Posted on 10/21/2013 12:37:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A century ago our nation was famous around the world for creating beautiful cities. Now, we are known for failing cities. In a recent 60 Minutes report Bob Simon noted that after he left what passes for sparks of new life in downtown, the rest of Detroit reminded him of Mogadishu “the worst place I’ve ever been.”
A failing city, we have at least 25, is one that can never expect to return to its former prosperity. Soon Detroit’s population will be one third of what it was in 1960 – there is no chance it will ever boast two million again. While Detroit’s problems are specific in their particulars, cities like Baltimore, Cleveland, Toledo, Scranton and Hartford share histories of similar policy choices that drove their continuous downward spiral.
I recently asked students to determine the best year in the histories of various failing cities. They considered economic growth, immigration, infant mortality, debt capacity, school performance, traffic and parks. Less obvious factors such as a city’s commitment to beautification and its historic success in capturing a unique industrial role in supplying the nation’s marketplace also were weighed.
They decided that Buffalo’s civic apogee was 1901. Its industry was diverse. It received much of the Midwest’s grain in its port, milled it, and transshipped it by rail for export. Pittsburgh’s best year was 1910; Rochester’s, 1928; Philadelphia’s, 1929; Detroit’s, 1950; and Gary’s, 1953.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
The progressive lover of income taxes has spoken.
Please show me where I have ever posted about income taxes (except for being in favor of lowering them). Thanks in advance.
Democrats.
We have sky high income taxes and historically low tariffs. So would you favor raising tariffs if income taxes were reduced dollar for dollar?
I live in a little patch of red, drowning in blue.
Why Does The World’s Richest Country Have So Many Failed Cities?
Is this a trick question?
Not sure what you mean by “sky high,” seeing that half the friggin’ country pays no income taxes whatsoever. So I’ll settle for a $1 increase in tariffs for a $4 decrease in income tax.
So if the progressive hat fits, wear it.
By the way, you might need to look up the term, "regressive," also.
>”The notion that a GOP run black city would be all cool or a GOP run amerindian Latino city ditto”<
That will never happen, but it would be entertaining.
“Why Does The World’s Richest Country Have So Many Failed Cities?”
Democrats
You love income taxes and hate tariffs. I love tariffs and no income taxes. Deal with it. Facts are facts.
Good Lord. Do you always argue against fictional positions?
Wow! The public school system failed him big time!
It would have to be a corporate decision. Manufacturing of trinkets to sell to the natives comes to mind. Gold teeth, bling bling, I don’t know. Whatever scale the natives can afford with welfare money.
Buffalo’s failure was inevitable because as the article stated that is was the center for a large industrial complex that was grain milling and steel. It was the end of the Great Lakes. You could not transport material further east on the Great Lakes, Niagara Falls prevented it.
Once the Welland Canal opened and with it the St. Lawrence Seaway (you could not get past the rapids at Messena from Lake Ontario) there was no longer a reason to stop in Buffalo. You could export your raw materials (grains and taconite) directly to the point of delivery for value added conversion there.
Bye bye, Ralston Purina, General Mills, & Pillsbury. And so too to Bethlehem Steel, Republic Steel, and Hanna Steel. Ford, GM (the famed Tonawanda Motors) Trico, Arco and Mobil Refineries. All lured to Western NY by the end of the Great Lakes, and inexpensive power from Niagara Falls Power stations.
And so the great end of the Great Lakes came to an a tragic death. The Buffalo of today is nothing even close to what I remember.
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