What city in your state has experienced the worst decline?

[-]

LopsidedFrosting4860@reddit

Decatur Alabama I ain’t goin there with out a gun

[-]

Jollyguana@reddit

Hey, at least the whole town smells like cat food.

[-]

LopsidedFrosting4860@reddit

Except if your near the Hillsboro side then it’s crap

[-]

AFewForLeftyToo@reddit

Unless it’s plummeted in like the last twelve months that seems like a major stretch.

[-]

uncouthulu_@reddit

It's Northern Alabama, they have extremely low minority populations and even less undocumented immigrants.

Guess what two things most of the people up there whine about most.

[-]

Been like that a while every time I go there something is always happening. I have to go a lot for car parts to I think 5 th or 6th street I can’t remember the exact road name but it’s the same road as the round bank. And everytime there is no one there speaking English or Spanish cussing out the parts store guy because he doesn’t speak Somalian

[-]

AleroRatking@reddit

Utica has amazing food, but we get absolutely no money and support upstate

[-]

ChocolatePain@reddit

They likely fell off due to lack of steamed hams

[-]

PokeCaptain@reddit

I think Binghamton fell harder tbh

[-]

tootallforshoes@reddit

Ya but is so gorges

[-]

cmanson@reddit

You are thinking of Ithaca lol

[-]

goombalover13@reddit

I certainly found Utica's geography to be beautiful. Really the whole Mohawk Valley is gorgeous. Waterfalls and foothills. Very green.

[-]

cmanson@reddit

I’ve been all over the country and Utica definitely punches way above its weight in terms of food scene

[-]

AleroRatking@reddit

Its a refugee city which means so much food from different cultures. Like how often do you have elite Bosnian, Lebanese, Italian (which is a big part of Utica routes) and Dominican in one city the size of Utica

It truly is incredible.

[-]

SaltandLillacs@reddit

Fall River, Lawerence, Lowell, Springfield

[-]

baddspellar@reddit

Lowell is nice. Doesn't belong in the discussion.

Substitute Holyoke for Lowell

[-]

Late_Barnacle_8463@reddit

Holyoke is far and away number 1 on this list for Massachusetts. Lowell, Lawrence and Fall River have come into Boston’s sphere of influence over the last 15 to 20 years which has helped clean up their downtown cores and supported revitalization efforts. Springfield is the economic center of Western Massachusetts and its population is still only ~15 thousand less than its peak in 1960. Holyoke on the other hand has been in a slow decline for nearly a century. There is practically no private investment in the city and brownfields are scattered all over its historic center. Mix in poverty, crime, abandoned factories, and a general fear from the surrounding suburbs and it doesn’t stand much of a chance. The place was literally built for industrial manufacturing based on water power, take that away and the city doesn’t really have any reason to exist anymore. Nobody has been able to figure out what direction to take the city in (Tourism? Bring back manufacturing? Life sciences? Marijuana? Food distribution? Who knows!) It’s truly a shame, and I hope one day it returns to its former glory because the bones are still there with a bunch of neat architecture.

[-]

ScatterTheReeds@reddit

You haven’t been to Lowell in a while. It’s been on the upswing for 20+ years now (thanks in great part to UML).

[-]

pmonichols@reddit

I was shocked how nice the UML campus is now! Very pleasantly surprised when I went to a game there a few weeks ago.

[-]

sean8877@reddit

From a former Western MA resident who still has family there:
Pittsfield

[-]

Bendragonpants@reddit

Cities that aren’t Boston

[-]

Comfortable-Study-69@reddit

Some of the really small cities in central/west Texas and the panhandle are rough. The ones that didn’t have major industrial operations and weren’t major farming/ranching/oil hubs in the 40s and 50s especially just got completely obliterated by urbanization. Dumas is probably the worst I’ve seen, but I’d also give honorable mentions to Memphis, Clarendon, Menard, Christoval, and Ballinger.

For big ones, Dallas has actually plateaued in population according to 2010-2020 census data, although the rest of the DFW metroplex is still growing extremely rapidly.

[-]

Emotional-Loss-9852@reddit

Yeah I don’t think Dallas has experienced any decline lol. I think Corpus is in a tough spot, and depending how far back we want to go, Galveston is the big city with the harshest decline

[-]

LateNightPhilosopher@reddit

Galveston went from major port city and regional powerhouse to literal suburb. But that decline happened long before most of our times.

[-]

Tim-oBedlam@reddit

Wasn't Galveston bigger than Houston before the 1900 hurricane basically levelled the city?

[-]

BlueSoloCup89@reddit

San Antonio had retaken the top spot by then, but yeah, Galveston was still one of the biggest.

[-]

nakedonmygoat@reddit

For Texas, I'd say Corpus Christi is very much trying to be a contender, but they're still a few years out from being totally without residential water, so there's still a chance they'll get some kind of reprieve, either from the state or from Mother Nature.

[-]

LateNightPhilosopher@reddit

1 year. They're one year from running out of drinking water unless some massive solution is worked out. It's so bad that the State and feds are starting to get involved. But all levels of government are so incompetent at the moment that the chances of an adequate solution are plummeting.

In top of the water crisis, I've been told that Corpus was a booming secondary hub of the oil industry in the 70s and 80s. Lots of wealth flowing around. It was also the origin point and corporate headquarters of Whataburger up until about 20 years ago. But in my lifetime it's kind of been a rundown forgotten city. It's a shame. It could be a really nice place. It has the potential. It's in a decent spot, is fairly affordable, and coastal South Texas has some unique ecological resources that should be a big draw for research and tourism. But the economy is in shambles, it's got literally 0 PR (Most people I've spoken to from farther away than Houston have no idea Corpus even exists), and the tourism Hotspots and literally everything else that the government has a finger in is either fully neglected or horrifically mismanaged. And the local govt is overflowing with infighting and corruption. And despite being a college town with another college town only 30 miles away, the area as a whole feels undereducated because a lot of the graduates flee the area for greener pastures, or get trapped in local underemployment. It's a damn shame.

[-]

Pipeliner6341@reddit

It has to be Corpus. It looks like it got stuck in 1995

[-]

Comfortable-Study-69@reddit

Maybe, but I think Corpus will figure it out. Nueces river basin ranching will probably take the short end of the stick before people start having to emigrate en masse due to water restrictions, especially when Corpus also has the built-in factor of being the deepest port in the gulf of Mexico and a critical one for oil infrastructure given its proximity to the Permian basin.

[-]

braxtel@reddit

I grew up in a small town near Lubbock and played a lot of football games in those little forgotten towns all over the panhandle.

Last Picture Show kind of vibes.

[-]

aurorasearching@reddit

I remember not too long after I moved out to Lubbock I was on the phone with my grandpa driving from Abilene to Lubbock. Periodically he’d ask where I was, and I’d tell him a town name. He’d always have some story about a time he stopped there, or ask if some place was still open by the highway. I don’t think a single place he mentioned was still in business. A lot of the towns out there seemed like they’d seen better days. And yet, I love that area of the state.

[-]

mattcmoore@reddit

San Bernardino or Stockton.

[-]

RsonW@reddit

It just seems like Stockton should be better than it is. It's so well-positioned geographically.

[-]

elderly_millenial@reddit

Geographically how? Maybe if there were some high speed rail to the bay or Sac, but you end up with a chicken and egg problem

[-]

nostrademons@reddit

Same goes for Cairo IL. Confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, you'd think it'd be perfectly positioned to be the main trade center of the midwest.

Interesting that in both Cairo and Stockton's case, the reason for their fall appears to be "racism".

[-]

RsonW@reddit

Interesting that in both Cairo and Stockton's case, the reason for their fall appears to be "racism".

The Central Valley cities are very well-integrated, though. Stockton is included in this.

While I would not go as far as to say that racism plays no part, it's also not like there are distinct "black neighborhoods", "Mexican neighborhoods", or "white neighborhoods" as in most other American cities.

