Nicholas Kristof: What have we liberals done to the West Coast?

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PORTLAND, Ore. — As Democrats make their case to voters around the country this fall, one challenge is that some of the bluest parts of the country — cities on the West Coast — are a mess.

Centrist voters can reasonably ask: Why put liberals in charge nationally when the places where they have greatest control are plagued by homelessness, crime and dysfunction?

I’ll try to answer that question in a moment, but liberals like me do need to face the painful fact that something has gone badly wrong where we’re in charge, from San Diego to Seattle. I’m an Oregonian who bores people at cocktail parties by singing the praises of the West, but the truth is that too often we offer a version of progressivism that doesn’t result in progress.

We are more likely to believe that “housing is a human right” than conservatives in Florida or Texas, but less likely to actually get people housed. We accept a yawning gulf between our values and our outcomes.

Conservatives argue that the problem is simply the left. Michael Shellenberger wrote a tough book denouncing what he called “San Fransicko” with the subtitle “Why Progressives Ruin Cities.” Yet that doesn’t ring true to me.

Democratic states enjoy a life expectancy two years longer than Republican states. Per capita GDP in Democratic states is 29% higher than in Republican states, and child poverty is lower. Education is generally better in blue states, with more kids graduating from high school and college. The gulf in well-being between blue states and red states is growing wider, not narrower.

So my rejoinder to Republican critiques is: Yes, governance is flawed in some blue parts of America, but overall, liberal places have enjoyed faster economic growth and higher living standards than conservative places. That doesn’t look like failure.

So the problem isn’t with liberalism. It’s with West Coast liberalism.

The two states with the highest rates of unsheltered homelessness are California and Oregon. The three states with the lowest rates of unsheltered homelessness are all blue ones in the Northeast: Vermont, New York and Maine. Liberal Massachusetts has some of the finest public schools in the country, while liberal Washington and Oregon have below-average high school graduation rates.

Oregon ranks dead last for youth mental health services, according to Mental Health America, while Washington, D.C., and Delaware rank best.

Drug overdoses appear to have risen last year in every Democratic state on the West Coast, while they dropped last year in each Democratic state in the Northeast. The homicide rate in Portland last year was more than double that of New York City.

Why does Democratic Party governance seem less effective on the West Coast than on the East Coast?

Intentions instead of oversight and outcomes

Sometimes I wonder if the West is less serious about policy than the East and less focused on relying on the most rigorous evidence. There’s some evidence for that. But I’m not sure, for it’s also true that West Coast states have managed to innovate exceptionally well in some domains. Oregon pioneered “death with dignity” through physician-assisted suicide and led the way to vote by mail, an important step for democracy. California has some of the smartest gun safety laws in America, championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. As a result, California has a firearms death rate 40% below the national average.

So my take is that the West Coast’s central problem is not so much that it’s unserious as that it’s infected with an ideological purity that is focused more on intentions than on oversight and outcomes.

I ran for governor in Oregon two years ago (I was ousted from the ballot by Oregon’s then-secretary of state, who said I didn’t meet the residency requirement). While running, I’d meet groups of liberal donors in Portland, as the city’s problems cast a shadow over all of us; we’d all be wondering nervously if our catalytic converters were in the process of being stolen. The undercurrent in such a liberal gathering would be the failures of Republicans — but Portland was one mess we couldn’t blame on Republicans, because there simply aren’t many Republicans in Portland. This was our liberal mess.

Politics always is part theater, but out West too often we settle for being performative rather than substantive.

For example, as a gesture to support trans kids, Oregon took money from the tight education budget to put tampons in boys’ restrooms in elementary schools — including boys’ restrooms in … kindergartens.

“The inability of progressives, particularly in the Portland metro area, to deal with the nitty-gritty of governing and to get something done is just staggering,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat who has been representing and championing Portland for more than half a century, told me. “People are much more interested in ideology than in actual results.”

Consider a volunteer group called the Portland Freedom Fund that was set up to pay bail for people of color. The organization raised money from well-intentioned liberal donors, and the underlying problems were real: Bail requirements hit poor people hard.

