Utica: City that God Forgot (nickname)
The city of Utica (NY) experienced a manufacturing decline in the second half of the 20th century and, allegedly, was called the “City that God Forgot.” However, “The city that God forgot” is first cited in print in a “Utica” entry in the Urban Dictionary on April 15, 2005. The earliest book citation is Meg Schneider’s New York Yesterday & Today (2008), which stated that Utica’s “decline as part of the Northeastern Rust Belt led many to call it ‘the city that God forgot.’”
Another Utica nickname is “Second Chance City.”
Wikipedia: Utica, New York
Utica (pronounced /ˈjuːtᵻkə/) is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York, its population was 62,235 in the 2010 U.S. census. Located on the Mohawk River at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains, Utica is approximately 90 miles (145 km) northwest of Albany and 45 miles (72 km) east of Syracuse. Although Utica and the neighboring city of Rome have their own metropolitan area, both cities are also represented and influenced by the commercial, educational and cultural characteristics of the Capital District and Syracuse metropolitan areas.
Formerly a river settlement inhabited by the Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy, Utica attracted European-American settlers from New England during and after the American Revolution. In the 19th century, immigrants strengthened its position as a layover city between Albany and Syracuse on the Erie and Chenango Canals and the New York Central Railroad. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city’s infrastructure contributed to its success as a manufacturing center and defined its role as a worldwide hub for the textile industry. Utica’s 20th-century political corruption and organized crime gave it the nicknames “Sin City”, and later, “the city that God forgot.”
Urban Dictionary
utica
The city that God forgot
This city sucks, it reminds me of Utica
by bort April 15, 2005
Google Books
New York Yesterday & Today
By Meg Schneider
Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press
2008
Pg. 101 (UTICA):
Its reputation for political corruption and general vice from the 1930s to the 1950s earned it the moniker “Sin City,” and its decline as part of the Northeastern Rust Belt led many to call it “the city that God forgot.”
Observer-Dispatch (Utica, NY)
Visitor takes a lonely walk through Utica
Late in the 20th century, Utica became known as “the city that God forgot.” As such, it was and is typical of small American cities that reached their peak of prosperity and population before 1970 and –– even as the overall national wealth since then has increased many times over –– have not to date found ways to recover their productive economies.
By DAVID A. MITTELL JR.
Posted Jun. 8, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 8, 2008 at 8:12 AM
UTICA
Late in the 20th century, Utica became known as “the city that God forgot.”
Google Books
Small Miracles
By Edward M. Lerner
New York, NY: A Tor Book
2009
Pg. 114:
The City That God Forgot bumper stickers were already all too common around town (Utica—ed.).
Twitter
Justin Lanza
@LANZAAAAAHH
Because of the decline of industry and employment in the post-World War II era, Utica became known as “The City that God Forgot.”
7:10 PM - 14 Mar 2009
Twitter
Laura Crawford
@CrawfordComic
“Utica became known as ‘The City that God Forgot.’ In the 1980s and early 1990s” Wikipedia, city of my birth,explains my atheism perhaps
10:02 AM - 20 Feb 2010
Twitter
P
@parkerajames
Utica, New York. Home of my grandma. Real nickname: The City That God Forgot
10:13 PM - 16 Jan 2016