Gary, Indiana was once a great industrial city.
Today, it is one of the ten most dangerous cities in America, and the population has fallen by about 50 percent.
The following is from a recent Daily Mail article....
Frequently rated one of the ten most dangerous cities
in the United States, Gary once boomed with jobs and opportunities but
now faces the acute difficulties of America's growing rust belt, with 22
percent of families in the once-great city now lying below the poverty
line.
This modern American ghost town began life as home for workers at
the United States Steel Corporation plant until economic competition
from abroad forced a 90 percent job cut.
It is hard to describe what is happening to Gary without using the
word "depressing". You can watch a great video that shows what Gary,
Indiana looks like these days right here.
This is what happens when industry leaves and there are no jobs.
Gary has become a wasteland and there is essentially no hope for a
turnaround.
The following is how James Kunstler described what he experienced when he traveled through Gary, Indiana recently....
Between the ghostly remnants of factories stood a
score of small cities and neighborhoods where the immigrants settled
five generations ago. A lot of it was foreclosed and shuttered. They
were places of such stunning, relentless dreariness that you felt
depressed just imagining how depressed the remaining denizens of these
endless blocks of run-down shoebox houses must feel. Judging from the
frequency of taquerias in the 1950s-vintage strip-malls, one inferred
that the old Eastern European population had been lately supplanted by a
new wave of Mexicans. They had inherited an infrastructure for daily
life that was utterly devoid of conscious artistry when it was new, and
now had the special patina of supernatural rot over it that only comes
from materials not found in nature disintegrating in surprising and
unexpected ways, sometimes even sublimely, like the sheen of an oil
slick on water at a certain angle to the sun. There was a Chernobyl-like
grandeur to it, as of the longed-for end of something enormous that
hadn't worked out well.
Sadly, Gary is far from alone. There are a whole host of other
formerly great U.S. cities that are degenerating into hellholes as well.
#2 Chicago, Illinois
There is something truly special about Chicago. Most of America
loved the Bears of the Walter Payton era, the Bulls of the Michael
Jordan era and the Cubs of the Ernie Banks era. Chicago is also known
for great architecture and great pizza.
But these days "the windy city" is becoming known for other things.
The murder rate in Chicago is up 38 percent so far this year, and the recent spike in violence in the city has made national headlines.
As I noted the other day, there are only about 200 police officers in Chicago's Gang Enforcement Unit to deal with an estimated 100,000 gang members.
That means that those officers are outnumbered 500 to 1, and more gang members pour into the city every single day.
The escalating violence in Chicago was detailed in a recent article in the Telegraph....
"This is a block-to-block war here, a different
dynasty on every street," said a dreadlocked young man heavily inked in
gang tattoos who calls himself "Killer".
"All the black brothers just want to get rich, but we got no jobs
and no hope. We want the violence to stop but you ain't safe if you
ain't got your pistol with you. Too many friends, too many men are being
killed. We don't even cry at funerals no -more. Nobody expects to live
past 21 here."
The victims and killers are mainly black males aged between 15
and 35, often with gang affiliations - but not exclusively. A
seven-year-old girl, Heaven Sutton, was buried this month after being
gunned down at her mother's street sweet store. And last week, two girls
aged 12 and 13 were shot and badly-wounded as they walked home from a
newly-opened community centre.
If you are thinking of moving to Chicago, you might want to think again.
#3 Detroit, Michigan
I have written repeatedly about Detroit because it is a perfect example of what the rest of America is going to look like soon.
Once upon a time it was regarded as one of the top manufacturing
cities the world had ever seen, but today it has become a total
hellhole.
There are very few decent jobs available, poverty has exploded and crime is everywhere.
If you can believe it, 53.6% of all children in Detroit are living in poverty, and only 25 percent of all students in Detroit graduate from high school at this point.
And as I wrote about recently, justifiable homicide in Detroit increased by a whopping 79 percent during 2011, and the rate of self-defense killings in Detroit is now approximately 2200% above the national average.
Is it any wonder that you can still buy a house for $100 in some areas of Detroit?
The truth is that many areas of Detroit now resemble a
post-apocalyptic wasteland. Perhaps that is why one team of investors
actually wants to turn some of the worst areas of Detroit into a zombie theme park....
Derelict areas of Detroit face being taken over by
hordes of 'flesh and brain-eating zombies' if an ambitious business plan
takes off.
Entrepreneur Mark Siwak wants to create live-action terror theme park 'Z World' on Motor City's run-down and abandoned streets.
Customers would pay to be chased by professional actors and try to seek shelter in ghostly homes, factories and businesses.
You can see some great video of the "ruins of Detroit" right here.
#4 Stockton, California
Stockton is one of the ten most dangerous cities in America and it recently made national headlines when it declared bankruptcy.
Unfortunately, as spending on law enforcement has declined it has
given the criminals a lot more room to operate in Stockton. The
following is from a recent Business Insider article....
The city has cut more than $90 million
in spending over the past few years, specifically in its police
department. The city has cut over one quarter of its police jobs, which
has led to a "surge in murders," and has created an "emboldened criminal
element" in the city. According to police spokesman Joe Silva, the city
has had 87 murders since the start of 2011, 29 of which have already
occurred this year. In contrast, there were 35 murders in 2009 and 48 in 2010.
