On Tuesday, August 19, 2014 4:14:01 PM UTC-4, dpel...@my-deja.com wrote:   
      
   > I'm not sure about recovery, per se. The west side of my hometown has lost   
   > most of its industry and a lot of its population. They have made a lot of   
   > progress in clearing vacant buildings, which is good (adaptive reuse would   
   > have been even better, but probably not realistic), but not much is showing   
   > up to fill in the spaces.   
      
   Sadly, it's like that in many old towns.  Sometimes a sterile big box shopping   
   center replaces a former factory site.   
      
   As mentioned, it's sad to see 1950s of town centers (in trian and trolley   
   books) that are vibrant with commerce and shoppers and compare the same scene   
   to today via google street view, where it is desolate and decayed.   
      
   Factory buildings were generally never attractive, but a run down building   
   still looks worse than a building being well maintained.  An example is a   
   factory adjacent to the Newark City Subway Orange St. stop.   
      
   I have a set of Western Union company newsletters.  In the 1950s, they were   
   opening up or remodeling local offices in many towns.  Again, looking at the   
   spots today often shows the row of storefronts demolished or boarded up.   
      
   One exception is a previously menitoned location in St. Louis.  In the 1950s   
   it is obviously a poor neighborhood with a pawn shop on the corner.  Today the   
   scene looks very much the same, not any worse, and the pawn shop is still   
   there doing business    
   under the same name.   
      
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