A recent study suggests a correlation between uncleanliness and party control in major U.S. cities.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, Dallas came in at No.32 on a list of the 150 biggest cities in the United States, ranked according to how “dirty” they were in the aftermath of the 2023 winter holiday season.
The study by LawnStarter used publicly available data on a number of quality-of-life factors, like air quality, the share of overcrowded homes, landfill tonnage, and the share of residents unsatisfied with garbage collection, to rank the cities.
The top 10 dirtiest cities, according to the study, in descending order, were as follows:
1. Houston, Texas
2. Newark, New Jersey
3. San Bernardino, California
4. Detroit, Michigan
5. Jersey City, New Jersey
6. Bakersfield, California
7. San Antonio, Texas
8. Fresno, California
9. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
10. Yonkers, New York
Seven out of the top 10 cities had either Democratic or self-identified progressive mayors. The top five all had Democratic mayors.
This correlation is only the latest pattern to emerge identifying a link between local party governance and disquieting characteristics in quality of life. In addition to uncleanliness, nationwide studies suggest apparent connections to high rates of violent crime, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
For its part, Dallas recently struggled with providing trash collection, fumbling its response to countless reports of delayed or missed stops on garbage routes around the winter holiday season. Residents reported that trash was overflowing from garbage cans into the streets in parts of the city, as The Dallas Express covered at the time.
While City officials initially teased residents with talk of reimbursements, the City recently confirmed to The Dallas Express that no such gesture would be forthcoming, citing restrictions in the City Code.
Like Houston, Dallas has a city government run overwhelmingly by Democrats or self-identified progressives.
Asked about this dynamic by The Dallas Express, Keep Dallas Safe’s executive director Jacob Lloyd Colglazier stated:
“The Democrat party is totally captured by the radical left which demands ‘equality’ at any cost. They have repeatedly failed to create a utopia, so they are working hard to make every city equally poor, dirty, and dangerous.”
Still, six out of 10 of the cleanest cities on LawnStarter’s ranking were also run by Democrats, including Norfolk, Virginia; Des Moines, Iowa; Buffalo, New York; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Fremont, California.
The Dallas Express also sent requests for comment to Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa, the Democratic Mayors Association, the Democratic Governors Association, the industry group National Waste & Recycling Association, and the Teamsters Union (which represents roughly 30,000 sanitation workers).
Requests for comment were also sent to environmentalist organizations, including the Texas Campaign for the Environment, the Sunrise Movement’s national office, the Central Texas chapter of the Inland Ocean Coalition, 350’s U.S. communications team, and Green America.
No responses were received by press time.