[-]

mattcmoore@reddit

Stockton's schools were segregated, like with Alabama style enforced, segregation in the 70s. Then all the white people who had almost all the tax money started leaving in the 80s, many prompted by bussing and integration, just like what happened in cities in the South if you can believe it. The city has been feeling the residual effects of white flight ever since, even though Stockton has turned into a modern California "majority-minority" city demographic-wise. The reason why the city was so poorly positioned for the 2008 crisis though is directly related to white flight in the 80s. The effects of 20th century racism last a long time, even in cities WITHIN entire states that are mostly non-white now.

[-]

earthhominid@reddit

Isn't Cairo prone to regular severe flooding also?

And when it comes to Stockton, don't forget to include incredible local corruption. Stockton and Detroit are really similar. Industrial flight, racism, deeply embedded corruption. A classic old world recipe reshaped by time and culture into a beloved american specialty

[-]

ParmaHamRadio@reddit

Cairo is surrounded on all sides by a levee system. Approaching the town from the north you literally drive underneath a floodgate that helps protect the town when the rivers flood.

[-]

mattcmoore@reddit

I don't think any city in the U.S. was hit as hard by the 2008 financial crisis. That's what did that city in. Before that Stockton experienced major white flight. People were getting better paying jobs in SF, SoCal and elsewhere too, it wasn't too different from what happened to many cities on the East Coast, but with the addition of the 80s crack epidemic California gangbanging. It became one of "those cities." I guess property values were rising very fast in the early 2000s because of all the pre-financial crisis antics no doubt, and the city issued millions in bonds for all these silly, corrupt projects, expecting to pay for them with what they thought would be a never ending property tax windfall. Then they became, I'm pretty sure, the largest city in history to file for bankruptcy, while being a city suffering from major institutional problems that I'm sure every American understands very well. The same thing happened in San Bernardino. Those cities are so cooked now! I had the pleasure of living in San Bernardino 2009-2011 and while nothing horrible happened, it seemed like such a hopeless place to be in.

[-]

papayafighter@reddit

I think the biggest bankruptcy for a city was Detroit. But yeah I agree with everything else you said. I feel like a lot of Central Valley cities could be booming if it wasn’t for things like this

[-]

EndlessHalftime@reddit

I’d wager another key piece is the gang violence getting priced out of the more expensive cities in CA

[-]

mattcmoore@reddit

Gangs are very territorial and they are a multi- generational curse. There is this weird phenomenon now where people are expected to keep coming back to "the hopd" even though their mom or whatever moved and hour away, just because their whole family was from 52 Hoovers, or EST or whatever set. You never really get "priced out." Those neighborhoods are for life. That being said San Berdu and Stockton have been hella active since the 80s

When you're seeing crime and violence explode in Oakland and Stockton it's not because there are more gangbangers. It's because the cities can't afford to have a real police presence. If anything there's less gangbangers because fewer and fewer are living to see adulthood.

[-]

DesertWanderlust@reddit

Definitely has every advantage: active port, well-positioned in terms of logistics, and a good-sized city. Yet it's a truly awful place.

[-]

native-american-22@reddit

Don't forget Oakland. San Francisco and Los Angeles are also up there.

[-]

jhumph88@reddit

Every time I drive through Stockton on the freeway I think about whether or not I’ve recently updated my will.

[-]

maceilean@reddit

I'm gonna go Havilah. It was the first County Seat of Kern County and held the position for over ten years. It has since lost over 90% of its population and almost completely burned down in 2024.

[-]

JohnHazardWandering@reddit

...you mean it's gotten worse?

[-]

mattcmoore@reddit

Last time I'd been to either of those places I wouldn't have said they improved.

[-]

MachoMeatball@reddit

Times Beach, Missouri, a town of 2,000 west of St. Louis is a good contender. It was completely evacuated and demolished after being sprayed with hundreds of thousand of gallons of toxic dioxin waste oil in the 70’s and 80’s. Pretty bad.

[-]

FMLwtfDoID@reddit

My Great Grandpa was a pastor at a church in Times Beach. They relocated to St Clair, MO which then also had a major decline in almost every measurable metric.

[-]

Poile98@reddit

Tennessee is experiencing a lot of growth but Memphis is declining.

[-]

TAsCashSlaps@reddit

Tennessee's investment in industry in the 80s and 90s in Middle and (to a lesser extent) East TN did so much in boosting the economic output of the state and eventually the growth of its cities. I'll stand by the belief that the rest of West TN's disinterest in industry in favor of continuing it's agricultural focus dramatically hurt Memphis' ability to develop new businesses. Being the effective "big city" for similarly minded East Arkansas and North Mississippi doesn't help either.

Obviously, there are more reasons than just that more directly tied to Memphis' own politics and history, but I have always felt that had that investment arrived 30 years ago in Jackson or Brownsvill or something, we'd be looking at a very different city today

[-]

Sir_Auron@reddit

If Detroit can rebuild itself, Memphis has hope as well. 2025 and 2026 have seen meaningful reductions in crime, but unfortunately the city and state will remain permanently at odds barring a miracle (we all know why).

[-]

TAsCashSlaps@reddit

Agreed. I still really like going back to visit (moved away for work), and I think it's not nearly as bad as much of the rest of the examples that are being given in this thread (as long as you live in the Poplar Corridor). I don't think that a true renaissance is possible without a restructuring of the city and county governments and a serious focus on pulling more permanent residents into the city's core in conjunction with a much greater push to diversify insutry in West TN from the state. But I do think that things will improve slowly

[-]

sluttyforkarma@reddit

Yep, Memphis has gotta be the answer. For a city with as much economic power as Memphis has it should be doing so much better.

[-]

guess214356789@reddit

That's so sad. Memphis has SO much history.

[-]

Standard_Nothing_268@reddit

If guess Gary Indiana is probably the winner for our state

[-]

bikiniproblems@reddit

Possibly the country?

[-]

Cicero912@reddit

Hartford used to be the richest city in the country and is now the poorest state capital (the broader metro area however is very rich).

Detroit would also be a good choice

[-]

Streamjumper@reddit

I knew Hartford got boned over the years, but the first time I visited the Connecticut Historical Society's museum it really got hammered home for me.

I would love to see it rise again, but that's one hell of a long climb, and I don't know if the powers that be are willing to make it happen.

[-]

MagnumForce24@reddit

Even though Detroit has had a resurgence, the population went from 2 million in 1950 to 600,000 today.

I don't think anything comes close to that.

[-]

spitfire451@reddit

You're telling me that the capital of insurance companies is poorer than say Frankfort Kentucky?

[-]

Cicero912@reddit

The city proper is, yes

[-]

MissionSuccess9576@reddit

Businesses w/ storefronts or office space in downtown Detroit: Gucci. Lululemon. Deloitte. The Westin. Apple.

Lots of dated information circulating online about Detroit…

[-]

Cicero912@reddit

Its not dated to say that while Detroit is recovering its still so far off where it was at its peak. I mean they are only 13 years removed from bankruptcy.

A city is more than just the shops in its downtown core, Hartford has things like century old high end tailors but its still not great.

[-]

loweexclamationpoint@reddit

Yeah, I was in Hartford last summer, surprised to see how run down it is. It never seems to make the lists like typical rust belt cities.

[-]

Cicero912@reddit

Because most people dont consider the first rust belt (which to me is New England) as part of the rust belt.

[-]

IP_What@reddit

I don’t think people appreciate how ridiculously high the peaks were for Cleveland-Detroit-Chicago.

Ever heard of the Great Lakes Exposition? No? Well in 1936, when the population of the country was 128 million and before reasonable commercial air travel, 11 million people went to an expo in Cleveland celebrating industry.

To put that in perspective in 1972 when the U.S. population was 206 million, and when the 747 existed, 11 million people went to Disney World during its first full year of operation.

[-]

MissionSuccess9576@reddit

Oh, Detroit is light years from its Motor City peak, that’s for sure. But my sense is that many people hear or read Detroit, and imagine it still resembles Camilo José Vergara’s ruin p*rn from the 90s. And that just isn’t the case anymore, at all. (At least not for downtown and neighborhoods nearby.)

[-]

Lonsen_Larson@reddit

It's funny that people shit on Detroit but I was there last fall and it felt safer and was certainly a lot cleaner than Portland. Whatever you're all doing there, keep it up.

[-]

datsyukianleeks@reddit

Detroit? Flint.

