Forbes: Charleston one of ‘fastest dying cities’

By Matthew Thompson
Charleston Daily Mail

CHARLESTON August 08, 2008 01:37 am

— Charleston Mayor Danny Jones is encouraging residents to read a magazine article that says the city is dying.
Forbes Magazine has listed Charleston as one of the United States’ top 10 “fastest dying cities.”
The Aug. 5 article is available at the magazine’s Web site, www.forbes.com.
The piece cites Charleston’s 5,776-person population decline since the 2000 Census and its annual 1 percent gross domestic product growth as reasons for its inclusion on the list.
Jones said the city is not dying.
But he said residents should read the article because it notes a few of the positive aspects of Charleston.
“The article is hurtful, but I urge people to read it,” Jones said.
He said the article says nothing negative about the city’s quality of life.
“The article really has nothing to do with anything except population,” Jones said. “It’s got one of the prettiest pictures of the city, and there’s really nothing too negative about it.”
Last year, Kiplinger’s personal finance magazine named Charleston as one of the best places for empty nesters to live.
The article touted the city’s quality of life and low cost of living.
The Forbes article noted that the city’s unemployment rate of 4.8 percent was below the national average.
It also praises it as the state’s transportation hub and home to the health care and banking industries.
But the magazine also says that the area’s population is older and declining.
Jones said the city needed to do more to encourage young people to stay in the area.
“We don’t gear enough of our decision-making around young people,” Jones said. “It’s an uphill battle.”
Jones said the development of the interstate system and the loss of manufacturing jobs has hurt the city over the past 50 years.
“When I was a kid, everybody lived in Charleston and they had no interest to get out of here because all the jobs were here,” Jones said.
“Then the interstates were built and so people left. They moved to places like Putnam County or as far away as Jackson County, but they still work in Charleston. They just don’t live here.”
Jones said the loss of jobs is a problem for the state, and not just for Charleston.
“We can’t do much about that. It’s a state issue,” Jones said. “Manufacturing jobs have left the state, and they’re not going to come back.”
Charleston joins four Ohio cities — Dayton, Canton, Youngstown and Cleveland — and two Michigan cities — Flint and Detroit — on the list.
The other “dying” cities include Buffalo, N.Y., Springfield, Mass., and Scranton, Pa.
Jones said he plans to do everything to improve the city’s standing.
“It’s more heartbreaking for me to see people leave, because I’ve lived here since I was born in 1950,” Jones said. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure the economy can be as good as it can be.”