In 2022, the Portland Freedom Fund helped a Black man named Mohamed Adan who had been arrested after allegedly strangling his former girlfriend, holding a gun to her head and then — in violation of a restraining order — cutting off his GPS monitor and entering her building. “He told me that he would kill me,” the former girlfriend, Rachael Abraham, warned.

The Freedom Fund paid Adan’s bail, and he walked out of jail. A week later, Adan allegedly removed his GPS monitor again and entered Abraham’s home. The police found Abraham’s body drenched in blood with a large knife nearby; three children were also in the house.

Adan was charged with murder — no bail this time — and the incident prompted soul-searching in Portland. But perhaps not enough. A well-meaning effort to help people of color may have cost the life of a woman of color.

One of the passions of the left, drawing partly on Ibram X. Kendi’s book “How to Be an Antiracist,” has been that if a policy leads to racial inequity, then it’s racist even if it wasn’t meant to be. But by that standard, West Coast progressivism abounds in racism.

We in the West impeded home construction in ways that made cities unaffordable, especially for people of color. We let increasing numbers of people struggle with homelessness, particularly Black and brown people. Black people in Portland are also murdered at higher rates than in cities more notorious for violence, and Seattle and Portland have some of the greatest racial disparities in arrests in the country.

I don’t actually agree with Kendi. I think intentions and framing can matter, but it’s absolutely true that good intentions are not enough. What matters is improving opportunities and quality of life, and the best path to do that is a relentless empiricism — which clashes with the West Coast’s indifference to the laws of economics.

The basic reason for homelessness on the West Coast is an enormous shortage of housing that drives up rents. California lacks about 3 million housing units, in part because it’s difficult to get permission to build.

As long as there is such a vast shortage, housing is like musical chairs. Move one family into housing, and another won’t get a home.

Public sector efforts to build housing are often ruinously expensive, with “affordable housing” sometimes costing more than $1 million per unit, so the private sector is critical. Yet one element of progressive purity is suspicion of the private sector, and this hobbles efforts to make businesses part of the solution. Business owners who earn an income from their company are effectively barred from serving on the Portland City Council.

Needed: a healthy Republican Party

Perhaps on the West Coast we have ideological purity because there isn’t much political competition. Republicans are irrelevant in much of the Far West, so they can’t hold Democrats’ feet to the fire — leading Democrats in turn to wander unchecked farther to the left. That’s not so true in the Northeast: A Republican, Charlie Baker, was until recently governor of Massachusetts, and Republicans are competitive statewide in Maine, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey.

Maybe a healthy Republican Party keeps the Democratic Party healthy, and vice versa.

Without opposition party oversight, problems aren’t always fixed expeditiously. For example, some blue states have well-intentioned laws meant to protect citizens from involuntary commitment to mental institutions — but these days, with drugs and untreated mental illness interacting to produce psychosis, such laws can crush the people they’re supposed to help.

One of my school friends in my hometown, Yamhill, Oregon, Stacy, struggled with alcoholism and mental illness. She became homeless and lived in a tent in a park, but it is almost impossible in such cases to move someone involuntarily into an institution. So she froze to death one winter night.

I think of Stacy suffering and dying unnecessarily, and I believe that instead of protecting her, our liberalism failed her.

Less purity, more pragmatism

One encouraging sign is that the West Coast may be self-correcting. I’ve been on a book tour in recent weeks, and in my talks in California, Oregon and Washington I’ve been struck by the way nearly everyone frankly acknowledges this gulf between our values and our outcomes, and welcomes more pragmatic approaches. California and Oregon have taken steps to boost housing supply, and Oregon ended an experiment in drug decriminalization. Homelessness seems a bit better in San Francisco and other cities, and homicides have dropped.

I’m still a believer in the West Coast. Partly it’s the physical beauty of the region and the outdoor opportunities, and partly it’s that the West has a history of reinventing itself. I remember Seattle’s struggles in the 1970s, when a billboard near the airport read, “Will the last person leaving Seattle — turn out the lights.” The West Coast has always rescued itself by seizing new ideas, from personal computers to the internet, and building on them. The Bay Area may be doing that again today with artificial intelligence.

On a visit to San Francisco in May, I took a Waymo self-driving taxi. It eerily stopped in front of me, unlocked itself and then drove me smoothly to my destination. That did feel like a futuristic journey in a futuristic city.

