9:56 I live in rural MS. in my small town we have both a dollar general AND a general dollar. In the next town over, we have a Family Dollar. (which actually is much nicer than the other two stores.) there are about 8 actual places to work in both towns.
Nick you been doing a lot of driving lately, while I appreciate the effort you take to make your videos because it's like we in the car with you,but Nick that road ain't safe like that.I guess I'm saying I just want you to be safe out there especially through some of those certain areas in certain cities
@@mattparker9726 Most small towns are like that now throughout the US. All these competing "dollar" stores are more of a plight on our rural communities than the graffiti and empty buildings.
This is one of the most depressing I've watched. It's a shame that so much industry has been moved to other countries and big corporations have taken over mom & pop stores. I remember my parents talking about such in the early 80s and had little comprehension of what they meant. Watching it play out across our nation has been haunting.
Me and my girlfriend were driving from Michigan to Memphis one time, and there was an accident on I-57 that closed the interstate, so we took a detour though Cairo, and it was super surreal, it seemed so deserted.
@@wildestcowboy2668 I live in Memphis. It's not as bad as the News indoctrinate people to believe. Honestly there is areas in rural Arkansas and Mississippi that is way worse
There are places like this all over the country. If travel East-West along I-70 or North-South along I-35 you will see this or worse. The really bad stuff is if you trace what's left of Route 66 and see some of those towns there were essentially isolated when the new highways went through and it became really hard to get to those towns. This desolation started in the early 1980's with deindustrialization, financialization and privatization so its been going on for 40 years now. What you're seeing now is the end stages what happens when a country is stripped of value from the majority and that value pushed up the a relatively tiny number of people. There is no turning this around, its going to get worse, a LOT worse fairly soon I think.
Former Cairo resident. There are a couple of really nice hoods around St Mary's Park which you approached near the end. Some beautiful mansions just east of it. You can get a nice house here for very cheap but property taxes very high. About 80% of Cairo hopelessly trashed. Downtown has been completely bulldozed as have been the former plants in Cairo. It has been declining for 100 years but race riots in 60s and early 70s followed by severe economic downturn really killed it off.
Like Michigan. After the needless riots....people abandoned homes in every city here. If course being the target of gangs and drug addicts..cops just watch....people leave. Now they leave for the high taxes and incompetent state employees. And gov Gretch... Losing population.
Also worth mentioning is the rash of arsons in the city. I guess there has to be some entertainment and there's plenty of unused timber there to ignite.
@@roberthale2268 Fire is likely the most effective way to clear lots of crack houses. I would guess there is no fund for removing blighted property. People abandon worthless property, the city gets title it for unpaid taxes and are stuck with a garbage pile.
You failed to mention the effect that interstate highways have on small towns in Illinois. Before the I-57 bridge was completed into Missouri, people had to exit the Interstate north of Cairo and come into town and cross the river on either the US62 bridge into Missouri or the US51 bridge into Kentucky. Travelers would often stop in Cairo for a meal or to get gas and maybe visit Ft. Defiance State Park. I remember as a boy - I grew up in central Illinois and live in Champaign - my family would travel to see my brother in Arkansas and we would stop in Cairo for lunch and loved the view of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi. Of course, the downward spiral of the economics of Cairo had started decades earlier, but the final nail in the coffin was the I-57 bridge over the Mississippi. Interstate highways helped expediate the downfall of many small towns in Illinois. The downfall of Cairo is indeed very sad.
@@NickJohnson Much like My hometown, Detroit, the Automobile is one of the things that Made Detroit, and ultimately led to it's demise. The highway system, 1967 race riots, and the white flight to the suburbs that followed. Southerners flocked to Detroit for auto jobs starting in the 1920's. Black people in Detroit were the "richest" in the country. Had a higher standard of living, income, and even a higher percentage of intact families than even white people in 1964. Thanks to the government, the "great society" programs and welfare that only paid a woman if there was no man in the house- they now have 75-80% fatherless homes, and the guaranteed poverty and incarceration that follows. We went from 7 million people in Detroit in 1950, to less than 700,000 now. NAFTA surely helped destroy the auto industry and many other factories in Detroit as well. Very sad to see the decline of all these once great cities and towns. Even in their remains in the ghetto, you can occasionally spot homes and buildings that once flourished. I was born 80 years too late to get to live through it.
16:19 the yellow and brown home at top right as you moving down the street is the house my family lived in. It was built in 1863. My mother died Dec 2021 so I inherited the house.
Let's see. Deal with the gangs. Get rid of opertunistic people. Maybe we teach people to have standards and just smoke dope, bang ho's and steal or kill. Yup.
@@russellambrosini5344 if they bring back industry they'd have to import people from Europe again, and everybody knows the biggest dream for 99.9% of Europeans is to move to the US, so I kinda hope this doesn't happen.
I grew up in Cape Girardeau so I am a little familiar with Cairo and the situation there. It is one of the most depressing places I've been to and I lived in Caruthersville, Mo another dying community. I would like to comment on Dollar General stores and their impact on a community. All I can say is try pulling the DG out of those communities and see how that changes things. I'm thinking for the worse. How may start up businesses would locate in Cairo? I believe DG is serving a function that can't be served by any other enterprise. Casey's is also serving that function in many of the Southern Illinois dying towns. The guy was right when he said that Southern Illinois doesn't get the help from Northern Illinois that it needs. Thank Mike Madigan and the Chicago machine for that. Illinois as a state is almost bankrupt so nothing trickles down to Cairo. Really sad. I remember when Cairo was a thriving community though it's always had a racial problem. And no, people don't choose to live there, they are mostly stranded there.
Unfortunately, not enough gets trickled to Chicago, just to the big wigs who vacation in Florida and live in guarded communities. A lot of the revenue generating things like toll fees and parking meter fees have been leased to private firms for 30 year leases and the money from those deals was spent in less than 2 years. I've tried to go into business and it seems that only foreigners are able to own businesses. I can remember when the Black family was warm and welcoming so much so that many of my White friends were jealous when I invited them to dinner or special events. Not now, it's a lot of fear, disarray and food deserts.
@@blackcherry6877 Sorry calling BS on this. If you look at the ratio of taxes paid and and where that revenue goes to proves you wrong. The last number I found broke down as for every $1 Chicago and it's burbs paid in taxes it received $1.46 back. It's not just Southern IL but western and northwestern IL that gets sucked dry. I live in Harvard IL so know damn well about areas like our getting sucked dry to support Chicago.
@@blackcherry6877 Absolutely untrue, just why do you think a very large percentage of the population want Beirut I mean chicago REMOVED FROM THE STATE !! Murdercago is a blight on not only Illinois but the entire country. 60% of MY taxes go to keep that cesspool afloat. What an uneducated comment, you probably believe the present economy is fantastic as well ?
@@blackcherry6877 OK I can't wrap my head around the fact you don't get it. So lets try again for every dollar the burbs pay in taxes they get One dollar and 46 cents back. So stay with me hear, for every DOLLAR the community of Cairo pay in taxes they get 56 CENTS sent/spent in their community. The rich liberals in Chicago live off the poor of the state. So AGAIN The rich area get MORE BACK than they PAY.
The famous mail order Sears houses had pieces made in large plant just outside of Cairo. Many similar industries simply became outmoded and closed down over time.
I had a friend who had a Sears and Roebuck house, it had a well pump/tank up in the attic. I also had a friend who had a place on a river up north, and their little cottage was a sears house. Another great company that is gone or all but gone. I have a hard time seeing how any brick and mortar store can compete with online places like Amazon, etc in the long term. I try to support local businesses, even knowing i have to pay a little more. But I want them to make it......
The fact that Chicago and its railroads displaced St. Louis and its riverboats as the main transportation hub of the central US was a major factor in the ongoing St. Louis-Chicago rivalry.
An issue with St. Louis was the technology to bridge the Mississippi river was not advanced until the Eads bridge was completed at St. Louis in 1874. By this time Chicago had long consoliated as the railroad hub of the U.S. Memphis Tenn didn't get a bridge until 1892 - river was too deep and wide, which I think is a factor in that region. The Eads bridge was the first major bridge built of steel, its frame has been compared to that of the skyscrapers that would begin rising a few years later. A river city like St. Louis can't have too many bridges. I still like St. Louis, its deserves better than what is often said - high crime and blight is definitely a factor in the north side, but there are many charming areas in St. Louis and things will get better for the city, which has some of the nicest Victorian architecture in the U.S.
Growing up in a Chicago suburb, my brother and I would watch the state high school basketball tournament every year when all the schools were in one class and there was only one state champ. The Illinois tournament coined the phrases "Sweet 16" and "Elite 8" which the NCAA's has since adopted. Every year there'd be a couple of teams from "the deep south" and we'd always root for them because they were the underdogs - mythical (to us) places like Mounds Meridian, Cahokia, Collinsville, Cobden, Herrin, Effingham .... I don't know if Cairo has/had a high school but we would have rooted for them if they made it as far as the "Sweet 16." I'm still rooting for Cairo.
