Charleston, 4 Ohio cities on 'fastest-dying' list

[Dr. Whiplash]

Forbes magazine's "fastest-dying" cities, in alphabetical order:
Buffalo, N.Y.
Canton, O.
Charleston, W.Va.
Cleveland, O.
Dayton, O.
Detroit, Mich.
Flint, Mich.
Scranton, Pa.
Springfield, Mass.
Youngstown, O.


http://www.forbes.com

[cgarison]

[Former resident of the Kanawha Valley now working in the suburbs of Philly]

I guess I am one of the reasons for this. Dad is another that contributed to the statistic as a former employee of Columbia Gas in the Charleston HQ. At the beginning of 2000, both of us were employees in the city limits. Now, we are both in PA.

Scranton, PA does surprise me. Then again, for the last 4 years 45%-55% of the jobs in that town were for the Commonwealth of PA.

[Lester]

Charleston?!?!?!? Holy sh*t. Anyone care to add their own contributing factors?

I guess Ironton's dead already?

[Lester]

Wait a minute....

From the article on cities with the most home equity...

• While homeowners in areas of central California and Michigan watch their home equity disintegrate thanks to second mortgages and falling home prices, those in small cities like Beaumont, Texas, and Charleston, W.Va., are doing just fine.
  
  Homeowners in Beaumont were largely insulated from the price run-ups of the housing boom. As a result, values there have remained relatively stable. Property owners have the highest home equity in the country, or 75% of their properties' value. Charleston ranks fourth at 67%.

[cgarison]

And with the lack of the housing bubble in Charleston and the tri-state area, I have had a comfortable increase in value without the fear of declining values. My problem is that I want to move out of Philly to the suburbs, but the housing foreclosures are displacing families from the homes they owned and now they snapping up rental properties which is driving up rates for rent.

[Big Media]

Because of the mortgage melt-down, I though now would be a good time to buy. I have found a couple of bargains but for the most part, the Huntington housing market remains down, but prices are still high. I am looking in the range of houses there are about 100K more expensive than what I paid for mine and I am finding that the houses are not much better than what I already own.

I wonder what the average days on the market are today compared to, say, 2 years ago?

[Hoosier Daddy]

Charleston being on the list doesn't surprise me at all. I was born there and lived in Charleston as a child. My, how far that once wonderful town has fallen. The west side (near what used to be Stonewall Jackson High School) where I grew up looks like a ghetto. Even the downtown mall is crime infested and is a dangerous place to be after dark. With the exception of the old money stone fortress of South Hills, I'm not sure exactly where you'd consider 'a nice place to live' in the greater Kanawha Valley. Snobbins and Nitro look like they haven't changed since 1968. Cross Lanes is over-commercialized, cramped, and the land use there has been overextended. Dunbar is a dump. South Charleston, sitting in the shadows of shuttered and rusting chemical plants, has nothing really nice or new. Ditto Institute. So where? Kanawha City? Elkview? Sissonville? Belle?

The handful of people I know that work in Charleston and want to live somewhere nice have moved to Putnam County.

Sad.

[AmpedNow]

All are cities in the rust belt.

Homeowners in Beaumont were largely insulated from the price run-ups of the housing boom. As a result, values there have remained relatively stable. Property owners have the highest home equity in the country, or 75% of their properties' value.

Yet still close enough to Houston to benefit from its booming economy. The growth in that region is staggering.

Every West Virginian should spend a couple weeks down there. When they see with their own eyes the potential that has passed us by, maybe then we will finally have a housecleaning in Charleston.

/rant

[Dr. Whiplash]

Every West Virginian should spend a couple weeks down there. When they see with their own eyes the potential that has passed us by, maybe then we will finally have a housecleaning in Charleston. /rant

Don't need to go that far. Columbus has reportedly gained 4000 jobs so far in '08. You'd think maybe the four fastest-dying Ohio cities could learn some lessons.

Of course, having the state government center and the nation's largest university helps, but there is more to it than that - technology, insurance, finance, strong pro-growth government, aggressive infrastructure expansion, and simply being a "young" city in more ways than most cities in this part of the country. Then there's the sheer momentum at this point. What can turn around a Cleveland or a Youngstown or a Charleston? And what if nothing can?

[Hoosier Daddy]

Columbus is also blessed with having a significant white collar economy and almost no rust belt "dead anchors" that drag the numbers down. As mentioned, government operations, health care and a half dozen colleges and universities make the economy somewhat bulletproof. The growth of the CITY of Columbus is also a case study for urban planners everywhere. Back in the 1950s, then Mayor Jack Sensenbrenner "beat their tiny neighboring cities and villages over the head with water and sewer pipes", building oversized water and sewer plants in Columbus then offering to provide those services to the outlying communities and rural areas.

The stipulations for service included five mile wide "growth corridors" in a number of directions to prevent Columbus from being landlocked by future suburban growth. As residential and business development increased, wells dried up and the health department started red-tagging public and private septic systems. Small towns couldn't afford to build or expand their own water and sewer plants. Columbus stood there, 12" pipes buried and capped off at the corporation limits, with an inkpen and a contract in hand. The small villages and townships were furious but had no realistic second choice.

Columbus is one of a handful of major cities that has grown out and around their suburban neighbors, effectively landlocking them. The city of Columbus has annexed property in Franklin, Fairfield, Madison, Union, and Delaware Counties.

[Oldiesdude]

What? Wheeling, WV is not on the list?

[Dave Harman]

it's really not a surprise. Duh Mayor is doing everything he can to drive people and business out of town.

The good news is that surrounding areas are growing and healthy due to the exodus.

[Dr. Whiplash]

What? Wheeling, WV is not on the list?

The study included cities of more than 50,000 (or what most of the country considers cities) else our region would have had more "competitors."