OT: America's Fastest Dying Cities...According to Forbes

[Enigma869]

Looks like Ohio wins this one, in a landslide!

http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/04/econom ... er=yahoore


John from Boston

[Saint John]

John, haven't we had the discussion about being a courteous poster and copying and pasting the fucking link rather than making us open it?!?!?!

[StevePerryHair]

I think it's pretty typical for cities who are based around Industry, like those in the Northeast and Midwest to have declines in population and growth. Those end up being your dirtiest cities and they can't thrive with an economy that isn't thriving. Not to mention how much industry is overseas now. I think some of these cities have been dying for a long time. I grew up in Erie, Pa, and I thought it was a "dead" city when I left in the late 80's. It's "downtown" area died. Almost all industry there has shut down, and that means fewer jobs. Young people move away. So no growth. It's the smaller older cities notice.

[Enigma869]

John, haven't we had the discussion about being a courteous poster and copying and pasting the fucking link rather than making us open it?!?!?!

Sorry dude. I prefer clicking on a link, so that's just how I've always done it. But, just for you...


Another rough decade for the Rust Belt.

The turmoil of the mortgage market granted a temporary reprieve from hearing about the woes of America's Rust Belt. That doesn't mean things are better. Despite a decade of national prosperity, the former manufacturing backbone of the U.S. is in rougher shape than ever, still searching for some way to replace its long-stilled smokestacks.

Where's it worst? Ohio, according to our analysis, which racked up four of the 10 cities on our list: Youngstown, Canton, Dayton and Cleveland. The runner-up is Michigan, with two cities--Detroit and Flint--making the ranking.

These, and four other metropolitan statistical areas, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, face fleeing populations, painful waves of unemployment and barely growing economies. By our measure, they've struggled the worst of any areas in the nation in the 21st century. And they face even bleaker futures.

In Pictures: America’s Fastest-Dying Cities



It wasn't always this way. Despite years of economic decline, in the first years of the new century the employment situation did not look so bad--3% to 4% unemployment was the norm, along the lines of metropolitan areas elsewhere in the country. The rest of the decade was not so kind. Thanks to a crushing downturn for automakers like General Motors and Ford, Detroit and Flint, Mich., have seen unemployment approach 10%.

Another brutal statistic all the cities share is a diminishing population. So far this decade, 115,000 people have left Cleveland, for other climes. Smaller changes in other regions can be just as painful. Nearly 30,000 people have left Youngstown, Ohio, and they aren't being replaced by either new babies or new immigrants.

Still, the cities we found to be struggling don't vary widely by age, and this factor had little influence in the rankings. The oldest city in our top 10, Scranton, Penn., had 45% of its population over 45; the youngest, Flint had 38% over 45.

The worst news is, of course, economic. When we looked at the most recent gross domestic product estimates for 155 metropolitan statistical areas estimated to have $10 billion or more GDP in 2005--economies about the size of Asheville, N.C., or Tallahassee, Fla.--the news was predictably terrible for the Rust Belt.

In the fall of 2007, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) published its GDP estimates from 2001 to 2005. Nearly every city in the country grew during this period (New Orleans, devastated from Hurricane Katrina, was the notable exception), but the struggling cities on our list grew more sluggishly. None of them grew more than 1.9% a year, versus a nationwide average of 2.7%. Canton, Ohio, managed to grow its economy just 0.7% annually. Flint was worse still at 0.4%.

None of these cities now face the huge declines in real estate prices seen by Phoenix, Miami or Las Vegas, where the Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows nearly 30% declines from a year ago. Detroit is off only about 15%, Cleveland only 8%. Don't call it a bright spot. Prices never went up in the first place.


John from Boston

[Saint John]

Thank you, John!

[NealIsGod]

Where does Chicago place?

[Tito]

I think it's pretty typical for cities who are based around Industry, like those in the Northeast and Midwest to have declines in population and growth. Those end up being your dirtiest cities and they can't thrive with an economy that isn't thriving. Not to mention how much industry is overseas now. I think some of these cities have been dying for a long time. I grew up in Erie, Pa, and I thought it was a "dead" city when I left in the late 80's. It's "downtown" area died. Almost all industry there has shut down, and that means fewer jobs. Young people move away. So no growth. It's the smaller older cities notice.

