Bittertown, USA

[SoCalDem]

The other night I googled "Main Street".. These are just some of the pictures that came up.. They are from Gary, Indiana, Gorham, NH, Sioux Falls, SD, and Bisbee, AZ....but they could be from just about any small-ish town in any state.

When railroads bisected the nation, they doomed many a small place to obscurity..and it happened again when the Interstate sytem came in.. small places left behind, and large places vacated as suburbs popped up..

It's happened again and again, over the years, but lately it's been from the LEAVING, rather than the ARRIVING of something new.

Jobs leave, young people leave, capital leaves, companies leave..

All that remains are the empty shells of the buildings that used to house people and provide their way to make a living.

These empty buildings are liabilities..not assets. Towns must waste manpower and money to "protect" them, banks/owners must still insure them, and yet no business is thriving there, paying INTO the tax base..

The trickle down effect is that services continue to suffer, and schools continue to be neglected.

Once the spiral starts, it rarely stops...

There's very little commerce happening on these "main streets"

[PVnRT]

1. To be fair, Gary is not a "small town"

It's actually fairly large, although these days it represents the Biff version of the town in Back to the Future (though the casinos are on the edge of town and there's fewer factories running).

[SoCalDem]

2. "Main street".. did encompass all sizes

oops..

I lived in Michigan City, IN..& have been to Gary.. It's a big place..but very under-loved :(

I edited a bit for Gary :)

[PVnRT]

4. "Under-loved" doesn't begin to describe it

Driving down parts of Cline Avenue reminds more of the set of a post-nuclear war movie.

Michigan City is hit hard as well, and only looks a little better because they're still trying to catch up.

[SoCalDem]

8. We lived there for 7 years..and truthfully the only vivid

memory I have of the place is the toxic cloud of GUNK they would release AFTER DARK, so you wouldn't see it :grr:

and the prison.. & NIPSCO ..and the acres of dead alewives every summer :)

[bklyncowgirl]

3. Obama's newest celebrity endorser put those pictures to words and music

Here is is.

http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/MyHometown.html

[newfie11]

5. Hey now Sioux Falls is SD's largest town

Now if you need a small town check out Minatare NE.
http://www.geocities.com/minatare_ne/

[newfie11]

6. sorry duplicate

[K Gardner]

7. Wow.. very nice work, thank you !

[Leopolds Ghost]

9. K/R

[Lucky 13]

10. Here's how union workers reacted to Hillary when she brought up bittergate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5529677&mesg_id=5529677

[Leopolds Ghost]

11. Can't Make It Here Anymore (radical country lyrics... to go with your images)

http://www.youtube.com/v/jTW0y6kazWM



There’s a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on his wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing and both hands free

No one’s paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget’s just stretched so thin
And now there’s more coming back from the Mideast war
We can’t make it here anymore

That big ol’ building was the textile mill that fed our kids
and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can’t make it here anymore

See those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They’re just gonna sit there ‘til they rot
‘Cause there’s nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks

Empty storefronts around the square
There’s a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don’t come down here unless you’re looking to score
We can’t make it here anymore

The bar’s still open but man it’s slow
The tip jar’s light and the register’s low
The bartender don’t have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won’t pay for a roof, won’t pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof,

just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far $5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one your stores
Bet you can’t make it here anymore

There’s a high school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that

If she comes up pregnant what’ll she do
Forget the career, forget about school

Can she live on faith? Live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope

When it’s way too late to just say no
You can’t make it here anymore

Now I’m stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
‘ Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can’t make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I’m in
Should I hate ‘em for having our jobs today?
No I hate the men sent the jobs away

I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean

They’ve never known want, they’ll never know need
Their shit don’t stink and their kids won’t bleed

Their kids won’t bleed in their damn little war
And we can’t make it here anymore

Will work for food will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks

So let ‘em eat jellybeans let ‘em eat cake
Let ‘em eat shit, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can’t make it here anymore

So that’s how it is, that’s what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper, read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind if you’re listening at all

Get out of that limo, look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone tell us all why

In Dayton Ohio or Portland Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That’s done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool

Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There’s rats in the alley and trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door

We can’t make it here anymore

http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/mcmurtry-james/we-cant-make-it-here-20595.html

[SoCalDem]

12. That's a powerful song..Thanks

and it's precisely what Obama was talking about..It's not a secret.. everyone knows it.. they just avert their eyes, unless they want their votes..

[Leopolds Ghost]

13. Thanks :-)

:hi: