If you happen to live in one of these shitholes, that is your problem. I can’t believe Phila didn’t make the list. Is there any consistent causes that apply across the board to all of these cities. Rochester’s mayor and every council member are Democrats. The mayor of Pittsburgh is a Democrat. The mayor of Dayton is an Independent but was preceded by a Democrat. Buffalo’s mayor and every council member are Democrats. The mayor of Cleveland is a Democrat. The mayor of Flint is a Democrat. The mayor of New Orleans is a Democrat.
Hmm. I can’t seem to connect the dots of failure. Can you?
American Cities That Are Running Out Of People
Posted: December 27, 2010 at 11:11 pm
The population of the United States has increased steadily by roughly 2.5 million people every year since World War II. Throughout prosperity and hard times, Americans continue to have families. Many of the country’s regions have expanded to accommodate this population increase. Some cities have grown faster than others as the result of being at the center of some important new technology or job market. Others have lost residents because of failing industries and migration. Nevertheless, some of these cities have continued to grow slowly, or at least remain relatively stagnant, buoyed by the rising tide of the national population.
There are some cities, however, which have experienced such severe hardship and decline that their populations have actually decreased significantly. New Orleans has lost more than a quarter of its population in the past ten years as the result of Hurricane Katrina. The rest of the cities that have lost major parts of their population have seen their flagship industries which include coal, steel, oil, and auto-related manufacturing fall off or completely collapse. America moved away from its status as an industrial superpower in the second half of the 20th century as the services sector rose to replace it. Millions of US manufacturing jobs have moved overseas. Cities such as Rochester, Cleveland and Buffalo declined in population because they were trade hubs, and new modes of transportation removed their geographical dominance. Cities like Flint, Michigan have economies based on a single major industry. In Flint’s case, that industry is auto manufacturing. When that industry began to decline, Flint was unable to diversify to prevent a population exodus.
All of the cities on this list experienced at least one of these devastating problems which have caused tens of thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of its residents to leave the region for other jobs and other homes. While it has been the primary focus of these cities to create new sources of employment for their residents, it may be years before people return, if they do at all.
Unfortunately, the populations of most of the cities on this list continue to decline and the situation could get worse for years. This loss of residents has caused severe drops in the social services that many of these cities can provide. Property and other taxes have fallen so much that the support that residents of other cities take for granted is at risk in the municipalities on this list. There is no longer any guarantee that they can maintain police and fire departments at reasonable levels. Some of these cities cannot continue to manage large neighborhoods which have become almost deserted as residents have left unoccupied homes behind. Home vacancy rates tell a great deal about how much a city’s population has dropped.
24/7 obtained its population data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Division. Housing Vacancy came from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. This is a list of the seven American cities that have lost the most people in the past decade.
7. Rochester, NY
Population: 207,294
Population Change 2000-2009: -12,180
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -5.55%
Home Vacancy: 15.3%
The City of Rochester was once a booming trade center, largely due to its location at the midpoint between Albany and Buffalo on the Erie Canal. At its peak, the city was the major flour processor in the country, and was home to several key corporations including Xerox and Eastman Kodak. Rochester declined as the usefulness of the canal went out with the advent of railroads and its flagship companies began to lose their relevancy in the larger global economy. Rochester has yet to produce an important replacement industry to drive up the population, and even the success in the 1990’s of Xerox has faded. Between 1950 and 2000, Rochester lost 34% of its population.
6. Pittsburgh, PA
Population: 311,647
Population Change 2000-2009: -22,056
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -6.61%
Home Vacancy: 14.1%
Known as the “Steel City,” Pittsburgh was once the forge for the American industrial engine from the late 1800′s through the late 1970′s. At its peak, the city was home to more than 1,000 factories, including the mills owned by Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, which by itself employed over 340,000 workers during World War II. As the American steel industry collapsed in the 19 80′s Pittsburgh suffered severe unemployment problems. In the past few decades, the city changed to a technology-based economy, but the population is still on the decline. Since 1950, Pittsburgh’s population has declined by more than 50%.
5. Dayton, OH
Population: 153,843
Population Change 2000-2009: -11,961
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -7.21%
Home Vacancy: 18.9%
For its size, Dayton, Ohio was once one of the most productive and creative cities in the U.S. It produced more patents per capita at the turn of the century than any other. The city was home to several former great Fortune 500 companies, including National Cash Register, Mead Paper and Phillips Manufacturing. Through the first half of the 20th century, Dayton had one of the healthiest manufacturing industries. It had more GM autoworkers than any city outside of Michigan during World War II. In the past 50 years, Mead has merged with West Virginia Paper and moved to Richmond, and GM has closed one plant after another in the city.
