QUESTION ASKED: Can Trump Fix the Carnage That Is Chicago?

But Trump is about more than crime when it comes to the nation’s urban centers. There are his promises to revive America’s deteriorating inner cities, of which Chicago has a surfeit. And if Trump intends to more broadly redefine the federal-city relationship by stepping in where the locals have failed, then he might also want to look into Chicago’s calamitous finances that have crippled the police department, schools and other vital municipal services while flogging its taxpayers.

The City of Sloping Shoulders would be the perfect laboratory for Trump’s promised repair work. Its schools are broke, yet it gives teachers raises and allows the Chicago Teachers Union to cap the number of charter schools the district can have. Extravagant pensions for public employees are crushing taxpayers and cutting into vital services. Neighborhood infrastructure is wanting. Residents and businesses are hightailing it out of the city and state.

The left ridicules Trump’s use of the word “carnage,” but it doesn’t do Chicago justice. “Catastrophic” and “calamitous” also should be thrown into the mix.

It ought to be Chicago’s job to fix Chicago, else it’s just a new kind of bailout under a different name.

UPDATE (From Glenn): Normally I’d agree, but a lot of Chicago’s problems — e.g., housing projects and welfare and gangs — had significant federal inputs. And a “bailout” that requires significant reforms might even be worth it. I’m not saying that’s the case, necessarily, but I can imagine that it might be.