Alex Berezow is a doctor of microbiology who has been living in Seattle, Washington for the past 14 years. But last Friday, in a piece for the Seattle Times, Berezow wrote that he’s finally had enough of the toxic, far left politics of the city. He and his wife are moving to a nearby city, though he wishes it weren’t necessary.

When I first moved to Seattle 14 years ago, to attend the University of Washington, homelessness essentially didn’t exist at Northgate. Though I have never been a victim of or witness to a crime, some of my neighbors have been, and they believe homeless camps are the reason.

Before we continue, let me pause to point out that in January the Seattle Times published a piece titled “Is Seattle’s homeless crisis the worst in the country?” The conclusion of the piece: maybe. “However you count it, Seattle, King County and Washington are all in the top 10 when it comes to homelessness,” the report states. And if you only look at the homeless in the city of Seattle, “then it jumps above D.C., New York and L.A. — with 121 homeless people per 10,000.” In sum, it may not be the worst but it’s certainly in the running. Back to Berezow:

Slowly but surely, Seattle has become an angry place. Councilmember Kshama Sawant called a police shooting a “brutal murder.” She also tweeted that it was “terrible” for a feminist organization to wish that Barbara Bush, on her death, rest in peace. As a congressional candidate, Pramila Jayapal supporters implied that her respectable opponent, Brady Walkinshaw, was a misogynist and racist. And former Mayor Ed Murray, whose pattern of alleged sexual behavior finally caught up with him, remained defiant until the bitter end…

The $15 minimum wage has added gasoline to the fire. Though it hasn’t even been fully implemented yet, the most recent study last summer revealed that when the minimum moved from $11 to $13 an hour, low-wage workers lost about $125 per month. That means that the law raises costs for businesses and customers while actually harming employees it was meant to help.

But stubborn facts and a hurting middle class don’t seem to faze the City Council, which seems far more concerned about issues over which it has zero control — such as climate change and foreign policy — than it does about issues over which it has at least a modicum of control, such as the cost of living, homelessness, crime, traffic and potholes. For our City Council, virtue signaling is more important than governing.

Berezow is absolutely correct about the minimum wage hike and the city’s response to a study showing it would actually harm people it was supposed to help. As I wrote last June, former Mayor Ed Murray (who has since left because of a sex scandal) and socialist City Council member Kshama Sawant worked to undermine that report. Here’s how Seattle Weekly explained it at the time:

The UW shares with City Hall an early draft of its study showing the minimum wage law is hurting the workers it was meant to help; the mayor’s office shares the study with researchers known to be sympathetic toward minimum wage laws, asking for feedback; those researchers release a report that’s high on Seattle’s minimum wage law just a week before the negative report comes out.

In short, Seattle’s commitment to far left ideology is slowly transforming it into a less appealing place to live. The same could be said about San Francisco or other big cities where leftist ideologues are completely in charge. Eventually, you end up with is a city so filthy that people who visit aren’t sure they want to come back. Or in this case, with someone who loves the city deciding he can’t take it anymore and moving his family out of Seattle.