SOME magazines, Forbes, being one of them, love to promulgate lists. And the latest Forbes list says Charleston is one of the top 10 dying cities in the United States.

Four of the cities are in nearby Ohio. In Michigan, Detroit and Flint are included in the list. Then there's Springfield, Mass., and Scranton, Pa. And in New York, it's Buffalo.

As a resident of the Huntington suburbs, I can't decide whether to gloat or weep. Huntington and Charleston are about the same size, and economic conditions are similar.

But frankly, I suspect Huntington was overlooked by Forbes because (a) Huntington is not considered a city or (b) Huntington is already dead. 

Huntington's economic decline began much earlier than Charleston's.

The city's manufacturing crisis is very old news. Charleston's loss of the chemical industry is comparatively recent. 

The mayors of most of the dying cities have already issued statements saying that yes, it looks bad, but things should be getting better soon.

That's exactly what Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said in response to Forbes' assessment.

Well, what else can a mayor say?

I joined the newspaper business in the mid-1960s, and while West Virginia and its cities continued to decline, politicos kept singing the lines from a Beatles tune: "I have to admit it's getting better, it's getting better all the time."

Remember the line that follows? "It can't get much worse."

In any event, the next time some Charlestonian sends me an e-mail that asks the question: "Huntington? Never heard of it,"

I'll respond by saying: "I'm not surprised you've not heard of Huntington. We're NOT on the Forbes list of dying cities."

Not too long ago, China was a secretive culture in a secretive country. Its history shows that it didn't want outsiders and kept them out by all means, including a wall.

SOME magazines, Forbes, being one of them, love to promulgate lists. And the latest Forbes list says Charleston is one of the top 10 dying cities in the United States.

Four of the cities are in nearby Ohio. In Michigan, Detroit and Flint are included in the list. Then there's Springfield, Mass., and Scranton, Pa. And in New York, it's Buffalo.

As a resident of the Huntington suburbs, I can't decide whether to gloat or weep. Huntington and Charleston are about the same size, and economic conditions are similar.

But frankly, I suspect Huntington was overlooked by Forbes because (a) Huntington is not considered a city or (b) Huntington is already dead. 

Huntington's economic decline began much earlier than Charleston's.

The city's manufacturing crisis is very old news. Charleston's loss of the chemical industry is comparatively recent. 

The mayors of most of the dying cities have already issued statements saying that yes, it looks bad, but things should be getting better soon.

That's exactly what Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said in response to Forbes' assessment.

Well, what else can a mayor say?

I joined the newspaper business in the mid-1960s, and while West Virginia and its cities continued to decline, politicos kept singing the lines from a Beatles tune: "I have to admit it's getting better, it's getting better all the time."

Remember the line that follows? "It can't get much worse."

In any event, the next time some Charlestonian sends me an e-mail that asks the question: "Huntington? Never heard of it,"

I'll respond by saying: "I'm not surprised you've not heard of Huntington. We're NOT on the Forbes list of dying cities."

Not too long ago, China was a secretive culture in a secretive country. Its history shows that it didn't want outsiders and kept them out by all means, including a wall.

With the beginning of the Olympics, China has become a revved-up public relations machine.

What the heck is going on here?

You may be one of those who believe China holds all the economic cards and will simply overwhelm America and perhaps the world in a matter of a few years.

John Pomfret of The Washington Post disagrees. He is a former Beijing (remember when we called it Peking?) bureau chief of the Washington Post.

He says "China is more likely to remain the muscle-bound adolescent of the international system than to become the master of the world."

Its one-child-per-family rule is transforming the country into the oldest society in the world. Its environmental problems are growing, and may already be insurmountable.

And what about all that manufacturing?

Most of the plants are owned by non-Chinese businesses.

I don't want chaos in China. But that may be too late.

Word from the interior of China is that the Chinese government cannot control the country. Western China, for example, is something akin to America's old-time Wild West, where no one rules and warlords and Muslims run amok.

The sobering fact is China may implode in a decade or two.

Who knows? The country may begin imploding during the upcoming Olympics. That's what I'll be looking for during the games.

That is, if I can see the games through all the haze.

Peyton may be reached by e-mail at david.pey...@gmail.com.