Many US cities are making big comebacks, some are sort of teetering on the brink (but still holding it together), while a few are continuing to fall apart.

Which one of these major US cities do you think is most likely to just plain disintegrate (if any) ?

Gary is fallin apart (no offense).

^umm gary fell off 50 years ago :)

Wheres Toledo? Larges businesses were speading out to West Toledo in the late 80's/early 90's. Today there are very few left.

West Toledo is the only blightfree area in Toledo, and with the businesses moving out, itll die eventually.

My vote goes to Buffalo instead of Gary. Why?

Because Gary has the advantage of being next to Chicago and near a huge national truck/rail corridor, as well as having its own airport, which can serve as Chicago's 3rd regional airport (if they get their act together). Also, it has a rail connection to Chicago and may eventually get reborn as a commuter suburb

Buffalo is different. It is way too far from NYC, it isn't near any other major cities, and all of its industries have declined without any prospects for a replacement. By not being near a big city, it has no hope of reinventing itself as a bedroom suburb, etc, so what's left? I see nowhere but down for Buffalo, unfortunately.

Is Dayton falling off too.

I dont think B'more deserves to be mentioned with most of the cities on this list, it's decline isn't as bad as any of these cities, but I think Camden is bad enough to be up there with Gary.

How about you spell Pittsburgh right and get a freaking clue on what's happening there

Yeah I really don't think Baltimore deserves to be on that list.

No city will disappear completely as the larger ones have some of the most affluent suburbs in that nation while the smaller ones are just economically depressed suburbs of major cities.

Baltimore, St. Louis, Pittsburgh? You have to be kidding? I don't know Gary or Buffalo. But, I voted for NO city, because the cities I do know, like Balto, St. Louis, Pittsburgh have so much going for them.

BTW, if there is one city that would disappear over time, I'd bet it would be Phoenix. Imagine what would happen to that city if the water of the Colorado ran dry or the power crunch of the southwest worsened.

Toledo is half of it Metro area and still are feeling the Gary-effect. Northwest Ohio is so goddamn BORING, and has jack squat to offer. Not like this is Toledo's fault or anything... but NW Ohio is the most bland part of the state.

And i think of Dayton as a Cincinnati burb, so i doubt it will ever die;however if there were no Nati, then there'd prolly be absolutely no demand to live in a city such as Dayton.

snd there is no way a monster city like Detroit would collapse. Can you picture a once 1.85 million city to just fade away? If you look at Cities as Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Gary, Cleveland, you'd see that the numbers were just cut in half.

yeah I really don't Detroit will deterierate anytime soon.

I voted Detroit, but Newark and Gary are pretty close. Pittsburgh and Buffalo shouldn't be on there, and neither should Baltimore or St. Louis. All of thsoe cities are starting to see dramatic turnarounds.

And you ignore the turnaround that is occuring in Detroit?

Ummm why is Pittsburgh , Baltimore and St louis on the list?

why is Gary always being mentioned here? If memory serves me right...Gary was never a major city like Detroit, Buffalo, or St. Louis.

In the 8th Century AD, Changan, China, was the largest city in the world, with two million people -- and it was the capital of the world's superpower. Now Changan is just an archaeological site.

If the Detroit auto industry goes belly-up some day (perhaps competition from China or India will wipe the US auto industry off the map), then hopefully the city will find a way to adapt; Pittsburgh seems to be doing all right as a post-steel city. How diverse is Detroit's economy these days? Rich suburbanites won't hang around forever, if the central city has no reason for existence -- that is, unless the productive sectors of the Detroit-area economy are based mostly in the suburbs now. Is this becoming the case? I've never heard of a metro area abandoning its central city for another one...

Anyway, my vote is for Las Vegas: more ecologically unsustainable than Phoenix (or any other US city), and has nothing to offer except casinos, 10-dollar Budweisers, and hot weather. Vacation towns are replaced easily.

PLEASE No city is just going to fall apart and die. They'll downsize, see some bleak days, but no city just poofs into oblivion. There will always be plenty of people who call these cities home and wouldn't have it any other way.

Kind of negative, don't you think? I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, I'm just saying that the topic alone is pretty bleak. I don't believe any city will fall into oblivion. At any rate, all of those cities are better off now than they were 30 years ago. A lot of them are getting cleaned up nicely and making a firm turn around. Baltimore is seeing a major housing boom and a clean-up of crime, Detroit is also cutting crime and revitalizing downtown, and, well, a lot of those cities seem to be doing the same thing. They do have their issues to work out, but it takes time. They're all taking steps to remove those problems. So I vote "no city will fall." :)

BTW, if there is one city that would disappear over time, I'd bet it would be Phoenix. Imagine what would happen to that city if the water of the Colorado ran dry or the power crunch of the southwest worsened.

Economy in Phoenix is booming rapidly... Phoenix does suprassed Atlanta for most new home development.

Hard choice... I have going with Detroit cuz growth are very useless execpt for urban redevelopment in downtown. Buffalo is very closer to Niagara Falls and there's alot of tourist too. Buffalo is very closer to Toronto, only almost couple hours to arrive. Of course, It's too far away to NYC... 6 hrs... wow... :|

^umm gary fell off 50 years ago :)

Wheres Toledo? Larges businesses were speading out to West Toledo in the late 80's/early 90's. Today there are very few left.

West Toledo is the only blightfree area in Toledo, and with the businesses moving out, itll die eventually.


This statement is so far from truth.

