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By Lloyd Waters| Columnist

McCleary Hill

U.S. Rep. David Trone and Hagerstown Housing Authority Executive Director Sean Griffith discuss the McCleary Hill residential community.

Alexis Fitzpatrick, The Herald-Mail

Have you ever sat down and pondered the future?

What will things be like tomorrow?

As I was growing up, life seemed kind of simple.

Going to a big city was, for sure, the cats meow for some Dargan kid.

An occasional trip to Hagerstown was special.

Those visits to Newberrys, Rosens, McCrorys, Peoplesand the Majestic Restaurant, with those tasty burgers and hotdogs, were something of an adventure.

And a movie house and theater were there, too. If I only had some money.

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And then I sort of graduated from small-town visitsto bigger places, like Chicago, Portland, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore, D.C. and even Sidney, Australia;and Saigon, Vietnam.

Big cities offered a different view of the world. Museums, history, art, the theater, libation houses, sports events, concerts, libraries, mass transportation, hospitals, collegesand all sorts of things to do.

And then there were those increasing negatives of poverty, crime, riots, looting, homelessness, burnings, illiteracy, unemploymentand social unrest.

Technology would arrive. Shopping centers would soon beckon consumers to malls beyond the city.

Amazon ordering would make store visits less necessary.

Working at home would become a new routine for many.

Hagerstown, like most, has a desire to keep its city alive.

Lets build a baseball stadium to attract the population downtown.

Did you ever imagine the Herald-Mail building being sold and, possibly, a baseball stadium replacing it?

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Will a new stadium prosper there? History holds the answer.

Gov. Larry Hogan recently announced a plan to relocate 3,300 state employees from 12 state agencies to the downtown Baltimore central business district.

The state is committing $50 million to pay for the relocation. It comes at a time when the city is experiencing a nearly 24% vacancy rate.

A shot in the arm for Baltimore is how Hogan explainedhis decision.

A "bad aim" might be another opinion.

As economics change, turmoil increases, and many other factors begin to arrive at the big citys doorsteps, will these measures be enough to prevent the exodus of people from Baltimore's downtown?

Today, there seems a diminishing desire to live in places like Seattle, Chicago, Portland, New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, D.C. and many others.

Even the city lights of Hagerstown have dimmed a little. However, a Maryland Theater show is nice; a cool libation at Bennys Pub is refreshing; and a hot honey and clover elixir on the front porch of Pura Vida with friends is pleasurable.

Other local venues are beckoning customersto come back downtown, but that decay seen in some larger American cities seems underway, too.

Consider some of those large cities mentioned above.

Cops are retiring in greater numbers; recruitment is difficult. Some major city streets are plagued with homeless tents, feces, increased crime and drug paraphernalia.

People are showing up at some city libraries, but not to read.

Answers and responses to these problems have been elusive for unprepared political leaders.

Can you imagine business owners attempting to operate in many of todays volatile cities? What would you do if you owned a business in downtown Portland these days?

And lawlessness was in the daily forecast while social activists cried, Defund the police."

Politics, too, plays an important role. Cities with effective leadership, planning, crime reduction, promising education centers, might continue to prosper and expand growing populations.

But others will not be so fortunate.

As many large metropolitan areas become less equipped to solve bigger problems, the exodus of city residents will continue.

Baltimore will be no exception.

As businesses leave, crime and other social problems will then rule. Perhaps newly arriving immigrants will be assigned to vacant apartment buildings in many downtowns.

As these cities become economically bankrupted, socially defunct, and poorly managed, what then?

Will the exodus increase?

Will citizens prefer to watch ballgames on TV?

City homelessness will remain an unsolved problem. Beggars will be found on more street corners.

People will prefer to shop over a computer.

Working at home next to the kitchen with some iced tea wont seem so bad after all.

You think you have the future figured out?

Some well-managed cities will likely prosper, while others will evolve slowly toward decay and bankruptcy.

Hope you end up in the right one to live.

Lloyd Pete Waters is a Sharpsburg resident who writes for The Herald-Mail.

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What will the future look like for America's cities? Here's one take - Herald-Mail Media