[-]

Euphoric_Ease4554@reddit

Detroit is on the upswing.

[-]

Comfortable-Study-69@reddit

I’d probably go with New Orleans just talking about cities nationally. It went from the fifth largest city in the US in the 1860s and an extremely important one economically and culturally to a crime-ridden mess that had 20% of its population leave after Katrina and never return.

[-]

Standard_Nothing_268@reddit

There are some others that are going to at least give it a run for its money.

[-]

United_Reply_2558@reddit

Baltimore? Detroit?

[-]

Facts_Or_Feelings@reddit

Detroit is moving in the right direction, still mostly rough but improving from it’s bankruptcy days. Baltimore, couple nice neighborhoods, but overall, was and is still falling apart.

[-]

IP_What@reddit

Both making a comeback. Will likely never be at their gilded age peaks but both have vibrant downtowns.

Gary, Youngstown, Akron, not so much.

[-]

thattogoguy@reddit

Youngstown, OH and the surrounding area.

[-]

Healthy-Brilliant549@reddit

Yup. I live out here, It will never recover

[-]

thattogoguy@reddit

Until recently, I was with the AFRC C-130 unit out of the airport as a navigator. It's a great unit and a great base, but the area just sucks.

[-]

Healthy-Brilliant549@reddit

The Ravenna armory? I drive by there like 3x a a week. It’s different out here.

[-]

thattogoguy@reddit

No, YARS.

[-]

Equivalent-Pin-4759@reddit

It’s fallen quite a bit since its “Steel Valley” heyday.

[-]

nothinnews@reddit

Tony Hinchcliffe doesn't live there anymore so it's gotta be on the rise.

[-]

MagicWalrusO_o@reddit

Hanford, WA

[-]

Justthetip74@reddit

Aberdeen wins

[-]

canisdirusarctos@reddit

Was Aberdeen ever nice? Didn’t have far to fall.

[-]

copaceticzombie@reddit

There a Kurt Cobain documentary where you get to see home video of Aberdeen in like the 50s and it’s classic Americana. It looks exactly like a place you might want to live

[-]

jonny0593@reddit

It was nicknamed “the Hellhole of the Pacific” by the early 20th century

[-]

Pete_Iredale@reddit

Not really, Hanford is just a few crumbling ruins.

[-]

kartoffel_engr@reddit

I was struggling to think of one and hadn’t even considered my own backyard.

[-]

SecondWorld1198@reddit

Nah I was going to go for White Center, though it’s technically a census designated place

[-]

getElephantById@reddit

My dad was born there, but the family moved to White Bluffs when he was one, so by the time he was in first grade he'd already lived in two ghost towns.

[-]

Usuf3690@reddit

I can't say for certain it's the worst decline because all of Pennsylvania has declined, but Scranton and it's surrounding towns and cities in Northeast PA were once booming coal towns. At the start of the 20th century Scranton was the 38th largest city in the US, with the same population as Los Angeles, and bigger than some now booming metropolises in the South and West. Wilkes-Barre wasn't far behind. Granted when I say this the population was only 102,000 which is nothing today but back then. Today Scranton has roughly 75,000 people, and Wilkes-Barre has seen its population halved since it's peak. The death of the coal industry here in the 1950s and later declines in manufacturing have left the region reeling for decades.

[-]

BelligerentWyvern@reddit

Idk... PA seems to be on the rise in most places. Philly is always gonna have big city problems but for the most part PA seems to be in a quiet revitalization in most places.

[-]

NoCauliflower7291@reddit

Urban Milwaukee. Suburban Milwaukee is doing just fine

[-]

Punky921@reddit

Trenton's in bad shape.

[-]

PolarBearzo@reddit

AC i think had much higher highs that Trenton

[-]

ipoopedonce@reddit

Gonna go with Atlantic City for NJ

[-]

OkLibrary4242@reddit

Trenton Makes, the World Takes- not any more.

[-]

JustSomeGuy_56@reddit

Or maybe Camden. Both victims of post WWII white flight to the suburbs, the loss of manufacturing jobs, and decades of corrupt government, especially in law enforcement.

[-]

Lower_Kick268@reddit

Camden isnt as bad as it was, their crime rates have been plummeting for the last decade or so.

[-]

aurorasearching@reddit

As someone not from the north east, I was a little worried when I had to go to Camden for work. All I’d ever heard was how dangerous it was. I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, there are blocks that look bombed out, and I’m sure there are places I don’t want to hang out, I wouldn’t want to live there yet, but it felt less dangerous than it did just completely economically depressed. It didn’t feel as completely hopeless as some other places I’ve been either, it seemed like there’s an effort to make it better.

[-]

SabreLee61@reddit

Camden has reduced its crime rate significantly since the policing overhaul in 2013, but it still ranks near the top in the state for violent crime.

In other words, Camden went from being one of the worst violent-crime cities in America to just one of the worst in the state.

[-]

Punky921@reddit

Camden has had some revitalization due to its proximity to Philly. AC and Trenton are close to nothing and are really suffering.

[-]

PolarBearzo@reddit

Probably Trenton or Camden

[-]

champ11228@reddit

Buffalo in New York. The Erie Canal rose it to prominence and it became a major industrial and corporate center but it has been in decline for a long time.

[-]

Careless_Bus5463@reddit

Buffalo bottomed out 15 years ago and is now pretty solid again. The city embraced the role of being a mid-sized tourist hub for the border and the Falls and cut a lot of the dead weight. Not it is pretty nice again.

Now Rochester, on the other hand, has turned into a shit hole.

[-]

champ11228@reddit

yeah maybe Rochester is a better answer actually

[-]

cchaudio@reddit

No way! Rochester is propped up by the two titans of industry, Kodak and Xerox. They'll be fine unless people magically stop needing film for their cameras and photocopiers! And what are the odds of that? Also it's only raining, overcast, or snowing like 350-something days a year there, so it's pretty popular with tourists.

[-]

TrueEnthusiasm8242@reddit

I thought Kodak cut back quite a bit. Also I know someone who does education law who told me that the Rochester public school system has collapsed. He does work in Buffalo also and he said the Buffalo school system is still viable although not the greatest.

[-]

GreenWhiteBlue86@reddit

I think you missed the sarcasm. How many people today use cameras with film?

[-]

TrueEnthusiasm8242@reddit

Sorry. I guess I did

[-]

jf737@reddit

Nah, not even close. Rochester has way too many positives.

The answer is some place smaller like Binghamton or Utica

[-]

bmsa131@reddit

I answered in another one. I said Utica or Elmira. It’s definitely NOT Rochester or Buffalo. Those cities declined but are holding strong and frankly the suburbs are really nice with great public schools.

[-]

mcfaite@reddit

I think it's probably Binghamton

[-]

sean8877@reddit

Binghamton was rough in the '90s, haven't been back there since then but don't doubt it is probably worse off.

[-]

Dunnzor@reddit

Second this. Former prominence from ibm, the endicott shoe industry and defense contracting had them riding high for awhile. Now it’s all gone.

[-]

SkiingAway@reddit

The large + growing university has somewhat stabilized Binghamton/Johnson City and there's at least been some investment in the area.

I'd probably pick Elmira for a place in that region seeming to still be declining sharply.

[-]

bmsa131@reddit

Not Buffalo!!!! Maybe Binghamton. Buffalo is still great.

[-]

_fenwoods@reddit

I might argue Schenectady.

It’s not as bad off as a lot of NY rust belt cities. It’s not the Gary, Youngstown, or Cairo of New York in terms of just being a desolate husk. I live here and it’s actually a nice place to live, outside of a couple neighborhoods. And it’s experiencing growth along with the rest of the Capital region, which is more than most of NY can say.

But what heights it fell from! A major Erie Canal city, the birthplace and longtime headquarters of General Electric, and of the American Locomotive Company, plus one of the birthplaces of television. It used to be “The City that Lights and Hauls the World” along with “The Electric City.”

Now that’s all part of our heritage and history rather than our present reality.

