Galveston, Dead City ?

Extrait d'un article en ligne "America’s Ten Dead Cities: From Detroit To New Orleans" 
publié en Août 2010 par le site 24/7 Wall street Wire.

La ville insulaire de Galveston est classée en dernière position sur la liste des 10 villes les plus moribondes des Etats-unis.
A 60 miles de Houston, la ville est le débouché naturel de la ville sur le Golfe du Mexique. Ancien port majeur, ancienne "Sin City" locale, la ville a vu son destin lui échapper ouragan après ouragan.

"A city does not die when its last resident moves away.  Death happens when municipalities lose the industries and vital populations that made them important cities.
The economy has evolved so much since the middle of the 20th Century that many cities that were among the largest and most vibrant in America have  collapsed. Some have lost more than half of their residents. Others have lost the businesses that made them important centers of finance, manufacturing, and commerce.
[...]
Galveston #10
This Texas city was one of the largest ports in the US a hundred years ago. It was also the location of one of the greatest natural disasters in American history. In 1900, a hurricane killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people. In the decades after the hurricane, Galveston became a major tourist center due to its location on the Gulf and proximity to several larger Texas cities. Galveston was also a major military recruitment center during WWII. The cause of Galveston’s demise is unique. It had become something of the Sodom and Gomorrah of the southern US. There was a large gambling industry there, some of it illegal, which was controlled by criminals. In the late 1950s,Texas state authorities successfully attacked local organized crime. The regulated tourist trade could not replace the illegal business. Galveston’s port and hospitality industries had begun to improve, but where trampled by the effects of Hurricane Ike in 2008. The event destroyed a large part of the city’s tax base, and set back the tourism industry once again."

Aujourd'hui, le port s'est spécialisé dans la maintenance des équipements pétroliers. Les plateformes sont visibles depuis la côte, la richesse locale est loin en mer.
L'ancien centre multiplie les bâtiments abandonnés, parfois transformés en lofts (plutôt luxueux d'ailleurs) et quelques bars et boîtes de nuit permettent au secteur de survivre.
Une grande bande de sable gris (assez rare le long de cette côte marécageuse) attire une population joyeuse (On reparlera de la côte un peu plus tard).

Alors, une "Dead City" cette Galveston ?
La proximité de Houston et le monopole du sable blanc la maintient encore sous perfusion.
Touristique elle survit encore et présente ces beaux restes décatis aux foules balnéaires. L'ambiance demeure singulièrement destroy et terriblement décalée : Detroit-les-bains !