By Doug MacEachern | The Arizona Republic
The headline read “9 worst recession ghost towns in America.” It was 3 a.m., and I was wide awake, surfing for anything that might bore me back to sleep. This Fiscal Times online “list” feature offered possibilities.
Most of the nine “ghost towns” in fact turned out to be big development projects that had gone south in the 2008 real-estate crash.
Like the nearly vacant 855-lot “suburb” of tiny Rio Vista, Calif. And the 32-story condo tower in Fort Myers, Fla., that has retained exactly one resident.
Then, there is “Recession Ghost Town No. 3,” which the Times identifies as “downtown Phoenix,” the only real “town” in the entire “ghost town” photo feature.
And, sure enough, an aerial photo depicts what looks like a pretty sad-sack sector of Phoenix — North Second Street to North Sixth Street, west to east; Portland Street to Fillmore Street, north to south. Lots of vacant lots in this photo. Lots of them.
From the caption: “Empty dirt lots checker the area, where developers once dreamed of high-rise condos and office buildings, and many businesses have closed their doors.”
This Fiscal Times featurette strikes me as maybe a little more melancholy than reality allows.