I was born in Illinois and I am retired miltary. Could we get veterans organizations, tunnels for towers and maybe the VA, buy the land cheaply and build homes for homeless veterans and offer tax incentive to grocery stores like walmart super store, for cairo or bigger town like decatur , well just a thought
No we can't because Illinois is trapped in the downward loop of corrupt Demonrat rule. Even if someone like Musk or the FedGov threw a ton of money and effort to make your idea work, the crippling taxes, particularly real estate taxes, and overwhelming regulation (not to mention corruption of which Illinois has far, far more than her fair share) would make any business there impossible. Even if your homeless vets moved in, they would be relentless victims of crime and would find the high cost of taxes more expensive than moving somewhere else where the home might cost more but being well managed, could be livable. If you want to fix this place and help your fellow veterans, vote Republican.
@@davidm7824 I think Neil figures that once they settled a community of currently homeless vets there, there would be more demand for Walmart and McDonalds. The problems are with the high prices these stores would have to charge because of corrupt Demonrat admin of the state.
I always thought Cairo should have been destined for greatness with its juxtaposition between so many rivers. What a shame that mismanagement has wasted so much opportunity for a great city.
Not just Dollar General, of course; there's also Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Big Lots, and in the Northeast, Ocean State State Job, among many other local chains.
It always blows my mind that no one ever "re-builds" or "re-furbishes" low-income housing. It dies. Where I live, they take what was run down, poor houses and turn them into fancy-pants lofts that only rich people can afford. The only apartments that are built are way too expensive for just 1 person to afford if they are already barely making it.
@@destineydevereux4722 People will whine that an area is "run down" and nobody will spend money in the community- then when they do, and start to turn it around- its "gentrification". Seems like a no-win situation. I definitely do understand the person above talking about how-un-affordable rents are. They are up 50% in my area alone. definitely Very hard for a single person to make it.
IMO - It would be nice if someone could devise a way to use the confluence of the rivers as a unique tourist destination, thus reviving Cairo. Maybe some sort of a living history village with riverboat tours?
@@AdamSmith-gs2dv I don't know about going too but I-24 to Nashville TN, Chattanooga and to Marion Illinois run through the heart of Paducah that's why Paducah got so many fast food restaurant and hotel per capita
I first traveled thru southern Illinois a few years back an have become quite fascinated by its beauty an history. I now take regular road trips exploring the rivers an small towns. For anybody that likes the beauty of nature an history, I highly recommend it as weekend road trip, you want be disappointed.
What stuck me was the wide streets and sidewalks-this must have been a bustling town 160 years ago. I counted 4 large churches-all looked well kept. But I can't see any future for a town like this. Simply no way anyone is going to open a business in a dump like this.
And yet someone cared enough to hang Christmas decorations on the light posts. Or maybe the city workers were bored, and it gave them something to do. Just wondering, what are (or were) the more substantial brick buildings? A couple looked like churches, or a school, but are the others former businesses?
Its funny how individuals come to small towns such as Cairo (Care-Ro) in order to report on the disparities. The focus is always on the negative images and views from people who have never lived in or frequented the town. This video did an amazing job of showing every single abandoned house & building. What the viewers did not see was the camera being cut in order to skip over the beautiful, well maintained homes, well groomed lawns, & nice vehicles that are in Cairo. It did not show the smiling faces of those residents & employed individuals in Cairo. The fact that the positive images were not shown & the positive accolades of Cairo were not spoken is utterly disgusting! What may be a ghost town to some is Home to others. We love our town! Next time you ride through, stop at the dollar general or Shemwells, spark up a conversation, & you'll see the love shown in Cairo and the rest of Southern Illinois.
The people and the architecture were why I came back to Cairo several times. Everyone I met in Cairo was incredibly friendly and it was a genuine kindness. Meeting locals while photographing the buildings around the old Gem theater are some of my favorite memories of Cairo, IL.
I lived there in 1967 and 1968. The problem was places like Pyramid Courts. My parents used to hide us in the bath tub covered with a bed mattress because of the automatic weapons fire coming from the Courts. Schools were little more than concentration camps. I know...I was in the seventh and eight grade when we lived there. My father worked for a large grain handling facility his office was was on forty second street. That company pulled out because they could not get workers. He told me they could not hire help because most of the population was on welfare and did not intend to work. However Shemwels barbecue was the best place to eat...in all of the world. Just telling like it was.
There's other videos on Cairo. They do skip over the good, I did see some nice houses and lawns. I also rode through Cairo 8/29/22 for the first time. But on one of the videos mentioned the most income made is no more than $19,000 yr. I couldn't survive there. What good jobs do you have there? Planning on leaving? Cairo reminds me of Decatur, Illinois. How's the crime rate? Where's grocery stores and restaurants? I didn't see any.
@@leelew.1462 Grocery store close about 6-7 years ago I used to deliver to it and the spirit houses for a supply company paper bags and other materials
When you see one house on a block or half block, you know things are bad. I have a book that is about such houses in Chicago. These are such scary photos that I had to get the book. There was one of a house taken at night in winter and it showed a vintage South Side house, completely abandoned. I would not want to be living on that block.
Cairo suffered a great deal of damage, also, several years ago when there was massive flooding from the blowing up of the Bird's Point levee. I had relatives that left and just relocated. Houses were demolished and nothing rebuilt.
I live in rural northern Illinois. NOT CHICAGO!! As far as dollar general they are going up all over the state. I don’t think they’ve knocked out the small people. Dollar general is popping up after the fact at least around here. The fact is the state is soooo crooked and Chicago has ruined this great state. Thanks Nick and your guests
I first heard of Cairo IL when I was young and reading "Huckleberry Finn". This was the city that Huck and Jim were trying to reach so Jim could have his freedom.
6:33 East St. Louis was once the fourth largest city in Illinois in 1950. Now, it’s mostly abandoned. Most of it’s traffic lights were replaced by stop signs. I was the only car on the road. It lost more than 33% of its population in the last ten years. It’s so poor and deserted that I didn’t see any liquor and dollar stores the whole time I drove through it. I saw very few homes overall. Driving through there the night before was scary since it was so dark.
@@macklewis2671 That's amazing considering the difference between their facilities and those of the best schools. There was a time when it was East St Louis with everyone else vying for runner up.
As a southern IL kid growing up…it looks like every small town I’ve ever seen…the sad music in the second half of the video makes me feel like I’ve been living in poverty my whole life now lol. My perspective on this compared to west coast living specifically California (grass valley) area and Eugene Oregon…I prefer the pre-ghost towns of Illinois. The amount of homelessness is still shocking to me and something I’m not use to. I’ve seen a crap ton of abandoned houses in IL small soo it seems the problem is just reversed of the coast areas.
@E Frank Hagen Not sure but I believe it was denominationally owned. I can get you a point of contact. Just visited Cairo today and it needs a lot of work. There are other churches that may be abandoned as well. I can get you the infomation.
Hopefully the port will be the catalyst to turn Cairo into a prosperous,bustling city once again,bring new businesses,home construction,maybe some of the old structures can still be saved
That was just what I was going to say. It is supposed to bring 500 good paying jobs there and hopefully it can regenerate the whole areas economy. Considering that 65 percent of the country's barge traffic has to pass through Cairo, this is an excellent opportunity for it to rise like a Phoenix from its ashes and make these doubters eat crow.
@@jeffereyhopkins750 Yes there is a lot of movement going on. Grocery store is there now. The current silent bid on properties is in progress. So things are looking up.
I have two sets of Aunts and Uncles that have lived in Cairo all of their lives. They are all in their 70s and 80s now. My uncle is actually the pastor of Cairo Baptist Church. Growing up and seeing that town over the course of 30 years when we would visit was so wild.
Not everyone can just pack up and move because they don't like where they live. You need money to move, unless you're willing to be homeless or have connections elsewhere. Where will they get this money? Most of them don't have much savings. They might have at one point, but probably used it up just trying to survive in the dying town. Maybe they didn't lose their job, had family nearby, or just liked the town a lot. They thought they could tough it out until things turned around, but things never got better. By the time they realized it would, their savings was gone. Of course, some people would have stayed because they've always been too poor to move. Then what? If they have a job in another city, they might be able to move to that city. They won't have to worry about finding a new job at least. But even that might not be doable. Some people live paycheck to paycheck. They can't take on extra costs. So where do they get the money to move? Their house might be worth a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, assuming they can even sell it. That's no where close to covering a down payment for a new house. And these people probably won't qualify for loans, or won't be able to get one with reasonable interest rates. Buying a new home is out of the question. If you make $1,000 from selling your home, that money might cover moving costs, two weeks of food, and a few nights in a motel for two people. There might be enough left to cover the first month's rent for a small and crappy apartment. That might work if you can keep your job. What happens if you have to find a new job though? What happens if it takes more than a month to find one? You don't have enough money for food, gas/transportation, laundry, cellphone service, bills, etc plus another month's rent. Then what? Once you become homeless, it's very difficult to get off the streets. Jobs won't hire you if you don't have an address and phone. You can't have an address and phone without money. You can't make money without a job. Plus applying for jobs is more difficult if you're homeless. So if you have to find a new job after moving, you need to be able to afford a place to live until you can find a job. And then you pray nothing goes wrong. If they have kids, pets, other dependents, or medical needs, those are extra costs they have to cover during this process. They might also be disabled, ill, or elderly. They might have a lot of debt that makes moving difficult. Given the crime rate, there's a decent chance they have a criminal record, which will make getting a decent job even more difficult and may cause other difficulties. And sometimes money isn't the problem, change is. It's easier to stand still than to take action. Being poor keeps you poor. At least in Cairo, they have a roof over their heads. They'll probably stay until they can't survive there anymore - until the risk of homelessness is more preferable than staying in their dying town.
yes I live not far from Cario IL....and Cario is like you said fading away real fast. Other towns like Herrin, IL and Carbondale,IL...a lot of small towns fading away real fast
As born Illinoisan, I lived in Arcola, Charleston, Louisville, Shelbyville, Mt Vernon, and Herrin. Lived in Herrin for 30 years and their population always has grown since 1940. But they lost population in 2020. Down to 12,352 people. Carbondale used to be over 27,000, but down to 21,000 while Mt Vernon had over 17,000 also down to 15,000. Arcola, Charleston, Louisville, and Shelbyville have all lost population too. Sad to see! When I retired, I moved to Minnesota to be near family and for the milder Summers LOL! MINNESOTA more vibrant overall!
