This isn't meant to start a north vs. south flame war, so please restrain yourselves.

[hedgehog]

I just wanted to note that while we've seen many stories about the way New Orleans has been abandoned since Katrina, we rarely see stories about the economic devastation destroying our older industrial cities like Cleveland and Detroit. A disaster like a hurricane or earthquake provides spectacular images, but the slow degradation due to the loss of jobs is just as devastating. I might also suggest that the parts of New Orleans that are being aboandoned are actualy victim of the same neglect. If these areas were considered important to the economy, they'd be rebuilt.

[elleng]

1. 'BY WHOM'

If these areas were considered important to the economy, they'd be rebuilt.

IS THE QUESTION.

[LisaM]

2. I'm starting to think that they are letting Detroit decay

so that they can point to Michigan's bad economy (and this would apply to Cleveland too) and start getting Great Lakes water treated as a commodity. Seriously, everyone is saying water is the next oil. Bill Richardson earned my lasting scorn for claiming the Great Lakes were "awash" in water and that we should develop a national water policy that presumably includes sharing with New Mexico, which is far exceeding usage for its climate.

You think any of these things don't happen on purpose? If you read Greg Palast's analysis of the IMF and World Bank, you'll see that they generally start their aid programs based on privatizing water rights. I didn't used to be a conspiracy theorist type, but I know that a lot of people want to get their hands on that water.

And I agree with your comments that the devastation is just as bad in some of these other cities. A few years ago, I drove down Grand River from Ypsilanti to Detroit to go to a baseball game and there are miles of decay and rotted out houses. Detroit's "Katrina" was the 1967 riots. The city has never recovered. You can date a lot from before and after that event.

[dysfunctional press]

7. great lakes water will NEVER be diverted to the arid southwest.

stop worrying.

[LisaM]

9. I'd hope not. But I've been paying attention to this for years

and people have been trying to get their hands on it for a while, Richardson just being the latest. I remember one year they talked about putting it on freighters and sending it to Korea (I am not making this up).

[Warpy]

3. Slowly strangling a city, one person at a time isn't news

although a few people do pick up on it and make movies like "Roger and Me."

Strangling a whole country one person at a time isn't news, either, if you rely on the official media sources.

It's not just cities in the upper midwest. Unless we go into crippling amounts of debt, we are all being destroyed, quickly or slowly, by the last 39 years of unbroken conservative rule from both parties.

[jody]

4. Good point but those cities were built on manufacturing that needed to be close to raw materials and

energy -- cheap labor came to them.

Today their jobs have been outsourced to cheaper labor in the South or still cheaper labor in other countries.

My guess is jobs will return to those cities of yesteryear only when labor is willing to work for lower wages.

[hedgehog]

5. The point is that these are places where a lot of people have invested everything they have.

They are being abandoned by employers. Do we abandon a region because Wall Street chooses to abandon it? There is talk about whether we abandon the low lying coastal cities in years to come or protect them as the sea level rises and storms become more intense. At least we are discussing options for those regions. Cities like Buffalo and Cleveland and dozens of small cities across New York State have been left to die with no real discussion. A slow moving disaster is still a disaster.

[dysfunctional press]

8. "a rising tide lifts all boats"...i really HATE that b.s. line.

the only way for the tide to rise in one place, is for it to go down somewhere else.
we're the somewhere else.

[Clark2008]

6. Why would this be a north v. south flame war?

The fact is that ALL of the country is suffering from the neglect inflicted upon it by eight years of Bush and six years of mostly Republican rule.

I think you've hit the nail on the head in regards to publicity, however: Katrina provided "copy" and "film," while the slow death of cities devastated by lack of planning and economic building don't provide nearly enough "ummph" for today's news media.

You have to remember, today's media is sick: they are on life support supplied by right-wing monies and have resorted to infotainment to stay aloft. They aren't reporting the news. They're trying to compete with American IDLE.