4. Buffalo, NY
Population: 270,240
Population Change 2000-2009: -21,970
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -7.52%
Home Vacancy: 17.2%
Another victim of the Erie Canal boom and bust, Buffalo was the 13th largest city in the country just before WW II. It is now the 70th. Like Rochester, the city was once a premier mill town due to its location to the canal. Massive electricity generation from Niagara Falls improved Buffalo’s industrial capacity, and the city referred to itself as the “City of Lights” for a time because of its power production. The collapse of the canal and improvements in the energy industry which made Niagara Falls less important led to the mass migration from the city which continues to this day. In the 1970′s alone, Buffalo lost more than 100,000 residents, roughly a third of its current population.
3. Cleveland, OH
Population: 431,369
Population Change 2000-2009: -45,205
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -9.49%
Home Vacancy: 17.5%
Cleveland, the largest city on our list, was once a thriving manufacturing center, as well as an important point of trade because of its connection to several key routes particularly Lake Erie. The city was once home to a sizable auto industry. Most of the largest companies which were once based in Cleveland no longer exist. These include Peerless, People’s and Winton. Cleveland also served as headquarters for John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, as well as a key import location for coal and iron shipped from the South and Midwest. The decline of industrial American has hit the city particularly hard, and poverty, a default on municipal debt in the 70′s, and pollution have earned the city the nickname “the mistake on the lake.” In 1948, the city had over 910,000 people; it now has less than half of that.
2. Flint, MI
Population: 111,475
Population Change 2000-2009: -13,266
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -10.63%
Home Vacancy: 18%
While most of the cities on this list are here as the result of a general decline in industry, Flint’s woes have come almost entirely from one sector – the auto industry. Flint became a boomtown at the turn of the century as it became a divisional headquarters to the major American auto manufacturers, including Chevrolet, Buick, and General Motors. Between 1910 and 1930, the population had more than quadrupled due to the success of the American car business. Since the American auto industry began its decline in the 1980′s, Flint has consistently lost at least 10% of its population each decade. Massive layoffs and plant closings have devastated the city, and unemployment rates remain well into the double digits.
1. New Orleans, LA
Population: 354,850
Population Change 2000-2009: -128,813
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -26.63%
Home Vacancy: 21.5%
New Orleans is unique in that its presence on this list is not due to industrial decline, but from natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina flooded 80% of the city, caused by some estimates more than $80 billion in damage, and displaced tens of thousands of residents. The period of widespread homelessness, severe crime, and slow recovery has left the city as a shadow of its former self. While people are trickling back into the city, many will likely never return, and the city has lost more than a quarter of its population in just ten years.
-Michael B. Sauter
Read more: American Cities That Are Running Out Of People – 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2010/12/27/american-cities-that-are-running-out-of-people/#ixzz19dLL2QHU
Kill Bill says:
It doesnt make sense, hasnt the writer of this article ever been to fece holes Oklahoma City, OK or El Paso, TX?
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30th December 2010 at 5:07 pm
StuckInNJ says:
Obviously, the person who wrote this has never been to New Jersey.
How in the hell do you leave Camden — or several other NJ shitpots — off the list????
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30th December 2010 at 5:44 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
Stupid Article. You want a list of all the Shit Hole Shitties in Amerika? Get out your Rand McNally and look for anyplace with a population greater than about 500,000 people. On the East Coast those numbers don;t necessarily count because the Shit Hole Municipalities are all wedged right next to each other and the distinctions between them are moot. The entire NE corridor from DC to Boston is one big Shit Hole.
RE
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30th December 2010 at 5:58 pm
Smokey says:
Alaska was fine until you moved there. Now it’s the biggest shithole of all.
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30th December 2010 at 6:13 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
@Smokey
The World was a decent place until you were born. Then the whole fucking planet turned into a shithole.
RE
Hot debate. What do you think?
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30th December 2010 at 6:37 pm
Opinionated Bloviator says:
What is the weather and soil condition like in these areas?, If it has consistant reasonable rainfall and the soil is not contaminated with heavy metal or plastic derived pollutants (Oil, Dioxins, Benzene derivatives…) then it may make reasonable farmland with a bit of rehabilitation.
