
ordered
California’s Nationwide Guard into the town to take care of the rising drug disaster.

May Montgomery County, Maryland, be subsequent?

The 2 areas have a lot in frequent. They’ve roughly the identical inhabitants. Each turned magnets for educated professionals, attracted by area of interest jobs and prime colleges. Each are basically one-party governments. The final time San Francisco elected a Republican mayor, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. Montgomery County has by no means had a Republican metropolis council president; its final Republican majority was throughout Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration.

The issue just isn’t partisan, however quite a scarcity of accountability when any celebration dominates for therefore lengthy. Like his compatriots in San Francisco, Montgomery County Government Marc Elrich has embraced each huge authorities and progressive fads. He just lately proposed a ten% property tax improve and a ballooning price range that dips deep into county reserves and commits the county to future obligatory spending as recessions loom. This in flip will mandate even larger tax hikes. Faculty funding has elevated as enrollment drops. Households as soon as interested in public colleges now flee as directors interpret fairness as a race to the bottom frequent denominator. Relatively than compete or contemplate greatest practices through the pandemic, the county tried as a substitute to close down competitors by forcing personal colleges to shut. (Travis Gayles, the bureaucrat accountable, subsequently left for San Francisco.)

Progressive prosecutors decline to prosecute crime, whereas native politicians bash the police. As a response, Montgomery County, like San Francisco, is dealing with a significant police recruitment and retention shortfall. Violent crime is rising, as is drug abuse.

It might appear preposterous that one of the fascinating areas in Maryland might decline so rapidly. Not like San Francisco, Montgomery County has the federal authorities, the roles for that are recession-proof and hold property demand excessive. To flee San Francisco takes effort. To flee excessive tax burdens and extreme authorities laws means leaving California completely, leaving jobs and mates behind.

Montgomery County faces no such barrier. Some have already fled Montgomery County for Howard and Frederick counties, whose public colleges proceed to prioritize core schooling over politics. Nor does a transfer to Virginia require altering jobs or forcing kids to depart behind their mates. All it means is a decrease tax burden. Even southern Pennsylvania is inside attain. Telecommuting solely will increase flexibility.

It might be a mistake for presidency officers to confuse constituents with hostages or contemplate the poll field the one means residents can vote. As taxes improve, colleges decline, crime surges and a recession looms, residents might, as in San Francisco, vote with their ft.

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Michael Rubin (
@mrubin1971
) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He’s a senior fellow on the American Enterprise Institute.