Cairo, IL is one of the Sundown towns with a lot of bad history that causes travelers to travel on I-55 than I-57. Fun/unfortunate fact about Cairo, IL: It's the town where the path of 2 solar eclipsed cross each other forming a "X" over the town. If you believe in prophesies & astrology, then you already know this and all the events that have/will happen for the US.
I'm guessing you mean Carbondale, IL. Actually, though, for the 2017 and 2024 eclipses “X” marks the spot near the eastern shore of Cedar Lake in Jackson County, Illinois. The closest town to this exact astronomical treasure map spot is Makanda, population about 500. Obviously not a major town, but "technically" the closest.
We used to go over to Cairo from Wicklife every weekend. Several restaurants and bars were the place to go. Ky state police roadblocks at the bridge on the way back finished Cairo off. They would have survived if not for the ky state police.
I am a former Chicagoan, who used to work on the air at the now-defunct Cairo radio station, WKRO. The station was actually located south of Cairo, in a town named Urbandale. I started there in 1976. Things have changed so much in Cairo I scarcely recognized it. The fact that people were leaving, as well as the city not being able to support its lone radio station, really says something. The residents identified with WKRO, which went on the air in 1942. Some of the names people remember are: Danny Mac, Bob Stout, Harry Stout, Charlie Housewright, Owen Evers and station manager, “Red” Currier, all of whom were colleagues of mine. To see Sycamore and especially Commercial Streets in their present forms, is heartbreaking. I guess it doesn’t hurt to hope.
I just want to know who decided to name a place "Urbandale." It's heartbreaking that someone couldn't come up with a better name for a town than "Urbandale"
this is so crazy, I didnt know you JUST uploaded this!! I used to live in Carbondale nearby. Cairo is a weird interesting place. It was featured in American Gods it's where the black funerary gods lived.
While it is a shocker to see so many dilapidated houses, I am surprised by how well maintained the roadways are. We pay 10s of thousands each year for property taxes, and streets in our areas are still full of potholes.
This is so empty just hearing the history of it explained, why this town is cursed from its own downfall. Too bad people could not work and come together to make their town more welcome. for all people
When you see those big, empty fields with neighborhoods all around, that's a tip-off that the community is disintegrating - because there used to be houses there, long ago, but they now are gone. You see that in many areas of Detroit, too.
I think Germany did it best when the east and west re-united. They didn't pretend that people were ever going to move back to those poorly maintained Plattenbau districts that surrounded the many of the eastern cities. Rather than letting them depressingly crumble into oblivion, they decommissioned and detonated some of the most desolate housing complexes and turned the land into green space. Those who remained were relocated to vacant properties closer to the center of the cities. This even somewhat breathed new life into some cities that would otherwise have followed the same fate as places like Gary, Cleveland l, East St. Louis, etc. Jena, Chemnitz and Dessau, for example, are now much smaller than formerly, but more manageable. Despite my expectations, I really haven't seen an East German city I would describe as unpleasent or ugly. I can't say the same about many US cities, unfortunately.
That's true - I've traveled Germany extensively and Chemnitz (famous, or infamous, for the absolutely huge bust of Karl Marx downtown) did exactly that. That can have weird consequences however - there's a very long pedestrianised street of empty stores with vacant apartments above, ten or fifteen blocks, that leads away from the city centre. Not a single one was vandalised when we visited - they just looked as if they were emptied yesterday. Now that was a creepy and disturbing stroll - I half-expected zombies to come shuffling out of the side streets. Just to add that's one of the reasons why Germany has been very generous in its treatment of refugees - there's plenty of empty accommodation in the East to go around...
@@peterstean2138 Chemnitz was a little different because all those empty builidings you saw (yes, it is a bit creepy when you drive past them) were from the Empire period, and thus given a protected status. The communist-era stuff, though, was leveled.
Cairo had a big part to play in the TV series based on Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods', but in this town it's more than the loss of industry that killed it as other people have noted. And it's pronounced Cay-row...
No it's NOT pronounced Cayro. The narrator said it right. I'm SURE he researched that before he visited. People from there will correct you on the spot.
It’s not just Illinois, I watch Adam the Woo and Carpetbagger videos and they show this same abandonment all over small and medium sized towns America. So tell it like it really is a whole country in trouble
The Dollar General stores sell products produced in Asia and China. Everything that was once a part of the local economy now goes to multinational corporations. The population boom and international economy based on the dollar is not sustainable. Like all big civilizations in the past 10,000 years it will turn into a desert wasteland. The people will die of disease from poor nutrition and lack of exercise. Big cities are feeding and breeding their way to extinction. The survivors will be people in small towns willing work hard and rely on the garden in their back yards for survival. Neighbors bartering for goods and services. Most of the world's humans live this way today. The earth will normalize to a sustainable state eventually. Get away from "civilization" and back to nature. This is the core Buddhist message. It used to be the core message of all religions, until they got monetized.
Would be nice if they mentioned that during the Civil War Cairo was a major ship building center for the iron clads on the Mississippi. Eads was the engineer and builder.
The unpunished crime and corruption really doesnt help the state out politicians dont care about us only chicago i live in perry county been here all my life havent seen any improvements since i graduated high school in 2013🤦♂️
I’m from there and love being there was raised there may be a Ghost Town to you, but it is a home for me and all of my family is one big family. We do not have homeless people in our town. We love each other. We look out for each other people make fun of our town, and have beautiful people there that I can never never forget and just leave and throw that away a home is what you make it❤
How many kids wanna be a TH-camr?? How many ended up becoming 1? the failures have no skills to survive? Everything plays a role no matter how insignificant it may seem it plays a part. We evolve with times or end up left in the pages of history. In my opinion globalism destroyed, and still is destroying our country. We used to rely on ourselves. That led to industry, to local jobs and economy's. Now we outsource everything to a country that doesn't have regulations or safety guidelines like the US and can make products for dirt cheap. We continue to blindly do this to ourselves. Buy American and lots of these problems wouldn't exist.
I didn't know West Virginia and Kentucky were cities, lol. In all seriousness though, Kentucky is 1000 times better off than West Virginia. We have actual big cities, the population is increasing, not decreasing, and there is way more diversity than in WV. Never been to Cairo, but I've heard it is really depressing there.
@@kylemarsun You're 100% correct. Diversity is often overused. People confuse it with inclusion. One would like to believe the two are one in the same but they're not. Too many cultures, too many beliefs and too many walks of life trying to occupy the same space creates too many conflicts. Too many people pulling in too many different directions at once causes stagnation and eventually separation. Right back where everyone started. 🤷
I recently read a lot of remote workers are moving to WV because of the low housing prices and taxes. I do think as remote work continues more and more of that will happen, wherever there is good Internet.
you didn't say how many gas stations there are in Cairo, Illinois a example of the dying of America since the 50's all over the Usa, over taxed Illinois is part of the reason
Former Metropolis native, here: I can still remember Cairo ("kay-ro") in the early 90s and how shocked I was at how abandoned it was even then. I never once felt unsafe there, contrary to its reputation. It's hard to believe that this was once one of the most important cities in the country. It reminds me of something from Red Dead Redemption.
Nick, you put out really good videos. They are well thought out and the work you put into them is superb and educational. This video was a sad story about a once thriving town in the rust belt of America that never recovered from its downfall. One thing that struck me as being very familiar to the area that I live in that was mentioned from a local you interviewed. Was, you see more banks replacing mom and pop stores. That has happened in the city I live in, Auburn NY. Us from Auburn always joke about what we're going to see come in next. A bank or an auto parts store. And yes, Auburn has the obligatory Dollar General and The World (Wal * Mart). But I would have to say Auburn is sort of thriving. It has a great arts community, a lot of history and there are plenty of local eateries and brew pubs in the area.
We just drove by Friday on our way to Nashville. I told my wife to look up the census and what it used to be. You can tell that this town was a bustling community. The houses are very unique. You could tell it was a sudden collapse and we looked up info. It definitely left a big impression
all the way up till the mid to late 60s, Cairo had a large retail business sector that brought many people from all over the area that kept the city fairly prosperous up till that time. But then the riots happened in the late 1960s after the Black population essentually went on strike about wages and discrimination that plagued the city for years. The white residents didn't budge and there was a standoff that lasted over a decade till the city started to crumble from the bad press and loss of business. By the mid 80s, the writing was on the wall, the city was doomed to slowly die a slow death. I live in Carbondale. Eldorado is just 10 miles north of me.
