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.
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.
I don't think the author understands Galveston. Here is a Houston Chronicle article written a year after Ike: Link. From that link:
... slowly healing, but it may take a decade to fully recover.
About 75 percent of Galveston's businesses are back, and officials say those that left are being replaced by new enterprises.
Tourism, the island's lifeblood, has rebounded, although it's suffering from the depressed national economy.
The city's Hotel Occupancy Tax is down an average of 31 percent this year, reflecting the lower room rates. Gaskins said nationally hotel occupancy rates are down 40 percent, but the occupancy rate has averaged about 80 percent in Galveston. Any effect Ike had on tourism has disappeared by now, Schultz said. “I don't think there is anything that has to do with Ike,” he said.
I gather Colonel Bubbies on the Strand is open. Link. Why else would tourists come to Galveston?