Скачать или смотреть Re-Filling America's Ghost Towns

When I was in Johnstown, my opinions felt a little bit bipolar… on the one hand, when you get there you feel like you are stepping into the land that time forgot. In a lot of ways it is blatantly obvious why the town is struggling and why very few people are moving in. A large percent of the buildings are abandoned, it's clearly an economically depressed area and evidence of the drug trade is very obvious. Despite all of these clear issues, it would be just as easy to write a list of why you would want to move there. In an age where housing is getting harder and harder to afford, homes in Johnstown are still amazingly affordable. Livable homes can be had for 50,000 dollars and reasonably nice homes can be had starting around $100,000. Even on 15 dollars an hour, home ownership is within reach. And while there are signs of the drug trade, I never felt unsafe the whole time I was walking around the town.

The scenery is great… the town is perched around a river, surrounded by lush mountains on all sides and there are multiple ski resorts within an hour … a great place for the outdoor enthusiast. Since it was built for 4 times the current population traffic, parking and other typical city related issues are virtually non-existent. And even though it's an area that experienced significant decline, it still has a metropolitan population of 150k meaning that pretty much everything you could need as far as shopping and services go are easily accessible.

And finally the history, I know some people may think that history is surpurfluous when it comes to deciding where to live, but I think it’s an underrated element. You don’t have to be a history buff to appreciate a historic town over a suburban strip mall. Theres something innately more interesting about a town with history.

So it’s a conundrum, on the one hand you are faced with the area’s obvious short comings but on the other hand it seems like the place is full of potential.


Highlights

0:00 - Intro
1:22 - My (very conflicted) first impressions of Johnstown PA
1:45 - Why you would want to live there
3:45 - Can it be revitalized and what does revitalization look like
5:30 - Too poor, too isolated, too rundown?
7:18 - The societal pressure against moving to small, affordable cities
8:18 - Being able to positively influence your community
9:00 - So what is my conclusion on all of this?