Street in Port Arthur, Texas. A lot of Port Arthur looks like this, although it also has, or maybe I should say had, some newer areas as well.
Port Arthur hasn't exactly done well in recent years, probably recent decades. I don't know what happened to it, although I have my guesses. One person I know who grew up there gave me his views on what occurred to the town, somewhat shaded in careful terms so as to not sound quite so harsh on his hometown, but it's clearly not doing well, or has had some pretty rough recent times.
The actual port.
Perhaps the Hotel Sabine best symbolizes it. Janice Joplin, who was from Port Arthur, once gave a big concert there. Sort of a homecoming of sorts. It's not far from a museum on the Gulf Coast that prominently features here, although she wasn't so well received in her hometown during her lifetime.
These photos depict the Hotel Sabine in Port Arthur, Texas. The hotel is an abandoned ruin and has been for decades.
The Hotel Sabine certainly isn't the only messed up abandoned building in downtown Port Arthur.
Downtown Port Arthur has been undergoing a much needed renovation. Hurricane Harvey clearly won't be helping that.
One thing I'd note is that all of the older part of the town is right on the port. News footage I've seen of the disaster have shown some scenes from way up in town, however. That makes me wonder about the old parts of the town, which have surely been hit before. Some of those areas are a mess, like depicted above, but others are not. Or at least they were not.
Truly, a tragedy.
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