Decaying old Rust Belt Ohio River town
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8/6/2009
Wheeling has gone from almost 70,000 people in 1940 to barely 28,000 in 2009! Steel and Coal made the Upper Ohio Valley but the mills are all but gone and virtually all high paying industrial jobs went with them. Positives: very low cost of living; decent schools in many areas, great boating on the Ohio and nearby lakes, much wildlife in nearby forests. The suburbs like Woodsdale, Elm Grove, "the Pike", and St. Clairsville in OH are still pretty nice. Negatives: few professional jobs, no tech, not much culture, large portion of the population is elderly retired people. So many vacant houses they bulldoze entire city blocks. Serious drug and prostitution problems in East Wheeling.
William | Huntington Beach, CA