Ups and downs are typical in a country. Likewise, in America, some cities have fallen back in the last five years.
A user asked the forum, “What American city has fallen the furthest in the last five years?” Here are the top responses.
JACKSON
“Jackson, Mississippi. The murder rate is unbelievable, and the decay of the city and basic amenities is tragic.”
MERIDIAN
“Not a big city, but I drove through Meridian, Mississippi, after several years, and the decay was shocking. Everything seemed shattered and dead, except Walmart.”
NEW ORLEANS
“New Orleans. Our current mayor is blatantly corrupt and open about it. She’s been caught misusing public funds and sleeping with one of her security officers on city time and city dime. She took no accountability during the Pandemic despite enforcing outrageous COVID-19 restrictions that she never followed.
Our infrastructure is crumbling. We had the Hard Rock Hotel collapse during construction, killing three workers and injuring 20+ more. It took two years to demolish that building and retrieve the bodies. When trying to demolish the construction crane, they used a ‘controlled explosion,’ which catastrophically failed and caused the crane arm to swing, potentially killing hundreds in the immediate area despite being in a closed-off room.
Luckily, it didn’t break off (which it was supposed to do because that’s what the demolition was supposed to accomplish). It added to the over two years it took to demolish the site.
Our public transportation system is becoming more scarce, with fewer streetcar routes, fewer bus routes, and longer wait times for public transit.
Average police response time is anywhere from 4 to 9 hours if there are no reported injuries and 35 to 50 minutes for violent crime or reported injuries. Violent crime is the worst it’s been since before Katrina, and the housing market is outrageous despite the properties falling apart.
The job market is abysmal, and no reputable companies want to operate in the city.
New Orleans is what people picture when they think of Detroit.”
SAN FRANCISCO
“San Francisco. I was born & raised there & I’ve never seen it like this. People are leaving notes in the windows, begging thieves not to break their windows. A coworker took the tint off his windows so they could see he had nothing. They busted his windows & took his 49er bobblehead that was on his dashboard.”
PORTLAND
“Portland. Many excellent restaurants closed. The rollout of drug decriminalization was an absolute mess. I’m okay with drug use, but I think it needs to be responsible. When it spills onto innocent bystanders, the behavior needs to be stopped as soon as it begins.
Instead, it festers in Portland; the government decided to enable people with an addiction, letting people smoke hard drugs on buses and public sidewalks. I don’t want to get your secondhand fentanyl smoke. In the name of harm reduction, boosting pamphlets and straws were given out despite straw restrictions for restaurants.
Small businesses were repeatedly vandalized, and windows were smashed. It caused a lot of cool places to close and made it less appealing to go to the current ones.
Neighborhoods have random strangers roll in with their RVs (Recreation Vehicles) and set up camp with their mess spilling into the road, creating dangerous situations. These people are defecating in bushes and littering everywhere. Some are meth labs.
Car and bicycle theft and vandalism have significantly increased. The police hardly do anything. Spontaneous stops into a store, carrying reusable bags, and multi-store trips have all but ended because I don’t want my car broken into again. So, instead of local stores getting my money, I order online.
Extensive efforts to make public transportation more viable, but little to no effort is made to protect passengers and drivers from being mentally ill or people on drugs. Roads have been redesigned to take away car lanes and add bike lanes. But bike chop shops are expected and allowed to accumulate in plain sight. I’m not going to ride somewhere and risk being stranded so a person with a substance use disorder can get his next hit.
The perspective on the social construct is all one way if you are a drug addict. But if you are trying to make ends meet in the working or middle classes, very little is done to improve your life with excessive regulations making things slower and more expensive.”
CHARLESTON
“Charleston, West Virginia. Its population has steadily declined by about 1.5% annually for over two decades. It’s the only state capitol in the United States that is dying.”
HOUSTON
“Apparently, it’s Houston, averaging a subsidence of 17 millimeters a year. Parts of the city have fallen up to 3 meters since 1917.”
DAVENPORT
“The answer is Davenport, Lowa, but no one cares about it, including the elected officials.”
PAWNEE
“Pawnee, Indiana got so bad that they don’t show it on television anymore.”
MEMPHIS
“Memphis. Car thefts are over 7,000 this year alone. Five years ago, it wasn’t like that. Murders, drugs, robbing, Memphis is out of control.”
LOUISVILLE
“Louisville, Kentucky. Crime here has become very routine, from theft to drugs to murder. This once great city ain’t what it used to be, and it makes me so sad.”
WASHINGTON
“Washington, District Of Columbia, has seen twice as many armed robberies and carjackings since the Pandemic, but that’s just my experience. It sounds like things are bad everywhere.”
ATLANTA
“I live in the suburbs of Atlanta and found that in the past couple of years, the most racist and rude people have moved in. The traffic has gotten worse, and the prevalence of crimes has exploded in my city.”
ASHEVILLE
“Asheville has gotten extremely bad since I last went there in 2012. I visited last year, and the cheapest hotel was $300/night, but it came with blood stains on the bed sheets, and I couldn’t even swap them because they didn’t have any more.
The hotels were housing people experiencing homelessness and druggies, so it jacked the price up for everyone else. Overall, the town was snobby and elitist when it used to be a cool hippy town with friendly people.”
DENVER
“Denver. I live a block from the 16th Street Mall downtown, and it was once, not long ago, a beautiful place to go shopping and get some food. Now, It’s filled with homeless, drug addicts, and gun violence, and most people avoid it at all costs.
At night, from my balcony, it sometimes sounds like a zombie apocalypse out there with people screaming and shouting and nothing in particular, throwing trash cans and vandalizing cars parked on the side of the street. I heard gunshots and saw the cleanup afterward.
It’s gotten pretty out of control in downtown Denver. Also, when I’m out driving, I see several encampments of people who have just pitched up tents on the sidewalks or underpasses, and I’m talking about encampments of 10-20 tents. I could go into why I think it’s all happening, but whatever the reason, it’s still sad. I hope to leave the area within the next couple of years.”
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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.