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America’s Ten Dead Cities: From Detroit To New Orleans
247wallst.com ^ | 8/23/2010 | 247wallst.com

Posted on 08/26/2010 10:45:30 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at 247wallst.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: galveston
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To: grellis

Michigan has 2 cities on this list.


61 posted on 08/26/2010 11:22:58 AM PDT by Springman (Rest In Peace YaYa123 and Bahbah.)
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To: crusty old prospector

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

I *love* Galveston. The Rosenberg is a jewel. I am a big fan of the Texas Seaport Museum and the Strand. But it’s kinda like loving that old-codger family member that is indulging in self-destructive behavior. Ya can’t stop ‘em, and it hurts to watch.


62 posted on 08/26/2010 11:24:10 AM PDT by No Truce With Kings (I can see November from my house.)
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To: crusty old prospector
Galveston was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Ike in 2008

And was basically fully repaired 6 months later.

I don't know why Galveston is even on this list.


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

63 posted on 08/26/2010 11:24:54 AM PDT by The Comedian (Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
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To: dragnet2

From what I’ve seen personally, Detroit and Cleveland rival Beirut architecture/cityscape.


64 posted on 08/26/2010 11:24:58 AM PDT by traditional1 ("Don't gotsta worry 'bout no mo'gage, don't gotsta worry 'bout no gas; Obama gonna take care o' me!)
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To: Will88

we’ll never know how many trade deals have gone bad for the US on the basis of intent, or just simple incompetence.


65 posted on 08/26/2010 11:25:50 AM PDT by Pecos (Liberty and Honor will not die on my watch.)
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To: The Comedian

Maybe they lost the Chiquita banana contract and they ship to Veracruz, then some of those well-maintained Mexican trucks haul them up here.


66 posted on 08/26/2010 11:26:57 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: dragnet2

New Orleans isn’t dead, it just smells funny.


67 posted on 08/26/2010 11:28:00 AM PDT by Senator Pardek
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To: Crawdad

The Unions should be made to pay reparations.


68 posted on 08/26/2010 11:30:05 AM PDT by Boiling point (Beck / Palin 2012)
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To: henkster

“Galveston was Houston’s port, until Houston politicians got the Corps of Engineers to dredge a navigable channel through Galveston Bay, and they built their own port. The ships sailed right past Galveston and the city died.”

Actually, Galveston was still a bigger port than Houston until after WWII. What really killed the Port of Galveston was the Container Revolution. Houston was an early-adaptor (the first containers landed at the Port of Houston). Galveston — in part because of unions and in part because it was still the more successful port at that time — stuck with break-bulk until Houston had a massive, massive advantage in containerization. Then it became an also-ran.

Same thing happened in New Orleans and many of the big East Coast port towns. Container ports were set up outside them (above and below New Orleans in the case of that city) and the traditional break-bulk ports dried up and blew away in the 1990s.

Same story in Europe. Liverpool and London were Britain’s biggest cargo ports. Today it is Colchester and Southampton. (Southampton got lucky — the container revolution hit at the same time as the airline revolution. Southampton containerized because it saw the passenger liner trade going away and was willing to use the quay-side railroads to load containers instead of passengers.)


69 posted on 08/26/2010 11:34:38 AM PDT by No Truce With Kings (I can see November from my house.)
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To: whattajoke
and in CT, ZERO tax dollars from any town goes to another town, so the cities like Hartford (And bridgeport and Waterbury and New Britain and Waterbury) all fall apart while the towns around them (relatively) thrive.

I agree that it is an odd place to live but I'm not sure your point about taxes is right - - the state government is funded largely by income taxes that are mostly paid from parts of Fairfield County and then spent across the rest of the state. And money is paid out directly from the state to the towns in the form of education aid, which is effectively a transfer from the wealthier places to the poorer ones. Looked at that way, the dead cities of Connecticut have been hugely subsidized by the thriving places for decades. Yet the cities still rot because they are cesspools of all our modern liberal-caused ills (welfare state, uncontrolled immigration, etc...)

