Feet

I had a recent conversation with a friend from New York City who is a lifelong Democrat, blue to the core. We talked about the ongoing "escape from New York"—a phenomenon, post-Covid, that has seen New Yorkers permanently flee their city and state for places like Florida or the Carolinas. He rejected my argument that unecessary and ineffective pandemic lockdowns, closed schools, stratospheric taxes, and the ongoing anti-police policies with a resultant increase in violent crime had anything to do with the exodus.

"Look," he argued, "your weather a a major draw, particularly after we've suffered through hard winters."

"Then why," I wondered, "is the same exodus happening in California, another deep blue state." 

He said I was exaggerating.

David Keltz reports:

In 2020, 135,600 more people left the state of California than moved there, the third-largest population loss ever recorded in the Golden State and only the 12th time since 1900 that California has had a net migration loss. From July 1, 2019, to July 1, 2020, California added just 21,200 people, increasing the state’s population by 0.05 percent ...

Although the data is clear that children are not effective spreaders of the virus, [Gov. Gavin] Newsom waited until this April to push for schools to reopen for in-person learning. And though epidemiologists have concluded that outdoor transmission of the virus is likely under 1 percent or even lower, Newsom, based on no available data, decided to close all of California’s more than 420 public beaches and 280 state parks at various points in the past year. Disneyland also remained shuttered beginning in mid-March of last year and only recently reopened at the end of April. Newsom’s actions have resulted in a projected $72 billion in lost revenue for the state. Meanwhile, California continues to have the highest income tax rate in the country at 13.3 percent, which means that the taxpayers are paying the state to shut down their businesses and lock themselves in their homes.

For similar reasons, people are also fleeing New York in large numbers. Between January 1, 2020, and December 7, 2020, 3.57 million people left New York City, resulting in nearly $34 billion in lost tax revenue from residents. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has kept Broadway’s theaters shut down since March 12 of last year, and he did not allow indoor dining in restaurants until February of this year — and even then at a greatly reduced capacity. Professional sports teams, including the New York Yankees, only recently allowed fans to watch games in person, again at reduced capacity. These actions resulted in $60 billion in lost tourism revenue for New York City in 2020.

Meanwhile, Mayor Bill de Blasio kept the city’s schools closed for most of the past year, while allowing crime in the Big Apple to increase dramatically. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) reported that murders in the city rose to 462 in 2020, a 45 percent increase from 2019. The city also recorded 1,531 shootings in 2020, a 97 percent increase from 2019.

Exaggerating? Yeah ... right.

The one vote that the Democrats and their many media allies can't influence is the inalienable right to vote with your feet. Looks like that's happening in blue states like CA, NY, IL, CT, NJ and others.