A while back I discovered there'd been a building boom in this little burg. In the city center, obviously, but on the outskirts as well. Rows and ranks and whole parks of apartment buildings, ten and more stories high. And by the look of them, largely empty. (Occupied apartments stood out because of obvious wear, like bars on the windows, actual windows, and of course, hanging laundry.) I decided to start counting. Ballpark figure right now? I'd say 10,000 unoccupied apartments. For a while I considered this to be urban development, as in people were going to move in to these areas, they'd become more like suburbs, and businesses that supported such lifestyles would start to appear. (I even said as much to students, imagining I was letting them in on a secret that would help them choose how to work.) I suppose it could still happen like that, but the scale, man...
The other thing is it's kind of bizarre to be putting up high intensity urban living buildings in vastly vacant areas. Why plan pack people in like that? (I know, I know - there was no plan, but still....)