Homebush bay in Aus was an ex industrial “cancer cluster” s**thole in the 1990′s, since it’s (very hardcore,expensive) rehabilitation due to the 2000 Olympic games it is now reasonable quality land and the produce there (except the bay itself, it will need another 20 years before the bio reclaimation “scrubs out” the last of the organic pollutants, although it now just scrapes into the margin of safety. Hell, white sea eagles (imagine a cockatoo with a raptor profile and 5 times the size) returned about 5 years ago and the colony is growing rapidly, go team!). From toxic wasteland to something of lasting value.
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30th December 2010 at 6:57 pm
MuckAbout says:
The main reason all those cities lost population (except NO) is that is TOO DAMN COLD TO LIVE UP THERE.
The population is getting older and we can’t cope with the cold weather. NO lost its population because 13 of the city if below sea level and even stupid assholes know not to rebuild where it will-WILL – flood again someday real soon now. The Corpse of Engineers has dashed around driving pilings into the mud that will do no good whatsoever if a strong storm hit in the right stop. (I know, I went to NO and surveyed the “action” being taken by the Corpse.)
If the Feds borrow another three trillion and put it into restoration of the Miss. delta South of NO and fill in all the canals dug to pipe oil hither and thither they’d have a chance. By allowing time and tides to finish the job of destruction of the wet lands South of NO, no number of levees, flood “control” projects or other make-work-shovel-ready-crap will do the job.
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30th December 2010 at 6:58 pm
StuckInNJ says:
Smokey / RE — surprised neither of you has yet used this classic line; “I called the Jerk Store — and they ran out of YOU!!”
Smokey, how come you’re not the RP thread and giving us RP supporters hell? By the way .. that’s the reason I said your schtick is getting old. I feel RP — like him or not — is one of the FEW pols who actually is a Truth Teller. I hate it when my boys get attacked. But I’m better now … RP doesn’t need your vote anyway. lol
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30th December 2010 at 7:20 pm
Shadows says:
I’m surprised Detroit didn’t qualify. I suppose it must be eighth or ninth, I know it shrunk.
Oh, and allow this month-long lurker to introduce himself.
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30th December 2010 at 7:33 pm
Shadows says:
@ Kill Bill
This article appears to be nonsubjective, just a list of the seven cities which shrunk the most by percentage over the past decade.
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30th December 2010 at 7:39 pm
Administrator says:
Welcome Shadows
Don’t let these pricks chase you off the site. They’re like rabid dogs, but a good kick in the balls will gain their respect.
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30th December 2010 at 8:06 pm
Punk in Drublic says:
Shadows
Welcome!
Standard issue equipment round here is a hard hat and a shovel, you provide the manure, as you are probably aware. We are running low on hard hats, so this will have to make do for now….
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30th December 2010 at 8:06 pm
Opinionated Bloviator says:
Shadows, Tin foil hats shaped like NASA’s radio telescopes are also acceptable, indeed once you read some of the postings you would think they are mandatory. Happy hunting. OB.
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30th December 2010 at 8:33 pm
Persnickety says:
Detroit should be on this list, along with East St. Louis, Gary, regular St. Louis, Camden, etc….
I had the misfortune of spending a few months in Barfalo for an internship. I never looked back. Later I made the larger mistake of taking a job in Detroit. Wish I had researched that one a bit more thoroughly. But I survived, and I’m a lot tougher now.
Anyway, Jim, there’s more than just Democrat politics linking those shitties. There’s a certain attitude and mentality, and a hefty dose of fed-tolerated, if not sponsored, corruption.
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30th December 2010 at 8:40 pm
llpoh says:
Fresno – people from Fresno see a move to the Thirty Blocks as an upgrade.
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30th December 2010 at 8:42 pm
Shadows says:
Thanks mates, I’ll keep that in mind.
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30th December 2010 at 8:44 pm
Tim says:
@Kill Bill
We moved to El Paso about 4 years ago, as a punishment from God. No, wait….It was due to work. As far as punishment in Hell goes, El Chuco is not too bad. Lots of things to do outside here.
Plus, there’s little discernible unemployment here, particularly in my industry, construction. Lots of work here, due to Government Spending on our military apparatus. I just switched jobs, after only looking for a couple of weeks. Got offered more money than I’ve ever made in my life. Lots of Americans would LOVE to be in my position.
Still, we’re looking for our way out of here.
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30th December 2010 at 8:45 pm
llpoh says:
Shadows – if you have lurked for a month you know the the post rule. And you have made them. So batten down the hatches as it is now game on. Welcome.
