I'm looking to describe (in one word/phrase) the concept of a town losing its economic popularity. Shops closing due to higher business rates. Traffic levels reducing due to lack of employment/poor infrastructure.
Can anybody help me with this?
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1Run down, failing?– BarmarCommented Apr 3 at 21:28
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If you can think of well known examples, you should be able to search for news stories about those cities, and see how they're described.– BarmarCommented Apr 3 at 21:28
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1There are terms covering part of this, like depopulation and dying high streets.– Stuart FCommented Apr 3 at 21:39
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2I'd say like a ghost town. As you said.– Yosef BaskinCommented Apr 3 at 22:55
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Town's moribund.– steveslivaCommented Apr 4 at 2:02
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3 Answers
The term 'Urban Decay' might be what you're looking for. A fairly prominent example in the United States is the Rust Belt.
Destitute matches your criteria:
- Lacking money: poor, impoverished; especially, extremely so
Impoverished, included in the definition above would also suit:
- Reduced to poverty.
- Having lost a component, an ingredient, a faculty or a feature; rendered poor in something; depleted.
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@Lambie I agree that destitute is more commonly applied to people, I think that makes its application more emotive. If the audience is formal or academic, then I would use impoverished. Commented Apr 5 at 2:54
Bust Town, Busttown, or Dying Town
You may be looking for "bust town" or "busttown", which isn't nearly as widely used as "boom town" or "boomtown", but does have some currency. Ngram
Merrium-Webster defines boomtown as: "a town enjoying a business and population boom". MW has no definition for busttown or bust town, but by analogy it would naturally refer to "a town suffering a business and population bust". It does carry an implication that the town is failing as a result of the failure of a key industry in relation to a boom-bust cycle.
For usage reference, here is a doctoral dissertation on busttowns.
Another alternative is "dying town". I could not find a dictionary entry for it, most likely because it essentially just means what the individual words mean. It's used quite a bit in reference to small towns losing population, and you'll find plenty of articles and posts if you google it. Interestingly, tvtropes.org has an article with the title. Its description of a dying town reflects the description in your question quite directly:
A town that has lost its main reason for existing, or the industry or support systems it needs to thrive. As a result, it's losing its inhabitants far faster than they're replaced and there is little income for the residents. The town's tax base is also drying up, so there's barely any public services. Trash is rarely collected and the roads are potholed. If this continues to its logical end, this community will become a Ghost Town.
Easily spotted by the number of businesses that are shuttered or boarded up, particularly on its main thoroughfare. The streets are nearly empty of vehicles...
