Pennsylvania's Crisis: A Ring of Decline

25 November 2003 - 1:00pm

The Philadelphia Inquirer examines why a high percentage of older suburban towns and boroughs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are on the edge of failing.

"A regional crisis has been rising, slowly and quietly, from places no bigger than pinpricks in the map. All the easier not to notice... Every quarter of the country is studded with deteriorating towns and small, decaying cities. But researchers who study them say that few areas are more troubled than the Pennsylvania and New Jersey suburbs around Philadelphia and Camden - seven counties that hold what nationally renowned demographic analyst Myron Orfield calls 'a ring of decline unusual for its depth and severity.' "

Full Story: Crisis on Main Street
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 23, 2003
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The following list shows the top 10 metropolitan statistical areas, as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where commuting by public transportation has grown the most. None of them are among the nation's top 10 most populous metro areas, and yet seven are within the top 20.