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Much of this is "cities that went into great decline", but a few are being more literal and using "cities that have literally been abandoned or destroyed." (I've done a bit of both)
Towns or cities that literally died would be like Indianola, Texas or Rhyolite, Nevada. I'd say that's something of a lesser interest in this thread than towns that have experienced great declines without being abandoned or disincorporated.
It was mentioned on a "world's saddest cities" deal, but Treece, Kansas apparently went into a big decline from its high point. It apparently wants to die, or its people moved to somewhere else, due to toxins.
New Orleans was dead for a while after Hurricane Katrina but it was placed on "life support" and is still undergoing "physical therapy" and will come back better than ever.
I wouldn't say any of the larger cities have died out. A really good example of a dying city is Johnstown. Once had over 80,000 people, now down under 25,000. Of course they've had all those terrible floods.
I recently got a chance to go to Duluth. I don't see any evidence that it's "dying"
That's probably because you only visited here. To know that Duluth is dying you have to know some of its history and go away from Canal Park and the other tourist spots. Duluth hasn't been hit as hard as much as a lot of other cities, but in no way are we growing. Most people I know would probably leave the first chance they get, not a whole lot want to stay.
Utica, NY went from 280k or 260k in the middle of the 20th century to 60k now.
Actually it peaked at 100,000, not 280,000.
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