Aussieskin
10-09-2011, 03:19 PM
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/great_wide_open_WqL54fjvoNYjfFI74GlmmL?utm_campaig n=Post10&utm_source=Post10Alpha
RAPID CITY, SD -- So many places in South Dakota now seem cruelly and ironically named: There’s Harreid -- pronounced “harried” -- which measures less than 2 square miles and has 438 residents left. They’re thriving compared to the folks in Cottonwood, a barren 0.9 square mile of brown grass and imploding structures right off I-90; as of the 2010 Census, it has a population of six. And then there is Scenic, a burnt-out husk of a saloon stop where about 10 freestanding structures remain, three of which are jails. Population: one.
These disappearing towns may seem extreme outliers, but they exist all over South Dakota and most rural areas in America, and this way of life, on the decline since the Great Depression, is now near death. Only four states -- Vermont, Mississippi, West Virginia and Maine -- have more people living outside cities than in them, with just 16% of Americans living in rural areas, according to the 2010 Census.
Entire swaths of America are emptying out, with people forced through economics and social hardship to live closer to more metropolitan centers, if not in them. Such is the drain that many airlines have cut back on flights to rural areas, jacking up the cost of tickets for the few that remain.
Cities saw a spike of 11% in population in 2010, and the Census reports that the top 10 most rapidly expanding places were all urban areas or closely surrounding suburbs, with the greatest gains in Texas, California and Arizona. The implications aren’t just social or even economic; as these well-established migration patterns continue, political power will be concentrated in cities, which will have more legislators. Blue states and red states are about to mix it up.
Scenic is the most compelling case study, and if you were to picture a Hollywood version of a midwestern ghost town, that would be a very good approximation of what this place looks like. Scenic was most recently in the news this summer, when it was put up for sale for $799,000. (It sold to a controversial Filipino church called Iglesia ni Cristo.) There are abandoned, collapsing houses left wide open, signs of life strewn through like some sort of Dust Bowl-themed art installation: a page of looseleaf paper with local debts listed in pristine cursive; children’s lesson books with titles such as “The Family You Belong To” strewn across the front porch.
Scenic still has a working post office (the ‘S’ in Scenic sways precariously from one nail at the top), and if you go in to this tiny box on a weekday around noon, you’re likely to encounter Peggy, who is very nice and would love to talk but needs about half an hour because, she says, “you’ve just caught me at the busiest time of day.”
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/great_wide_open_WqL54fjvoNYjfFI74GlmmL#ixzz1aJWdhC TO
RAPID CITY, SD -- So many places in South Dakota now seem cruelly and ironically named: There’s Harreid -- pronounced “harried” -- which measures less than 2 square miles and has 438 residents left. They’re thriving compared to the folks in Cottonwood, a barren 0.9 square mile of brown grass and imploding structures right off I-90; as of the 2010 Census, it has a population of six. And then there is Scenic, a burnt-out husk of a saloon stop where about 10 freestanding structures remain, three of which are jails. Population: one.
These disappearing towns may seem extreme outliers, but they exist all over South Dakota and most rural areas in America, and this way of life, on the decline since the Great Depression, is now near death. Only four states -- Vermont, Mississippi, West Virginia and Maine -- have more people living outside cities than in them, with just 16% of Americans living in rural areas, according to the 2010 Census.
Entire swaths of America are emptying out, with people forced through economics and social hardship to live closer to more metropolitan centers, if not in them. Such is the drain that many airlines have cut back on flights to rural areas, jacking up the cost of tickets for the few that remain.
Cities saw a spike of 11% in population in 2010, and the Census reports that the top 10 most rapidly expanding places were all urban areas or closely surrounding suburbs, with the greatest gains in Texas, California and Arizona. The implications aren’t just social or even economic; as these well-established migration patterns continue, political power will be concentrated in cities, which will have more legislators. Blue states and red states are about to mix it up.
Scenic is the most compelling case study, and if you were to picture a Hollywood version of a midwestern ghost town, that would be a very good approximation of what this place looks like. Scenic was most recently in the news this summer, when it was put up for sale for $799,000. (It sold to a controversial Filipino church called Iglesia ni Cristo.) There are abandoned, collapsing houses left wide open, signs of life strewn through like some sort of Dust Bowl-themed art installation: a page of looseleaf paper with local debts listed in pristine cursive; children’s lesson books with titles such as “The Family You Belong To” strewn across the front porch.
Scenic still has a working post office (the ‘S’ in Scenic sways precariously from one nail at the top), and if you go in to this tiny box on a weekday around noon, you’re likely to encounter Peggy, who is very nice and would love to talk but needs about half an hour because, she says, “you’ve just caught me at the busiest time of day.”
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/great_wide_open_WqL54fjvoNYjfFI74GlmmL#ixzz1aJWdhC TO