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30th December 2010 at 8:46 pm
Kill Bill says:
This article appears to be nonsubjective, just a list of the seven cities which shrunk the most by percentage over the past decade. -Shadow
I read the article. What my post was referencing was the lead heading of ‘AmericasTop Shitholes’
While I like Jim and his writings and I find his referencing to pricks comedic and as his wont he leans to burning, I take as roastive, debate I welcome you to this, albeit not mine, site and look forward to roasting you in a purely good natured sense.
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30th December 2010 at 8:58 pm
Smokey says:
Shadows——Who invited your sorry ass to this site? I’m praying you start some shit with me. Get out of line and see what happens.
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30th December 2010 at 8:59 pm
Kill Bill says:
We moved to El Paso about 4 years ago, as a punishment from God. No, wait….It was due to work. As far as punishment in Hell goes, El Chuco is not too bad. Lots of things to do outside here. -Tim
Dear and beloved Tim, I also went to El Asso, sorry, El Paso, Texas on a work assignment. The place stunk, literally, because of the refineries right across the border. Personally I did not care for El Paso. True it may offer employment but the city is also rife with crime.
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30th December 2010 at 9:03 pm
Kill Bill says:
Shadow, dont worry about Smokey but he is pretty much harmless as flaccid things go,
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30th December 2010 at 9:05 pm
Smokey says:
Kill Bill—–Has it ever crossed your fucking microscopic mind that El Paso could not give less of a shit what you think of them? Name any city on the border that isn’t rife with crime. Why say something so goddamn obvious?
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30th December 2010 at 9:08 pm
llpoh says:
I was once offered the choice of working in El Pasoo or Puerto Rico. Talk about fucked two ways from Sunday.
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30th December 2010 at 9:09 pm
Kill Bill says:
Kill Bill—–Has it ever crossed your fucking microscopic mind that El Paso could not give less of a shit what you think of them? -Schuckey
You deranged cellulose eating worm of course El Asso doesnt care what I think. Does your ass care what you eat?
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30th December 2010 at 9:09 pm
Kill Bill says:
I was once offered the choice of working in El Pasoo or Puerto Rico -llpoh
My condolences.
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30th December 2010 at 9:11 pm
llpoh says:
I lasted a year in PR. The only upside was being close to some nice vacation spots. It was a world class shithole. I evaded a carjacking by inches. Ran a red light to get away.
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30th December 2010 at 9:27 pm
Kill Bill says:
Glad to have you with us today llpoh and running a red light is not a bad thing necessarily
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30th December 2010 at 9:29 pm
llpoh says:
Thanks KB. The fuckers were prying my door open with a crowbar and wielding butcher knives. I managed to get around the car in front and straight thru wild traffic without getting killed.
The biggest shithole on earth that I have seen was Morocco. I was travelling thru as a student with a group. On an overnight bus to Casablanca we were stopped by “police”. I woke up with a submachinegun pointed at my face. They were after bribes of course. When paid thay let us go. We immediately headed for home. Going thru customs a young traveller that had joined our group but whom we did not know was grabbed up never to be seen again. One of my friends was robbed at knife point before we could get the hell out of dodge. All up it was an exciting 36 hours.
And the admin wonders about my stance on the middle east. They are a bunch of backward mothers for sure.
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30th December 2010 at 9:43 pm
ZanidoW says:
Rochester and Buffalo did gorw up around the Erie Canal..Buffalo did succumb to the growth of the railroad industry, but at the turn of the century was home to more millionaires than any other city in the United States. CITY OF LIGHT – well, ironically has nothing to do w/ Niagara Falls, and everything to do with the lighting of the city (FIRST) during the Pan American festival…again at the turn of the century. Some of you “history” buffs might recognize that as the place President McKinley was assassinated. But maybe not since most of you don’t recognize anything North of the 287 and consider everything else UPSTATE. Rochester on the other hand took a little longer to destroy…This company fell apart because of the exportation of good manufacturing jobs to Mexico and Asia during the Clinton era (NAFTA). The Rochester area to this day harbors 3 or 4 of the best high schools in the country, and they are public. There is still plenty of old money dabbled throughout both cities. But where does that get us? I’ll tell you…the two of them are two of the most violent cities per capita in the entire nation. The rest of the country is headed for a similar faith.