[-]

VariegatedPlumage@reddit

Buffalo is still the second-largest city in the state though and has a metro area of over 1 million, like, it used to be way bigger and it’s certainly declined, but I feel like there are other smaller cities that are worse off. Like, they still have an NFL team! I have family in Olean close-ish by and it’s just the saddest place.

[-]

Illustrious_Twist662@reddit

Yeah, if you're considering the worst decline in NY, consider schenectady. It used to be referred to as the electric city, not so much anymore.

[-]

grayjey@reddit

Buffalo’s population today is half of what it was in 1950. It’d be like if New York City dropped from 7.8M to 3.9M. Crazy

[-]

TrueEnthusiasm8242@reddit

That’s true but look at the other small towns in upstate New York. All of those towns have gone downhill.

[-]

94plus3@reddit

Cairo, Illinois was once a contender to be a very big and important city. Now it looks like a small town where a bomb went off.

[-]

zedazeni@reddit

East St Louis gives Cairo a run for its money

[-]

mac979s@reddit

Washington Park is horrible ! East Stl isn’t that bad in my opinion; brooklyn (same area) way worse!

[-]

EcstaticYoghurt7467@reddit

Cairo is virtually a ghost town. At least there's actually people in E. St. Louis to murder.

[-]

ParmaHamRadio@reddit

There are so many beautiful buildings with great bones, it's such a sad sight to see them abandoned and deteriorating in the humidity from the levees.

[-]

gcalfred7@reddit

*sigh* home of a great US Naval Base....in the 1860s.....

[-]

zedazeni@reddit

I don’t know which is worse 😬

[-]

Frosty_Employment171@reddit

East St Louis is the murder capital of the USA.

[-]

Fats_Tetromino@reddit

East STL has improved a lot lately. I drive through there for work pretty frequently. Still a long way to go but the violent crime rate is way down and the streets and buildings are cleaner than I've ever seen them.

[-]

Frosty_Employment171@reddit

What happened? Any idea?

[-]

LemonSkye@reddit

It's also the direct inspiration for Hub City, considered to be the worst hive of scum and villainy in the DC Universe (yes, beating out both Gotham and Blüdhaven). It's where The Question operates out of.

[-]

MuhBack@reddit

Given how much bigger East STL is/was I would say it was a bigger fall.

[-]

Sharkhawk23@reddit

Don’t forget ford heights

[-]

martlet1@reddit

Cairo had a geography problem. Being on two big rivers could have had a metro area. But also the soil gets waterlogged and buildings are sinking. Can’t build more than a few stories before a flood will cause ground water to have hydrostatic pressure and bubble out of even drier ground

Plus almost every white person moved out of Cairo after the riots. They still don’t have a gas station or grocery store in Cairo. Really sad bridge it used to be a great small city.

[-]

Dry-Feedback513@reddit

Back in the 90s my dad would occasionally take us to Piggly Wiggly in Cairo...felt like a third world country back then. There was a good breakfast place called Max's, a True Value that sold GI Joes, a decent barber shop, and a.KFC that was somehow closer than anything in Paducah.

[-]

WiolOno_@reddit

It is a strange place when you learn the history, but it looks like any other depressed rust belt town without that context. I drove through after Christmas a couple years ago to do to Ft Defiance and see the confluence. Was pretty banging as an amateur water enthusiast ngl, and empty which was cool.

[-]

AFewForLeftyToo@reddit

lol yeah Ft. Defiance is basically always empty.

[-]

94plus3@reddit

When I detoured through town on my way to Memphis, I had to wonder if I was accidentally trespassing in the park, that's how deserted it was

[-]

Sea2Chi@reddit

Honestly, they kind of deserve it too.

They were racist as fuck for a lot of their history. They lynched a black soldier on leave in the country jail, shut down the pool rather than let black people swim there, and blocked affordable housing because it would be available to black people. The white residents fought tooth and nail to prevent race mixing or civil rights laws.

Not like back in the 1930's either, although probably then too, but this was going on up to the 1970s. Some of the people still there were most likely involved in the racism that helped lead to their downfall.

Black people responded by boycotting many white owned businesses which along with the writing on the wall being there in terms of civil rights caused a white exodus from the city.

[-]

SkiingAway@reddit

The remaining population of the city is nearly 70% black, and even 25 years ago it was >60%.

Usually if you're that sort of racist you don't keep on living in a place where the minority group you hate is heavily in the majority and has broken through in terms of attaining local political power.

Which is to say - I doubt your characterization of who's left is very accurate.

[-]

Hij802@reddit

Cairo has fallen hard

[-]

Strange-Badger5626@reddit

Man been there a number of times, it was like a place stuck in time, untouched, un maintained, torn down boarded up.....really weird vibe there.

[-]

cecil021@reddit

Memphis for sure.

[-]

Zaliukas-Gungnir@reddit

Portland for high cost of living, homeless crisis, property crime rates. Or it could be Eugene. Eugene has been in the top ten’s for homelessness per capita and bad air quality for like ten years. But yet people still move here.

[-]

joeychestnutsrectum@reddit

For sure not Portland or Eugene for Oregon. Both have experienced recent massive spikes in growth. The state is littered with logging towns that essentially don’t exist anymore. K Falls essentially hasn’t grown since the 30s.

[-]

Nercow@reddit

And there's some REALLY depressing towns on the coast. Sure the landscape in Seaside is nice but man is that town depressing outside of peak tourist season

[-]

Lonsen_Larson@reddit

I had to go to and through Eugene few times for family matters recently and holy shit I thought Portland's homeless problem was bad. It feels like Eugene has about the same number, but in such a smaller town it feels way worse, and in seemingly the most random places.

[-]

Nercow@reddit

It's definitely not Portland. Have you been to the Oregon coast recently? Seaside is REALLY depressing if you go when there aren't other tourists. You see as many homeless people as you do in the bad parts of Portland but they have a tiny fraction of the population. Not to mention all the towns in eastern Oregon that are almost entirely run down.

[-]

markpemble@reddit

Portland in some ways is a good answer.

Sumpter is probably up there too.

Baker City - Although still thriving, was very important 125 years ago.

[-]

North81Girl@reddit

Same with Portland Maine....

[-]

guitar_stonks@reddit

Here in Florida, it’s probably one of the small interior towns like Palatka. It was supposed to be a big port on the St Johns River, but that didn’t happen. Plus there’s a big paper mill that makes the town smell funny.

[-]

u_hrair_elil@reddit

That would be Centralia PA, given that it is sort of permanently on fire and mostly evacuated. Even Cleveland only has its river burn sometimes.

[-]

PA_MallowPrincess_98@reddit

At least Centralia still has Ukrainian Catholic masses in the church still. I have family ties to Centralia and family friends who try to keep things running!

[-]

IP_What@reddit

Centralia is in a bad way, for sure, but it’s not as if it fell from a great height. I’d tend to give this dubious distinction to once prosperous cities like maybe Reading.

[-]

TerriblePokemon@reddit

Hey! It's been 50 years! Except for that time last year when a gas tanker caught on fire and leaked onto the river...ok you've made your point.

[-]

ITrCool@reddit

It even was partial inspiration for a Silent Hill film, apparently.

[-]

VariegatedPlumage@reddit

I feel like Centralia gets a pass for being fucking metal.

[-]

katarh@reddit

I think Centralia is the winner nationwide, now that you mention it.

[-]

ExcellentWinner7542@reddit

It's sort of a race to the bottom but I'd say San Francisco?

[-]

Low-Landscape-4609@reddit

Probably Harlan kentucky. Before all the coal mining restrictions, that was the main source of income and there was coal miners everywhere. People had to move out after they shut down because there wasn't any work.

The community was so dependent on coal severance pay that they even had to lay off police officers and deputy sheriffs.

[-]

KatrynaTheElf@reddit

Not technically in my state (or any), but I’m going for D.C.

[-]

4Q69freak@reddit

Cairo, IL. In 100 years it has lost 90% of its population. In 1920 it had a population of over 15,000 in 2020 it had a little over 1500 and the estimated 2024 population is around 1200. It is considered a ghost town now, because it has very few business and a lot of abandoned buildings.

