I found the empty streets in the CBD disconcerting, when I was walking around them in the early morning on the weekends. This was the reality of an industrial society: a stumbling around amongst the nineteenth century architecture didn't result in me coming across a diversity of random people. I rarely saw another person.
There was a sense of melancholy on the streets. A desire for an urban life that wasn't there. I was living in an industrial city that wasn't really a city because of the lack of people. They were all in the suburbs. It was eerie. The promise was that people would come with the transition to the post-industrial society.