In my experience, one's opinion of this centers on one's politics. Usually these things are discussed in the context of large cities in the western US controlled by democrats. This leads to many who are farther on the left claiming rising crime is an illusion and if it exists at all it is caused by police not doing their jobs as payback for calls for reform. This also leads many on the right to clutch pearls and declare that liberal enclaves are dying and failed social experiments in liberalism and weak criminal justice.
I'll say that, in the case of Seattle, I don't believe overall stats show the region is less safe than, say, the 90s. The 90s were sort of peak crack cocaine and street gangs. Having lived through that time and remembering the crimewave, I think the issue now is that crime back then was mostly in bad areas and didn't affect most middle or upper class folks. Now, especially after the gentrification and return to downtowns, middle and upper class folks are more exposed to crime. The meth and fentanyl epidemics are also helping to push crime into more suburban areas.
With all that said, and hopefully not to ruin my other points, I'll say I am leaning more conservative these days after seeing what has become of western cities(from San Diego to Seattle, I've visited them all fairly regularly over the past few decades). I don't think every problem is fixable via public policy, but damn, we're doing something wrong here.
Exactly, you see this to a more extreme degree in South America.
Particularly Rio, Buenos Aires, and Asuncion.
Rio is don’t take your phone out if you don’t want it to get stolen.
BA is you might get mugged at night.
Asuncion is you can forget your phone at a cafe and someone will run after you to give it to you but don’t go to the bad areas or you’ll get killed.
Oddly Asuncion is the poorest city of them all, but also by far the most conservative. In Rio the women will rob you, in Asuncion not even the Venezuelans who live on the street will rob you.
Pretty much everywhere in Seattle is middle and upper class today, so yea - crime is a lot more real to many people when it’s near them.
Along the same vein, “What has become of western cities” is “rich and expensive”. And if by conservative you mean “want less government regulation against building homes” then I think you’re right.
I have lived in the Seattle core since 2010, not out in the suburbs. Over that time, the crime visibly improved over many years. Then it became visibly much worse, starting around COVID, than at any prior time since I have lived there.
The lived reality is that the city stopped making even the pretense of enforcing the law. Theft and assaults regularly happen in broad daylight and law enforcement mostly doesn’t bother. The prosecutors won’t prosecute much short of attempted murder these days; no point in arresting people if they are going to be immediately released. People stop reporting crime because at best their insurance premiums will increase and at worst they will be loudly accused of oppressing the downtrodden or some such twaddle. There is no ROI. Many women who have lived in these communities a long time no longer feel safe.
Anecdotally, this is driving a lot of people to move into the high rises with real security from high-density neighborhoods like Capitol Hill where having your building invaded by miscreants happens surprisingly often. People put a lot of value on being able to live in a place where they feel secure, and so anyone that can afford it is retreating behind secured walls.
It's an interesting picture... rising cost of living and affluence at the same time as law and order broke down. It's getting better from what I hear, but my relatives still avoid downtown. Definitely not the city I strolled around solo as a kid.
I have a relative in public safety(fire) who deals enough with cops to know that the problems are not coming from cops feeling spurned. A combination of lax laws and an almost pro-crime judiciary sent things into a spiral. Things finally got bad enough that PNW liberals are becoming more pragmatic and it looks to be improving. Time will tell.
I'll say that, in the case of Seattle, I don't believe overall stats show the region is less safe than, say, the 90s. The 90s were sort of peak crack cocaine and street gangs. Having lived through that time and remembering the crimewave, I think the issue now is that crime back then was mostly in bad areas and didn't affect most middle or upper class folks. Now, especially after the gentrification and return to downtowns, middle and upper class folks are more exposed to crime. The meth and fentanyl epidemics are also helping to push crime into more suburban areas.
With all that said, and hopefully not to ruin my other points, I'll say I am leaning more conservative these days after seeing what has become of western cities(from San Diego to Seattle, I've visited them all fairly regularly over the past few decades). I don't think every problem is fixable via public policy, but damn, we're doing something wrong here.