Toledo is half of it Metro area and still are feeling the Gary-effect. Northwest Ohio is so goddamn BORING, and has jack squat to offer. Not like this is Toledo's fault or anything... but NW Ohio is the most bland part of the state.

Feeling the Gary effect? What are you smoking?! I cannot help but laugh at this bogus statement. All cities go throught economic-cycle and yes factories close up but factories are building and moving in. Northwest Ohio is flat and no one's denying that--its still very heavily covered with woodland terrain and agriculture which used to be all swamp (Black Swamp). I guess 1.1 million people who live in the Northwest Ohio region has a reason for living here and we like it.

Kind of negative, don't you think? I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, I'm just saying that the topic alone is pretty bleak. I don't believe any city will fall into oblivion. At any rate, all of those cities are better off now than they were 30 years ago. A lot of them are getting cleaned up nicely and making a firm turn around. Baltimore is seeing a major housing boom and a clean-up of crime, Detroit is also cutting crime and revitalizing downtown, and, well, a lot of those cities seem to be doing the same thing. They do have their issues to work out, but it takes time. They're all taking steps to remove those problems. So I vote "no city will fall." :)

Amen!

where is this 'pittsburg' you speak of?

and what is all this talk about a buffalo/NYC relationship???

buffalo never has and never will have its fortunes tied to those of NYC..... if NYC and all its development dissappeared tomorrow buffalo wouldn't be as bad off as NYC if buffalo and its surrounding development were to disappear tomorrow...

for however faded the buffalo niagara region may be... it still holds all the cards when it comes to cheap power production... if hydroelectric power had never been developed in western ny NYC wouldn't be what it is today... electricity costs would be so prohibitively high that NYC would struggle to afford its electricity bill... luckily for NYC though, politicians have damned development in WNY in order to subsidize development in NYC...

or they would just build nuclear plants...

^^BINGO^^

Actually a great point by the two people who mentioned Las Vegas and Phoenix. To LA lover, evonomy means nothing when you don't have water. Cities in the middle of the dessert (or is it desert? I get the two confuseed a lot) just don't work. They need to be on a major river or something, like the ciites of Egypt on the Nile. Las Vegas and Phoenix may be doing good now, but I give them less than 100 years. Especaily with all of their sprawl.

If the Detroit auto industry goes belly-up some day (perhaps competition from China or India will wipe the US auto industry off the map), then hopefully the city will find a way to adapt; Pittsburgh seems to be doing all right as a post-steel city. How diverse is Detroit's economy these days? Rich suburbanites won't hang around forever, if the central city has no reason for existence -- that is, unless the productive sectors of the Detroit-area economy are based mostly in the suburbs now. Is this becoming the case? I've never heard of a metro area abandoning its central city for another one...

The auto industry is still a major part of Detroit's economy, but it is no longer the huge manufacturing center it once was. Most of the auto-related jobs in the metro are white-collar. (engineering, research, management, etc.)

Also, the suburbs have already usurped much of the power that downtown once held. Two of Detroits suburbs have actually surpassed downtown Detroit as office centers. They are Southfield and Troy. Southfield actually has one of the tallest suburban office skylines in the nation with five towers over 300 ft.

This is a picture taken by a photographer at UrbanOhio (http://www.urbanohio.com[/url).
http://urbanohio.com/OtherStates/Michigan/Detroit/Suburbs/Southfield/Southfield2.JPG

It shows just a few of the skyscrapers that dot the landscape of the city.

Here's another shot of the skyline found at Google:

http://home.carolina.rr.com/myscratchpad/images/Southfield_City.jpg

or they would just build nuclear plants...

oh yeah...b/c the one they already have down there has been so wildly successful and hasn't been seen as a major terrorist target or danger in and of itself.... :bash:

also the commissioning process for a nuclear plant these days is easily around a decade...i think the entire time spent on the robert moses power project from turning the first piece of turf to producing power was under 4 years...

The Gaza Strip.

Youngstown, Ohio.

I don't think any city will go into oblivion, at least completely. I can't think of any examples where any city has lost all of its influence or population.

Youngstown, Ohio.

Ding Ding Ding....we have a winner.

Newark has been gaining population every year since about 1990. Why is Newark on this list?

I think its gonna be Phoenix... Every city will go through a glory stage and then fall...

I think if Gary and Newark is on the list, so should Compton, Camden, Youngstown, and E. St Louis...too.

I think the real question is: Which one of these cities hasn't fallen off the edge already?

:jk: :jk: :jk:

Oh man imagine if I was serious...:lol:

I don't think any city will go into oblivion, at least completely. I can't think of any examples where any city has lost all of its influence or population.

Pompeii? :lol:

Pompeii? :lol:

lol, good example

Newark has been gaining population every year since about 1990. Why is Newark on this list?

Yeah, I was just there and it's definately on the rebound.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/pwright1/NewJersey035Small.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/pwright1/NewJersey001Small.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/pwright1/NewJersey007Small.jpg

Detroit is going down the drainer as it seems...

Well, now it seems that it could be New Orleans. It could be flooded so bad that it could be deemed un-inhabitable. That is about as low as a city can go don't you think?

Detroit is going down the drainer as it seems...


What would give you such an impression?

Once critical mass of abandonement is reached in Detroit, I think the city will come back, there are enough middle class folks from the Suburbs and the rest of Michigan to easily reoccupy the city. Once the city reaches less than 500,000 people this could happen. As far as vote, I picked Gary because it seems that city has reached critical mass and no one is coming back because Chicago is right there, so it could be being close to Chicago is hurting Gary.

It's not looking good for NO right now