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30th December 2010 at 10:08 pm
buchjoe says:
Shitholes and lost population are two different animals as expressed above. Point in case, Pittsburgh v Philly. the ‘burg may have lost more population but people are still there outsite the strict city limits. And the city itself is actually pretty nice now after a period of doldrums and adjustment to the loss of the manufacturing base.. That, and even the hill district in Pittsburgh is a shadow of the 30 blocks. Philly sucks 10x compared to Pittsburgh. The writers of this pablum never visited either. Its been a while since I’ve been to Detroit, but I suspect it should be on the list wayyyyy before Buffalo, which despite loss of population, is likely still a reasonably nice place to live (assuming you have a job) given the infrastructure and general societal climate. Lots of people doesn’t mean good. Hell, If i could hand about 5000 people (1/6 of the total) in Wheeling WV a oneway bus ticket to anwhere right now, even this place would be a nicer place to live.
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30th December 2010 at 11:17 pm
TeresaE says:
The ONLY reason Detroit didn’t make this list has to be that the Census workers were pulling out their normal Detroit work ethic and showing up for work only to disappear for the entire day, coming back just in time to falsify a few reports and smile at the boss on your way home. Just a guess, but based on news reports of court cases, personal experience managing residents (and sadly, not 100% confined within the city limits, many Michigan residents exhibit the “entitled to get paid while not really working” syndrome) and using some knowledge of human nature and our innate ability to chose the path of least resistence (and I, for one, couldn’t be paid enough to put on a suit and knock doors in Detroit, downtown Grand Rapids, Benton Harbor or Flint – to name but a few areas) it is probably a pretty good guess.
Well, that AND the fact that thanks to Michigan’s top-notch welfare for non-working minorities Detroit gained a bunch of refugees from both New Orleans and Mexico settled in Detroit and bumped up the census respondents. Ah, success.
Detroit, and Flint, have quite a few things in common (aside from decades of Democratic leadership, unions and decently supported non-workers) which most notably include both city income taxes AND the highest property/business property taxes in the state.
Of course they also share the fact that nearly 100% of ALL jobs “created” (or saved) in the past decade were done so with complete tax abatements for the promises of jobs to come/stay (and no claw backs if said jobs never materialize), while the “unimportant” and largely floundering, small business (that used to employ 70% of non-government workers, now down to 45% or less) continues to be foreclosed on for failure to pay exorbitant taxes on dilapidated properties and annual taxes equipment and inventory.
The success of decades of our policies is really hard to argue with.
As for all that sit smugly in their other city places thinking that this can’t happen where they live, good luck with that.
Detroit, with Federal and State blessings (and gifts) has stolen THOUSANDS of jobs from the suburbs and outlying areas in the state. We literally rob Petersburg to pay for St Paul Street
I pulled St Paul Street from a random guess (and trying to match the silly saying) and lookee what I find.
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30th December 2010 at 12:25 am
Persnickety says:
Buchjoe, I’ve lived in the burbs of both Buffalo and Detroit and worked in the downtown skyscrapers of both. There is not that much difference and believe it or not, Detroit has more going for it. Buffalo’s nicest suburbs are still pretty pathetic, and the stupidity of its urban denizens is absolutely mind blowing.
Good story. I used to ride the subway from Amherst to downtown Buffalo. The $700M+ subway that has only a few riders. Anyway, one day some people get on at one Buffalo stop. The train goes a distance and stops in mid-tunnel. Probably waiting for a switch, or a slow train ahead, whatever. Those people get up and try to exit the door. Doors are closed, black tunnel outside. They push on the door, it won’t open, so they finally realize “Ah-ha! I’m on the wrong side!” So they turn 180 and try to push open the door on the other side. You know, still black tunnel 3′ outside the door, visible to all. These people had normal eyesight as far as I could tell. Train lurches forward and apparently they finally realize that the train is not actually stopped at a station.
That’s just one story, but I had a number of similar experiences in my time there. I think some combination of chemical pollution and all the power lines causes idiocy.
In Detroit, people will turn on you like a rabid cat and the city is basically a hellhole, but I didn’t find nearly the same level of stupidity. I suppose that may actually be worse for those simply wanting to avoid getting raped/mugged/killed/eaten.
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30th December 2010 at 10:08 am
Kill Bill says:
Well as for foreign SH’s I would have to give Panama mention. The worst poverty and slums I have seen after leaving the crowded bankster [drug money?] row.
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30th December 2010 at 11:31 am
StuckInNJ says:
This post has gotten me to wondering …………. what is THE UGLIEST city in the USA?
I’ve been fortunate enough to have been in almost every major city in the USA. The link below lists the 71 cities in America with a population of over 500,000. I have been to all but three of them. (#54. #68, and #70)
http://www.demographia.com/db-ua2000r.htm
I nominate Detroit. The Renaissance Center and directly across the street, the Greek area, are the ONLY halfway decent spots in the city. Even Cobo Hall down the street from the RC is the pits. There is a tram you can catch in Greektown that makes a circular route through Detroit. My God!!! What a massively ugly pile of stinking shit … forget the 30 blocks of squalor … try 100 blocks of decay, abandonment, ruination, and pure ugliness. I am NOT exaggerating.
