Anti-Urban States Aren't Just Hurting Their Cities

Whenever I travel to blue cities in red states, I hear the same refrain: “The folks in our state government and state legislature are against us.” Or, “How can we prosper when our state leaders are cutting funding to universities, or doing intolerant things like reneging on women’s and gay rights, and passing bathroom bills?” Often they ask me: “How can we protect all the things we’ve done to improve our city in the face of such backward policies and initiatives?”

I’m not just hearing these things from Democratic mayors and elected officials, or neighborhood leaders and activists. I’m also hearing them from business leaders. Several times in recent months, business leaders in big cities in red states told me how reactionary politicians in their state capitols were hurting their prospects for luring new investments, like Amazon’s HQ2.