Been Rving thru some of Oklahoma and Texas. As usual in any of my travels, stay away from the main highways and try to stay off the beaten track to see more of rural America. On this trip I am noticing how some small towns appear to be deteriorating. The worst case so far has been a small place called Ranger in Texas where we saw a couple of blocks of deserted buildings and lots of broken windows. The entire town looked depressed and sad looking. I asked one of the locals what happened and he told me that time has not been kind to that town and all industry is leaving. Apparently the disintegration started as long as 15 years ago, but has picked up speed recently.

I can't help but wonder if what I am seeing is a sign of the new America and the disappearance of the prosperous times that so many of you once enjoyed. How very, very sad to see all this.

I would be interested in reading some of your comments about what I am seeing. Is what i am seeing becoming typical or are these isolated cases? Are these run down towns going to become the new new norm for America?

 

same with upstate new york small towns, high taxes and NAFTA killed our industry. China can't be beat, common sense. no loyalty anywhere in business. government spending money on themselves but cutting primary service or utilities. same with schools.

this is way up North, lot of land. one major employer to a 100 sq mile radius. then when they go- so does the small towns and small businesses.

think gold rush times...

I love the back roads because it shows what the economy really is: if i see a lot of newer cars and nice looking (remodeled not new mcmansions) homes, I am happy despite the news media saying otherwise. unfortunately, as you have pointed out- it is quite the opposite now, Obama-led media stating we have no recession, lots of jobs, etc.

even the service industry (lawncare, small auto repair shops, construction, hair salons, etc) have taken a hit because the ones who can afford to hire someone else are not spending the money with such economic forecast/ their business income is off. sad to see all the for sale signs or as you describe- abandon BLOCKS of buildings.

hopefully, you do continue to talk with folks and see how great the normal people of America presevere. truly awesome memories of such folks when we hit the road on the harleys....

please enjoy your time on the road, and have a safe trip home.

 

you should see dubai. they are growing everywhere...
there is a couple new buildings and lots "downtown renovation" going on around my town. Sad part is, the majority of the renovations are going on my persons of questionable citizenship....

 

There are more and more towns here in Texas going down the drain, many of these older towns are inhibited by older people, the new age likes the big city nobody wants to stick around. One town is Ellinger, TX, ppl are leaving quick, suicides, murders (in a small town), ranting and raving. My little town is an exception. Round Top is a rich little town, historic, and lively. Population 70. Busy on the weekends and lots of tourist attractions.

 

I saw the same thing while visiting family in Fla. this past summer. Last time I had been down there was in 06. My trip this year was a real eye opener, stores closed/boarded, the remaining stores seemed very sparsly stocked...very troubling.

 

china's average hourly wage is 75 cents per hour, they are at the top at that number, other countries wages are in the 30 cent range. How can USA compete with that BS. Also we have lost 45 factories that employed 500 or more people. Middle class will be a memory and only two types of people left, rich and poor and those who have guns and those who don't . Trying to remain optamistic though...

 

I see the US more along the lines of you will have your expats and your permanent residence.. Your Expats will work out of the country (or live out of the country) and visit occationally.
there is still a skill set in the US that isn't readily available outside

 

I've seen the same thing all over west TX. and eastern NM, if you stay near the main highways or near a military base it looks good but when you run down the back roads things look very grim. Just this afternoon da boss and I went to a wedding at a remote state park, on the way home we deliberately came home the back way, we passed through several small towns that I remember being thriving little towns not all that long ago, today they looked like ghost towns, with the only signs of life being a few people of questionable citizenship, there weren't even many travelers today.

 

Alot of this will be due to what I refer to as "backwards thinking" that some of the small towns have.

I used to work for a small school district in Idaho and they had three schools; two were Kindergarden through 6th grade, and the junior/senior high school handled the 7th through 12th graders. The K-6 schools are in different towns, one having just over a couple hundred students, the other only 45 to 50 at most. Instead of consolidating costs and sending that one bus load of students to the other school and save $1 million a year (confirmed dollar amount from the State) the smaller town "refused" to close the other school because they wouldn't be "equal" to the larger town anymore. Meanwhile, there is a mass exodus from the town every year they graduate a class od seniors and hardly anyone stays behind because there isn't a cell phone signal, cable TV, or high speed internet. They don't want it, nor do they want to plan on bringing it to their valley.

