government's the problem? what about industry?
Look around - the cities that are "dying" are those where industry has abandoned people, instead choosing to automate, or to ship jobs past our national borders. It's not the EPA or bad government policies, but simply the lack of well paid work. But the author doesn't cite one "dead" city, and doesn't talk about how the dying cities of the East recovered (or did not recover) after the textile, shoe, steel, light manufacturing, etc. left the country more than 50 years ago.
It seems like a knee-jerk response: blame government. But government's job isn't to buy their way out of blight and decline and give us a nice city. It seems to me that when industry abandons a city because they can't maximize their bottom line, there's not much anyone can do, government or individuals, until we replace the engine of our economies. Move somewhere else, and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy; and just hope that the new place can sustain your wants, rather than rely on your participation.
