Posted Jul 24, 2013, 7:27 PM
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Ex Houstonian
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Pittsburgh n’ at
Posts: 15,494
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc
This is the same situation my own city found itself in back in the 1970's and 80's. our downtown had a vacancy rate of 90%, and some of the buildings that are now restored had collapsed except for their facades.
What turned us around? Gays and artists, and the happy coincidence of being a rare spot of high-quality urbanity in this particular part of Appalachia. Wheeling has great bones, but it's just a face in the crowd -- West Virginia and Pennsylvania are teeming with lovely, well-built towns, and it's going to be hard for Wheeling to market itself and tell people why it's better than all these others like Huntingon, Parkersburg, Charleston, and all the smallish cities of Western Pennsylvania. However, if Wheeling could make an effort to reach out to artists and the LGBT community it might be off to a good start. Being an oasis for tolerance is another reason my city was able to turn itself around.
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Something tells me that Wheeling is not ready to be an oasis of tolerance anytime soon, massive brain drain has left the town pretty well set in its ways.
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There’s no greater abomination to mankind and nature than Ryan Home developments.
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