Quote:
Originally Posted by haljackey
...And those stats probably include the infamous London Metropolitan area. Those communities (such as Saint Thomas) really mess up those numbers compared with the city proper.
What year was that negative population growth for? Hopefully that was over some time, Flint losing nearly half it's people in a year is nuts. Perhaps that should be changed to just population growth... London would have a + something and Flint would have -44%.
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I just pulled some quick numbers off the innerweb to show what a city in REAL trouble looks like - all the stats are probably metro stats as the Americans do their counting in the same way. Anyway, it doesn't have to be precise to illustrate the point.
The Flint population decline was from the mid-70's high of a whisker under 200,000. At that time, London's population was about 225,000 if I recall correctly - which would produce a growth of about 57% over that same period.
I know that folks bemoan the economic state of Ontario and most of its cities that have been hurt by the downturn in manufacturing - but it's not near a bad as many American cities in similar situations - and in some ways a cautionary tale of how not to operate an economy of municipality. I realize that this is cold comfort to those in Ontario struggling to find work, but the difference between what is going on here and what is happening in other places that are in genuine serious trouble is the difference between a cyclic economic downturn and societal collapse.
Such catastrophic declines also directly affects how these devastated municipalities can not afford to provide basic services. For example:
- Across Lake Erie in Ashtabula County Ohio they're down to one police cruiser for all 1800 sq.km.'s of the county. Asked what the citizens should react to this situation, the sheriff said "buy a gun".
- Hundreds of municipalities everywhere in the U.S. are pulverizing asphalt roads and converting them into gravel roads, because they can't afford to maintain paved roads any more.
- Some cities that can no longer afford to provide basic services to the outer ring of their city are paying residents who live in those areas to move in to the centre of the city (on threat of expropriation) - buying up the abandoned homes, demolishing the entire neighborhood, and returning it to a natural state that no longer has to be serviced.
So, sure, things ain't perfect here and there are problems - but it is far, far from catastrophic. Things need to be kept in proper perspective. For a good perspective go to Google Earth Streetview at coords 42d21m41.46s N , 83d02m16.88s W to see what Detroit looks like 3500 metres from the centre of its downtown.