A weekend topic starting with the Wall Street Journal. "Protesters frustrated that marches on the streets haven’t resulted in more dramatic police reforms have found a new stage: the homes of big city mayors. In San Jose, Calif., a group of about 100 people spray-painted an obscenity on the front door of Mayor Sam Liccardo on Aug. 28, threw eggs and burned an American flag as they demanded that he defund the Police Department."

"In Portland, Ore., protesters threw burning material into the lobby of the apartment building where Mayor Ted Wheeler lives. In Seattle, they marched to the home of Mayor Jenny Durkan, who as a former federal prosecutor later expressed alarm that her previously undisclosed address had been made public. In Chicago, activists descended on the home of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, prompting the city to begin enforcing a statute banning protests in residential neighborhoods."

"Mr. Liccardo initially called the protesters who came to his home 'menacing thugs' in a tweet he later deleted. In an interview, he said these kinds of actions go too far. 'When people start committing acts of vandalism, it’s just not right—especially when you’re talking about a residence,' said the mayor, who has championed a slate of police reforms that don’t include funding reductions."

"'Vandalism is a consequence of the collapse of the social contract. That contract is violated when those entrusted with serving and protecting the community continuously murder unarmed people of color with impunity, not when someone spray paints a house to protest those murders,' Kiana Simmons, president and founder of HERO Tent, a social-justice group based in the San Francisco Bay Area, said in an email."

"Oakland, Calif., Mayor Libby Schaaf ran upstairs to check on her children when activists shot fireworks and paintball guns and covered her property with graffiti after she approved a 5% reduction in police spending, rather than the 50% some protesters had demanded."

"Three decades ago, after graduating law school, Ms. Schaaf served as a legal observer to protect street protesters from potential police abuse. 'It feels a little Twilight Zoney that many of us got into public service because we wanted to fight the man,' she said. 'Now we are deemed as the man.'"

From The Hill. "While the election isn’t until November 3, it looks like lots of people and businesses are, in a sense, 'voting' early — with their feet. In pre-pandemic January, I wrote here about the blue-state exodus in which thousands of blue-state residents, fed up with high taxes, heavy regulations and 'woker-than-thou' policies, are fleeing the sinking blue ships and moving to red states. Now it appears we are seeing a blue-city exodus as well."

"World Population Review lists the 20 most liberal U.S. cities, with San Francisco leading the way, followed by Washington, DC, Seattle, Oakland, Boston, Minneapolis, Detroit and New York City. Chicago comes in at 11 and Portland at 12. According to the Review, liberal cities tend to place 'greater value on social justice, ensuring access to healthcare, regulating economic activity, and social equality.' And, of course, higher taxes."

"Noticeably absent among liberal-city priorities is peace, safety, order and respect for private property. The result is that businesses, especially those located in or near the riot zones, are looking to move. Greg Goodman, co-president of Portland’s Downtown Development Group, recently sent Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler a letter — or should I say a warning?"

"Goodman goes on to tell the mayor and the city council: 'You are doing an excellent of enabling people who don't know or care about George Floyd to ransack our city at the expense of the people you are trying to help. Think how many jobs have been lost by people of color in our city, not through protest, but from vandalism.'"

"'Enabling' may be an understatement. Mayor Wheeler, like so many woke Democrats, has been out encouraging and participating in the riots — though he apparently has begun to walk back his support now that protesters are showing up at his home."

"Housing markets are also reflecting the growing blue-city dissatisfaction. Zillow CEO Richard Barton recently told CNBC that online shopping traffic for homes for sale is up 50 percent year over year. 'What we’re seeing is a lot of dissatisfaction with where people are living right now.' Most of the searches are for single-family homes, outside of the downtown areas."

"Rex Real Estate, a website that allows people to buy and sell homes, told the Wall Street Journal in June, 'buyer interest in small metro areas is outpacing large metro areas by 52%. It has also seen a 173% increase in New York buyers considering homes in Orlando compared to this time in 2019.' In addition, the Big Apple’s apartment vacancy rate hit a 14-year high, and increased by 50 percent in San Francisco."

From Realtor.com. "As renters have begun emptying out of the nation's most expensive cities due to the one-two punch of the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing recession, monthly rental prices in those areas are nosediving. Rents for September have plummeted the most in ultrapricey San Francisco compared with a year ago, according to Zumper. Median prices dropped by 14.1% in San Francisco, to a still very high $3,040 for one-bedroom apartments on the market."

"Other exorbitantly priced cities experienced similar double-digit declines. Median rents fell 11.5% year over year in San Jose, CA, in the heart of Silicon Valley, to $2,750 for a one-bedroom unit in September and decreased 10.9% in New York City, to a median $2,700. Rental prices also fell substantially in Salt Lake City, by 10.7%, to $1,000 a month; Denver, by 10.6%, to $1,430; and Washington, DC, by 10.5%, to $2,050. Median rents dropped 15.8% in the college town of Syracuse, NY, about four hours northwest of New York City, to $800."

