” A train trip in the mid -1970’s from New York to Washington would have a given a sense of their decay.”

In this quote Freeman was trying to give us a sense of how much theses cities decline, and it can be notice by traveling through these cities on  train. A lot of residents left New York between 1970 and 1980. The unemployment rate jump up to 12% and the crime rate increased because of the lack of jobs. 10 percent of New York population left due to the recession that took place during the 1970’s. Many whites migrated from the city to the surburb.  In Newark, NJ after World War 2 a lot of middle calss residents moved to the surburbs. For a city that was once known as a thriving indusrtial city, it was now known for having one abandoned factory after another. After the war Trenton, New Jersey began to decline too. Many of the forefront companies began to relocate, reduce their operations, or just shut down in all. Philadelphia suburbs flourished but the city suffered from the decline of manufacturing. Freeman is also giving you a sense of how the railroad system declined too.