The chainsawer is a MAGA type who spent the weeks before he cut down the trees shouting racist and white-nationalist slogans at people in the downtown and neighboring areas. Last year he was wearing a MAGA cap and proudly bragging about how his buddy Trump was going to appoint him to a really important position. (Yes, he's mentally ill, too. But he's not severely ill.)

So, not really a sign of decline so much as it is a sign that MAGA types feel the need to physically vandalize liberal cities.