In the post World War I period, the Whites (Americans of European origin) left the cities to settle in the peripheries of the city due to the increased crime rates and seeming danger from African-Americans migrating to the North. It occurs due to shift in their place of employment, better and affordable housing in the outskirts. Suburbanization: This refers to the process of out-migration of the city dwellers to the suburbs, exurbs, or commuter towns outside the city. Industrial cities were abandoned as major auto manufacturers collaborated with foreign companies to outsource automobile production, forcing the earlier highly paid individuals to move out. The Rust belt cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, in the North American Great Lakes region, are a more recent example of cities facing urban blight due to the impacts of globalization. Industrial plants, factories, and other processing units were left empty, or created waste lands. for cheap labor, increased automation, decline of the steel industry during the mid-20th century, rendered many workers jobless. However, outsourcing of the manufacturing processes to the south-eastern states in the U.S. Unemployment and De-industrialization: Setting up of huge manufacturing plants in resource rich areas had brought up new cities during the period of industrialization. Also, building of Interstate highways in the United States left some areas secluded and out of the loop, leading them to remain undeveloped. Convenience is the key here, as little problems like traffic congestion or narrow lanes can deter investments from coming to the area. Developing transport mechanism, centrally accessible roads or rail routes, restraining urban sprawl, are aimed at in the planning. Poor Urban Planning: Considering the needs and issues of the local area, urban planning is done to make meaningful use of a vast space. It is a mix of various events or conditions triggering minor changes. Even in case studies considering one particular city, urban decay cannot be attributed to any one causal factor. There are several reasons behind the process of urban decay. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines a “blighted structure” as: “A structure is blighted when it exhibits objectively determinable signs of deterioration sufficient to constitute a threat to human health, safety, and public welfare.” Reasons for Urban Blight There is hardly any development seen in the region. It is a stage where the earlier economic growth comes to a halt. It is the process where a city, or a part of it, deteriorates and is abandoned for several reasons including unemployment, depopulation, outmigration, ethnic clashes, high level of crime, etc. That is exactly what happens when a once flourishing city turns into an urban blight later. If and when it loses its resources, it loses its utility too. Whether a region is inhabitable or not is decided by the resources (natural, economic, human) the region has. Why have many cities and towns been built and flourished along river banks? It is interesting to learn about human settlement patterns. This figure was 19% for Cleveland (OH), 24% for Detroit (MI), 27% for Flint (MI), and 21% for Youngstown (OH). According to the United States Postal Service data collection, in March 2012, in New Orleans (LA) 21% of the homes were blighted or empty, but habitable.
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