Anybody have other nominations?
.
TheresaE — I lived in Grand Rapids about 1/2 mile from Van Andle arena — virtually the center of GR. I never felt unsafe. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in GR to make it a major midwest Medical and Research Center. My youngest son also lived downtown and just last month graduated from the top nursing school there. He loved it and just bought a house in Kentwood, an immediate suburb. The Grand River runs through town and in the spring the millions of tulips, the parks and shoppes make it just a wonderful place to be. Just my opinion, of course.
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30th December 2010 at 11:37 am
ragman says:
Miami is not especially ugly but it is still a 3rd world shithole. It was an absolutely wonderful place to grow up in during the ’50s and ’60s. Now it just plain sucks and I can’t wait to get out of So Fla.
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30th December 2010 at 12:50 pm
Milw05 says:
The area consisting of the south side of Chicago to Gary Ind. would have to rank near the top. All of the suburbs, such as Hammond, Harvey, etc are blighted and falling apart. The air is filthy, vacant steel mills extend forever and blighted ghetto neighborhoods abound. Gary is the top of the class when it comes to urban blight. There is nothing of any value still intact. Block after block of empty lots and, boarded up homes. Once stately classic stone building are empty rotting shells, all the stores, restaurants, factories, businesses are closed with the exception of a few corner stores, liquor stores, fast food restaurants and check cashing places. The city is vanishing and in a few decades will be nothing but a ruin. It is shocking to have a city like this reside in the richest nation in the history of the world.
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30th December 2010 at 1:13 pm
Persnickety says:
Stuck-
“There is a tram you can catch in Greektown that makes a circular route through Detroit.”
It’s officially called the People Mover, locally called the Mugger Mover, and it’s a POS. Mostly tourists and other hapless visitors use it. And you’re right, it goes through some really bad parts of downtown – parts that were thriving 50 years ago and would make a good set for any post-apocalyptic movie now. They did finally tear down the skyscraper with a tree growing through its roof though, I believe.
I visit Grand Rapids occasionally and I agree with your assessments. There are some moderately rough areas south of downtown, but GR is a beautiful, clean and thriving city compared to Michigan’s eastside industrial cities. I would, and have, gone to downtown GR at night without worry.
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30th December 2010 at 2:16 pm
StuckInNJ says:
Persnickety — Been many years for me ….. do you by chance know if the nightclub called BOBs is still there? It was across the street from Friday’s. I LOVED that place.
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30th December 2010 at 2:29 pm
Smokey says:
ragman—–I was born in Miami in 1955. We moved out of the state when I was 6. My father said that the reason we moved was because of the immigrants coming from Cuba. Now Miami is little more than a northern suburb of Cuba. I moved back to south Florida for a few months in the mid eighties. I was there a grand total of less than a month when my new Ford LTD was stolen and stripped. My parents drove down to Miami the following year to visit relatives. They were there less than a week when a cinder block was tossed through the back windshield of their Lincoln Towncar while my father was inside a bait store. His outboard motor was stolen from his back seat. I still love Florida, but not as far south as Miami.——-I agree with you. I LOVED Miami in the fifties.
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30th December 2010 at 2:35 pm
eugend66 says:
Even if it`s sad, sharing those … is still heart touching.
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30th December 2010 at 2:46 pm
Dave says:
I’m thinking my shithole has got to rank up there pretty high. I’ve been crapping through it more more than 70 years.
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30th December 2010 at 6:45 pm
Unbelievable says:
I accepted a job as Medical Examiner in Smokey’s home towm, but I had to quit after a short time. The job was very difficult because they were no dental records and the DNA was all the same.
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30th December 2010 at 12:36 am
Administrator says:
Unbelievable
Now that was funny.
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30th December 2010 at 9:47 am
ragman says:
Smokey: The crime down here is just unbelievable. We’ve had everything stolen you can think of, up to and including a Cessna 210. Cars stolen, purse snacthings, houses broken into, &tc. The cops could care less. They show up after a while and give you a case # for your insurance. My daughter had a beautiful ’04 Mustang Cobra stolen from our driveway about 2mos ago. Last week some ebonics speaking gestapo agent called her and basically accused her of finding the car and perpetrating an insurance scam. What a shithole!
