. A slow drive south

Driving south, a road trip to Florida. Now that I'm retired and in no hurry to get anywhere, I can take the slow roads. In truth it's a bit of a nostalgia trip, inasmuch as I have fond memories of a family road trip to Florida in about 1961... before the Interstates or the internet. I cross the border at Buffalo, where City Hall dominates the skyline, as it has since 1930. Ominously, construction of one of the largest and most expensive municipal buildings in the USA began just six weeks before the "Black Tuesday" stock market crash of October 29, 1929. But as the shovels hit the ground in September of '29 Buffalo was America's 13th largest city and the Art Deco city hall reflect the optimism of its citizenry. The city's population would continue to grow... albeit by less than 2%... into the 1950's. Today the city's population has declined by more than half since ground was broken for their City Hall, and Buffalo is now the 78th largest city in the U.S.A. Thankfully they have not turned out the lights yet.