This sounds like a good song:

Faith In the Heartland?
Out of Harms Way?
Better Life?

[Tito]

Where does Chicago place?

I personally would place it high, but the sh-t media loves Daley and won't. They'll point out all the good, but avoid the bad.

[Saint John]

With the exception of the 2 Michigan cities mentioned ( I know the racial makeup of Flint and Detroit) I'm not certain of the demographics, but aren't all or most of these cities predominantly black?

[Tito]

From today's Sun Times.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1098 ... 08.article

The grass is greener -- in the 'burbs
CENSUS REPORT | Cook County loses largest number of whites in the nation -- but stats show minorities are moving out, too

August 8, 2008

Cook County leads the nation as the county with the highest number of whites -- meaning those not Hispanic, black, Asian, American Indian or Native Hawaiian -- moving out, according to recently released U.S. Census figures.

More than half of all U.S. counties experienced a decline in white populations since 2000, helping fuel a rise in the number of communities in which minorities are now the majority, the census data showed.

In terms of percentage, though, Cook County lost only about 1.1 percent of its white population, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.

Brookings said the numbers of whites leaving Cook County can't be characterized as "white flight" because minorities are also seeking out the suburbs as the place for better schools and more affordable housing.

In both the city and suburbs, more whites are moving out than moving in, said Kenneth Johnson, a demographer who worked for 30 years at Loyola University Chicago. More whites also are dying in Cook County than being born here, he said.

"It's partially because a lot of the people of childbearing age leave Chicago or Cook County for the other suburbs," he said. "It's also because the white population in Cook County is older, so they have a fairly high mortality."

Blacks are also leaving Cook County, with a 1.3 percent annual decrease, according to the data as interpreted by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. But the county still has 1.4 million blacks, the highest of any U.S. county.

While the greater Chicago area grew by 4.5 percent between 2000 and 2007, Cook County was the only regional county to decline in population, with a 1.7 percent decrease, the agency's statistics said. The Latino population grew regionally by almost 340,000, or more than 24 percent, between 2000 and 2007, the agency noted.

Contributing: Gannett News Service
CHICAGO AREA'S CHANGING POPULATION
The Census Bureau has released 2007 data on race, age and Hispanic origin for all 3,141 counties in the United States.

215,525: The estimated number of non-Hispanic white people who have moved away from Cook County, the largest drop in white population of any county in the nation.

-1.1%: The percentage decrease of Cook County's white population since 2000. San Francisco's white population decreased by 17 percent.

1.4 million: The number of African-American residents in Cook County -- the most of any county in the nation.

-1.5%: The percentage decrease in Cook County's African-American population.

-1.7%: The decrease in Cook County's total population since 2000. Cook was the only county in the Chicago seven-county area to decline in population since 2000.

77%: The total population increase in Kendall County -- the largest increase in the seven-county region.

171,000: The population increase in Will County since 2000. Will County accounted for 47 percent of all of the growth in the region.

24%: The percentage increase in the Latino population since 2000 (almost 340,000 people.)

28%: The percentage increase in the metro area's Asian population since 2000.

[ProgRocker53]

I think 75% of that list is within 4 hours of me.

Fucking depressing.

[Tito]

I think 75% of that list is within 4 hours of me.

Fucking depressing.

You alright today? This is the second thread you sounded like you're gonna kill yourself. It's alright man. I'm Mr. Negativity (in real life) but it ain't all that bad....yet. I'm kidding about the yet part.

[whirlwind]

Pretty soon it will be the whole country unless people wake up.

[ProgRocker53]

I think 75% of that list is within 4 hours of me.

Fucking depressing.

You alright today? This is the second thread you sounded like you're gonna kill yourself. It's alright man. I'm Mr. Negativity (in real life) but it ain't all that bad....yet. I'm kidding about the yet part.

Nah, I'm not suicidal or anything at all, I'm normally the most cheerful and optimistic fucker out there but I've had a week from Hell and it's feeling GREAT venting on here.

[Rhiannon]

Nah, I'm not suicidal or anything at all, I'm normally the most cheerful and optimistic fucker out there but I've had a week from Hell and it's feeling GREAT venting on here.

Oh yeah, try finding out your boss bounced your paycheck last week.

