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Other cities that I suspect might not do so well are Oklahoma City, Little Rock, New Orleans, and Memphis.
Oklahoma City is actually becoming a modern-day, success story in this regard. They are doing everything right at the moment, no joke. There are even two NBA teams in a brawl over who gets to call the place "home."
And hopefully whoever loses that brawl will come to Kansas City. I don't live in Kansas City, but I think they deserve either an NBA or NHL team with that new arena just sitting there.
Yeah. I feel bad for Detroit. The economy there is bleak and I just do not see any way that things get better there. Unlike a lot of smaller rust belt cities that can have a total upswing if one decent sized company moves there, Detroit once had over a dozen big companies and it was one of this country's major manufacturing hubs. Now, the population still remains, but the industry has dried up. And while a company or two may still decide to move there and bring hundreds of jobs along with it, it will never be enough to replace the jobs that have been lost. Further complicating a potential revival for Detroit's economy is the fact that it has pretty lousy weather. If a company is looking for an inexpensive place to move to and it can choose between Detroit or, say, Houston...the mild winters in Houston are going to be more appealing to potential employees of the company. Plus, as the tax base in Detroit erodes, it becomes harder and harder for the city to revitalize decaying neighborhoods because money is short. I hope I'm wrong, but if cities were stocks, Detroit is a stock that I would not touch.
What about the newer sunbelt cities? Phoenix, Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte, etc.....Cities that are so suburban in nature and fundamentally designed around the automobile could face problems once the price of petroleum start to become unmanageable.
I know this thread is supposed to be about cities that are dying, but I'll put in a plug for another city that seems to be rising from the dead:
Washington DC.
Yep, DC, the city that was the murder and crack capital of the US, where even the mayor was a crackhead.
DC, a city the lost population nearly every year from 1950 to 2000
DC, where the population within the city limits declined by about 1/3, but since about 2000 has been growing in population nearly every year.
It's just a small increase, but for a city on a 50 year slide that's a remarkable turnaround. I guess the commutes out to the exurbs finally became too great and people decided to take their lives back from the commuter rat race.
I don't know if you could call it a true renaissance yet, but the slide has stopped.
Oklahoma City is actually becoming a modern-day, success story in this regard. They are doing everything right at the moment, no joke. There are even two NBA teams in a brawl over who gets to call the place "home."
I agree. Oklahoma City is in the midst of a revitalization that many cities have not seen. Employment is great, entertainment and cultural amenities abound, the housing collapse is nowhere near as bad as it is in most of the country, and they are going to have an NBA team within a year, maybe a tad longer. The city is reinventing itself literally in front of everyone's eyes. I predict OkC will become one of the next boom cities, if it isn't already.
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OKC is kicking butt
