JOHN NOLTE: Democrat-Run St. Louis Enters ‘Doom Loop.’

“The office district is empty, with boarded up towers, copper thieves, and failing retail,” reports the Wall Street Journal of Democrat-run St. Louis, Missouri. “[E]ven the Panera outlet shut down. The city is desperately trying to reverse the ‘doom loop.’”

Let’s look at the mayoral history of the doom-looping St. Louis, shall we?

Oh, look, there hasn’t been a Republican mayor in St. Louis since — not a typo — 1949. For 75 years, the people of St. Louis have voted for More of the Same, so excuse me if I don’t whip out a violin over all this unavoidable doom looping.

“Cities such as San Francisco and Chicago are trying to save their downtown office districts from spiraling into a doom loop,” writes the Wall Street Journal. “St. Louis is already trapped in one.”

The Journal notes:

As offices sit empty, shops and restaurants close and abandoned buildings become voids that suck the life out of the streets around them. Locals often find boarded-up buildings depressing and empty sidewalks scary. So even fewer people commute downtown.

This self-reinforcing cycle accelerated in recent years as the pandemic emptied offices. St. Louis’s central business district had the steepest drop in foot traffic of 66 major North American cities between the start of the pandemic and last summer, according to the University of Toronto’s School of Cities. Traffic has improved some in the past 12 months, but at a slower rate than many Midwestern cities.

In the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld: Yeah, that’s a shame.

As NRO’s Jay Nordlinger wrote in 2010 when Detroit was making headlines and photo spreads thanks to its Hiroshima-like bombed out landscape, “If people are voting a certain way — maybe it’s because they want to. Maybe they know full well what they’re doing. Sometimes you have to take no — such as ‘no to Republicanism’ — for an answer.”

How on earth could we have seen St. Louis’ collapse coming?

● Rather than prosecuting car thieves, St. Louis wants to sue Kia and Hyundai for making their cars so easy to steal.

● Mark McCloskey’s “day will come,” threatens Cori Bush after St. Louis couple is pardoned by governor.

● St. Louis mayor accused of defunding police department by millions of dollars.

● St. Louis’ murder rate, already highest in US, soared last year; mayor vows to defund the police.

● Gateway to the Wild West: The accelerating collapse of St. Louis, the most violent city in America.

● Soros-backed St. Louis Prosecutor Ensures All Arrested Looters and Rioters Released From Jail.