America’s Ten Dead Cities: From Detroit To New Orleans

247wallst.com ^ | 8/23/2010 | 247wallst.com

[dragnet2]

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.

#1. Buffalo

#2. Flint

#3. Hartford

#4. Cleveland

#5. New Orleans

#6. Detroit

#7. Albany

#8. Atlantic City

#9. Allentown

#10. Galveston.

[TexasCajun]

Galveston has very limited dock-front.

An island with no major industry other than tourism.

The ports & industries are all between Houston & Galveston.

[henkster]

Downtown Dayton is as dead as a cemetery at midnight. I check the age of buildings to determine whether a city is doing well or not...and Dayton doesn’t appear to have had any significant construction for the past 30 years. Somehow they managed to miss Reagan’s economy. Even Cleveland sports a newer downtown than Dayton.

Same can be said for just about every city along the Erie Canal, with the possible exception of Syracuse.

[Iron Munro]

They are now government plantations and the largest industry is the distribution of welfare checks, food stamps and other handouts to keep moochers alive until the next election.

[Alberta's Child]

You raise a very interesting point here.

While idiotic political decisions and labor costs played a role in the demise of many of these cities, there was also a much bigger (in my opinion) role played by other factors related to geography, advances in transportation, etc.

It's no mere coincidence that so many of these cities are in the old "Rust Belt" region and located along the Great Lakes or other waterways that served as trade routes in the past. Many of these cities grew as industrial hubs because of their locations on these routes and/or their proximity to key resources used in steel-based manufacturing (iron ore and coal in particular).

Albany, NY is a perfect case in point. That city grew because it was situated near the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, and served as a canal-based "crossroads" of the Erie and Champlain Canals. That city lost this advantage once railroads supplanted the canals and rivers as the primary mode of freight transportation in the region (a long-running process that continues to this day).

Other cities on that list lost their "advantage of place" when plastics began to supplant steel in many manufactured products. Look at all the auto plants that have been built in the Southeast over the last two decades. They can thrive there not only because of lower labor costs, but because the auto manufacturing industry doesn't require close proximity to steel producers anymore.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

#1. Buffalo #2. Flint #3. Hartford #4. Cleveland #5. New Orleans #6. Detroit #7. Albany #8. Atlantic City #9. Allentown #10. Galveston.

[crusty old prospector]

Casinos equate to a moron tax. For more than half of the population, cigarette taxes, alcohol, and lottery tickets are about the only taxes they ever pay.

[lonestar]

John Sealy Hospital and the medical school being hard-hit by Ike really hurt Galveston job wise.

[crusty old prospector]

Coming soon to a town near you.

[dblshot]

But there is no advantage in sending the moron's money to Louisiana.

[Will88]

And the Government to Government Fleece Trade deals also gave away jobs. Confucius say when you give away jobs you elect Democrats.

Yep, and all our dealings with 'Red' China started out as foreign policy goals. Many like to cast everything as free trade and comparative advantage and lots of other economic jibberish, when the real basis for many of our trade decisions was far more in the foreign policy arena. They just didn't give a damn what the negative impact on the US domestic economy might be.

[dblshot]

Definetly, UTMB is building in League City 20 miles North of the Gulf.

[drbuzzard]

The author really seems to have a fixation with blaming the Japanese. In reality the errors were mostly self inflicted.

I am shocked, however, that Pittsburgh didn't make the list.

The article liked to do population by year from 1950:

1950	676,806
1960	604,332
1970	520,117
1980	423,938
1990	369,879
2000	334,563
Half of Pittsburgh is gone. Estimates for this year's Census say the population is down to 311000 or so. Why is it gone? The author would probably say something about Japan stealing the Steel industry. The truth is much closer to the government and the unions strangling the industry. The Kennedy administration hated the steel industry and did a lot of kick it around. The blatant favoritism for unions by the federal government also mean that labor contracts simply got steeper and steeper. This mean less money was left for modernization of equipment. Then came the EPA (under Nixon, so not all Democrat damage) which put the final nails in the coffin of the industry in the Burgh. By this point the U.S. Steel industry had not kept up in production innovation (because the money which should have gone into plan improvement went into labor costs) and the Japanese and Germans were simply making better steel for a lower price. With mandates from the EPA to clean up their production, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

[crusty old prospector]

I just drove through eastern Oklahoma last month and the casinos I saw were mostly empty but probably the cars there had Texas license plates. How about we open up a greyhound track in, say LaMarque?

[Howie66]

That is true.

Have you been to Galveston since the storm?

The recovery down there is something to behold.

I am proud of the people down there.

[indthkr]

bulldozer brigade bump for later..........

