Via Seattlest…

Jonah Goldberg—right-wing commentator and big, fat, doughy idiot—visited Seattle recently and had this to say on the National Review’s group blog, The Corner:

I’m heading back to DC in a few hours. I always have such mixed feelings about Seattle. On the one hand, there’s a lot to like about this town and this region. It’s my kind of weather, my kind of food, etc. But I’m always amazed at how pre-Giuliani so much of the downtown is. I’m baffled at how the business community and the tourist industry can cave to the drug-addict romanticizers and panhandler enablers. There is so much skeeviness and bummery going on right at the heart of why people come to this town in the first place. And, it’s not just to prey on the tourists, there are half-way houses, methadone clinics, etc all near Pike’s. I don’t folllow Seattle politics so I don’t know how the arguments play out, but I’d have to guess there are West Coast versions of the same jackasses who thought drug dealing, transvestite hookers, and robbery were what gave Times Square its authenticity and “charm.”

All I can say is, gee, you should’ve seen the place before the anti-panhandling law was passed, before the anti-sitting-on-the-sidewalk law, the anti-public urination law—basically the whole package of Sidran-era “civility” laws that criminalized but—surprise!—failed to eradicate drug abuse, homelessness, hookers, etc. And the presence of so many social services downtown? All those half-way houses, methadone clinics, etc., “near Pike’s”? It’s the result of Republican and Democratic anti-urbanism, Jonah. That sort of stuff was dumped in the center of cities to spare residential neighborhoods and suburban areas from having to shoulder their fair share of social service infrastructure.

But, whatever. Snobs and elitists like Goldberg wage war on the inner city for decades, allowing urban areas to rot, and then complain when they drop in for a visit and have to step over the homeless that their social neglect helped to create. But, again, whatever. I don’t expect Goldberg to have a conscience. You would think, though, that someone from the East Coast wouldn’t be such a pussy about a few tranny hookers and drug addicts. I mean, if Jonah thinks Seattle is bad, he should go hang out in Portland sometime.