The emptiest city in America

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/feb/16/forbes-las-vegas-americas-emptiest-city/

Kind of scary, considering I am moving there soon. I was told by an apartment manager that they would let me get by on just the deposit and a months rent but if there are no jobs to be had...

 

I thought for sure the answer would be East St. Louis.

 

My guess was Flint.

 

My bid was Youngstown.

 

Vegas and Phoenix are going to be frontliners in the economic collapse. Both cities built their boom around development and sprawl. They're fucked.

 

I was going to say downtown Atlanta.

 

Or it could be Valley, Alabama... everyone has been arrested in Montgomery [crossthreading]

 

I heart Phoenix but even the past few times I've been there, parts of it have had a bit of a ghost town-esque quality.

 

what the story doesn't say is where all these folks are going.

 

Many, back to Mexico.

 

For some of the cities they're not necessarily going anywhere. Cities like Vegas and Phoenix aren't shrinking population wise (at least not yet), they're just not growing at a rate sufficient to fill all the excess speculative condos and subdivisions that were overbuilt during the boom. The empty neighborhoods in those cities are full of brand spanking new homes that have never been lived in and nobody wants to buy.

Cities like Detroit on the other hand....

 

Oh lord.