I think that there are people somewhere on Earth who would feel lucky to live here with their children. Even just by a creak in a tent if they could also have peace.
You want to repopulate it? For, I am sure, very little money, the homeless of San Francisco and Seattle could be relocated to and housed within Cairo and similar communities. They'd get the extra bodies, and the homeless would get real housing.
They don’t want housing. They want drugs. Or they are mentally Ill and don’t want to have to take their meds. They hate rules, so building them housing is pointless. And most important, they want to be where the action is.
i was born and raised in the slums of north st.louis.. in 1959 my wife and i went to Cairo on our honeymoon.. Stayed at a motel on the river that served a all you can eat breakfast and supper. I didn't have any reservations about spending our honeymoon there... now it would be a different story for sure..
I don’t know if you covered this, but Centralia, PA is probably the most tragic small town. For all Silent Hill fans, movies and games…Silent Hill was based on Centralia.
There is literally NOTHING left in Centralia. It's obviously a different situation and completely different state so there is no comparison to these two towns as to why they failed.
From your video, I would say Cairo, IL looks like a nice town. Is there infrastructure? Then there could be potential for growth. The old buildings you snatched with your camera ooze a lot of good-old-days charm. I find it actually quite appealing.
Part of Chicago I went to is beautiful you know what they need to turn those worst citys and all United States into good beautiful parts of areas in their safe no gangsters no drug addicts no weed attics this state in this world with her beautiful if there's no people like that War on Drugs and drinking and smoking weed then this world with turn better
I stay outside of south chicago & the reason why there’s all these “bad” people is because many of us are suffering with trauma or dealing with absolutely zero support system. Why should these people care when it’s obvious nobody cares about them. I’ve suffered enough as well but I try my best even tho I know that all I have is my mom who is disabled & a brother
I live about forty min away from Cairo. Besides the race riots and decline in industry, they have also had their wave of corrupt city officials. Swindling money from the residents of this once thriving community and playing favoritism to all of their friends. The Illinois Housing Authority had to come in and close down their federal housing due to misappropriation of funds, but just goes to show how Illinois operates. Misappropriated funds by the city and no oversight by the state. It's a lose-lose situation for all of the residents of Illinois. Such a geographically beautiful state too out shined by its corrupt politics and the headaches that come with it.
In such a bleak and desolate community I found the holiday decorations interesting. Everything is closed but the city still decorates. I appreciate that you showed much more of Cairo than a lot of the other videos do. They usually drive up and downtime main road though town and that's all. This was much more interesting. Thank you.
This is my hometown. I’m going back to visit again next month for a reunion at the Magnolia Manor. You could have shown that the city of Cairo has been working to improve. There’s a new port authority that will bring jobs to southern IL being built on the Mississippi River. You could have mentioned the historical significance of Cairo as it played a pivotal role in the Civil War being General Grant’s home base camp. Yes Cairo’s decline is sad and all the things you mentioned helped bring it to where it is today. But one of the biggest reason Cairo failed to grow was that it was land locked. The area right above Cairo is very swampy and isn’t fit to build on. That’s still a problem. So Cairo could not really expand. Of course there’s plenty of wide open space in the city now and no need to expand. And as far as crime there’s next to none. I’ve never been afraid to go anywhere in Cairo. It’s perfectly safe! That’s certainly not the case in Chicago, though I love to visit that city too. I wouldn’t go every area. I wonder why you set out to do a hatchet job on a poor town. It’s like kicking a person when they’re down. The accent are all different all across the state of IL. When you cross the river to KY the accent changes. So what? At least you pronounced Cairo correctly. I can’t say the same for your friend. Hopefully one day you’ll come back and show some progress they’ve made trying to come back. Ellen Sexton
I guess working for the Town/City of Cairo keeps 2 guys busy putting up "Holiday" street decorations on lamp & power poles - or have they been up a few years?
This is one of the better videos I've seen about Cairo. The town is unique. It had a thriving economy and a relatively large population (at least for a small Illinois town). Now both are gone. There's no gas station in Cairo. I heard a grocery store is coming to town, but there isn't one today. The hospital is gone. The population's dwindled to 1,700. I've noticed, over the years, that the city has been demolishing old buildings as money becomes available. For years buildings would catch fire. (Some said it was arson. Might have been.) Commercial Avenue was once full of abandoned buildings in very bad shape. Most of them are gone now. The fact that they can somehow mow all the grass on those abandoned lots surprises me. Who's doing that? And, in most of the videos of the town, you see very few people. In some, you see none. Where are they? Even if there are only 1,700 people there, some should be out and about.
That town, was near death 50 years ago when I was a little kid. I remember traveling through there many times over the years. It had a horrible ghetto reputation, even then and never improved from that. Its climate, influenced by low riverside elevation, is miserably hot, humid, much of the year, running all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, is very like the deep South, and it's people are NOT typical Midwestern either. In an odd sort of way, its location isn't that bad, but then, neither is Detroit. East St. Louis, with somewhat comparable demography, may be one of the few worse places of the region. More than all other factors combined, demographics is destiny. If for instance, all the current residents moved away, and 5,000 Japanese were brought in, and allowed to manage their own affairs, within 20 years, it likely would be a comparative paradise. It is what it is.
Here are all of my Illinois videos: th-cam.com/play/PLq-_cmf3H6yq2-zYXWw_avkmE-kFby9Sr.html
9:56 I live in rural MS. in my small town we have both a dollar general AND a general dollar. In the next town over, we have a Family Dollar. (which actually is much nicer than the other two stores.) there are about 8 actual places to work in both towns.
Nick you been doing a lot of driving lately, while I appreciate the effort you take to make your videos because it's like we in the car with you,but Nick that road ain't safe like that.I guess I'm saying I just want you to be safe out there especially through some of those certain areas in certain cities
@@mattparker9726 Most small towns are like that now throughout the US. All these competing "dollar" stores are more of a plight on our rural communities than the graffiti and empty buildings.
That music you chose is actually beautiful.
Paradise has a bit of rust.
This is one of the most depressing I've watched. It's a shame that so much industry has been moved to other countries and big corporations have taken over mom & pop stores. I remember my parents talking about such in the early 80s and had little comprehension of what they meant. Watching it play out across our nation has been haunting.
Me and my girlfriend were driving from Michigan to Memphis one time, and there was an accident on I-57 that closed the interstate, so we took a detour though Cairo, and it was super surreal, it seemed so deserted.
I got to see East St. Louis driving from Denver to Detroit on the I-70, I-55, I-80/94 route.
Awh yes the run over to Memphis TN to get drugs exhibition.... Memphis TN rough mane and I'll swear to it.
@@wildestcowboy2668 I live in Memphis. It's not as bad as the News indoctrinate people to believe. Honestly there is areas in rural Arkansas and Mississippi that is way worse
Hey , you guys seem fun! , pls let me know , ur next adventure , I know some real , "hills have eyes" locals!!
There are places like this all over the country. If travel East-West along I-70 or North-South along I-35 you will see this or worse. The really bad stuff is if you trace what's left of Route 66 and see some of those towns there were essentially isolated when the new highways went through and it became really hard to get to those towns. This desolation started in the early 1980's with deindustrialization, financialization and privatization so its been going on for 40 years now. What you're seeing now is the end stages what happens when a country is stripped of value from the majority and that value pushed up the a relatively tiny number of people. There is no turning this around, its going to get worse, a LOT worse fairly soon I think.
You're so right Michael
Yes I agree with you 100%.
Cairo is the worst case it went from 15000 in 1930s and in 2020 its like 1900
All of them liberal run.
@@NoNORADon911 I love your pfp bro
Former Cairo resident. There are a couple of really nice hoods around St Mary's Park which you approached near the end. Some beautiful mansions just east of it. You can get a nice house here for very cheap but property taxes very high. About 80% of Cairo hopelessly trashed. Downtown has been completely bulldozed as have been the former plants in Cairo. It has been declining for 100 years but race riots in 60s and early 70s followed by severe economic downturn really killed it off.
Like Michigan. After the needless riots....people abandoned homes in every city here. If course being the target of gangs and drug addicts..cops just watch....people leave. Now they leave for the high taxes and incompetent state employees. And gov Gretch... Losing population.
Also worth mentioning is the rash of arsons in the city. I guess there has to be some entertainment and there's plenty of unused timber there to ignite.
I drove down "Millionaire's Row" last spring. There are some absolutely beautiful homes there.
@@roberthale2268 Fire is likely the most effective way to clear lots of crack houses. I would guess there is no fund for removing blighted property. People abandon worthless property, the city gets title it for unpaid taxes and are stuck with a garbage pile.
All of damn IL super hi taxes. That is one of the biggest reasons we are moving out of IL.
You failed to mention the effect that interstate highways have on small towns in Illinois. Before the I-57 bridge was completed into Missouri, people had to exit the Interstate north of Cairo and come into town and cross the river on either the US62 bridge into Missouri or the US51 bridge into Kentucky. Travelers would often stop in Cairo for a meal or to get gas and maybe visit Ft. Defiance State Park. I remember as a boy - I grew up in central Illinois and live in Champaign - my family would travel to see my brother in Arkansas and we would stop in Cairo for lunch and loved the view of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi. Of course, the downward spiral of the economics of Cairo had started decades earlier, but the final nail in the coffin was the I-57 bridge over the Mississippi. Interstate highways helped expediate the downfall of many small towns in Illinois. The downfall of Cairo is indeed very sad.