With six months left in the year, there have already been more murders
in the city since the start of 2011 than the two-year stretch of
2009-2010.
A while back in Stockton a billboard was put up with the following
message: "Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous city in California. Stop
laying off cops."
#5 Flint, Michigan
Flint, Michigan is a city that Michael Moore has made famous. Flint
once supported hordes of middle class workers thanks to a thriving auto
industry, but today it is a just a rotting shell. It looks like a war
went through it and nobody bothered to clean up the mess.
At this point, the murder rate in Flint, Michigan is worse than the murder rate in Baghdad. That is how nightmarish things have become in Flint.
The following is from an article in the New York Times....
It’s not that the cops here are scared; it’s just that they’re outmanned, outgunned and flat broke.
Flint is the birthplace of General Motors and the home of the
U.A.W.’s first big strike. In case you didn’t know this, the words
“Vehicle City” are spelled out on the archway spanning the Flint River.
But the name is a lie. Flint isn’t Vehicle City anymore. The
Buick City complex is gone. The spark-plug plant is gone. Fisher Body is
gone.
What Flint is now is one of America’s murder capitals. Last year
in Flint, population 102,000, there were 66 documented murders. The
murder rate here is worse than those in Newark and St. Louis and New
Orleans. It’s even worse than Baghdad’s.
Politicians love to go to Flint and make speeches, but things never
get any better. The following are comments that Joe Biden made about
Flint, Michigan during a recent speech he gave to promote a jobs bill....
"In 2008, when Flint had 265 sworn officers on their
police force, there were 35 murders and 91 rapes in this city. In 2010,
when Flint had only 144 police officers, the murder rate climbed to 65
and rapes--just to pick two categories--climbed to 229. In 2011, you now
only have 125 shields. God only knows what the numbers will be this
year for Flint if we don't rectify it."
But don't look down on Flint - these kinds of conditions are coming to where you live soon enough.
#6 West Philly
Did you know that 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty?
There are some sections of Philadelphia that are actually very nice,
but there are others that look like society has forgotten about them for
decades.
A recent article by Jim Quinn entitled "More Than 30 Blocks Of Grey And Decay"
described the depressing conditions in West Philadelphia. Quinn refers
to his drive through this area as "the 30 Blocks of Squalor"....
The real unemployment rate exceeds 50%, murder is the number one industry, with drugs a close second.
But it was not always this way. Once upon a time, West Philly was
actually a thriving area and was full of middle class families.
So what happened?
That is a very good question.
According to Quinn, the physical decay in West Philly is matched by the social decay....
The once proud homes are in shambles. Bags of garbage
dot the landscape. Most of the people who live here are parasites on
society. Personal responsibility, work ethic, education and marriage are
unknown concepts in this community. Even though more than 50% of the
students in West Philly drop out of high school and the SAT scores of
West Philly High students are lower than whale ****, the bankrupt school
district spent $70 million to build a new high school/prison to babysit
derelicts and future prison inmates. The windows do not have steel bars
yet, as the architect was smart to put all windows at least eight feet
above street level.
These days there is a lot of despair in "the city of brotherly
love". It is so sad to see what is happening to what once was such a
proud city.
#7 Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland has always had a love/hate relationship with itself. Many
who live there call it "the mistake by the lake", but the truth is that
it was once a truly great city.
Sadly, today it is symbol of what has gone wrong with America.
There has been a steady stream of businesses that have left Cleveland and today 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty.
There are not enough good jobs in Cleveland anymore, and so there are
not enough workers to buy the tens of thousands of homes that have been
foreclosed or abandoned.
So what is being done with all of those empty homes?
Unfortunately, they are being torn down.
The following comes from a recent CBS News report by Scott Pelley....
Across America, recession-fueled foreclosures and
plummeting home values have left countless properties abandoned and
vulnerable to looting. As Scott Pelley reports, the problem has gotten
so bad in Cleveland, Ohio, that county officials have demolished more
than 1,000 homes this year - and plan to demolish 20,000 more - rather
than let the blight spread and render nearby homes worthless.
Does that seem right to you?
Should Cleveland be destroying tens of thousands of homes that families could be using?
Something has gone very, very wrong in this country.
#8 Camden, New Jersey
If you want to see what a hellhole looks like just visit Camden, New Jersey.
Although you will probably want to take an armed escort with you.
As industry has abandoned Camden, the gangs have basically taken over. The "growth industries" in Camden these days are drug dealing and prostitution.
In an article entitled "City of Ruins", reporter Chris Hedges described what life is like in Camden at this point....
There are perhaps a hundred open-air drug markets,
most run by gangs like the Bloods, the Latin Kings, Los Nietos and
MS-13. Knots of young men in black leather jackets and baggy sweatshirts
sell weed and crack to clients, many of whom drive in from the suburbs.
The drug trade is one of the city's few thriving businesses. A weapon,
police say, is never more than a few feet away, usually stashed behind a
trash can, in the grass or on a porch.
Not that other cities in New Jersey are shining examples for the rest of the world either.
For example, if you want to get really depressed just drive through the bad parts of Newark some time.
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