[-]

Jsaun906@reddit

Buffalo NY used to be one of the most important cities in the US in the late 1800s - early 1900s. It was a manufacturing and transportation hub. Deindustrialization and changes to our transportation infrastructure (the shift from rail and water transport to automobiles) absolutely gutted that city. It went from being a top ten city by population to 88th today

[-]

Pitiful_Fox5681@reddit

I'll propose Tucson for Arizona. At a time, Tucson was a poor, dusty town/city with a lot of character. It seems to have sold out to gentrification, bringing rising prices and a squashing of some of its unique elements, but no apparent job opportunities to justify the higher prices nor any cultural events that bring back some of the culture. The result is unfortunately a very public opioid crisis, lots of visible poverty, and eroding public spaces.

I compare it to Phoenix, which has made leaps and bounds in a positive direction (the light rail is basically functional, there are good restaurants and events downtown, and the job market is amazing). Not a decade ago, I swore off Phoenix as one of the worst cities in the US, while I rather liked Tucson. These days, I just don't know.

[-]

FSFreakman21@reddit

I was in Tucson for a wedding last February after having not been in a few years and was stunned at how visible homelessness has become in the city.

[-]

AZJHawk@reddit

I love Tucson! I live in Phoenix but go down there several times a year. Yeah, it’s a bit grimy and tough around the edges, but not that much worse than when I went to the U of A 25 years ago.

For the worst decline, some of the mining and river towns are pretty bleak. Globe is depressing as hell and Bullhead City has a serious meth problem.

[-]

tog20@reddit

In Oklahoma, it's got to be Pitcher. I can't think of another city or town that has had that big of a downfall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma

[-]

False-Cookie3379@reddit

Absolutely. Pitcher and then maybe Bartlesville? It’s not dead yet but it’s on its way unfortunately.

[-]

ParmaHamRadio@reddit

This should have far more upvotes. Pitcher is right up there.

[-]

WhichSpirit@reddit

Depending on the time frame, probably Atlantic City. Went from being Vegas before Vegas existed to *waves hands at the mess that is Atlantic City*.

[-]

AnatidaephobiaAnon@reddit

Youngstown for Ohio. There are a few contenders but I'd have to give it to Youngstown.

[-]

Reidtweet_@reddit

I grew up in the suburbs and it was like growing up in two different worlds.

My friends and I would take international vacations with our families, while 20-30 mins away was one of the poorest cities in the state.

[-]

AppropriateCattle69@reddit

Agreed. The Southeastern region was once the economic driving force for the entire state, and is obviously struggling right now. But I’d rather be there than Youngstown any day of the week.

[-]

FLOHTX@reddit

The southeast drove Ohios economy? Its all trees and hills, no real cities. Marietta is pretty tiny.

Maybe you mean southwest, with Cincinnati? Cleveland was huge in the late 19th-mid 20th centuries too, in the northeast.

[-]

brUn3tt3grl@reddit

Yes they mean southeast. Iron, coal, timber, ceramics; Ohio River that connects to Lake Erie…also state capital was previously in Chillicothe and Zanesville.

[-]

Mortymoto@reddit

Youngstowns been declining for like 50 years, might be an all time record🤣

[-]

wwacbigirish@reddit

Camden

[-]

Long-Repair9582@reddit

It’s Detroit.

In the early 1950s, Detroit was a world-class city and one of the wealthiest in the world. In the 1990s and 2000s, Detroit was the poster child for corruption and urban decay. It’s a shadow of its former self, despite improving over the last decade or so.

[-]

AZJHawk@reddit

Moreso than Flint? I haven’t been to Detroit in a while and I’ve never been to Flint, but I get the impression that Detroit is on the rebound a bit, while Flint is kinda circling the drain.

[-]

Long-Repair9582@reddit

You’re right, it’s generally true that Detroit is on the rebound and Flint is kinda circling the drain.

However, the question asked which city experienced the worst decline. Detroit and Flint were not on the same level to begin with, so my statement and yours can simultaneously be true (and, for what it’s worth, I think they are both true).

[-]

AZJHawk@reddit

Good point - I guess it depends on perspective.

[-]

Groundbreaking_War52@reddit

Hard to say what it’d be for WV. Some towns just straight up faded into oblivion.

[-]

MartianOtters@reddit

Basically everywhere except Morgantown and the eastern panhandle have declined. But I’d give it to McDowell County. In 1950 it had a population of nearly 100,000 and the center of the coal mining industry. Today it’s less than 17,000

[-]

Sir_Auron@reddit

I worked for an arts nonprofit that did outreach to the schools in McDowell County. You wouldn't believe the level of isolation out there.

[-]

TheClayDart@reddit

I’d have to give it to Macon, GA.

They city hit a bit of a boom from late 1800s to about the 1960s but through a combination of things (white flight, ineffective city council/ mayorship, etc) it’s been declining in increments. The downtown area was lively with so much to do for the average family but then people up and fled to the northern part of the city limits and then the shops and money slowly followed suit which left downtown, east, and west Macon abandoned by the powers that be. South Macon is still fairly rural and I’m sure those residents mostly go to Bonaire or Warner Robins instead for shopping, etc.

Groups like NewTown Macon are trying to revitalize downtown at least but it’s just a bunch of restaurants, bars, brew pubs, and not really much in the way of shopping. Also absolutely no police presence either. The city council and Mayors and general bureaucracy tends to get in the way of any innovation or general improvements. Just feel awful for the residents who live in the neglected parts of the city

[-]

Agent_43@reddit

Cumberland, Maryland?

[-]

DudleyAndStephens@reddit

Cumberland looks really pretty from a distance and is so dumpy up close.

Baltimore's decline has been pretty brutal as well. The population peaked right around a million people in the 1950s and has been going down ever since. Lots of industries leaving, bad crime, it sucks. Thankfully the past few years have had a big drop in crime and I'm hoping the city starts to turn things around long-term but it feels very two steps forward, one step back.

[-]

gcalfred7@reddit

Getting a new race track :D.

[-]

Groundbreaking_War52@reddit

Yeah - it is sadly pretty bleak

[-]

Willing_Calendar_373@reddit

Except during Delfest.

[-]

stangAce20@reddit

Far too many to name unfortunately! Especially the ones that have focused on agriculture in decades past!

[-]

jcoigny@reddit

I'll nominate Portland Oregon

[-]

Accomplished_Mix7827@reddit

I mean ... there's only really the one.

[-]

ICTscooter82@reddit

While Wichita has taken its lumps being so tied to the aerospace industry, Topeka can’t seem to catch a break. There are just so many more desirable places to live on the I70 corridor than Topeka.

Would also give an honorable mention to Emporia. Has the bad luck of being equidistant from the KC metro and Wichita. Declining industry and ESU is cutting programs left and right.

[-]

nordic-nomad@reddit

Topeka?

[-]

cohrt@reddit

Buffalo.

[-]

brilliantpants@reddit

Idk, Pennsylvania has a lot of contenders. I’d vote for Reading or Pottsville.

[-]

schlegelbagel31@reddit

Johnstown’s gotta be up there too

[-]

AZJHawk@reddit

I had to go to Johnstown for work many years ago. It was a gray wintry day, and the town combined with the weather were just so bleak and depressing.

It didn’t help that I lived in Miami at the time. There could not have been a more polar opposite place within the continental US. I was only there for two days, but that feeling has stuck with me for the better part of two decades.

[-]

kedziematthews@reddit

My dad was born and lived half his life in Johnstown. We’d visit there often when my grandma was still alive. A perpetual gloom hangs over the city, and I can’t really say I enjoyed my visits (loved the inclined plane though!) Per my dad, when the mills were still around, it was a busy, productive city with plenty of opportunity. The flood of 77 was when the decline really hastened though. He left in the late 80’s, along with thousands of others.

[-]

GovernorGeneralPraji@reddit

Apollo, Vandergrift, and Leechburg are all in the same boat, as are many other Pittsburgh outlying cities.

Deindustrialization gutted Pennsylvania.

[-]

holiestcannoly@reddit

My ex’s dad was from Vanderbilt, now lives in Apollo. The people out there sure are… interesting

[-]

GovernorGeneralPraji@reddit

Yeah. I grew up maybe twenty minutes from that little swath of towns/cities and still live about a half hour from it. I don't think in over three decades I've been there more than three or four times. There's just no reason to go unless you live there.

