A Cure for Urban Decay

In the late 20th Century, many major US cities had witnessed gross decay and decreases in population. Their crime rates skyrocketed, and the educational system went down the gutter. By the late 90s, it seemed as if there was little hope left for cities like Chicago and Los Angeles.

I found a ten-year-old article explaining this whole issue. Lately, I have been reading about how cities are beginning to prosper once again, so the article was slightly shocking to read. Then I read into how the author thought that cities would prosper again. The most interesting thing was that these ideas had been used in the past ten years, and they have been working in places such as Seattle and San Francisco.

Had one visited Seattle in the mid-90s, many of the piers would have shown signs of aging. There is still a pier that the city chose not to renovate to present an example of how gross the city used to look; it's chipped paint galore. Today, Seattle's waterfront is beautiful with modern architecture - a foreground to a beautiful skyline.

(In the front left corner of the photo is my favorite restaurant in Seattle, Anthony's at Pier 66. Best seafood ever.)