Posted on 09/01/2010 9:31:43 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A city does not die when its last resident moves away. Death happens when municipalities lose the industries and vital populations that made them important cities.
The economy has evolved so much since the middle of the 20th Century that many cities that were among the largest and most vibrant in America have collapsed. Some have lost more than half of their residents. Others have lost the businesses that made them important centers of finance, manufacturing, and commerce.
Most of America’s Ten Dead Cities were once major manufacturing hubs and others were important ports or financial services centers. The downfall of one city, New Orleans, began in the 1970s, but was accelerated by Hurricane Katrina.
Notably, the rise of inexpensive manufacturing in Japan destroyed the ability of the industrial cities on this list to effectively compete in the global marketplace. Foreign business activity and US government policy were two of the three major blows that caused the downfall of these cities. The third was the labor movement and its demands for higher compensation which ballooned the costs of manufacturing in many of these cities as well.
24/7 Wall St. looked at a number of sources in order to select the list. One was the US Census Bureau’s list of largest cities by population by decade from 1950 to 2000 with estimates for 2007. Detroit, for example, had 1.9 million people in 1950 and was the fifth largest city in the nation. By 2000, the figure was 951,000. The city was not even on the top ten list in 2007.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Wow. The family must not have been there long, or not paying attention; I don’t know what to tell ya. I used to live there. The commies don’t refer to themselves as that of course, but you’d be hard pressed to find people further to the left (many fine exceptions though). The gangbangers have infested the Central Hillside, the West End, and especially Superior across the harbor. The eastern part of town is still pretty decent.
You are so right about the effects of busing. My parents were among those who picked up and moved when they saw the handwriting on the wall. They were early pioneers of the northern suburbs.
RE: Galveston, TX is alive and well. I was just there.
Stayed at the Galvez.
Typical tourist town.
I don’t think the writer of the article denies that Galveston is a tourist town.
His explanation of the town’s demise is as follows:
The cause of Galveston’s demise is unique. It had become something of the Sodom and Gomorrah of the southern US. There was a large gambling industry there, some of it illegal, which was controlled by criminals.
In the late 1950s,Texas state authorities successfully attacked local organized crime. The regulated tourist trade could not replace the illegal business.
Galveston’s port and hospitality industries had begun to improve, but where trampled by the effects of Hurricane Ike in 2008. The event destroyed a large part of the city’s tax base, and set back the tourism industry once again.
IMHO, calling this city dead is a bit much. Just because it got hit by a hurricane which set its tourism industry back does not mean it is dead forever.
“What kind of ships were used to ship those jobs? “
Could you have posted anything more stupid? I sort of doubt it. You should have put a warning on your post, anyone who reads it is in danger of losing IQ points.
Don't forget that the Federal Tax Code actually encourages the above behavior. The only people who act surprised by it (and everything else on your list) are people who want more of it, but can't bring themselves to say so because they'd be laughed at by conservatives.
That was a very different world. American hard goods mfg industry was at its peak of productivity. We also financed rebuilding of Europe, for the benefit of both the Europeans and ourselves.
The mexicans are bringing mexico to the south weastern U.S. too..
Mexifornia ia already decomposing.. in an advanced stage..
The surrounding cities are all Republican controlled and doing fine.
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But that will not continue, unless those LOCAL suburban areas get a handle on burgeoning local bureaucracies with, for example, an out of control inspector-mentality, top-heavy grossly overpaid school district administrations, fat(snicker)firefighter pensions, and hideously over-equipped police departments.
Yes, I’ve heard to old line trotted out for 18 years now. We have nothing to fear from free trade.
We have now gifted China with the keys to the kingdom through technology transfers, and an income stream that has combined to jump them four or five decades in one and a half.
Simply brilliant.
The products I see from overseas are generally trash. I’m taking back a product today that is so ill designed that it’s essentially worthless to me.
A broad spectrum of problems have cropped up, from pharmaceuticals to hard merchandise. Retail outlets are having to facilitate returns at a rate they’ve never seen before. Raw material problems have crept in. Technology transfers have taken place. We even allowed a Chinese concern to enter our nation and dismantle and move some aircraft manufacturing tool and dye (sp?) operations.
Some trade is okay. Just opening up the whole thing and allowing anyone who wants to strip us bare to do it, is suicidal.
Once again, are we better off today? Hell no, not by any stretch of the imagination.
Like claiming, "the free traders got their way?"
That was a very different world. American hard goods mfg industry was at its peak of productivity. We also financed rebuilding of Europe, for the benefit of both the Europeans and ourselves.
Quote: “Sure unions were out of control, but those unions didn’t affect all of manufacturing. From what I’ve read, I believe the private sector union membership was 15 million or less in the mid 90s.”
Sorry if I misunderstood your earlier post.
As for this post, I would argue that by the time the mid-90’s hit the unions had already done most of their damage to industry. Less industry=less union membership. I can remember moving to Bethlehem, PA in 1987. Crossing the bridge from the South Side (where the steel mills were located) one would see the United Steel Workers HQ with a beam that had written on it “Stop Illegal Steel Imports!!!” In the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s These same unions had kept Beth Steel from modernizing and instead insisted on more benefits and moola. When the chickens came home to roost, this was their solution, a sign.
Today, by the way, there is a casino where those steel mills used to stand and the United Steel Workers are long gone. Who knows, maybe they are busy somewhere else making signs?
Isn’t Detroit the city that is bull-dozing about 25% of it’s single family dwellings that are now empty?
Why did I move away? There were no jobs. If you graduated at that time with any kind of technical degree you had to move out. Michigan, as a whole, has great colleges and its education system in Flint was considered superior. However, you can't keep the people you are educating if don't you have a place for them work after they graduate.
Another factor is the Democratic leadership in most of the cities in the top ten. I know in Flint and Detroit, the mayors were all crooks and were so busy stuffing their pockets with money and doling out favors that they did not notice the open faucet that was forcing people like me to move to Texas.
I remember when Flint was growing and accommodating many young, big families. I remember the fact that Flint was a bonafide cultural center. I remember when policeman were expected to have a four-year degree and the streets safe enough for me to ride my bike wherever I wanted.
Liberal leadership is a cancer to the body politic.
Industy output hasn’t doubled? Huh?
https://static.flatworldknowledge.com/sites/all/files/29936/fwk-rittenmacro-fig05_002.jpg
RE: Each of these 10 cities would be super-prosperous successes if they:
You need to add one thing — PEACE AND ORDER. No one will move to a crime infested city.
NYC almost became ungovernable until Rudy Giuliani restored peace and order and allowed the city to thrive again ( NYC is still one of the safest big cities in the USA and even dare I say, the world ).
Don’t see many cities (if any) on that list that anyone could make the honest claim that they were killed by China. Not defending China, anyway . . . just amused by the tired, old protectionist line asking that free traders defend something that is not free trade in order to justify free trade.
I don’t see how Flint, MI is on that list. That town has already been DEAD for years and years.
RE: I remember the fact that Flint was a bonafide cultural center
Where did the Motown culture go ?
And the Gaystapo has taken over that town. Some days you would think you were in San Francisco.
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