Indianapolis: over 50 years of urban "cheating"?

[ssiguy]

It's true that Indianapolis hasn't nearly as much urban decay as most of the other "rust belt" cities. Compared to Milwaukee, Chicago, St.Louis, Gary, Toledo, Detroit, Youngstown, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo, Indy hasn't suffered a fraction the amount of population decline, urban decay, and general bad press like these other cities because Indy has one key advantage that none of these other cities do..............it's a capitol city.

Capitol cities always enjoy a large and well paid civil service and benefit from general gov't largess. A capitol city also tends to have gov't as it largest single employer unlike steel or cars or parts etc that are at the whim of the health of their industries and can be lured out of state or country to locales with cheaper labour costs. You can't outsource your own civil service. Being a capitol city, Indy benefits from the constant gov't revenue stream and economic stability that those other cities can only dream of.