Urban Decay Photography

Urban decay has no single cause; it results from combinations of inter-related socio-economic conditions—including the city’s urban planning decisions, the poverty of the local populace, the construction of freeway roads and rail road lines that bypass the area, depopulation by suburbanization of peripheral lands, real estate neighborhood redlining, xenophobic immigration restrictions, and racial discrimination. In cities such as New York and Boston, gentrification has eased urban decay in some areas of the cities, although most U.S. cities have highly blighted areas.