These 5 Cities Are Growing Faster Than Your Kids

But where are their Black residents?

Phoenix City Center from the North Mountains. Photo by Lisa Campbell on Unsplash.

Is Manifest Destiny permanent?

Are we all going to slide into the Pacific Ocean?

The country is becoming rather lopsided, at least if you look to the West.

Last month I wrote an article titled The Rise and Fall of 5 Great American Cities. Using 1950 as a baseline, the cities in fastest decline are all east of the Mississippi — Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. (OK, so St. Louis is on the Mississippi, let’s not split hairs!) Suburbanization and “white flight” have taken their toll. Here are a few highlights from that story:

• Detroit: its decline leads this pack of large cities, with the population down 67%. It was once the country’s fifth-largest city.
• St. Louis: the population has declined to the point where only 11% of the metropolitan area’s citizens still live in the city.
• Baltimore: once the nation’s sixth-largest city, it‘s plunged to number 31.
• Cleveland: hit its peak population in 1950. It’s now slid from seventh to 54th place.
• Pittsburgh: a steep fall from the 12th largest city to the 67th.