What a glorious Friday it's been! But hey! I made that fucker go to his secret cash stash at his house in Oak Park to take care of it. (With the use of girl tears, which I rarely employ. I was freaking out though.) And it is a beautiful day in Chicago. So it's not all bad.

[ProgRocker53]

A beautiful day in Chicago, I'm sure, is much better than a beautiful day in Bumblefuck.

[Tito]

Pretty soon it will be the whole country unless people wake up.

Bingo. This country can not survive on this type of debt (federal, state, and local levels). Outsourcing of the manufacturing base is stupid. I don't want hear about free trade/free market. That's all b.s. especially when we are having these enemorous bailouts right now. Where's the free market there? Fair trade can work.

[Michigan Girl]

I think 75% of that list is within 4 hours of me.

Fucking depressing.

You alright today? This is the second thread you sounded like you're gonna kill yourself. It's alright man. I'm Mr. Negativity (in real life) but it ain't all that bad....yet. I'm kidding about the yet part.

You are Tito? That's hard to believe!!!!

[Tito]

I think 75% of that list is within 4 hours of me.

Fucking depressing.

You alright today? This is the second thread you sounded like you're gonna kill yourself. It's alright man. I'm Mr. Negativity (in real life) but it ain't all that bad....yet. I'm kidding about the yet part.

You are Tito? That's hard to believe!!!!

Yep, I'm the bitter person that clings to my guns that Obama talks about.

[Rhiannon]

Yep, I'm the bitter person that clings to my guns that Obama talks about.

[AlteredDNA]

Yep, I'm the bitter person that clings to my guns that Obama talks about.

+1, but without the bitter...

[Michigan Girl]

I think 75% of that list is within 4 hours of me.

Fucking depressing.

You alright today? This is the second thread you sounded like you're gonna kill yourself. It's alright man. I'm Mr. Negativity (in real life) but it ain't all that bad....yet. I'm kidding about the yet part.

You are Tito? That's hard to believe!!!!

Yep, I'm the bitter person that clings to my guns that Obama talks about.

You know, Tito....I could use you to help build my pipeline!!!

[RedWingFan]

I think 75% of that list is within 4 hours of me.

Fucking depressing.

You alright today? This is the second thread you sounded like you're gonna kill yourself. It's alright man. I'm Mr. Negativity (in real life) but it ain't all that bad....yet. I'm kidding about the yet part.

You are Tito? That's hard to believe!!!!

Yep, I'm the bitter person that clings to my guns that Obama talks about.

You know, Tito....I could use you to help build my pipeline!!!

Did you just say you needed someone to lay some pipe???

[Tito]

I think 75% of that list is within 4 hours of me.

Fucking depressing.

You alright today? This is the second thread you sounded like you're gonna kill yourself. It's alright man. I'm Mr. Negativity (in real life) but it ain't all that bad....yet. I'm kidding about the yet part.

You are Tito? That's hard to believe!!!!

Yep, I'm the bitter person that clings to my guns that Obama talks about.

You know, Tito....I could use you to help build my pipeline!!!

Are you trying to be preverted?

[Rhiannon]

Did you just say you needed someone to lay some pipe???

Don't miss a beat, do ya?

[Saint John]

Cook County loses largest number of whites in the nation

Cook County is going to be losing another one real soon.

[AlteredDNA]

I think 75% of that list is within 4 hours of me.

Fucking depressing.

You alright today? This is the second thread you sounded like you're gonna kill yourself. It's alright man. I'm Mr. Negativity (in real life) but it ain't all that bad....yet. I'm kidding about the yet part.

You are Tito? That's hard to believe!!!!

Yep, I'm the bitter person that clings to my guns that Obama talks about.

You know, Tito....I could use you to help build my pipeline!!!

Tito - you may need to shave your chest soon - http://forums.melodicrock.com/phpBB/vie ... 95#4152095

[Tito]

[Michigan Girl]

So I have a crew then????




That was good...RWF, DNA, TITO!!!
Real comedy crew there....just missing Stevie!!! I'll learn

[AlteredDNA]

So I have a crew then????




That was good...RWF, DNA, TITO!!!
Real comedy crew there....just missing Stevie!!! I'll learn

Glad I could help, Mich...