I didn't fail to mention that. Watch it again haha
@@NickJohnson Much like My hometown, Detroit, the Automobile is one of the things that Made Detroit, and ultimately led to it's demise. The highway system, 1967 race riots, and the white flight to the suburbs that followed. Southerners flocked to Detroit for auto jobs starting in the 1920's. Black people in Detroit were the "richest" in the country. Had a higher standard of living, income, and even a higher percentage of intact families than even white people in 1964. Thanks to the government, the "great society" programs and welfare that only paid a woman if there was no man in the house- they now have 75-80% fatherless homes, and the guaranteed poverty and incarceration that follows. We went from 7 million people in Detroit in 1950, to less than 700,000 now. NAFTA surely helped destroy the auto industry and many other factories in Detroit as well. Very sad to see the decline of all these once great cities and towns. Even in their remains in the ghetto, you can occasionally spot homes and buildings that once flourished. I was born 80 years too late to get to live through it.
excelent answer, is so sad for me wathc this decay , im from Uruguay imagine that
The cartoon movie Cars is based on how i40 ruined the small town on US66.
Champaign! The home of REO Speedwagon.
16:19 the yellow and brown home at top right as you moving down the street is the house my family lived in. It was built in 1863. My mother died Dec 2021 so I inherited the house.
So what do you plan to do with it?
@@Boc3phu5 keep it
@@vpc4829Can I have it
Honestly I wish we could rebuild places like this smh it really makes me sad.
I know!
Bring manufacturing back to the US and see what happens
Let's see. Deal with the gangs. Get rid of opertunistic people. Maybe we teach people to have standards and just smoke dope, bang ho's and steal or kill. Yup.
why? It's become logistically meaningless.
@@russellambrosini5344 if they bring back industry they'd have to import people from Europe again, and everybody knows the biggest dream for 99.9% of Europeans is to move to the US, so I kinda hope this doesn't happen.
I grew up in Cape Girardeau so I am a little familiar with Cairo and the situation there. It is one of the most depressing places I've been to and I lived in Caruthersville, Mo another dying community. I would like to comment on Dollar General stores and their impact on a community. All I can say is try pulling the DG out of those communities and see how that changes things. I'm thinking for the worse. How may start up businesses would locate in Cairo? I believe DG is serving a function that can't be served by any other enterprise. Casey's is also serving that function in many of the Southern Illinois dying towns. The guy was right when he said that Southern Illinois doesn't get the help from Northern Illinois that it needs. Thank Mike Madigan and the Chicago machine for that. Illinois as a state is almost bankrupt so nothing trickles down to Cairo. Really sad. I remember when Cairo was a thriving community though it's always had a racial problem. And no, people don't choose to live there, they are mostly stranded there.
Unfortunately, not enough gets trickled to Chicago, just to the big wigs who vacation in Florida and live in guarded communities. A lot of the revenue generating things like toll fees and parking meter fees have been leased to private firms for 30 year leases and the money from those deals was spent in less than 2 years. I've tried to go into business and it seems that only foreigners are able to own businesses. I can remember when the Black family was warm and welcoming so much so that many of my White friends were jealous when I invited them to dinner or special events. Not now, it's a lot of fear, disarray and food deserts.
@@blackcherry6877 Sorry calling BS on this. If you look at the ratio of taxes paid and and where that revenue goes to proves you wrong. The last number I found broke down as for every $1 Chicago and it's burbs paid in taxes it received $1.46 back. It's not just Southern IL but western and northwestern IL that gets sucked dry. I live in Harvard IL so know damn well about areas like our getting sucked dry to support Chicago.
@@blackcherry6877 Absolutely untrue, just why do you think a very large percentage of the population want Beirut I mean chicago REMOVED FROM THE STATE !! Murdercago is a blight on not only Illinois but the entire country. 60% of MY taxes go to keep that cesspool afloat. What an uneducated comment, you probably believe the present economy is fantastic as well ?
@@blackcherry6877 OK I can't wrap my head around the fact you don't get it. So lets try again for every dollar the burbs pay in taxes they get One dollar and 46 cents back. So stay with me hear, for every DOLLAR the community of Cairo pay in taxes they get 56 CENTS sent/spent in their community. The rich liberals in Chicago live off the poor of the state. So AGAIN The rich area get MORE BACK than they PAY.
@@blackcherry6877 So Farmers don't work? And you are making the claim that the farmers in rural IL don't work hard? WOW you are f@cking delusional.
The famous mail order Sears houses had pieces made in large plant just outside of Cairo. Many similar industries simply became outmoded and closed down over time.
I went to a Jr High school in the '60s that was a Sears building. I've heard of Post Offices also that were from Sears.
I had a friend who had a Sears and Roebuck house, it had a well pump/tank up in the attic. I also had a friend who had a place on a river up north, and their little cottage was a sears house. Another great company that is gone or all but gone. I have a hard time seeing how any brick and mortar store can compete with online places like Amazon, etc in the long term. I try to support local businesses, even knowing i have to pay a little more. But I want them to make it......
I bet a lot of conservatives are moving from rural Illinois to Kentucky, Missouri and Indiana because they are red states.
Yep everything liberals touch turns to shit.
You are correct. Everyone in rural Illinois who can afford to leave has left or is planning to in the near future
This conservative Chicagoan left back in 2015 and thriving in Texas. I hope more folks who can make the leap forward!
The fact that Chicago and its railroads displaced St. Louis and its riverboats as the main transportation hub of the central US was a major factor in the ongoing St. Louis-Chicago rivalry.
This part
An issue with St. Louis was the technology to bridge the Mississippi river was not advanced until the Eads bridge was completed at St. Louis in 1874. By this time Chicago had long consoliated as the railroad hub of the U.S. Memphis Tenn didn't get a bridge until 1892 - river was too deep and wide, which I think is a factor in that region. The Eads bridge was the first major bridge built of steel, its frame has been compared to that of the skyscrapers that would begin rising a few years later. A river city like St. Louis can't have too many bridges. I still like St. Louis, its deserves better than what is often said - high crime and blight is definitely a factor in the north side, but there are many charming areas in St. Louis and things will get better for the city, which has some of the nicest Victorian architecture in the U.S.
y
Between Two Rivers is a good documentary to watch if you’re interested in details of what happened that contributed to it dying off
Growing up in a Chicago suburb, my brother and I would watch the state high school basketball tournament every year when all the schools were in one class and there was only one state champ. The Illinois tournament coined the phrases "Sweet 16" and "Elite 8" which the NCAA's has since adopted. Every year there'd be a couple of teams from "the deep south" and we'd always root for them because they were the underdogs - mythical (to us) places like Mounds Meridian, Cahokia, Collinsville, Cobden, Herrin, Effingham .... I don't know if Cairo has/had a high school but we would have rooted for them if they made it as far as the "Sweet 16." I'm still rooting for Cairo.
Good bill!!
@@NickJohnsonThere was a time Collinsville was a powerhouse in basketball. I think it was in the 50s and 60s and even into the early 70s.
I was born in Illinois and I am retired miltary. Could we get veterans organizations, tunnels for towers and maybe the VA, buy the land cheaply and build homes for homeless veterans and offer tax incentive to grocery stores like walmart super store, for cairo or bigger town like decatur , well just a thought
No we can't because Illinois is trapped in the downward loop of corrupt Demonrat rule. Even if someone like Musk or the FedGov threw a ton of money and effort to make your idea work, the crippling taxes, particularly real estate taxes, and overwhelming regulation (not to mention corruption of which Illinois has far, far more than her fair share) would make any business there impossible. Even if your homeless vets moved in, they would be relentless victims of crime and would find the high cost of taxes more expensive than moving somewhere else where the home might cost more but being well managed, could be livable. If you want to fix this place and help your fellow veterans, vote Republican.
If there was a Walmart, there would be no one to shop there. No Mcdonalds.
@@davidm7824 I think Neil figures that once they settled a community of currently homeless vets there, there would be more demand for Walmart and McDonalds. The problems are with the high prices these stores would have to charge because of corrupt Demonrat admin of the state.
Gotta be a strong population base to support that. No jobs means no money to spend
I always thought Cairo should have been destined for greatness with its juxtaposition between so many rivers. What a shame that mismanagement has wasted so much opportunity for a great city.
Its directly in a flood plain .
Not just Dollar General, of course; there's also Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Big Lots, and in the Northeast, Ocean State State Job, among many other local chains.
I feel like family dollar and escpecially dollar general are in more rural areas when dollar tree is in more dense areas
It always blows my mind that no one ever "re-builds" or "re-furbishes" low-income housing. It dies. Where I live, they take what was run down, poor houses and turn them into fancy-pants lofts that only rich people can afford. The only apartments that are built are way too expensive for just 1 person to afford if they are already barely making it.
i do love the term "fancy-pants", it should be used more often
You're describing gentrification which has certainly happened in S Florida but is it a bad thing?
@@destineydevereux4722 People will whine that an area is "run down" and nobody will spend money in the community- then when they do, and start to turn it around- its "gentrification". Seems like a no-win situation. I definitely do understand the person above talking about how-un-affordable rents are. They are up 50% in my area alone. definitely Very hard for a single person to make it.
