The left wanted the heart of academia, our cities (culture), and our government. They were successful. The problem they now face is that they have a history in those positions of power and they have failed.
@Dionysus444 ignored the question, but inner city experience has gotten worse, not better. Socioeconomic demographics have not changed much since the 1960s, but violence in poor city areas has. Liberals have controlled the narrative in most big cities during that time. The family unit has eroded, as has the church community and respect for individual life, and the outcome of that erosion with liberal political government control has not resulted in a static, but rather a degradation. The civil rights movement created landmark necessities for freedom, but liberal government has not created an environment for the maximizing of those freedoms. If the liberal perspective was healthy, things SHOULD BE better. Are they? We all know the definition of insanity, doing the same things while expecting different outcomes, yet that is what progressives preach. To endure in power absent success, they created boogeymen in the system that cannot be statistically defined or demonstrated, but must be accepted on faith. Turns out THEY are the boogeymen.