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Do you live in a town whose glory days are long past, that has lost population and jobs, where the best and brightest are leaving, where a large part of the population depends on government for its livelihood (welfare, grants, farm subsidies, etc.)? Your hometown may be turning obsolete!
God bless,
CKB
Lima, Ohio is becoming obsolete. back in the early 1980s Lima was considered a metro area as the city population was slightly over 50,000 residents with another 15k living immediately outside the city. the lone public high school in the city had over 2,000 students in grades 9-12. the city was large enough to support an ice rink, 4 quality movie theaters, one very nice mall and another mildly decent mall.
fast forward to the present day. the current population is around 38k and Lima has now slumped behind Findlay, Ohio has the largest city in NW Ohio not counting Toledo, Ohio. 1 out of 5 persons live in poverty and in reality it's probably more like 1 in 4 to be honest. crime has always been an issue but Lima ranks 1st!!!! in Ohio for crime for a city it's size.
when i was in elementary school there were 13 k-6 schools. in 2012 there now 4 k-4 schools. the high school enrollment when i graduated in '99 was slightly over 1,400 in 9-12. now the HS enrollment is barely hanging on to 1k.
one of the 2 malls has closed leaving one nice mall for the county basically and beyond. there is now only 1 movie theater for the entire city. the ice rink closed it's doors years ago.
the parks use to be filled in the summer time with little league baseball teams, now the league no longer exists due to lack of interest.
none of my close friends from high school moved back after college. i did know a few people who graduated college and moved back but they all bought houses outside the city.
the west end market street neighborhood that was for years the diamond in the rough neighborhood wise (VERY nice homes that date back to the early 1900s) has still maintained it's glory but many of those homes are on the market for well below their market value.
it's reached a point now where if you have a college degree and a stable job you don't live in the city.
the only bright spot is St. Rita's Hospital which has expanded to cover almost the entire west side portion of the downtown area. Lima Memorial hospital has had some expansion in the last 10 years as well. is it bad when the only things expanding in your city are the hospitals?
My hypothesis is that the decline of midsized American towns/cities is geographic.
Many of these towns started as market towns, central locations, often distant from the market -urban areas- where the local farmers brought their products for distribution. As agriculture consolidated in the 20th century, most of these towns, that could, turned to small manufacturing and secondary processing for larger nearby industrial cities, which created a solid economic base for the area.
By the late 20th century, manufacturing in America was getting far too expensive and without the old economy, small farming, or the late economy, manufacturing and what we see is a decline in these cities due to geographic obsolesence having been located for efficiency in an obsolete settlement pattern that emhasized distribution of resources from rural areas to urban areas.
Meanwhile, towns closer to large cities survive as bedroom communities for large cities with a base in government, services, and other areas of economic stability.
I grew up in a small California desert town that I THOUGHT was dead then...but that was nothing compared to now! It's depressing to see, actually.
Now I live in a small town in west Michigan that basically hangs on as a bedroom community of Grand Rapids. The towns further away than us, however, are by and large dying a slow death.
You just described my entire state, Michigan. Our cities are dead or dying, Detroit, Flint, Muskegon etc. In fact Detroit is dragging our whole state down with its overwhelming problems. Whole sections of Detroit are literaly abandoned. People in the cities are dependent upon welfare, and the rest of the nation bailed out our states primary industry. Our rural areas are dependent on farm subsidies, and unemployment-welfare benefits as well. Our young people are leaving by the tens of thousands. Despite all this many of us like living here and stick it out. Michigan is a pretty state, our climate is harsh, but many of enjoy that as well. We just live with the hope that this will end eventually and everything will stabilize. Eventually with people leaving like they are the amount of jobs will come close to matching the population. No one knows how long that will take.
Sounds like Western NY as well
The city I grew up in is a shell of its former self..... Rochester NY
The glory days there were up until the early 1980's
It is truly sad to drive through most of that city now
Unfortunately, the backward thinking of many of the residents there will not allow the city and area to start to recover
I think that the best thing that could happen to western NY would be for it to become its own state.... get away from NYC...... Upstate (western) and Downstate have absolutely NOTHING in common
The city I grew up in is a shell of its former self..... Rochester NY
The glory days there were up until the early 1980's
It is truly sad to drive through most of that city now
Unfortunately, the backward thinking of many of the residents there will not allow the city and area to start to recover
I think that the best thing that could happen to western NY would be for it to become its own state.... get away from NYC...... Upstate (western) and Downstate have absolutely NOTHING in common
I don't think it is the residents more so than business tax issues, to be honest. Even with that, the Rochester metro and even parts of the Buffalo metro have seen recent growth, with some changes occurring slowly, but surely within the cities.
