Bombay Beach? Wonder Valley? I had to look both of those places up, and both are places with tiny populations. Can you help me understand why I should be thinking about places like those and not, say, Youngstown Ohio?
They were just two that I could easily remember driving through and with easy-to-Google names for anyone who wanted to see. We were driving through 25 states in two months with a couple of toddlers, so details are all over the place. Obviously as a visitor, you are taking in a whole range of things - ruinporn, state of urban areas (footpaths, cleanliness), retail, etc - rather than relying on data.
Having said that, I think it has absolutely nothing to do with the article.
Wonder Valley also has an interesting story: https://www.citylab.com/equity/2014/12/the-last-homesteads-o...
There's a theme here of Southern California desert wastelands.