There’s a phrase I’ve been saying for years on KVI: decline is a choice.
This week, walking through Washington, D.C. ahead of America’s 250th birthday celebrations, I was reminded that it’s not just a slogan. It’s reality.
I’ve been coming to Washington my entire life. Growing up in New York, my family made the trip almost every year. As an adult, I’ve returned countless times to interview lawmakers and cover politics. I’ve seen the city at its best and I’ve seen it in decline.
The last few years were painful to watch.
Crime exploded. Carjackings became commonplace. Homeless encampments spread. Graffiti covered highways, tunnels, and overpasses. America’s capital looked like a city that had simply accepted deterioration as normal.
Today, it looks different.
Driving in from the airport, one thing immediately stood out. The highways were clean. You could actually see where graffiti had been pressure washed away. It wasn’t a last-minute cleanup for Independence Day either. The vegetation had already grown back around those cleaned walls, meaning the work had been done weeks or months ago.
That’s when it hit me.
Decline is a choice. So is recovery.
Once you enter Washington, the transformation becomes even more obvious. The monuments sparkle. American flags line the streets. Police officers and federal agents are visible throughout the city. People are walking around. Restaurants are busy. Cars are parked on streets where many people previously wouldn’t have dared leave them.
If stronger law enforcement and cleaning up the city hadn’t worked, I’d be the first to admit it. If crime hadn’t dropped and people still felt unsafe, critics would have every right to argue that more policing wasn’t the answer.
But that’s not what happened.
The results are visible everywhere you look.
This isn’t about politics nearly as much as it’s about priorities.
Government can absolutely clean up cities when it wants to.
Which brings me back home to Seattle.
Mayor Katie Wilson demonstrated exactly this during the FIFA Club World Cup. Suddenly there were more police officers downtown. Encampments disappeared from tourist areas. The waterfront looked immaculate. Seattle Center looked fantastic. Around the stadiums, everything was polished for visitors.
That proved something many of us have been saying for years.
Seattle wasn’t incapable of cleaning itself up.
It simply chose not to.
If city leaders can clear encampments, remove graffiti, increase police presence, and make downtown inviting for international visitors, then why aren’t residents worthy of that same effort every day of the year?
Why do neighborhoods outside the carefully curated tourist zones still drive past graffiti-covered retaining walls? Why do business owners still deal with empty storefronts hidden behind temporary event banners? Why are families expected to accept conditions politicians clearly know how to fix?
Because decline is a choice.
It’s also fashionable in some political circles to claim that law enforcement itself is the problem. I reject that outright.
Police officers don’t make cities dangerous. They make them safe.
Real compassion isn’t allowing someone suffering from addiction to slowly die on a sidewalk. Real compassion is getting them into treatment. Real compassion isn’t allowing someone with severe mental illness to spiral further while calling it dignity. Real compassion means intervention.
Sometimes that intervention starts with law enforcement.
I’ve spoken with countless families whose loved ones finally got sober because they were arrested, entered the criminal justice system, and ultimately received treatment. Without that intervention, some wouldn’t be alive today.
That’s not cruelty.
That’s reality.
As I walked through Washington this week, another thought kept crossing my mind.
This city was intentionally designed to inspire.
Our founders wanted foreign leaders to arrive here and immediately recognize the promise of the American experiment. Washington wasn’t built to be ordinary. It was built to reflect the greatness of the nation itself.
For too many years, it didn’t.
Now it feels like it’s getting there again.
Ahead of America’s 250th birthday, that should be something every American can celebrate regardless of party.
Because pride in our country shouldn’t be partisan.
Clean streets shouldn’t be partisan.
Safe neighborhoods shouldn’t be partisan.
Functional government shouldn’t be partisan.
Washington, D.C. reminded me of something simple this week.
Cities don’t magically improve.
Leaders decide whether they will tolerate disorder or restore order. They decide whether graffiti stays or gets removed. They decide whether criminals are arrested or ignored. They decide whether businesses are worth protecting or abandoning.
Those decisions have consequences.
Washington shows what happens when leaders choose order.
Seattle has already shown it can do the same.
Now the question is whether it will choose to.
Because the evidence is impossible to ignore.
Decline is a choice.
So is greatness.