[-]

schlegelbagel31@reddit

For sure, a lot of western and NE PA towns could fit the bill. A lot of them were smaller towns though, whereas Johnstown was at one point a city of almost 80,000, now down to less than 18,000. Definitely quite the decline.

Reading and Scranton would be my other two picks.

[-]

Jiffrey@reddit

I’ve been to Johnstown for work, man it was just such a boring and bland town, it is well known in my company for being the worst out of all our travelling jobs.

[-]

Thhe_Shakes@reddit

Damn has Reading gotten that bad? Haven't been in there in awhile

[-]

SkiingAway@reddit

Reading had the highest poverty rate in the entire country for small cities around 2010. It's improved a decent bit since but it's still pretty damn poor.

That said, it's at least growing in population so it's not facing much new abandonment and that particular doom loop, and the crime rates are less terrible than would be expected for being a dense + poverty-ridden city with limited resources. Not great, but a hell of a lot better than would be expected.

Population has completely changed over, vast majority of the population is Hispanic now.

[-]

MissionSuccess9576@reddit

I don’t think Reading even makes the Top 10 list for worst decline in PA…

[-]

zedazeni@reddit

McKeesport went from just over 55,000 residents to just under 18,000. You’d be hard pressed to find a city that’s lost more residents as a total percentage than that.

[-]

PabloPicasshooole@reddit

Isn't that where John Fetterman was mayor?

[-]

zedazeni@reddit

Yes, he was mayor there.

[-]

OceanicEndeavors@reddit

Seems to have down a poor job.

[-]

nrthrnlad76@reddit

Yeah - it's gotta be Braddock or Mckeesport.

[-]

zedazeni@reddit

McKeesport went from just over 55,000 to just over 17,000. More than 50% drop but nowhere near the 90+% decline that Braddock experienced.

[-]

nrthrnlad76@reddit

I agree. Braddock is worse. The entire Mon Valley has been devastated and depressed for a long time. I now live in Forest Hills and have seen a lot of it firsthand.

[-]

zedazeni@reddit

Yeah, the Mon Valley took the brunt of Pittsburgh’s decline. It’s always so depressing whenever I drive through there. Similarly, my father’s family is in Youngstown (I grew up in the Midwest), and visiting Youngstown now hits so much more differently than when I was a child. It feels like all hope and satisfaction from living gets sucked out of you when you go there.

[-]

mitchdwx@reddit

You can nominate pretty much any city in Schuylkill County.

[-]

GreenWhiteBlue86@reddit

Technically, the only city in Schuylkill County is Pottsville, which reached its highest population around 1940, when it had 24,530 people, while at the last census it had 13, 346. Shenandoah, on the other hand, dropped from a high of 25,774 in 1910 to 4,243 in 2020, but it is a borough, not a city.

[-]

GreenWhiteBlue86@reddit

You would be wrong about both. Other places have declined far more.

[-]

justmyusername47@reddit

Kensington... 30 years ago, all blue collar families, the "grandmothers" checked up on what everyone was doing, ow its zombies.

[-]

UnderaZiaSun@reddit

Bodie, California is a ghost of its former self

[-]

SmokedPumpkin@reddit

I mean, we really only have two cities and they’re both somewhat better than they used to be, so…

[-]

RightToTheThighs@reddit

Buffalo, NY. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine place, but it has roughly half the population it used to. I'm sure you can find smaller cities/towns with more dramatic downfalls, but for a city that used to be the 6th or 8th (forgot which) most populous in the country, it is quite the decline

[-]

14Calypso@reddit

I'm gonna divert from many people's opinions and say Duluth for Minnesota.

COVID/WFH hit the city hard and they have made absolutely no effort to recover. Downtown is now a ghost town. There are homeless people in the skywalk and it smells like urine inside there. Canal Park has embraced the whole "rich tourists" thing and has jacked up prices, and even it's gotten worse.

There will always be tourism there because of the natural beauty surrounding it, but it's getting harder. Apartments, housing, and hotels have all gotten prohibitively expensive there.

[-]

Tim-oBedlam@reddit

I'd pick one of the Iron Range towns over Duluth, or maybe one of the farming towns in SW Minn.

[-]

14Calypso@reddit

I would make the argument that those places went downhill a relatively long time ago. Yeah, places like Hibbing, Virginia, and Worthington are basically dead now, but they were also dead 10+ years ago.

[-]

ChaunceytheGardiner@reddit

I'd say those towns bottomed out quite a while ago, and Worthington in particular has rebounded a little. It's never going to be anything other than a meat packing town, but there's more life there now than 20 or 30 years ago.

I'd pick Grand Rapids. It's been hit by both the decline of mining and then more recently by the closure of the pulp mill.

[-]

Goodlife1988@reddit

Springfield MO

[-]

66flycaster@reddit

Gary Indiana, Denver Colorado, Bozeman Montana.

[-]

OceanicEndeavors@reddit

Springfield.

[-]

SkiingAway@reddit

You have named the most common city name in the country with no state for clarity.

[-]

OceanicEndeavors@reddit

To be fair, I think New Bedford probably qualifies. It used to be the richest city in America at one point.

[-]

Stinkeywoz@reddit

I think Ohio has quite a few but Youngstown has fallen spectacularly since its heyday.

[-]

Little_Exit4279@reddit

Cairo, Illinois. It went from a thriving logistics hub at the turn of the 20th century to a practical ghost town (inbetween were extreme racial conflicts) . I've never been there but the way people describe it makes it seem like the 3rd circle of hell

[-]

LongOrganization7838@reddit

Biggest population decline is west valley utah, that being said we do have a number of full ghost towns

[-]

GSilky@reddit

Cisco Utah is about the only place I ever felt uneasy changing a tire. The junk piles move around and there is new graffiti, someone lives there, somehow.

[-]

GSilky@reddit

Pueblo Colorado.

[-]

P00PooKitty@reddit

All the mill towns that are small cities have had trouble after having their industries taken from them.

The ones that have likely struggled the most are: fall river (textiles, garments, whaling, fishing); brockton (I can’t remember what they made, but brockton had sort of become a real estate hotspot for us millennials to affordably move to while still working in boston); springfield (guns, other stuff), lynn (the original industrial city of america), and lawrence (new balances are still made there though).

[-]

officialwhitecobra@reddit

Macon, GA

[-]

Consistent_Value_179@reddit

Cairo, IL

[-]

NIN10DOXD@reddit

I’d say it’s been a bunch smaller “cities” and towns for state. Pretty much any that had textile mills or were rail hubs for tobacco.

[-]

DroolHandPuke@reddit

Rocky mount and Wilson were pretty bad the last time I was there.

[-]

whistlepigjunction@reddit

Wilson is going through a bit of a renaissance now. Fayetteville, while it has its problems, is generally propped up by Bragg. I think you are spot on by looking at cities that were single in industry towns, and that industry went away Up until the last couple of years, i would have added High Point. Places like Scotland Neck, Tarboro or Carthage where their historic center is filled with big, beautiful homes once had a a lot of money, but have lost their shine. The gold rush cities between Albemarle and Charlotte are contenders. For my money, I would say Henderson.

[-]

PassTheSevo@reddit

I once had a 10 year old patient tell me, “Fayetteville ain’t nothin but hoodrats and hellcats”

[-]

NIN10DOXD@reddit

Good point, Henderson even has a bunch of those homes as you described, but they are now dilapidated. I honestly would’ve just named Henderson outright, but I wasn’t sure if it was my bias kicking in because I’m from Triangle North.

[-]

NIN10DOXD@reddit

Yeah, I’m just not sure who’s number one and if there is population cap. I’m also not sure who’s had the biggest fall because I don’t know who had the highest peak. I know Fayetteville and Lumberton are bad. Henderson is also REALLY bad, but stagnated so long ago that it’s not really that big for a “city” even it is technically called that. Warrenton used to be one of the wealthiest towns in the state in 1800s and is impoverished now, but it’s tiny.