So fuckin do it yourself. You can see why its not done
It's crazy how once great towns can turn into dumps over just a few years.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics 😂
IMO - It would be nice if someone could devise a way to use the confluence of the rivers as a unique tourist destination, thus reviving Cairo. Maybe some sort of a living history village with riverboat tours?
Honestly, the only way Cairo can be "saved" is by replacing the two bridge with new ones that require motorists to travel through Cairo.
@@rwboa22 Which won't happen. How many people are going to Paducah Kentucky?
@@AdamSmith-gs2dv I don't know about going too but I-24 to Nashville TN, Chattanooga and to Marion Illinois run through the heart of Paducah that's why Paducah got so many fast food restaurant and hotel per capita
I first traveled thru southern Illinois a few years back an have become quite fascinated by its beauty an history. I now take regular road trips exploring the rivers an small towns. For anybody that likes the beauty of nature an history, I highly recommend it as weekend road trip, you want be disappointed.
What stuck me was the wide streets and sidewalks-this must have been a bustling town 160 years ago. I counted 4 large churches-all looked well kept. But I can't see any future for a town like this. Simply no way anyone is going to open a business in a dump like this.
And yet someone cared enough to hang Christmas decorations on the light posts. Or maybe the city workers were bored, and it gave them something to do. Just wondering, what are (or were) the more substantial brick buildings? A couple looked like churches, or a school, but are the others former businesses?
Its funny how individuals come to small towns such as Cairo (Care-Ro) in order to report on the disparities. The focus is always on the negative images and views from people who have never lived in or frequented the town. This video did an amazing job of showing every single abandoned house & building. What the viewers did not see was the camera being cut in order to skip over the beautiful, well maintained homes, well groomed lawns, & nice vehicles that are in Cairo. It did not show the smiling faces of those residents & employed individuals in Cairo. The fact that the positive images were not shown & the positive accolades of Cairo were not spoken is utterly disgusting! What may be a ghost town to some is Home to others. We love our town! Next time you ride through, stop at the dollar general or Shemwells, spark up a conversation, & you'll see the love shown in Cairo and the rest of Southern Illinois.
The people and the architecture were why I came back to Cairo several times. Everyone I met in Cairo was incredibly friendly and it was a genuine kindness. Meeting locals while photographing the buildings around the old Gem theater are some of my favorite memories of Cairo, IL.
Hey , make a counter video, showing what ur talking about. the simple life, sh_t, stuff. That's how u can respond
I lived there in 1967 and 1968. The problem was places like Pyramid Courts. My parents used to hide us in the bath tub covered with a bed mattress because of the automatic weapons fire coming from the Courts. Schools were little more than concentration camps. I know...I was in the seventh and eight grade when we lived there. My father worked for a large grain handling facility his office was was on forty second street. That company pulled out because they could not get workers. He told me they could not hire help because most of the population was on welfare and did not intend to work. However Shemwels barbecue was the best place to eat...in all of the world. Just telling like it was.
There's other videos on Cairo. They do skip over the good, I did see some nice houses and lawns. I also rode through Cairo 8/29/22 for the first time. But on one of the videos mentioned the most income made is no more than $19,000 yr. I couldn't survive there. What good jobs do you have there? Planning on leaving? Cairo reminds me of Decatur, Illinois. How's the crime rate? Where's grocery stores and restaurants? I didn't see any.
@@leelew.1462 Grocery store close about 6-7 years ago I used to deliver to it and the spirit houses for a supply company paper bags and other materials
Living in Cairo could be like living in the Twilight Zone.
TAX is why every one is moving out of that state.
Same here in new York, property taxes in both states are crazy
@@renroxhrd why won’t taxes be high? Everywhere is covered in pavement & that takes money to maintain
@@bicycles-as-far-as-im-aliv5725 crooked politicians cost even more to maintain, another democrat run mess.
When you see one house on a block or half block, you know things are bad. I have a book that is about such houses in Chicago. These are such scary photos that I had to get the book. There was one of a house taken at night in winter and it showed a vintage South Side house, completely abandoned. I would not want to be living on that block.
Cairo suffered a great deal of damage, also, several years ago when there was massive flooding from the blowing up of the Bird's Point levee. I had relatives that left and just relocated. Houses were demolished and nothing rebuilt.
I live in rural northern Illinois. NOT CHICAGO!! As far as dollar general they are going up all over the state. I don’t think they’ve knocked out the small people. Dollar general is popping up after the fact at least around here. The fact is the state is soooo crooked and Chicago has ruined this great state. Thanks Nick and your guests
@@timweb1510 west about 100 miles Mendota area.
I first heard of Cairo IL when I was young and reading "Huckleberry Finn". This was the city that Huck and Jim were trying to reach so Jim could have his freedom.
6:33 East St. Louis was once the fourth largest city in Illinois in 1950. Now, it’s mostly abandoned. Most of it’s traffic lights were replaced by stop signs. I was the only car on the road. It lost more than 33% of its population in the last ten years. It’s so poor and deserted that I didn’t see any liquor and dollar stores the whole time I drove through it. I saw very few homes overall. Driving through there the night before was scary since it was so dark.
I remember they used to have the best football teams in Illinois. There were churches or taverns on nearly every block.
A friend of mine who's from Illinois said that East St. Louis did well when the Mafia was running it.
@@williamsanders5117 East St Louis High School is still doing good in football actually.
@@macklewis2671 That's amazing considering the difference between their facilities and those of the best schools. There was a time when it was East St Louis with everyone else vying for runner up.
As a southern IL kid growing up…it looks like every small town I’ve ever seen…the sad music in the second half of the video makes me feel like I’ve been living in poverty my whole life now lol.
My perspective on this compared to west coast living specifically California (grass valley) area and Eugene Oregon…I prefer the pre-ghost towns of Illinois. The amount of homelessness is still shocking to me and something I’m not use to. I’ve seen a crap ton of abandoned houses in IL small soo it seems the problem is just reversed of the coast areas.
Its pronounced cape jer-rar-doe (Girardeau)
The fact that the city has the money and the spirt to put up Christmas decorations on the light poles makes it even sadder.
I know
The decorations used were obviously purchased in the 1970's...my hometown used to have the same ones years ago.
Been many year since I was there. Not much left. Hight taxes, no jobs.
I was born and raised in Cairo. Still go home once per month. They are currently building the Alexander Cairo Port-check out the articles
@E Frank Hagen Yes. Actually, the church I grew up attending is abandoned.
@E Frank Hagen Not sure but I believe it was denominationally owned. I can get you a point of contact. Just visited Cairo today and it needs a lot of work. There are other churches that may be abandoned as well. I can get you the infomation.
Hopefully the port will be the catalyst to turn Cairo into a prosperous,bustling city once again,bring new businesses,home construction,maybe some of the old structures can still be saved
That was just what I was going to say. It is supposed to bring 500 good paying jobs there and hopefully it can regenerate the whole areas economy. Considering that 65 percent of the country's barge traffic has to pass through Cairo, this is an excellent opportunity for it to rise like a Phoenix from its ashes and make these doubters eat crow.
@@jeffereyhopkins750 Yes there is a lot of movement going on. Grocery store is there now. The current silent bid on properties is in progress. So things are looking up.
I have two sets of Aunts and Uncles that have lived in Cairo all of their lives. They are all in their 70s and 80s now. My uncle is actually the pastor of Cairo Baptist Church. Growing up and seeing that town over the course of 30 years when we would visit was so wild.
Cairo is the confluence of Ohio and Mississippi rivers not the Missouri River.
The St. Louis area is the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.
Not everyone can just pack up and move because they don't like where they live. You need money to move, unless you're willing to be homeless or have connections elsewhere. Where will they get this money? Most of them don't have much savings. They might have at one point, but probably used it up just trying to survive in the dying town. Maybe they didn't lose their job, had family nearby, or just liked the town a lot. They thought they could tough it out until things turned around, but things never got better. By the time they realized it would, their savings was gone. Of course, some people would have stayed because they've always been too poor to move. Then what?
If they have a job in another city, they might be able to move to that city. They won't have to worry about finding a new job at least. But even that might not be doable. Some people live paycheck to paycheck. They can't take on extra costs. So where do they get the money to move?
Their house might be worth a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, assuming they can even sell it. That's no where close to covering a down payment for a new house. And these people probably won't qualify for loans, or won't be able to get one with reasonable interest rates. Buying a new home is out of the question.
If you make $1,000 from selling your home, that money might cover moving costs, two weeks of food, and a few nights in a motel for two people. There might be enough left to cover the first month's rent for a small and crappy apartment. That might work if you can keep your job. What happens if you have to find a new job though? What happens if it takes more than a month to find one? You don't have enough money for food, gas/transportation, laundry, cellphone service, bills, etc plus another month's rent. Then what?
Once you become homeless, it's very difficult to get off the streets. Jobs won't hire you if you don't have an address and phone. You can't have an address and phone without money. You can't make money without a job. Plus applying for jobs is more difficult if you're homeless. So if you have to find a new job after moving, you need to be able to afford a place to live until you can find a job. And then you pray nothing goes wrong.
If they have kids, pets, other dependents, or medical needs, those are extra costs they have to cover during this process. They might also be disabled, ill, or elderly. They might have a lot of debt that makes moving difficult. Given the crime rate, there's a decent chance they have a criminal record, which will make getting a decent job even more difficult and may cause other difficulties. And sometimes money isn't the problem, change is. It's easier to stand still than to take action.