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30th December 2010 at 10:26 am
Reverse Engineer says:
While I found the OP here kind of dumb, the posting by various members of their personal memories of various shitholes around the country is interesting. Its too bad we don’t have some members here who might have first hand knowledge of some of the big International Shitholes like Mexico City and Calcutta.
There have been recent stories in the MSM about my childhood Hometown of Rio de Janeiro, where in advance of the coming World Cup and then the Olympics in 2016, they are supposedly going in to clean up the Favelas.
For all the supposed affluence of Brasil, in most of the Shitties there the poor live in complete squalor, often without running water or electricity in their shanty towns within the Shitty limits. Bad as places like Detroit or Gary or Buffalo might be, for the most part they all still have electricity and running water.
For complete devastation, let’s not forget Port Au Prince, where a Cholera Epidemic was breaking out in the aftermath of the Earthquake down there, before news reports completely disappeared from the MSM about what is happening down there. Then of course you have all those marvelous Shitties in Africa like Mogadishu, Addis Ababba and Nairobi, which I imagine are complete Hell Holes these days. However, these places are all populated by Black People, so they really don’t count in TBP analsis.
The last of the Big Shitties which are barely maintaining their services are the ones central to the financial structure of the world, places like NYC, Beijing, London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong etc. There is still enough Taxation money available in those places to keep the necessary services running to maintain the Big Shitty model. Of course, when the Financial Ponzi collapses, these places will also quickly turn into the same kind of Hell Holes that the former industrial centers already are.
Its really kind of a wonder how for the most part nobody really took notice of how the Big Shitty model has been in Collapse Mode since at least the 1970s here. NYC went through its near bankruptcy period back in the Abe Beam Mayoral Era, and I remember well traipsing around through dilapidated Subway Stations which when they were first built were quite Grand. Intricate Tile work labeling all the Stations with vast Caverns hewn out of the bedrock by lord only knows how many immigrant Tunnel Moles back in the construction years of the 1920s-1950s.
Its not only the Big Shitty infrastructure that is decaying of course, its also the infrastructure of the Interstate Highway System begun in the 1950s by Dwight Eisenhower. Not to mention the Electrical Infrastructure which now is thoroughly out of date and falling into disrepair with each passing day, as local power companies barely have revenue to keep their current power plants and transmission lines operational. How long before all of these Conduits reach the same kind of point as the sad state of the economically abandoned cities of the Industrial Era like Buffalo and Gary?
Exactly how far down the line a catastrophic Tipping Point is remains to be seen, but at some point here its going to become simply impossible to keep the electricity flowing to these cities and keep the water pumping stations and sewage treatment facilities operational. The model simply does not work once the available energy falls below a critical point necessary to keep such a complex machine operational.
The Apocalyptic vision of cities such as presented in films like Escape from New York is going to very much become REALITY, and likely not in the very far distant future either. Giving even the best of these remaining Shitties the longest possible timeline, I cannot imagine how they will remain operational more than 50 years from present day, and I really think its less than 20 for the most part.
Prior to Industrialization and the Age of Oil, even the biggest of the Big Shitties housed less than 1M people, whereas today some house upwards of 20M. There is simply no way that will be possible in the future, which means all those people will have to either relocate or die. Exactly how we will relocate so many people into a more distributed paradigm that is sustainable is pretty much unimaginable, basically because so many people require so much WATER. The Big Shitties are where they are because they were able to access large supplies of water and then ship the Waste produced downstream and out to sea. Once you try to spread so many people out in locations without a freely flowing water supply that moves the waste outward, you’ll end up poisoning your own water table.
Over in the China threads, the case has been made that we will “NEVER!” go to war with China because both sides know its Unwinnable. The thing is, in order to maintain the Big Shitties where so many people in both the FSofA and China live, both will be in competition and increasingly desperate for the lifeblood necessary to keep those Shities running, which is OIL. We are not at the point YET where that competition is so keen, and other less necessary uses of Oil will be cut off first, such as the personal use of an automobile amd production of so many of the toys of the modern age. However, the conservation and rationing will only work for so long before in both countries the most critical systems become affected by this. At this point War becomes the only choice, because either way a large percentage of both populations will have to die off, and each place will want the OTHER one to experience most of the Die Off.
Of course it is Unwinnable for both sides, but both sides will be desperate with no other alternative. The War will quickly end the lives of many, and from a certain point of view they will be the lucky ones, because many more on both sides will experience a slower, more painful and tortured exit into the Great Beyond.