[-]

RGG8810@reddit

As bad as Fayetteville is, it's nowhere near as bad as rural or small town NC. It has 200,000. people. Lumberton is not even at 20,000. They are completely different places.

[-]

I_amnotanonion@reddit

Virginia is the same with the addition of old coal towns in the mountains. Most of southern VA is littered with tobacco/textile/rail/furniture towns that are husks of what they used to be

[-]

MageDA6@reddit

St. Louis, Mo. I grew up in Missouri and we would say it’s our Detroit. Once peaked at around 850k people in the 1950’s it’s been in sharp decline since then with only around 270k left in the city.

[-]

iamStanhousen@reddit

I live in California now, but I'm from Baton Rouge, LA.

Baton Rouge has slowly, but inevitably been going downhill for nearly 50 years. It's awful now, but it's getting worse now. Way worse. People are moving, job markets are bad, education is the worst in the country. Soon the only people who will be left will be incredibly uneducated and it's going to be a shit show.

[-]

Quenzayne@reddit

Haven’t been in Florida long enough to really notice tbh, but back in California it’s probably Venice.

As far as Massachusetts goes, I honestly don’t know. I only really ever lived in Boston and haven’t been there since 2008, but from what I know of it, it all seems a lot nicer now.

[-]

5hallowbutdeep@reddit

San Francisco. The tech boom and COVID killed what it was once. It's just a place to see cable cars and Alcatraz now.

[-]

CompanyOther2608@reddit

Nah. It’s different, but still vibrant and beautiful.

[-]

Tom__mm@reddit

Pueblo Colorado. Former steel town, now a rust belt. Pretty much at the bottom of every state-wide list.

[-]

lacaras21@reddit

Maybe Milwaukee, it's not particularly bad, but it has seen a considerable drop in population over the last 50 years and the city suffered from post industrialization, so doesn't wield the economic power it once did. I still think it's a nice city, I don't think there are really any particularly bad cities in Wisconsin, many rust belt cities in this region have rebounded pretty well.

[-]

N47881@reddit

Memphis is the TN cesspool

[-]

ThingFuture9079@reddit

Youngstown

[-]

SnubLifeCrisis@reddit

Probably something like Kellogg or Mullan.

[-]

Immediate-Grand8403@reddit

I’m going with Welch in the WV coalfields. Plenty of contenders.

[-]

MajesticLilFruitcake@reddit

Fond du Lac, WI

[-]

kedziematthews@reddit

Probably Macon, GA. Tons of crime and limited opportunities while Atlanta is a short drive away.

South GA might give it a run for its money though.

[-]

Emotional-Loss-9852@reddit

Galveston tx was going to be what Houston is today before the hurricane. There was a gajillion oil town booms that are near abandoned as well

[-]

HarlequinKOTF@reddit

This is kinda tricky. I guess Milwaukee just from the loss of the industry jobs but it has recovered. As for other cities which haven't recovered idk.

[-]

SabreLee61@reddit

Camden, NJ

Camden was the birthplace of recorded music and radio broadcasting. RCA was headquartered there and employed tens of thousands. So were New York Shipbuilding and Campbell’s Soup. Camden was a major player in manufacturing not just in NJ, but in the entire country.

Then it just collapsed. New York Shipbuilding left in 1967; RCA followed two years later. No new industry moved in and the city declined precipitously. Even Campbell’s Soup has drastically reduced its operations there.

Today the population is 40% lower than it was in 1950, and consistently ranks at or near the top in NJ in crime and poverty.

[-]

PeanutterButter101@reddit

Not a steep decline but Northern Virginia has been in a weird spot since 2025. One of my neighbors have been trying to sell their condo for months and dropped the price 4 times so far, starting at $350,000 to $275,000. People are downsizing as they change careers or leave for other places.

[-]

Gilthoniel_Elbereth@reddit

If only SFH or townhouse prices would do the same. Condos have always been a tougher sell

[-]

Longwell2020@reddit

Jefferson City. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainie.

[-]

chriswaco@reddit

I'm from Michigan. It's hard to think of a US city with a bigger decline than Detroit.

It's getting better now, but 1960-2010 was pretty rough.

[-]

Realistic-Humor-2933@reddit

Flint

[-]

bmsa131@reddit

Maybe like Utica or Elmira or something. We’ve got a decent number of options in our state.

[-]

Itchy_Pangolin_394@reddit

Fort Yates, North Dakota. You could pick any city in that part of the state. (Sioux County). Its pretty sad. Fort Yates is where Sitting Bull was originally buried.

[-]

GreenDavidA@reddit

Youngstown, Ohio

[-]

GreenBeanTM@reddit

Burlington simply because it’s our only real city, but the real answer is Vermont.

[-]

jade420420@reddit

Rutland or Bennington I’d say. Technically cities and Rutland in particular is a blight.

[-]

ThePickleConnoisseur@reddit

Fresno

[-]

ToeLimbaugh@reddit

? High speed rail and the recession devastated downtown, but lots of projects are happening down there as we speak. They finished a small hotel and are in the process of bringing a market rate midrise to downtown. They're trying to bring a soccer team to downtown as well, just like Sacramento. House flippers are out and about fixing up every house they can get. Good things are happening. North Fresno is still mostly fine. They plan to build up southeast Fresno next. I don't think it belongs, but you're entitled to your opinion.

[-]

Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

High speed rail and the recession devastated downtown

What about high speed rail caused problems? Eminent domain tearing out large swaths?

[-]

ToeLimbaugh@reddit

No. Lots of overpasses and underground construction shutting off traffic to small businesses. It hurts small businesses and bigger businesses don't want to invest when things are slower. There's like one more overpass left and then they're done closing streets. A couple new parking lots are getting built right now and housing will come immediately afterwards. They want to triple the people living downtown asap.

[-]

ThePickleConnoisseur@reddit

So your argument is the bike a single hotel? That’s essentially nothing compared to any other city. There’s a billion soccer teams at this point and no industry growth that I’ve heard in Fresno.

[-]

ToeLimbaugh@reddit

? I mean we're comparing it with Gary Indiana and east St Louis type cities. These are places losing people and homes start at 20k.

HSR limited what the city could do because it limited mobility. The eastern half of downtown was basically off limits. The recession also held downtown back. HSR in Fresno will be completed soon and developers are now interested in fixing it up. There are more projects being talked about. I only mentioned a couple. Development takes time in rural California. It's not China or Texas where regulations mean squat. And the federal government always prioritizes Texas cities over rural California.

The city has a plan for a tech campus in southeast Fresno. And the state wants to bring a new medical school. Jobs are coming and people are moving to the urban area. Yeah, it'll probably always be a blue collar town, but that doesn't mean it should be compared to towns like Gary freaking indiana.

[-]

ThePickleConnoisseur@reddit

This isn’t Indiana this is the state of California we are talking about. In California it is probably the most fallen major city. Plans are plans until it actually happens and an impact can be identified.

[-]

ToeLimbaugh@reddit

Yes. It's California. Where a midrise or high rise can take twenty years to build. Even in places not at risk of earthquakes. A city growing and building suburbs is the most fallen off in the country? Okay.

Here's some data that came out recently. Click if you a clearer picture. It's just jobs data, so it's not comprehensive, but you get the idea.

https://i.ibb.co/nMKV5Ch3/z0eaztm5rlxg1.jpg

[-]

RsonW@reddit

Really? My take has been that Fresno has been on an upswing lately.

[-]

ToeLimbaugh@reddit

He probably watches Nick Johnson videos and world according to briggs. Ignore him.

[-]

ThePickleConnoisseur@reddit

Never heard anything good about Fresno or things happening there. Especially from people who’ve been there recently

[-]

Madame-ovary1713@reddit

Why is that? From LA but been through Fresno many times. Just curious

[-]

ThePickleConnoisseur@reddit

Probably lack of jobs. Moving to the bay and LA leaving the people who couldn’t get out

[-]

DroolHandPuke@reddit

Hell, anywhere from Sacramento down to Bakersfield.

[-]

HoyAIAG@reddit

Youngstown, Ohio

[-]

Far-Radio8247@reddit

Torrington, CT

[-]

markpemble@reddit

Goldfield - for Nevada.