70 posted on 08/26/2010 11:36:11 AM PDT by Stingray51
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To: dragnet2

Only two Michigan cities on the list? I’m shocked Saginaw, Benton Harbor, Pontiac, and Ypsilanti didn’t make the list.


71 posted on 08/26/2010 11:36:28 AM PDT by Darren McCarty (I don't look for leaders. I follow my own path, my way.)
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To: No Truce With Kings

Interesting. I had never heard that.


72 posted on 08/26/2010 11:40:11 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: No Truce With Kings

Well thank you for your very detailed response to my question. And to others as well who responded. I live in CA and have never been to the Houston area. I have been to Dallas and have always admired the the pro-business attitude and environment of the Metroplex. Sure wish we had that here in CA, where the attitude towards business in Sacramento seems to be: And don’t let the door hit you on the way out.


73 posted on 08/26/2010 11:40:30 AM PDT by Gen. Burkhalter
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To: crusty old prospector

That Greyhound track is pretty empty too. They hold midget car races in the parking lots on Sunday. Mall of the Mainland across the highway is doing nothing, hasn’t done much for years. It is a mystery to me why Florida is jamed packed and the same topography in Galveston county is doing squat. And this is before NASA (Not About Space Anymore) and the oil business took direct hits from Obama.


74 posted on 08/26/2010 11:47:34 AM PDT by dblshot (Insanity - electing the same people over and over and expecting different results.)
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To: Stingray51
but I'm not sure your point about taxes is right - - the state government is funded largely by income taxes that are mostly paid from parts of Fairfield County ...

I'm sorry, I was referring to the town taxes that each individual town decides. Since I rarely have to send the state a check in April - and I have to send my town two very large checks per year - that's what sticks in my head.

Even so, if we could actually "follow the money" in the state's "General Fund," I'm quite sure we'd all mutiny. Why doesn't Blumey go after this "general fund" that gets so much money for what? Where?

The recent raise in state park fees and hunting/fishing licenses (100% raise lowered to 66% raise) all went to this "general fund."

It's always amazed me that bankrupt Bridgeport is in Fairfield County and yet, Fairfield County is still so prosperous that it still claims to be a top 3 "richest county" in the US.


75 posted on 08/26/2010 11:48:34 AM PDT by whattajoke (Let's keep Conservatism real.)
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To: truthguy
How dare you think something so politically incorrect (but factually correct)! You are found guilty of "thought crimes against protected classes of humanity". Report immediately to your local ACORN office for re-education! /sarc

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

76 posted on 08/26/2010 11:49:52 AM PDT by wku man (Steel yourselves, patriots, and be ready. Won't be long now....)
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To: dragnet2

Cities that should be on this list:

Gary, Indiana
East St. Louis, Il.
Newark, NJ
Trenton, NJ
St. Louis, Mo.
Pine Bluff, Ar.
Danville, Va.
Quad Cities, Ia/Il.


77 posted on 08/26/2010 11:52:24 AM PDT by CharlesMartelsGhost
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To: dragnet2

Oh Hooray!! My home state’s capital, Hartford is #3!! /s


78 posted on 08/26/2010 11:52:47 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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To: Pessimist

I’ve never understood the thing against the “Fat cats.”

FDR came from big-time old money, and so did JFK. Lyndon Johnson came from a modest background, but was super-rich when president. Carter wasn’t “just” a peanut farmer, he was a very successful and wealthy peanut farmer. Obama, Clinton, both fairly wealthy.

They hate rich people, yet they vote for rich people. Strange disconnect.


79 posted on 08/26/2010 11:53:29 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: No Truce With Kings
Actually, Galveston was still a bigger port than Houston until after WWII. What really killed the Port of Galveston was the Container Revolution. Houston was an early-adaptor (the first containers landed at the Port of Houston). Galveston — in part because of unions and in part because it was still the more successful port at that time — stuck with break-bulk until Houston had a massive, massive advantage in containerization. Then it became an also-ran.
Container ships and faster mechanical loading and unloading at the grain elevators also killed the red light district in Galveston. Not enough sailors and longshoreman with time and money to keep it going.
80 posted on 08/26/2010 11:53:29 AM PDT by dblshot (Insanity - electing the same people over and over and expecting different results.)
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