about 3 years ago. The riverfront park at the confluence of the rivers is a nice park, with a good platform to look out over the rivers. There are a number of interesting historical markers.

But then the drive north through the "historic" part of Cairo is really depressing. It actually looks worse than the picture here.

More than half of all counties saw a population decline. Here in my neck of the woods in NC, my county saw an increase of about 3,000 people, but most if not all of the surrounding counties saw a decline.

The mostly rural counties in the northeastern part of NC and those counties that are "one row back" from the coast also saw decline. However, the urban counties like Wake and Mecklenburg saw increases of over 20% in their populations.

Consider this: the Republicans crashed the economy in 2007 and 2008, causing many people to leave rural areas and move toward the cities. Those rural areas still haven't recovered, and more people leave. By their own doing, Republicans increased the population in those cities that they hate. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch.