Once Flourishing Cities are Declining

Due to economics, cities such as Cleveland and Youngstown, OH and Detroit are falling apart. People are leaving these cities in droves. Is this a precursor of what is to come? If so, what does it mean for everyone else?

All of this brings something to my mind. I remember years ago, I was just a kid actually, my dad said that one day people would leave the big cities and filter into the smaller ones. Is this what is happening now? If so, is it going to cause problems? Here is the article: Leaving in droves

Im sure the major factors involved have a lot to do with the types of industry that were located in these cities and had propped these towns up economically for years. Since the auto industry and other manufacturing indistries have faltered and most production worke has been annexed to other countries, the folks in these towns really haven't had a real base of employment from which to work.

Factor in higher cost of living and rising crime and you have no doubt that people are fleeing and moving on to greener pastures elsewhere.

I have noticed here in N.C. a huge and overwhelming abundance of northerners and midwestereners moving here by the truck load. They are everywhere, and there doesnt seem to by any halt to the great yankee pilgimage in sight. This can be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask. My only fear is that they will bring the same crime, high cost living and misfortune with them and before long these southern cities will soon be uninhabitable as well.

Just my opinion obviously.




*Also...Speaker I just wanted to add that it is nice to see you back and posting on a regular basis again.....welcome

[edit on 8/8/08 by BlackOps719]

Yes and the yankees are buying up all of your land and building homes in the 7 digit figures. Search "cliffs golf course" and you will see.

Crime follows the path of the rich so yes crime will rise but not for many years.

[edit on 8-8-2008 by 38181]

Surely white flight also plays a part in this. As more lower income minorities move into a place, the standard of living goes down, whites leave, and end up in the suburbs. It's been happening for decades, and only recently are we seeing the full extent of it.

Well, thank you. I appreciate the kind words.

Well, I know right now my hometown of Crockett,Texas is experiencing an oil and gas boom. It has grown considerably over the last couple of years, but I have to wonder what will happen after the "gold rush" is over.

I would hope that the town builds enough and does enough over the next 15-20 years to sustain its growth. I just don't know that it will happen, BlackOp. Appaerently, these major cities didn't, so I suppose there is no reason to think that some cowpoke town will either.

The statistics for Detroit (at least) show that the increase of the black population and the decrease of the white population has had a direct effect on the "ruin" of that city.

here is a link for those interested:

source

I agree. This happense everywhere when the industry that was propping up an area goes bust. Look at Buffalo, the rust belt, all of PA and you can see it everywhere.

Think of the gold rush boomtowns that are literal ghost towns now. Everyone left so fast that they didn't even bother to tear down the buildings. The gold rush boom/bust cycle was one of the fastest in history, but the cycle of American manufacturing has taken longer to complete itself.

The same thing happened in Alberta after the first oil boom went bust as well and it became an economic wasteland, far from the boom of all booms it's experiencing today.




I noticed this in SC as well. Old yankees have been retiring there ever since I can remember, but the exodus of working age population into the South from the North is a newer phenomenon.

reply to post by sc2099

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North Carolina is a hot bed for Yankee migration. They keep rating Raleigh and cary as the best place to move to in the country and it seems that everybody and their mother keeps reading these online articles and deciding to pack up and move.

It just irritates a lot of the natives here because they bring the fast driving and fast attitudes with them. I grow weary of northern transplants who come here and then do nothing but complain about how it isnt like NYC or New Joisee, how they cant find a decent canole or how funny we southerners talk and how the night life isnt as great. I mean jesus, why do they come here if they expect it to be exactly the same as where they are coming from?

Cary is a literal nightmare now, the traffic is so bad now that it has over taken the limited road ways and they cant build houses fast enough for the amount of people who are moving there. A lot of the yanks that moved to Florida are coming here as well because they suddenly realized that hurricanes suck...lol. So NC is becoming little Long Island and it is becoming a mess.

Soon property taxes here will be through the cieling and we will all be trying to move to Alabama or Mississippi to escape the spike in cost of living and home prices. After that I guess there will be no way to escape except to move to Mexico

reply to post by BlackOps719

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Cary is ridiculous. I did some work there back in 2005 and it was bad then so I can only imagine it now. The funny thing is there are also lots of Canadians there who work for a particular firm. That's not nearly as bad as yankees though .

But yeah, the traffic...you couldn't pay me to live there. I made sure to do my work at night so I wouldn't have to deal with it.