[beckysueb]

Very odd that Gary didn’t get on the list. Theres nothing there. Its worse than Detroit.

[No Truce With Kings]

“Found is strange that Galveston wound up on this list. I would think with its close proximity to Houston’s thriving economy and busy port, it would be thriving as well.”

The rest of Galveston County is doing okay. But Galveston proper? Not so good. Several reasons for this:

1. Ike response. Unlike the rest of the county, the city of Galveston barred entry for nearly a month after the storm. Property owners could not effect repairs, and Galveston suffered a lot more damage than it otherwise would have. (Of course, the extra damage caused by delay in repairs is blamed on the storm by city officials and used as justification for their bad decision. . . )

2. Non-responsive government. You can think of the city as Cleveland on the Texas Gulf Coast. Trying to get anything done - from putting up a new building to starting a new business - requires multiple visits to multiple government agencies, and multiple visits from inspectors that figure their time is more important than yours.

3. Hostility to outsiders and outside ideas. To many Galvestonians if you aint BOI (Born On the Island) you belong to one of the lesser breeds of humans. They are not interested. And they have become more not interested since Ike, and especially because the rest of the county is booming. It’s not right for them on the mainland to be prospering while “right-stuff” Galvestonians are not.

4. Poor tax policy. The population of the city has shrunk, but not the size of the government. And many of the businesses that existed in the old, pre-Ike Galveston have left or gone bust further shrinking the tax base. The solution has not been to shrink government and spending, but rather to increase tax revenues. Which encourages more people and businesses to leave, which shrinks the tax base, which prompts higher taxes.

The sad part is that Galveston has real potential. It could be turned into the hottest town in Texas with relatively little effort. But as long as the place remains hostile to outsiders and insists on using 1930s government policies and technology it is gonna remain mired in the mud.

And, yeah. It’s the Democrat stronghold (and union) in a County that has shifted Republican since 1990 (especially since 2000). County redistricting may go a long way towards fixing the problem by letting the North County adults take control from the Island adolescents.

[Vigilanteman]

Buffalo has the potential to be a nice city. Compared to Ft. Erie (Canadian side) it looks like a venerable beehive of commercial activity.

Recently, we've seen an influx of field workers down here with New York plates. I understand that your coastal overlords won't allow New York to extract natural gas from their side of the Marcellus Shield.

Ours are trying hard to tax the activity to the point where it goes away, but it is not an easy thing to do with the Rendell regime winding down, a minority in our state senate and only a narrow majority in the state house.

[cornelis]

Well, my shoes, they come from Singapore,
My flashlight's from Taiwan,
My tablecloth's from Malaysia,
My belt buckle's from the Amazon.
You know, this shirt I wear comes from the Philippines
And the car I drive is a Chevrolet,
It was put together down in Argentina
By a guy makin' thirty cents a day.
Well, it's sundown on the union
And what's made in the U.S.A.
Sure was a good idea
'Til greed got in the way.
Well, this silk dress is from Hong Kong
And the pearls are from Japan.
Well, the dog collar's from India
And the flower pot's from Pakistan.
All the furniture, it says Made in Brazil
Where a woman, she slaved for sure
Bringin' home thirty cents a day to a family of twelve,
You know, that's a lot of money to her.
Well, it's sundown on the union
And what's made in the U.S.A.
Sure was a good idea
'Til greed got in the way.
Well, you know, lots of people complainin' that there is no work.
I say, Why you say that for
When nothin' you got is U.S.-made?
They don't make nothin' here no more,
You know, capitalism is above the law.
It say, It don't count 'less it sells.
When it costs too much to build it at home
You just build it cheaper someplace else.
Well, it's sundown on the union
And what's made in the U.S.A.
Sure was a good idea
'Til greed got in the way.
Well, the job that you used to have,
They gave it to somebody down in El Salvador.
The unions are big business, friend,
And they're goin' out like a dinosaur.
They used to grow food in Kansas
Now they want to grow it on the moon and eat it raw.
I can see the day coming when even your home garden
Is gonna be against the law.
Well, it's sundown on the union
And what's made in the U.S.A.
Sure was a good idea
'Til greed got in the way.
Democracy don't rule the world,
You'd better get that in your head.
This world is ruled by violence
But I guess that's better left unsaid.
From Broadway to the Milky Way,
That's a lot of territory indeed
And a man's gonna do what he has to do
When he's got a hungry mouth to feed.
Well, it's sundown on the union
And what's made in the U.S.A.
Sure was a good idea
'Til greed got in the way

[crusty old prospector]

I always liked the Railroad Museum and my wife liked the old mansion tours.