[-]

Voodoographer@reddit

Butte Montana

[-]

markpemble@reddit

Going to disagree with this one.

Virginia City might be the answer to Montana.

[-]

NoCard753@reddit

Decline in what?

[-]

markpemble@reddit

Population
Economic Importance
Political Importance
Infanstructure / Transportation

[-]

DeMessenZijnGeslepen@reddit

Idaho City. Back in the mid-1800's, it was a major gold rush town that not only had one of the largest populations in the Pacific Northwest (7,000 people in the 1860's), but was also the most Asian city (with 4,000 Chinese migrants). Now it's a town with just under 500 people.

[-]

markpemble@reddit

Pretty sure this is the right answer. There are other former mining towns, but many of them are not even towns anymore - so I don't think they count.

Another town might be

Weiser. Around 1905, it was about the same size as Boise.

It hasn't really declined, just not grown for over 125 years. When you walk around Weiser, you can tell things were very grand 120 years ago.

[-]

SavageQuaker@reddit

Havre, Montana is pretty depressing, but there are lots of tiny towns that are borderline ghost town status.

[-]

gorobotkillkill@reddit

Why do Havre even you've got Butte.

I can say that, I used to live there. Pasties are still good, Pork Chop John's. But Butte used to be huge relative to other cities west of the Mississippi.

[-]

markpemble@reddit

I see your train of thought, but I will counter you with

Virginia City. Once the capital of the Montana Territory.

Butte is still very important. In population, it really hasn't experienced a huge decline (citing Wikipedia)

[-]

whitemike40@reddit

A lot of upstate NY is hurt, Albany, Buffalo it’s rough

[-]

TK1129@reddit

Went to college up in Albany from 02-05. While it wasn’t an attractive town it was infinitely better than some of the other towns that friends i grew up with went to school in. Cortland? Syracuse? Jesus Christ

[-]

Building_a_life@reddit

I used to live in Schenectady. It was going downhill fast. Don't know if it turned around.

[-]

After-Reserve8150@reddit

Minneapolis

[-]

bangbangracer@reddit

Said by anyone who avoids the twin cities.

[-]

Krusty_Krab_Pussy@reddit

When was the last time you went to Minneapolis? Crime is down, downtown is growing etc.

[-]

After-Reserve8150@reddit

I live in Minneapolis. It’s still a good city, but it’s nothing like it was 20-30 years ago. It used to be paradise. But it’s just changed. It is funny though, whenever you bring up the decline of the city people get SUPER defensive. That should make you think.

[-]

Krusty_Krab_Pussy@reddit

Minneapolis had its highest homicide rate in the 90s. That's where murderapolis came from. The poverty rate in central cities in 1996 (the census doesn't do city by city) was 19.6% compared to 15% today.

Places like the warehouse district blew, the mill district was also run down and just parking lots. My concern is you're viewing that through rose tinted glasses.

[-]

Darryl_Lict@reddit

I spent some time in Minneapolis last year and I was thinking that it might not be the worst city to move to. I'm thinking that it still might be possible to buy a house near the light rail line in St. Paul. I'm picky too, as I live in SoCal. I don't think I could handle the winters there though although I have visited like 3 times during the winter. It gets too hot during the summer too.

[-]

DroolHandPuke@reddit

People being shot dead by paramilitary government agencies, taken away from their homes and lives, etc.

[-]

katarh@reddit

An elderly friend of mine who lives there said that the ICE problems in the last few months have actually made the citizenry more unified. She was a bit of a wanderer for decades before getting a job there, and she said the protests were the first time she actually felt like a Minnesotan.

[-]

Low_Computer_6542@reddit

Phoenix, AZ

[-]

FREE-ROSCOE-FILBURN@reddit

STL

[-]

Lulusgirl@reddit

Detroit comes to mind.

[-]

Still_Can_7918@reddit

Any city that has grown. It brings in a terrible influx of people who don’t care about the local culture and won’t assimilate and want bring in their old town’s ways which ruin the new town.

I wish people still made new towns today.

[-]

potlizard@reddit

I think that would be a great thing for somebody that has Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos money, if they were so inclined: Acquire a large plot of land somewhere reasonably close to a population center. Do the planning for a new city designed around public transit. Then do nothing except the part nobody wants to do or pay for: Dig the tunnels for a massive, modern Metro system and build the stations.

If they could see at least THAT part of the project through to completion, I think this incomplete city could then start attracting outside investment. A guy with Musk/Bezos/Ellison money (or a few of them together), in that position, could do what nobody else could: There would be little existing infrastructure to tear through or residents to displace & buy out. The funding would already be in place, so they wouldn’t be beholden to a greedy, clown-ass board of directors intent on wasting the time of everyone involved worrying about their precious ROI, and spending all their free time scheming on how they and/or their rich cronies can somehow be cut in on the contract largesse.

[-]

Still_Can_7918@reddit

Yeah I wish wealthy people would invest more in their towns in things like public parks, public nature parks, libraries, museums, actual small and local restaurants and businesses that give a unique character to the town.

We have just to be careful to not redo company towns like I feel would happen like they did in the past.

[-]

Strange-Badger5626@reddit

Flint mi

[-]

burner456987123@reddit

Colorado.

Current day- Denver. 40% of offices downtown are empty. The metro area has terrible roads and high crime. People are no longer moving to our state. The government is in a fiscal crisis at the state level, and the city/county of Denver is also fiscally fucked.

Past - Pueblo. Former industrial / steel town. It fell on hard times as the jobs went away. Highest crime rate in the state generally. But it’s being redeveloped downtown by the Arkansas River and has an upside as it’s a lot more affordable than many other areas in the state.

[-]

iHasMagyk@reddit

Orangeburg maybe? It’s really an awful place but I think it’s always been bad so that may not quite fit the criteria. There’s a lot of smaller rural towns that have fallen into disrepair like Bennettsville and Bishopville but it’s hard to call those cities. Georgetown has declined significantly since its peak in the 60s but it’s still not nearly as bad as any of the ones I’ve mentioned

[-]

LastCookie3448@reddit

Never go anywhere w/out knowing the main route + an alternate.

[-]

JplusL2020@reddit

It's about to be Lexington, NE.

Tyson closed one of it's plants that employed 30% of it's population. Towns of 10,000 people can't survive something that devastating

[-]

frankenwhisker@reddit

Helena, Arkansas was once a prosperous port city on the Mississippi. The poverty and decay is just crushingly sad now. Irreparably fucked.

[-]

thattogoguy@reddit

Gary, IN. I go there for work in my civilian job every quarter (or more).

The whole NWI area has some good parts, but frankly, it's tough seeing a way forward for Gary especially.

[-]

CaffeinatedElder@reddit

Dayton, Ohio.

[-]

MrLongWalk@reddit

Burlington, probably

[-]

holiestcannoly@reddit

Probably Johnstown, PA

[-]

loweexclamationpoint@reddit

Tough one, maybe South Beloit.

[-]

guess214356789@reddit

Not when there's Cairo and East St Louis.

[-]

calitripatacos@reddit

Portland, Oregon

[-]

appleparkfive@reddit

I don't live in the area anymore, but I've been to a lot of these places... And nothing is quite as bad as Yazoo City, MS.

Mississippi as a whole isn't as bad as people think. There's nice parts of the state. But Yazoo City is what you imagine when you think of Mississippi. Even as a kid I was stunned at how bad of an area it was.

Sometimes I look at the restaurants in the area and laugh a bit

[-]

Sharkhawk23@reddit

East St. Louis. Cairo. Or ford heights.

[-]

nrthrnlad76@reddit

Mckeesport. Maybe Braddock.

[-]

NateNMaxsRobot@reddit

This is easy. Minneapolis. Mid-late 90s Minneapolis was awesome. The new left has tanked. It got worse in 2020 and then again worse with ICE.

[-]

semisubterranean@reddit

This year, it's probably Lexington, Nebraska.

[-]

Capable-View4706@reddit

Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Was second largest city in the state in 1970 now 10th largest. Gone from 57,400 to 38,785.

Another contender would be Helena-West Helena lost a third of population from when Helena was a separate city. County has gone from 46,254 in 1950 to 14,255.

[-]