Being poor keeps you poor. At least in Cairo, they have a roof over their heads. They'll probably stay until they can't survive there anymore - until the risk of homelessness is more preferable than staying in their dying town.
yes I live not far from Cario IL....and Cario is like you said fading away real fast. Other towns like Herrin, IL and Carbondale,IL...a lot of small towns fading away real fast
As born Illinoisan, I lived in Arcola, Charleston, Louisville, Shelbyville, Mt Vernon, and Herrin. Lived in Herrin for 30 years and their population always has grown since 1940. But they lost population in 2020. Down to 12,352 people. Carbondale used to be over 27,000, but down to 21,000 while Mt Vernon had over 17,000 also down to 15,000. Arcola, Charleston, Louisville, and Shelbyville have all lost population too. Sad to see!
When I retired, I moved to Minnesota to be near family and for the milder Summers LOL! MINNESOTA more vibrant overall!
Next on The Walking Dead. On a serious note, this video made me a little depressed. It's horrible to see a town in such disrepair.
Cairo, IL is one of the Sundown towns with a lot of bad history that causes travelers to travel on I-55 than I-57. Fun/unfortunate fact about Cairo, IL: It's the town where the path of 2 solar eclipsed cross each other forming a "X" over the town. If you believe in prophesies & astrology, then you already know this and all the events that have/will happen for the US.
Cairo is 66% black. They are the majority
Cobden is the town that is in the paths of the eclipses.
I'm guessing you mean Carbondale, IL. Actually, though, for the 2017 and 2024 eclipses “X” marks the spot near the eastern shore of Cedar Lake in Jackson County, Illinois. The closest town to this exact astronomical treasure map spot is Makanda, population about 500. Obviously not a major town, but "technically" the closest.
We used to go over to Cairo from Wicklife every weekend. Several restaurants and bars were the place to go. Ky state police roadblocks at the bridge on the way back finished Cairo off. They would have survived if not for the ky state police.
What were the roadblocks for? To catch drunk drivers coming back from Cairo?
I am a former Chicagoan, who used to work on the air at the now-defunct Cairo radio station, WKRO. The station was actually located south of Cairo, in a town named Urbandale. I started there in 1976. Things have changed so much in Cairo I scarcely recognized it. The fact that people were leaving, as well as the city not being able to support its lone radio station, really says something. The residents identified with WKRO, which went on the air in 1942. Some of the names people remember are: Danny Mac, Bob Stout, Harry Stout, Charlie Housewright, Owen Evers and station manager, “Red” Currier, all of whom were colleagues of mine. To see Sycamore and especially Commercial Streets in their present forms, is heartbreaking. I guess it doesn’t hurt to hope.
I just want to know who decided to name a place "Urbandale." It's heartbreaking that someone couldn't come up with a better name for a town than "Urbandale"
Actually, there is an "Urbandale," Ohio, too.
I used to live there as a kid long time ago now it really is a ghost town but I still have family who still live there to there day
Wow
Oh, was wondering a Ghost Town should be without people to call it this way??
@@dd60622 they grow up in Cairo so it home to them. they move before into the city but don't like live there so they came right back to Cairo
this is so crazy, I didnt know you JUST uploaded this!! I used to live in Carbondale nearby. Cairo is a weird interesting place. It was featured in American Gods it's where the black funerary gods lived.
i live across the river from cairo. most people will go 1 hr out of the way just to avoid cairo. the crime is horrible there for such a small town.
While it is a shocker to see so many dilapidated houses, I am surprised by how well maintained the roadways are. We pay 10s of thousands each year for property taxes, and streets in our areas are still full of potholes.
Where's that?
@@jm-je4tl NY tri-state regions
No traffic keeps roads looking well
@@holeefuk413 good point
@@jm-je4tl less harsh winters, too.
This is so empty just hearing the history of it explained, why this town is cursed from its own downfall. Too bad people could not work and come together to make their town more welcome. for all people
When you see those big, empty fields with neighborhoods all around, that's a tip-off that the community is disintegrating - because there used to be houses there, long ago, but they now are gone. You see that in many areas of Detroit, too.
Yep I've seen it James
Looks like a cake walk compared to Gary, Indiana. Come on, Nick! Lol..
I think Germany did it best when the east and west re-united. They didn't pretend that people were ever going to move back to those poorly maintained Plattenbau districts that surrounded the many of the eastern cities. Rather than letting them depressingly crumble into oblivion, they decommissioned and detonated some of the most desolate housing complexes and turned the land into green space. Those who remained were relocated to vacant properties closer to the center of the cities. This even somewhat breathed new life into some cities that would otherwise have followed the same fate as places like Gary, Cleveland l, East St. Louis, etc. Jena, Chemnitz and Dessau, for example, are now much smaller than formerly, but more manageable. Despite my expectations, I really haven't seen an East German city I would describe as unpleasent or ugly. I can't say the same about many US cities, unfortunately.
That's true - I've traveled Germany extensively and Chemnitz (famous, or infamous, for the absolutely huge bust of Karl Marx downtown) did exactly that. That can have weird consequences however - there's a very long pedestrianised street of empty stores with vacant apartments above, ten or fifteen blocks, that leads away from the city centre. Not a single one was vandalised when we visited - they just looked as if they were emptied yesterday. Now that was a creepy and disturbing stroll - I half-expected zombies to come shuffling out of the side streets.
Just to add that's one of the reasons why Germany has been very generous in its treatment of refugees - there's plenty of empty accommodation in the East to go around...
Cairo looked a lot better when it had more Germans.
@@peterstean2138 Chemnitz was a little different because all those empty builidings you saw (yes, it is a bit creepy when you drive past them) were from the Empire period, and thus given a protected status. The communist-era stuff, though, was leveled.
Cairo had a big part to play in the TV series based on Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods', but in this town it's more than the loss of industry that killed it as other people have noted. And it's pronounced Cay-row...
Actually its correct pronunciation is Care-Ro Cairo!
No it's NOT pronounced Cayro. The narrator said it right. I'm SURE he researched that before he visited. People from there will correct you on the spot.
It’s not just Illinois, I watch Adam the Woo and Carpetbagger videos and they show this same abandonment all over small and medium sized towns America. So tell it like it really is a whole country in trouble
The Dollar General stores sell products produced in Asia and China. Everything that was once a part of the local economy now goes to multinational corporations.
The population boom and international economy based on the dollar is not sustainable. Like all big civilizations in the past 10,000 years it will turn into a desert wasteland. The people will die of disease from poor nutrition and lack of exercise. Big cities are feeding and breeding their way to extinction.
The survivors will be people in small towns willing work hard and rely on the garden in their back yards for survival. Neighbors bartering for goods and services. Most of the world's humans live this way today. The earth will normalize to a sustainable state eventually.
Get away from "civilization" and back to nature. This is the core Buddhist message. It used to be the core message of all religions, until they got monetized.
Would be nice if they mentioned that during the Civil War Cairo was a major ship building center for the iron clads on the Mississippi. Eads was the engineer and builder.
Part of why I love this channel and videos like this is it's a good deep dive into sociological trends reshaping the nation, for better or worse
I haven't found the "for better" videos.
@@strnbrg59 you're too optimistic
The unpunished crime and corruption really doesnt help the state out politicians dont care about us only chicago i live in perry county been here all my life havent seen any improvements since i graduated high school in 2013🤦♂️
I know Cairo well. So sad.
Where is everyone? No children playing is absolutely creepy. Like a movie set. Sad is an understatement. Peace
I’m from there and love being there was raised there may be a Ghost Town to you, but it is a home for me and all of my family is one big family. We do not have homeless people in our town. We love each other. We look out for each other people make fun of our town, and have beautiful people there that I can never never forget and just leave and throw that away a home is what you make it❤
"Zombie Apocalypse"
How many kids wanna be a TH-camr?? How many ended up becoming 1? the failures have no skills to survive? Everything plays a role no matter how insignificant it may seem it plays a part. We evolve with times or end up left in the pages of history. In my opinion globalism destroyed, and still is destroying our country. We used to rely on ourselves. That led to industry, to local jobs and economy's. Now we outsource everything to a country that doesn't have regulations or safety guidelines like the US and can make products for dirt cheap. We continue to blindly do this to ourselves. Buy American and lots of these problems wouldn't exist.
I didn't know West Virginia and Kentucky were cities, lol. In all seriousness though, Kentucky is 1000 times better off than West Virginia. We have actual big cities, the population is increasing, not decreasing, and there is way more diversity than in WV. Never been to Cairo, but I've heard it is really depressing there.
Owsley County is the worse in the state of Kentucky. It like traveling backwards in time.
@@kylemarsun No diversity lead to stagnation, look at Japan and South Korea. It needs to be a balance.
@@kylemarsun You're 100% correct. Diversity is often overused. People confuse it with inclusion. One would like to believe the two are one in the same but they're not.
Too many cultures, too many beliefs and too many walks of life trying to occupy the same space creates too many conflicts. Too many people pulling in too many different directions at once causes stagnation and eventually separation. Right back where everyone started. 🤷
I recently read a lot of remote workers are moving to WV because of the low housing prices and taxes. I do think as remote work continues more and more of that will happen, wherever there is good Internet.
you didn't say how many gas stations there are in Cairo, Illinois a example of the dying of America since the 50's all over the Usa, over taxed Illinois is part of the reason
I've been to this town recently. There are no open gas stations. You have to cross the bridge to Kentucky for the closest fuel.
