What happened when Walmart left - McDowell County, WV - Sensationalist Headlines

[url]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/09/what-happened-when-walmart-left[/url] [quote]When Walmart left town, it didn’t linger over the goodbyes. It slashed the prices on all its products, stripped the shelves bare, and vanished, leaving behind only the ghostly shadow of its famous brand name and gold star logo on the front wall of a deserted shell. The departure was so quick that telltale signs remain of the getaway, like smoldering ashes in the fireplaces of an evacuated town. Notices still taped to the glass entranceway record with tombstone-like precision the exact moment that the supercenter was shuttered: “Store closed at 7pm, Thursday 28 January 2016.” Ten years. That’s all the time it took for the store to rise up in a clearing of the lush forest of West Virginia’s coal country and then disappear again, as though it had never been there. But for the people of McDowell County – proud country folk laboring under the burdens of high unemployment, low income and endemic ill health – even such a fleeting visit to this rural backwater by the world’s largest retailer had a profound impact. Both in the arrival, and in the hasty leaving.[/quote]

This is such an amazing photo damn: [t]http://i.imgur.com/4TlM6M7.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=GhillieBacca;52452341]This is such an amazing photo damn: [t]http://i.imgur.com/4TlM6M7.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] That photo reminds me of my childhood and living in a crappy lowdown town in a crappy out-in-nowhere house where the nearest store was a crappy lowdown Food Lion. I never want to live in a place like that ever again.

This makes me thankful that the local factories never left my town. I don't know what all of them do, but they employ a lot of people around here. The ones by the tracks are old as hell too, you can see bricked off loading bays where the trains used to stop, before trucks took over. But even then, there are people in town and the nearby towns that commute to the city for work. Overall I think my town and the ones nearby are very lucky they've not falling into decay like so many around this country. Sadly the suffering of rural America is nothing more than a political tool in Washington DC, none of the urban elites in the capital could care less what's happening to out here.

Makes me wonder what would happen if something similar happened here. This area I live in is a shithole full of heroin junkies.

[QUOTE=GhillieBacca;52452341]This is such an amazing photo damn: [t]http://i.imgur.com/4TlM6M7.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] Reminds me of The Mist

[QUOTE=Vodkavia;52453111]As much as I don't disagree I really have to ask what can be done for rural America and where does the momentum come from? A lot of rural America are monotowns, and when their single industry collapses, pulls roots or downsizes there's nothing to prop them up or hold them together. As a result these kinds of towns just depopulate as people move to more concentrated areas to compete for jobs. I know this because I live in a region where crime, drug use are on the rise while income is spiraling downward because the biggest industry in the land was legislated out of existence.[/QUOTE] If they're lucky the nearest city will turn them into a suburb or borough or something similar.

[QUOTE=Vodkavia;52453111]As much as I don't disagree I really have to ask what can be done for rural America and where does the momentum come from? A lot of rural America are monotowns, and when their single industry collapses, pulls roots or downsizes there's nothing to prop them up or hold them together. As a result these kinds of towns just depopulate as people move to more concentrated areas to compete for jobs. I know this because I live in a region where crime, drug use are on the rise while income is spiraling downward because the biggest industry in the land was legislated out of existence.[/QUOTE] I don't have a good answer, my best would be basic income, since rural living is cheap compared to cities and automation will soon be coming for many of the the desk, driving, and service jobs we as a society cling to. It's also very late and I can't think straight right now, I'm sure there are better solutions. Regardless, Washington does not care, we're just flyover country to all of them.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;52453184]Regardless, Washington does not care, we're just flyover country to all of them.[/QUOTE] maybe the solution is to hurt Washington, or at the very least don't bother lifting a finger to help them

[QUOTE=GhillieBacca;52452341]This is such an amazing photo damn: [t]http://i.imgur.com/4TlM6M7.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] Reminds me of [t]https://my.mixtape.moe/suqsyo.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=Vodkavia;52453111]As much as I don't disagree I really have to ask what can be done for rural America and where does the momentum come from? A lot of rural America are monotowns, and when their single industry collapses, pulls roots or downsizes there's nothing to prop them up or hold them together. As a result these kinds of towns just depopulate as people move to more concentrated areas to compete for jobs. I know this because I live in a region where crime, drug use are on the rise while income is spiraling downward because the biggest industry in the land was legislated out of existence.[/QUOTE] I live in such a town, though not exactly reliant on a single industry it does have heavy reliance on two: The Railroad. We only exist in the first place because of it. Before we were "Clovis", we were "Riley's Switch". The BNSF used to run a lot of freight through here, but recently they've re-routed much of it to Pacific Northwest, and there's been a lot of furloughing here of RR employees. The Air Force Base. Holy [I]fucking[/I] shit, when there were talks of shutting it down some years ago! Our town and its neighbor both fought tooth and nail to keep Cannon AFB because everyone thought the towns would just dry up and blow away without all that fat government housing cheddar being pumped into the local real-estate markets. Some places even to this day celebrate it being refit for Spec Ops and kept alive (for training purposes it seems, apparantley our countryside is very similar to that of Iraq and Afghanistan... yay?), and you can still see the occasional "Operation: SAVED Cannon!" poster around.

I live in Nevada, which is basically a single industry state thanks to gold mining. If the mines ever closed or the price of gold drops a little the entirety of northern Nevada would just dry up.

[QUOTE=richard9311;52453469]Reminds me of [t]https://my.mixtape.moe/suqsyo.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] what's this from?

my old town used to be primarily a logging town until automation made the need for loggers be much smaller than it used to be. now it's surviving purely because it is a bedroom community for a nearby city and a military base. because of its unique position, with a military training reservation cutting it off from the bigger city except for a single road, i can't see it being absorbed but i can't see it growing, either

[QUOTE=TheHydra;52454542]what's this from?[/QUOTE] [URL="https://www.flickr.com/photos/justinbway/3767206865/"]Justin Broadway on flickr[/URL]

[QUOTE=PaChIrA;52452514]Makes me wonder what would happen if something similar happened here. This area I live in is a shithole full of heroin junkies.[/QUOTE] Somewhere in Jersey?

[QUOTE=Shock_Coil;52455408]Somewhere in Jersey?[/QUOTE] Johnstown, Pennsylvania. A while back there was a even a cop who OD'd on heroin.