Escaping NOW and leaving the Big Shitties behind is your ONLY chance for survival. There will come a day when it is no longer possible to leave in anything other then a Boxcar headed for the Human Waste Reprocessing Facility in San Antonio, or other such Death Camps and Machines around the world. Do not wait too long to leave, the model cannot be sustained, and it will not be sustained.
Run away. RUN AWAY NOW! RUN AWAY FAST! If you live in or near a Big Shitty, you are living in a DEATH TRAP. The Big Shitties are DOOMED.
RE
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30th December 2010 at 8:34 pm
James Burnette says:
The website blames Democrats, but in the individual descriptions of the cities, the actual reasons for population decline are described. I’m not a fan of either major political party, but let’s place the blame accurately. Corporations will use, rip off, and pollute an area while it’s useful… then they’ll bail out and go elsewhere, where the safety, child labor, and dumping laws are less restrictive. To prevent blighted cities, we need to force Corporations to maintain the quality of life where they are “allowed” to do business. They’re not “giving” people jobs; they’re “taking” from a geographic location.
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30th December 2010 at 12:05 pm
Alpha Squad says:
Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Dearborn Heights…crap most of southwest Michigan is a shithole. Its too bad….Michigan has some beautiful places Up North, eh…
Doesn’t surprise me the stink emanates across the Great Lakes to PA, NY, and OH. New Orleans, yeah, shithole. But look at most of the cities falling apart across the US they didn’t talk about; Chicago, Baltimore, Stockton, CA….
Pretty soon an article is gonna read: U.S. has become a shithole. All the cities are starting to show the strain.
Key Point: Stay out of the cities….
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30th December 2010 at 12:51 am
dean langenfeld says:
im 47 yrs old, i was born in long beach ca,i have lived in WA STATE FOR THE past 30 yrs,in seattle area/now the past 9 yrs in spokane county in cheney wa,cheney wa,is the ugliest most filty city i have ever seen its a college city home of the EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY,THERE IS TRASH AND GARBAGE ALL OVER THE GROUND.
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30th December 2010 at 5:26 am
Ron says:
Being from Philly and now a resident of Miami Beach the
Whole NE Corridor is a mess.. Give me the South
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30th December 2010 at 1:16 pm
Carl says:
Prescott Arizona, and the whole of Yavapai County didn’t make the cut? With 10% taxes,high unemployment,and so much METH that if you blew it up it would snow. Corrupt officials, LEO’s, and the Courts that NOBODY can ever get a fair trial in. The “election” was affirmation votes for appointee’s only.
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30th December 2010 at 6:05 pm
ob juan says:
Kill Bill says:
“It doesnt make sense, hasnt the writer of this article ever been to fece holes Oklahoma City, OK or El Paso, TX?”
that’s why i don’t live there, cabron
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30th December 2010 at 6:17 pm
Gonki says:
The problem is not the existence of shitholes in America, it is that America IS one big shithole. I can’t believe you ppl are living there.
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30th December 2010 at 10:05 pm
db says:
As a former associate with an MBA at a loan company I once worked at pointed out: ‘The brains and wealth of America sit on the East and West Coasts and to a certain extent, the Gold Coast-meaning Florida. The bulk of food production and what used to be more manufacturing lies in ‘The Fat Middle’ of America and with nowhere near the density of the brains and wealth of the former.’ This was an opinion and observation that I had never really thought about until he elaborated further and illustrating that in the San Francisco Bay Area a microcosmic example is the contrast within it and in neighboring cities: Union City, Marin and Oakland or Bay Point (also known as ‘Shot Point’) just blocs from Pittsburg, CA which is also fairly rough vs. Antioch or you can contrast Alamo, CA, Blackhawk, Lafayette or Danville, CA vs. parts of Concord, CA Interestingly, San Jose the home of Silicon Valley has the microcosm of Silver Creek Valley Country Club vs. downtown San Jose along with rural areas all included in the map of San Jose..
Here’s a tip: If you drive through a neighborhood and see bars on the windows or the ‘obvious signs of disarray and poverty’ vs. the order and cleanliness of an average to above average income area well then, you’ve just identified the existence of ‘one of America’s shitholes.’
PS: If your income is ‘poor’ and being below $20K per year and it’s because of extreme career displacement one thing you can do to find decent living quarters (and better schools for your kids if you have some) is renting space in the areas where ‘normal’ income is $80K and above.
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30th December 2010 at 10:59 pm
db says:
PPS: I have another name for ‘America’s Shitholes’ I call them ‘Insanity Zones.’
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30th December 2010 at 11:00 pm