I also would say that there are still quite a few solid to nice parts of the cities in Western NY too. When you can't annex or expand like cities in other areas, that leaves people to move to the suburbs.
Lima, Ohio is becoming obsolete. back in the early 1980s Lima was considered a metro area as the city population was slightly over 50,000 residents with another 15k living immediately outside the city. the lone public high school in the city had over 2,000 students in grades 9-12. the city was large enough to support an ice rink, 4 quality movie theaters, one very nice mall and another mildly decent mall.
fast forward to the present day. the current population is around 38k and Lima has now slumped behind Findlay, Ohio has the largest city in NW Ohio not counting Toledo, Ohio. 1 out of 5 persons live in poverty and in reality it's probably more like 1 in 4 to be honest. crime has always been an issue but Lima ranks 1st!!!! in Ohio for crime for a city it's size.
when i was in elementary school there were 13 k-6 schools. in 2012 there now 4 k-4 schools. the high school enrollment when i graduated in '99 was slightly over 1,400 in 9-12. now the HS enrollment is barely hanging on to 1k.
one of the 2 malls has closed leaving one nice mall for the county basically and beyond. there is now only 1 movie theater for the entire city. the ice rink closed it's doors years ago.
the parks use to be filled in the summer time with little league baseball teams, now the league no longer exists due to lack of interest.
none of my close friends from high school moved back after college. i did know a few people who graduated college and moved back but they all bought houses outside the city.
the west end market street neighborhood that was for years the diamond in the rough neighborhood wise (VERY nice homes that date back to the early 1900s) has still maintained it's glory but many of those homes are on the market for well below their market value.
it's reached a point now where if you have a college degree and a stable job you don't live in the city.
the only bright spot is St. Rita's Hospital which has expanded to cover almost the entire west side portion of the downtown area. Lima Memorial hospital has had some expansion in the last 10 years as well. is it bad when the only things expanding in your city are the hospitals?
You just described my entire state, Michigan. Our cities are dead or dying, Detroit, Flint, Muskegon etc. In fact Detroit is dragging our whole state down with its overwhelming problems. Whole sections of Detroit are literaly abandoned. People in the cities are dependent upon welfare, and the rest of the nation bailed out our states primary industry. Our rural areas are dependent on farm subsidies, and unemployment-welfare benefits as well. Our young people are leaving by the tens of thousands. Despite all this many of us like living here and stick it out. Michigan is a pretty state, our climate is harsh, but many of enjoy that as well. We just live with the hope that this will end eventually and everything will stabilize. Eventually with people leaving like they are the amount of jobs will come close to matching the population. No one knows how long that will take.
All of Michigan is becoming obsolete? This sounds a bit extreme. I know times are hard over there, but wow...
My small town outside of Charlotte, NC was doing great and was "alive" until the 1980's. Like many small towns in our area, the movement of textile jobs overseas was the beginning of the end.
A huge amount of our residents are on government welfare or assistance of some kind. The financially well-off ones are those who retired before the plants closed, and transplants moving into the area because property is so cheap compared to "up north". Unfortunately, retirees and transplants do not bring industry or create jobs (except at the Golden Corral LOL).
The poor economy also seems to be increasing the crime rate, domestic violence, and general cultural deterioration that shows up in our local newspaper daily.
This past year, I have seen many long-time businesses in this town shut their doors. Young people will HAVE to leave here to pursue careers after college, including my own children. Just about every store advertises "Food Stamps Accepted Here".
It's sad for me to see, because I remember when the town was charming and still vibrant. The end of the 1990's was the last "gasp". The decade since 2000 has been an acceleration of decline that is palpable to me, but some people still have "rose colored glasses" on about it. Sometimes, I wish I still did. I hate to be "doom and gloom", but things must be faced as they truly exist.
I expect to see tumbleweeds blowing down the street ten years from now.
I'm sure this is true of many, many small towns across the country.
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