The Death of the Cities

In 1987 I traveled to St. Louis, Missouri for the first time on business. The downtown center city was a vibrant destination. Along with streets filled with shops and shoppers, the riverside beneath their famous arch was an attraction in itself with riverboats boarding for evening cruises and a plethora of taverns and cafes serving every nature of cuisine from Kenya brewed beer to Missouri meatloaf sandwiches. Business was good then and the participants in my meetings engaged in the process and the negotiations.
This week I returned for the first time since 2002 to the downtown of this major city. There was an immediate feeling of emptiness. Where had all the people gone? At 4 pm in the afternoon on a Monday there was almost no traffic. The sidewalks were deserted except for a few wandering vagrants. The City buses went by either empty or with a couple elderly passengers staring vacantly out the window.
My hotel was ironically called the Renaissance. The room was mediocre equipped with a fading analog tv and two dusty bottles of Fiji water for $5.00 each. Outside my room three dirty glasses, one stuffed with a used paper napkins and another half empty with bubbleless Coke were in plain view in the hallway. There they stayed, even AFTER my room was made up, for 36 hours until I finally went to the front desk and told them that this made their hotel seem tacky. Insults sometimes get results. The glasses were taken away.
Across the street from the hotel was a huge convention center. Empty. No future programs were advertised on its marquee. I have been to New Orleans - the same. Akron, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston and on and on. Where has our nation gone? Sphere: Related Content