Watching the Economic Decline in my City

I live in a small town, population 18,000 in Nevada. It's right on a major interstate, so there are many visitors. Mesquite is a tourist town, attracting golfers, gamblers and snow-birds (move here in winter and move 'home' in summer). So I hear a lot of stories from people from all over, about how their home town has been affected by this depression.

There are also "horror stories" about this depression from travelers. One woman said, "we drove here through I-40 across several states in the southwest. You wouldn't believe the number of homeless we saw, gathered in empty lots, loitering on the streets, and what-have-you, and many stores were boarded up too. It's like the end of the world and the news people aren't showing it the way it is!"

Well, I have seen TV news depicting tent cities that have sprung up, but perhaps that is not all there is to show. Here in Mesquite, we have hundreds of empty homes which are invitations for homeless squatters and easy targets for vandalism. There are more empty stores on main street than ever before. The local newspaper is reporting an increase in crime. This used to be a crime-free city except for fights and drunks in the casinos. Not anymore. Sad.