It’s one of the American cities that was hit hardest by the demise of basic industry, along with Detroit, Buffalo, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Mingo Junction, Steubenville, Weirton, Dayton, Gary, Braddock, and many more.
This particular city peacked out at a population of 914,000 in 1950, and proceeded to lose almost 600,000 inhabitants during the Rust Belt years. Today there are 352,624, and, although the movement outward has slowed, it still continues and the city still loses population, although at a slower pace, as with all the other Rust Belt cities.
All of these handmade signs by residents of the city, refers to one thing, and it isn’t the shrinking of the city or its abandonment, or its massive demolition that is still ongoing. The signs are made by citizens who still own the empty fields where their house once stood. It’s to remind the city not to cut the lawn and let the owner do it, because the city will charge $600 a shot, to maintain these empty lots and bill the owner.
For my generation the one single dominant theme that we had to deal with was simply the disappearance of the city which was on a grand scale and over a long period of time and it’s still happening.
Then for our purposes, though, it means, literally, city, do not cut. Please, don’t cut this fuckin city.