Meanwhile they have no money for books, computers, or the repairs to the water system for the school because the DEQ says their well water is not safe to drink and they have a local Culligan style vendor bring water in for the students and staff.

For others, it's not enough "forward thinking". No one really has a 5, 10, or 20 year plan anymore. Some places just don't care about it because they're wrapped up in only what's happening today or this season. Tomorrow, or next season, is going to come eventually, and the idea is "I'll deal with it when it gets here.", is just the way they will handle it.

The bad part is we do it to ourselves, and the easiest fix for it would be a little "out of the box" thinking.

 

Thanks for the responses to my question. Don't like what I am reading, but it is pretty much what I was expecting. As I travel around and read various news articles (many NOT mainstream articles) I detect a large disparity in the people, the "truth" of the news and the BS many of your politicians and mainstream media are feeding you daily. For instance, I have been reading over and over again that the depression in America ended some time ago. (forget the official date), but when I read stories of hardship here on DTR and other places, the weekly closing of banks, see for myself the deteriorating small towns, the job layoff statistics and more, then compare that to what I see in the cities with apparently unlimited finances, hordes of excessively overweight adults and especially kids, new cars etc, something just does not add up. Especially when I factor in the Obama news that things are looking up. How can things be looking up when there were 95,000 jobs lost in September and 54,000 in August?

OK, the above is a summary of a much bigger picture, but hope you get the idea of what I am saying. Something is smelling worse and worse in America. I know a couple of places I could point a finger as to the cause, but had better try to keep this apolitical. What to do to reverse the above sad picture: For starters, talk to everybody you can and make sure that they understand what is happening to the once great country of America and in November, vote the bums out and return America to a manufacturing country and not a service oriented country. Oop's, just made this political.

 

What I don't get is the "woe is me" mentality that seems to have permeated our country.

"Lost my job ... now, because I didn't have the foresight to learn a fall-back trade to support myself and my family ... I must sit on my butt, collect a pity check and sit uder this bridge holding a sign".
I know this doesn't apply to everyone who is on the hunt for work ... but by God, we see it more and more each day, Stan !!

Our country used to be about working for everything we had ... starting out with next to nothing and building a personal empire. What the heck happened ??? When did it happen ?? Why did we sit back and let it happen ??

The little towns you speak of have simply quit trying. I grew up in several podunk towns just like this, scattered throughout the western USA ... noone had much of a pot to pee in, but they worked. They busted their butts each day to earn their way and keep their pride.
Guess what ?? Those towns may not be any better off 30-40 years later ... but they are still there !! Why ?? Because they have pride. They show up to their kids ball games, they salute the flag and say the Pledge of Allegience ... they believe in God.

As a nation our moral compass has shifted so far off course in regards to what is right and what is wrong, that I really don't know if we will be able to right things anymore.

But ... you are right, it all starts with "taking out the trash" in November.

Cheers,
PISTOL

 

Is this drying up of small towns any worse than the doughnut effect of large cities?
As a city grows, and incorporates small neighboring towns, these towns loose their identity and just become part of the city.
Over time, the inner city falls to slums and dis-repair as the city grows. meanwhile, the city becomes a ring or doughnut and continues to grow as people move to the outside edge and leave behind the inside to return to nature.
funny thing, you only really see this in the US. outside the US, the cities stay densely packed and people will live in the same house or neighborhood for generations.

 

Actually I think it's pretty much the same thing, I think one of the worst I've seen was St. Louis when I lived there, the outer ring of suburbs were for the most part quite prosperous while the inner city was for the most part either deserted or a war zone with the various drug and organized crime gangs fighting over who was going to rule over the debris of what were once very nice neighborhoods. The biggest difference I see is that the remnants of the small towns don't seem to have the crime rates that the cities do.

 

thats what Im talking about... really teh same thing. america moves. dont fix/improve WHERE your at, move to another big/better/nicer location.
for example, one of the pubs I went to regularly in the UK, the bar top was 400 years old. been in pubs the entire time. Just remodeled and moved around a bit, but still had the traceable lineage.

 

I live in ND a lot of small town are just dying bigest reason is CRP (conservation reserve program) Farmers put there land in and moved away to find a regular job. The towns left with them. Now the big thing is those farmers that left are slowly selling off there land to out of state hunters who come out a few times a year to shoot a bird or duck.

The hunters just leave the land in CRP and collect a check for there hunting ground.

My county now has 1 school