We need to get our act together. Less purity and more pragmatism would go a long way. But perhaps the first step must be the humility to acknowledge our failures.

Nicholas Kristof writes a column for the New York Times, 620 Eighth Ave., New York, NY 10018.

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Celtics rout Dallas to win 18th NBA championship

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BOSTON — The Boston Celtics again stand alone among NBA champions.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JUNE 17: Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics holds up the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy after Boston’s 106-88 win against the Dallas Mavericks in Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)

Jayson Tatum had 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds as the Celtics topped the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 on Monday night to win the franchise’s 18th championship, breaking a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in league history.

Boston earned its latest title on the 16th anniversary of hoisting its last Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2008. It marks the 13th championship won this century by one of the city’s Big 4 professional sports franchises.

Jaylen Brown added 21 points and was voted the NBA Finals MVP. Jrue Holiday finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Center Kristaps Porzingis also provided an emotional lift, returning from a two-game absence because of a dislocated tendon in his left ankle to chip in five points in 17 minutes.

It helped the Celtics cap a postseason that saw them go 16-3 and finish with an 80-21 overall record. That .792 winning percentage ranks second in team history behind only the Celtics’ 1985-86 championship team that finished 82-18 (.820).

Second-year coach Joe Mazzulla, at age 35, also became the youngest coach since Bill Russell in 1969 to lead a team to a championship.

Luka Doncic finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds for Dallas, which failed to extend the series after avoiding a sweep with a 38-point win in Game 4. The Mavericks had been 3-0 in Game 5s this postseason, with Doncic scoring at least 31 points in each of the them.

Kyrie Irving finished with just 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting and has now lost 13 of the last 14 meetings against the Celtics team he left in the summer of 2019 to join the Brooklyn Nets.

NBA teams are now 0-157 in postseason series after falling into a 3-0 deficit.

Boston never trailed and led by as many as 26 feeding off the energy of the Garden crowd.

Dallas was within 16-15 early before the Celtics closed the first quarter on a 12-3 run that included eight combined points by Tatum and Brown.

The Celtics did it again in the second quarter when the Mavericks trimmed what had been a 15-point deficit to nine. Boston ended the period with a 19-7 spurt that was capped by a a half-court buzzer beater by Payton Pritchard – his second such shot of the series – to give Boston a 67-46 halftime lead.

Over the last two minutes of the first and second quarters, the Celtics outscored the Mavericks 22-4.
The Celtics never looked back.

Russell’s widow, Jeannine Russell, and his daughter Karen Russell were in TD Garden to salute the newest generation of Celtics champions.
They watched current Celtics stars Tatum and Brown earn their first rings. It was the trade that sent 2008 champions Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn in 2013 that netted Boston the draft picks it eventually used to select Brown and Tatum third overall in back-to-back drafts in 2016 and 2017.

The All-Stars came into their own this season, leading a Celtics team that built around taking and making a high number of 3-pointers, and a defense that rated as the league’s best during the regular season.

The duo made it to at least the Eastern Conference finals as teammates four previous times.

Their fifth deep playoff run together proved to be the charm.

After both struggling at times offensively in the series, Tatum and Brown hit a groove in Game 5, combining for 31 points and 11 assists in the first half.

It helped bring out all the attributes that made Boston the NBA’s most formidable team this postseason – spreading teams out, sharing the ball, and causing havoc on defense.

And it put a championship bow on dizzying two-year stretch for the Celtics, that saw them lose in the finals to the Golden State Warriors in 2022 and then fail to return last season after a Game 7 home loss to the Miami Heat in the conference finals.

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, top, and Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday, bottom, land on the parquet as they vie for the ball during the first half of Game 5 of the NBA basketball finals, Monday, June 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Lynx rally past Dallas, improve to 11-3

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Natisha Hiedeman provided a late third-quarter spark that carried over into the final frame, and the Minnesota Lynx beat Dallas 90-78 Monday night at Target Center.

Deftly leading the offensive charge, the backup guard scored nine of her season-high 17 points in a nearly five-minute span that saw the Lynx open up a 13-point lead.

