Ghost towns

For about the last 50 years, the small fishing villages scattered around Iceland have been slowly abandoned, as more and more people move to Reykjavík. The situation is particularly drastic in the North Fjords, where my Danish and German friends just spent a week. They returned this morning with reports of efforts by the few remaining locals to keep the now-empty houses in good repair, hanging curtains, cutting the grass, and painting the outsides. I cannot imagine similar care being given to ghost towns in the U.S., even if, as the skeptic among us maintained, they are doing it just for the tourist value.   

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