re: Red states have the highest crime in the country

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That these cities became wastelands isn't really on the citizenry IMO. This was planned across the board for all major US cities.

SHORPY -- an 'Old Photos / Vintage Photos' website. (punch in "Old" ___)

SHORPY

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Search any of the above "high crime rate" cities before WW2 and you'll be both shocked and saddened by the BEFORE / AFTER post WW2 cities became within 15-20 years. Operation: City Negligence aka, "Urban Renewal" plans were really about.

ALL these cities pre-WW2 were beautiful. Maybe not have been totally safe, but that always been "life in the city". And certainly not (purposely, by design) made a mess, neglected, and its classic olde world architecture knocked down, razed &demolished for no good reason.

Olde Nawlins, Little Rock, many southern towns/cities that were gorgeous in the 1800s -- up to pre-WW2.

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This is a result of federal policies, mainly the interstate system, but obviously also the hollowing out of the industrial base which came later. Not to say that was entirely bad, there were a lot of positives for the Western half of the country, but basically that disrupted the natural route of how goods transported throughout the country (which was via the rivers). It also increased the importance of other cities at the expense of previously wealthy ones.

So for example, Buffalo, NY once was the wealthiest city in America at the turn of the century. Not only is it still the best planned American city, it also has fantastic architecture. It's the only city in the country to have had one of America's 4 most prominent architects (Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham and Frederick Olmstead) design either a park or building. Yet Buffalo got completely disrupted by the highway system because of its geographic prominence connecting NYC (via the Erie Canal) to Detroit & Chicago. Not to mention how the highways cut through this idealistically planned American city. St. Louis is another example of this.

Effectively, there was a massive wealth transfer to places like Phoenix, Vegas, Bay Area, LA, etc. all of which benefitted because of the interstate system, plus air conditioning for the Sunbelt areas. If you look at average home value data by city in the 1920s, the wealthiest cities which have since lost the most prominence in relative values ever since, the ones which standout are Buffalo, New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit, Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Newark, Richmond, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Youngstown. Not to mention, there were other cities like Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, etc. who were on their way to being a lot wealthier too and had experienced a ton of growth up until the war / interstate system.