"Expensive cities that saw steep, but single-digit, price drops included Boston, where rental prices fell 8%, to a median $2,300 a month; Los Angeles, by 8.4%, to $2,040; and Seattle, by 9.6%, to $1,700."

From KIRO 7 in Washington. "Landlords are suing over the tight restrictions in the Seattle and state of Washington eviction bans. Their suit claims, '… the blanket eviction ban puts landlords at the mercy of tenants who do not pay rent or violate other lease terms, whether they face financial hardship or not.' One plaintiff said they can’t even evict tenants after their lease has expired. 'Our clients want to actually repossess that property for their own purposes and occupy it, but they can’t because of the eviction ban in place,' said plaintiffs’ attorney Ethan Blevins."

"Tenant advocates estimate renters owed $300 million in back rent in July — but there were only $100 million in state rental assistance. 'The governor needs to work to cancel this rent debt for tenants and cancel the mortgages of like landlords, um, and put the loss where it should be situation, which is the lenders and the banks are most capable of, like, absorbing this impact,' said Dinah Braccio, an advocate with the Washington Tenants Union."

The Orange County Register. "National Public Radio’s interview last month with Vicky Osterweil, author of a new book called 'In Defense of Looting,' generated so much pushback that the network had to add a clarification providing more 'context' to help readers 'fully assess' her 'controversial' views. But there isn’t anything that NPR’s editors could do to contextualize Osterweil’s dangerous message."

"In technical terms, her argument – that the American system of property rights is oppressive and looting and mayhem will bring about positive social change – is nuts. The interview contains myriad quotations that read like a parody from The Babylon Bee. I’m not unhappy that NPR published it, as it’s important to know what such people think. But why didn’t the interviewer ask any tough questions?"

"NPR asked Osterweil to talk about rioting as a tactic, in the way a lifestyle reporter might ask a celebrity to talk a little about a new movie. As the author explains, rioting accomplishes 'important things.' For starters, 'It gets people what they need for free immediately, which means that they are capable of living and reproducing their lives without having to rely on jobs or a wage. … That’s looting’s most basic tactical power as a political mode of action.'"

"Got that? People steal stuff because they then don’t have to pay for it and, well, that means they don’t have to work to earn money to pay for those things. I’m not sure how theft becomes a 'political mode of action,”' but Osterweil assured readers that breaking store windows and grabbing consumer goods is more important now than ever – given that 'during COVID times' jobs are unreliable, unavailable or sometimes dangerous."

"As an aside, many official coronavirus-related policies strike me as glorified looting, even though lawmakers don’t use bricks and Molotov cocktails. The governor, and even the president, can declare that people may live rent-free in other people’s buildings. Congress can run up debt to send us stimulus checks. Governors can arbitrarily force businesses to shut their doors, thus destroying what entrepreneurs have spent their lives creating."

"Fortunately, the author explains traditional looting isn’t simply about stealing. It has a deeper and more uplifting purpose. 'It also attacks the very way in which food and things are distributed,' Osterweil added. 'It attacks the idea of property, and it attacks the idea that in order for someone to have a roof over their head or have a meal ticket, they have to work for a boss, in order to buy things …. It points to the way in which that’s unjust.' Who knew?"

"When my oldest daughter was very young, she asked why we have to pay for things. 'Why can’t everything be free?' I explained that if everything were free, no one would work or produce anything or invest in factories and stores. In almost no time, we’d be staring down vast shortages – and people would go hungry. Violent thugs would rob and pillage. Society would collapse. That was a great question from a 6-year-old, but Osterweil is an adult."

"Unfortunately, many American adults seem to share this childish view of the world. After my column explaining what rent control does to small landlords was posted in a left-leaning social-media group, I was taken aback by the vicious ad hominem responses. As a building owner, I’m apparently a greedy oppressor – and never mind the investments, renovations and hard work that goes into providing quality housing for others at an agreed-upon price. One poster even called me a member of the 'petty bourgeoisie.' Good grief."

"Modern-day leftists have no understanding about how a society builds wealth and prosperity. They revile those who create it, even as they post photos to the Internet from their iPhones. Do they believe such wonderful innovations fell from the sky? Didn’t any of their professors teach them about the violence, starvation and misery that took place in Soviet Russia – and every other society that attacked the idea of private property?"

"People who defend rioting defend the destruction of the very things that make us human. They are the ones being unjust. I’m a strong defender of peaceful protests against police abuse, and have been writing about the need for reform for years. But it’s one thing to peacefully march against injustice, and quite another to burn down what others built up. It’s a warning sign for our society when it doesn’t occur to a major news outlet that a defense of looting deserves more scrutiny than a puff interview."