Kayla McBride had 19 points and seven assists to lead five Lynx players who finished with double-digit points.

Napheesa Collier added 16 points, seven rebounds and three steals; Alanna Smith scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds; Dorka Juhász made all five of her shots for 11 points.

Minnesota (11-3) has won four straight and seven of eight.

The Lynx played without starting forward Bridget Carleton, who missed the game with an elbow injury and is considered day to day. Carleton has found her stroke from deep, going 11 of 18 in her past three games.

Juhász, starting for the first time this season, and Smith were routinely challenged inside with mixed success.

A post-oriented team, the Wings started three players at least 6-feet-4, and they outscored Minnesota 44-38 in the paint — 28-10 in the first half — and 14-8 in second-chance opportunities.

Dallas (3-10) lost its eighth straight game and had just eight healthy players available. Arike Ogunbowale, the league’s second-leading scorer at 24.9 points per game, sat out with Achilles soreness.

With the Lynx down 59-57, Hiedeman kicked off a 19-6 run with a 3-point play and a couple of free throws before finding Smith for an easy basket.

Up by three starting the fourth quarter, Minnesota opened on a 12-2 run to make it 78-63, a stretch that included four points and a couple Hiedeman feeds for Lynx layups.

The Wings got within six. But a Collier jumper and a Hiedeman layup that began with a Smith block in the defensive end and a McBride feed at the other end put Minnesota up 84-74.

Sevgi Uzun and Maddy Siegrist led the Wings with 17 points each. Monique Billings added 15.

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Lake Elmo, Oakdale residents worried about PFAS contamination in private wells lobby for bottled water

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A group of residents from the Tri-Lakes area in Lake Elmo and Oakdale are asking state officials to provide bottled water until they can get testing done to show whether their private wells have PFAS chemical levels exceeding the new limits for drinking water announced in April by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“It’s just not acceptable to wait this long,” said Debbie Dean, who lives near Lake Demontreville. “It’s unrealistic to expect us to wait a year or six months. We have grandchildren. I went out and bought water.”

A group of residents plan to attend the Lake Elmo City Council meeting on Tuesday night to express their concerns, Dean said.

“It appears that the Lake Elmo/Oakdale dumpsite plumes are expanding or changing direction,” Tom and Daryl Seifert and Pat and Debbie Dean wrote this week in a letter to residents. “The MPCA has informed us of a lengthy backlog for testing polluted wells. This is causing great anxiety in our neighborhood. We are disappointed with the slow response from the state, and we are asking for immediate relief with bottled water for our use until the state can determine if our wells are safe.”

Lake Elmo and Oakdale are among several in the east metro that are stepping up efforts to handle the “forever chemicals” after the EPA on April 10 finalized standards of no more than 4 parts per trillion for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

The updated guidelines mean that wells in the area may be above the allowable drinking water standards. “Currently, the number of contaminated wells tested and identified by the MPCA stands at six, with many additional homeowners waiting for their wells to be tested,” the letter states.

The plume of PFAS contamination has moved north of Lakes Demontreville and Olson, which is why some wells in the area are now exhibiting levels of PFAS that make the drinking water unsafe, Dean said.

If a well is found to be contaminated, bottled water is supplied free of charge until a charcoal filter system can be installed, but there is an extended wait to get wells tested through the PCA, and “it can take months before the results are available,” she said.

Dean said she is concerned about the wait. “If the wells are fine, we don’t need (bottled water),” she said. “But chances are, they are polluted.”

There are between 7,000 and 8,000 private drinking water wells in 14 communities in the east metro, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The MPCA collects samples as residents request the agency to gather them, and, to date, agency staff have sampled about half of the private wells in all of the east metro, said Becky Lentz, assistant director of communications for the MPCA.

People can request sampling using an online form: webapp.pca.state.mn.us/gw-sampling-req/.

The state provides bottled water to residents whose well results have exceeded the Minnesota Department of Health’s health-risk index “until those residents get connected to municipal water or install a whole-home treatment filter,” Lentz said.

Lake Elmo Mayor Charles Cadenhead said Monday that he would encourage anyone who lives north of where the plume was originally located to get their wells tested.

“The MPCA is actively trying to figure out where wells are impacted,” he said.

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