r/yimby • u/optimisticnihilist__ • 9h ago
Discussion I wonder how much America's long forgotten "fallen cities", most notably Atlantic City, New Jersey, could benefit from YIMBY/Abundance related policies?
For a long time already, us Americans have tended to poke fun of and have very low expectations for cities experiencing chronic decay like Atlantic City and many "down on its luck" small urban centers in Appalachia. Yes, we have very expensive cities like NYC and LA with lots of homeless and people leaving those places. People like to poke fun at them too, and and call them dumpsites. But, they are not what remotely qualifies as "fallen cities". The places that are in real dire straits are what we usually called the "sick folks" in the States, places with actual urban decay, ghost towns, and chronic multi-decade declines in population.
I just wonder if policy thinkers have been looking at the wrong problem for decades with regard to those blighted cities, and that the problem really lies in red tape that prevents progressive outcomes in economic revitalization, like with any other places in America?
Imagine how many of these "sick places" in America could have been constantly rejuvenated had their city councils decided to allow for a lot more commercial and residential real estate to be built, thereby prevented their fall in the first place? It's really worth thinking about. Now, I could be wrong about how much of the policies from very recently developed YIMBY think tanks could have softened their fall. That's why I would like your insight as to if the real problem they faced wasn't actually disruption of economic sectors like in gambling and manufacturing, but rather in an inability to adapt and constantly reinvent itself due to red tape that prevents literal rebuilding of entirely new industries and of new homes for more people to come in.