New York is the same way but I think Illinois is worse
This place is typical of much of fly over USA.
Former Metropolis native, here: I can still remember Cairo ("kay-ro") in the early 90s and how shocked I was at how abandoned it was even then. I never once felt unsafe there, contrary to its reputation. It's hard to believe that this was once one of the most important cities in the country. It reminds me of something from Red Dead Redemption.
Moving cost money especially now with high inflation.
Kinda reminds me of Gary, IN
It would take you about 5 minutes to drive thru my village in Illinois if you did the speed limit. My county only has one stop light
oh cool, this town was mentioned in the Huckleberry Finn novel by Mark Twain
That's right! Huck and '(N word) Jim were rowing a raft to Cairo.
Nick, you put out really good videos. They are well thought out and the work you put into them is superb and educational. This video was a sad story about a once thriving town in the rust belt of America that never recovered from its downfall. One thing that struck me as being very familiar to the area that I live in that was mentioned from a local you interviewed. Was, you see more banks replacing mom and pop stores. That has happened in the city I live in, Auburn NY. Us from Auburn always joke about what we're going to see come in next. A bank or an auto parts store. And yes, Auburn has the obligatory Dollar General and The World (Wal * Mart). But I would have to say Auburn is sort of thriving. It has a great arts community, a lot of history and there are plenty of local eateries and brew pubs in the area.
We just drove by Friday on our way to Nashville. I told my wife to look up the census and what it used to be. You can tell that this town was a bustling community. The houses are very unique. You could tell it was a sudden collapse and we looked up info. It definitely left a big impression
This place looks like a gold mine for urbex and abandoned house/building exploration. So sad.
At least Shemwells is still going strong.
all the way up till the mid to late 60s, Cairo had a large retail business sector that brought many people from all over the area that kept the city fairly prosperous up till that time. But then the riots happened in the late 1960s after the Black population essentually went on strike about wages and discrimination that plagued the city for years. The white residents didn't budge and there was a standoff that lasted over a decade till the city started to crumble from the bad press and loss of business. By the mid 80s, the writing was on the wall, the city was doomed to slowly die a slow death. I live in Carbondale. Eldorado is just 10 miles north of me.
East St. Louis looks worse than this.
Wow...reminds me of Mystic Iowa...sad and depressing.
Cairo isn't a ghost town. There are people still living there!
Dollar General's business model is literally to be the Walmart of rural America.
I think that there are people somewhere on Earth who would feel lucky to live here with their children. Even just by a creak in a tent if they could also have peace.
I’ve passed three here on my way to Kentucky and it’s truly a dump
You want to repopulate it? For, I am sure, very little money, the homeless of San Francisco and Seattle could be relocated to and housed within Cairo and similar communities. They'd get the extra bodies, and the homeless would get real housing.
But how are you going to build the housing and the infrastructure to hold all those homeless people in a city with next to no tax base?
Yeah.. great idea... ship a bunch of homeless in there..that will fix it!
They don’t want housing. They want drugs. Or they are mentally Ill and don’t want to have to take their meds. They hate rules, so building them housing is pointless. And most important, they want to be where the action is.
i was born and raised in the slums of north st.louis..
in 1959 my wife and i went to Cairo on our honeymoon..
Stayed at a motel on the river that served a all you can eat breakfast and supper.
I didn't have any reservations about spending our honeymoon there...
now it would be a different story for sure..
What a beautiful story!!
I don’t know if you covered this, but Centralia, PA is probably the most tragic small town. For all Silent Hill fans, movies and games…Silent Hill was based on Centralia.
There is literally NOTHING left in Centralia. It's obviously a different situation and completely different state so there is no comparison to these two towns as to why they failed.
And that eerie funeral home with the hearse parked out front on the north side of town. Eek 😬 eek 😬 eek 😬
From your video, I would say Cairo, IL looks like a nice town. Is there infrastructure? Then there could be potential for growth. The old buildings you snatched with your camera ooze a lot of good-old-days charm. I find it actually quite appealing.
They have 2 houses for sale as of now. One for 44k and another for 55k. Both over 4K square feet. Maybe you should look into it?
Part of Chicago I went to is beautiful you know what they need to turn those worst citys and all United States into good beautiful parts of areas in their safe no gangsters no drug addicts no weed attics this state in this world with her beautiful if there's no people like that War on Drugs and drinking and smoking weed then this world with turn better
I stay outside of south chicago & the reason why there’s all these “bad” people is because many of us are suffering with trauma or dealing with absolutely zero support system. Why should these people care when it’s obvious nobody cares about them. I’ve suffered enough as well but I try my best even tho I know that all I have is my mom who is disabled & a brother
Weed isn’t even that bad you would’ve been better off saying smoking crack or meth
Stay off the dope kid!
I live about forty min away from Cairo. Besides the race riots and decline in industry, they have also had their wave of corrupt city officials. Swindling money from the residents of this once thriving community and playing favoritism to all of their friends. The Illinois Housing Authority had to come in and close down their federal housing due to misappropriation of funds, but just goes to show how Illinois operates. Misappropriated funds by the city and no oversight by the state. It's a lose-lose situation for all of the residents of Illinois. Such a geographically beautiful state too out shined by its corrupt politics and the headaches that come with it.
In such a bleak and desolate community I found the holiday decorations interesting. Everything is closed but the city still decorates. I appreciate that you showed much more of Cairo than a lot of the other videos do. They usually drive up and downtime main road though town and that's all. This was much more interesting. Thank you.
Thanks for having me on another videos of yours, Nick. Keep up the great content 👍🏻👍🏻 Cairo is one of the most kind boggling places I’ve seen.
Chris!! You're awesome!! Thanks for the conversation!
This is depressing.
When was this filmed? Anyone else notice the Xmas decorations still on the street lamps??
He said he filmed in late November 2021! Listen 👂
This is my hometown. I’m going back to visit again next month for a reunion at the Magnolia Manor. You could have shown that the city of Cairo has been working to improve. There’s a new port authority that will bring jobs to southern IL being built on the Mississippi River. You could have mentioned the historical significance of Cairo as it played a pivotal role in the Civil War being General
Grant’s home base camp. Yes Cairo’s decline is sad and all the things you mentioned helped bring it to where it is today. But one of the biggest reason Cairo failed to grow was that it was land locked. The area right above Cairo is very swampy and isn’t fit to build on. That’s still a problem. So Cairo could not really expand. Of course there’s plenty of wide open space in the city now and no need to expand. And as far as crime there’s next to none. I’ve never been afraid to go anywhere in Cairo. It’s perfectly safe! That’s certainly not the case in Chicago, though I love to visit that city too. I wouldn’t go every area. I wonder why you set out to do a hatchet job on a poor town. It’s like kicking a person when they’re down. The accent are all different all across the state of IL. When you cross the river to KY the accent changes. So what? At least you pronounced Cairo correctly. I can’t say the same for your friend. Hopefully one day you’ll come back and show some progress they’ve made trying to come back.
Ellen Sexton
Because he had no connection to Cairo and was just vlogging.
One of the highest crime rates in the whole state, I wouldn't say next to none
If you are looking for a good deal on a house go to Cairo!
Property taxes are high. Somebody's got to pay for local government and that hits poor people hard.
Wow, I suppose houses are very cheap.
I guess working for the Town/City of Cairo keeps 2 guys busy putting up "Holiday" street decorations on lamp & power poles - or have they been up a few years?
There is no confluence of the Missouri and Ohio rivers. The Missouri flows into the Mississippi river, as does the Ohio river.
Hey how many miles does your car have?
This is one of the better videos I've seen about Cairo. The town is unique. It had a thriving economy and a relatively large population (at least for a small Illinois town). Now both are gone. There's no gas station in Cairo. I heard a grocery store is coming to town, but there isn't one today. The hospital is gone. The population's dwindled to 1,700. I've noticed, over the years, that the city has been demolishing old buildings as money becomes available. For years buildings would catch fire. (Some said it was arson. Might have been.) Commercial Avenue was once full of abandoned buildings in very bad shape. Most of them are gone now. The fact that they can somehow mow all the grass on those abandoned lots surprises me. Who's doing that? And, in most of the videos of the town, you see very few people. In some, you see none. Where are they? Even if there are only 1,700 people there, some should be out and about.
That town, was near death 50 years ago when I was a little kid. I remember traveling through there many times over the years. It had a horrible ghetto reputation, even then and never improved from that.
Its climate, influenced by low riverside elevation, is miserably hot, humid, much of the year, running all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, is very like the deep South, and it's people are NOT typical Midwestern either.
In an odd sort of way, its location isn't that bad, but then, neither is Detroit.
East St. Louis, with somewhat comparable demography, may be one of the few worse places of the region.
More than all other factors combined, demographics is destiny.
If for instance, all the current residents moved away, and 5,000 Japanese were brought in, and allowed to manage their own affairs, within 20 years, it likely would be a comparative paradise. It is what it is.
Your train of thought is the reason this country is going downhill, you relic from a bygone era. This is not the 1950's anymore.