SirRay:
Yesterday Cracked.com did a article on the Weirdest Cities People Actually Live In (or lived) - A (ex)Soviet City build out over the Caspian Sea, an densely populated Egyptian city packed w/ garbage from its trash-picking inhabitants, a Japanese city near an active volcano where the residents often need to wear a gas mask, an ad-hoc village made of ships anchored for years in the Suez Canal due to the 6-day War, a Chinese city designed for dwarves, and of course the famed (and now demolished) lawless Enclave of ‘Kowloon Walled City’ just outside of Hong Kong.
In other words, the OP REALLY needs to punch up his article to compete with the likes of that (let alone Seanbaby busting on bad Karate training videos or Man-Comics*), I’m thinking 5 years at most rags to riches (and I mean lots of rags to lots of riches), probably can get away with only one or two complete tear-downs; perhaps some 17th or 18th century king pushing out the peasents and putting in his couriers in the SAME housing (good angle), I guess at least one city where the poor inhabitants were adjacent to what turned out to be extreme but here-to-fore untapped mineral resources, or a major production facility or the like; maybe some Native American Indian casino story, cool stuff like that.
But arguing how much the real estate have increased in Georgetown DC over 2 decades, or how East Harlem is now somewhat more Genetrified than it was in the 1980s…the OP better be some writer to pull that off.
*No one is safe!
I agree. I read Cracked every day and they go for the ultimate sensational punches. How about that town in North Dakota that is crazy expensive now that they found huge amounts of oil under it?