Why has Cairo, IL lost so many people? (Chicago, East St. Louis: houses, unemployment)

[General I80]

I'm familiar with the Rust Belt and the loss of population in the eastern Midwest and the southwestern Northeast. These areas used to have a lot of industry or mining jobs, but many companies went out of business (or moved), creating a lot of unemployment and population decline.

Then, I read about Cairo. It had a lot of lumbermills, and has lost a lot of residents. However, the numbers were really high. When I think of urban decay, I usually think:
Camden, NJ (lost 40.9% of residents)
Gary, IN (lost 58% of residents)
Detroit, MI (lost 63.8% of residents)
East St. Louis, IL (lost 68.3% of residents)

Well Cairo had 15,203 people in 1920. Now (2019 estimate) it has 2,082 people. That's an 86.3% decline.

Is there something special about Cairo that caused this?

[karlsch]

In the Illinois forum, if you use the Search This Forum feature, advanced search, titles only and search for Cairo, you will get many results.

[BOBNCHI]

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cairo-illinois

This and flooding issues surely hasn't helped.

[MSchemist80]

Not to mention Illinois' governing and tax issues manifest more severely near state borders and away from the city of Chicago.

[Curly Q. Bobalink]

In addition to the above posts, a hundred years is a long time; heck, Dresden and Tokyo were about half-depopulated overnight, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in about ten seconds. A lot can happen in a hundred years.

[Justabystander]

I stopped there on a trip back from New Orleans for curiosity sake, since I was always wondering what Cairo was like, a town so much closer to Memphis than Chicago but in the same state. Taxes have nothing to do with its decline; historically this location was to benefit the town through the river traffic along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, but the advent of the railroad changed the course of the town's history. There is simply nothing there; HUD just pulled the last of the Cairo Housing Authority and distributed its residents elsewhere including Kentucky because of corruption with its management. Other than the rivers that are in its vicinity, there is no reason for a town to be there at all. Even its old mansions which were probably grand at one time look modest compared to suburban Chicago houses.

[Bitey]

Its importance as a river port was undercut by railroads, and unlike your other examples that are all very near (or in one case, IS) the core of a major metropolitan area, there's no particular reason for Cairo or anyone in it to be there. Throw in basic corruption and some good ol' fashioned race tension and riots to accelerate the inevitable and you have the Cairo of today.

[RisingAurvandil]

A good case of: Live by the river, die by the river.

As previous posters have mentioned, railroads ended the dominance of river shipping. And nearby coal and mining industries have also declined. And Cairo never grew large enough to develop a wide economic base.

Furthermore, Cairo was built in a flood plain. It is on a "peninsula," surrounded by water, so it doesn't have any space to grow. I-57 was built nearby, but it also sits in the floodplain. And the icing on the cake? Socioeconomic and demographic emigration.

In some ways, it declined like Detroit. Similar processes, but at small-town scale.

[deeman7]

The reason is because it is pronounced Kay-Ro

[SonySegaTendo617]

Cairo has been declining for such a VERY long time, that it was back in the mid-20th century when you look at Census data showing that Paducah(KY) overtook Cairo in population. I think IIRC, it was by the 1950 Census that showed this occurred.

And yep like others said when railroads and later truck and airplane shipping overtook riverboat shipping, no surprise Cairo has declined to essentially being an isolated ghost town today.