Cities that Died. :( (crime, Dallas, freeways, major)

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by bhj867

Chicago is an exception. It's an oasis in a desert of decay.

Not all Midwestern cities are decaying...My examples would be some of the smaller cities such as: Madison, Bloomington/Normal, Champaign/Urbana, Ann Arbor, Rockford (albeit it is still a dying city as far as jobs are concerned...), Aurora, Joliet...

[thatguy1]

Originally Posted by Maintainschaos

Not all Midwestern cities are decaying...My examples would be some of the smaller cities such as: Madison, Bloomington/Normal, Champaign/Urbana, Ann Arbor, Rockford (albeit it is still a dying city as far as jobs are concerned...), Aurora, Joliet...

Columbus is doing very well, too.

[bhj867]

Originally Posted by Maintainschaos

Not all Midwestern cities are decaying...My examples would be some of the smaller cities such as: Madison, Bloomington/Normal, Champaign/Urbana, Ann Arbor, Rockford (albeit it is still a dying city as far as jobs are concerned...), Aurora, Joliet...

True, albeit most of those are university towns. Aurora and Joliet are stabilized on the shirt tails of Chicago. When it comes to good old fashioned industry and jobs alot of these cities are still suffering.

[jessemh431]

Centralia, PA

From Wiki:
"During most of the borough's history, when coal mining activity was being conducted, the town had a population in excess of 2,000 residents. Another 500 to 600 residents lived in unincorporated areas immediately adjacent to Centralia."

"As of the 2000 census,[12] there were 21 people"

Centralia, Pennsylvania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[bhj867]

Originally Posted by jessemh431

Centralia, PA

From Wiki:
"During most of the borough's history, when coal mining activity was being conducted, the town had a population in excess of 2,000 residents. Another 500 to 600 residents lived in unincorporated areas immediately adjacent to Centralia."

"As of the 2000 census,[12] there were 21 people"

Centralia, Pennsylvania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SILENT HILL If they do film a sequel to this, hopefully they find a little town in Maine or Oregon to film in so it will look more like the game.

[jessemh431]

Forgotten Pennsylvania: Centralia

[Thomas R.]

That's fascinating, I'd never heard of it before.

Looking up bigger towns/cities in decline Wheeling, West Virginia apparently once had a population of 61,659. Its current population is less than half that. Although the Wheeling metro-area is a bit bigger.

Wheeling, West Virginia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
//www.city-data.com/city/Wheeli...-Virginia.html

For cities that actually died

Virginia City, Montana - "With a population of over 10,000 in 1864, Virginia City was the largest town in the inland Northwest." "According to the latest population survey... 132 very hardy souls." It was apparently once the capital of "Montana territory" (Granted 132 is still some population, also this site says it's 144 and growing, but it seems to have survived largely as a historical preservation effort)

http://virginiacity.com/#fun_facts
//www.city-data.com/city/Virgin...y-Montana.html

Holy City, California - Kind-of more a cult compound or something. It was led by a William E. Riker. Rather than bed alien women and stroke his beard, this William Riker preached celibacy and practiced bigamy. He also leaned toward white-supremacy and admiration of Hitler. At one time the town had more than 300 people, but currently has 3. It may have inspired the Karen Joy Fowler story "Always."

http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=24768 (broken link)

Thurmond, West Virginia - Once a coal-town with hundreds of people only seven remain.

http://www.coalcampusa.com/sowv/rive...d/thurmond.htm
//www.city-data.com/city/Thurmo...-Virginia.html



Kaskaskia, Illinois - Wikipedia says it was once the territorial capital of Illinois. It currently has just 9 people. Flooding problems killed it.

http://www.prairieghosts.com/kaskaskia.html
//www.city-data.com/city/Kaskaskia-Illinois.html

[JR_C]

With the exception of Centralia, Pa, have any of the cities mentioned above "died?" They are losing population, and are economically distressed. But, when I think of a dead city, or a city that has died, I think of a ghost town or a place where no people live.

[bhj867]

Maybe I should have named this thread, Cities that are on hospice. lol I'm not worrying about it. This has turned into a very interesting thread.

[JR_C]

Originally Posted by bhj867

Maybe I should have named this thread, Cities that are on hospice. lol I'm not worrying about it. This has turned into a very interesting thread.

Well, although a few more of the cities might qualify, I still don't think that most of the cities in this thread would fit that description.

(But I'm probably a bit too sensitive to this kind of stuff because the city I'm currently living in was named in the first reply.)