Despite a decade-long renaissance, many still view the city as a national symbol of urban decline.

But Federal budget deficits, which only a few years ago were symbols of national decline, government run amok and political gridlock, are now evaporating.

It is a symbol of decline, and I have been known to get a cloth and go around just wiping surfaces.

In recent years, neglected and badly in need of repair, it became a symbol of decline instead.

Even here, in a city that was the 1980's symbol of industrial decline and double-digit unemployment rates, they are getting job offers.

In April, the museum will reopen its Huntington Avenue entrance, closed since 1991 and since then a powerful symbol of institutional decline.

The Chaldeans also warned Alexander against marching westwards as he would then look to the setting sun, a symbol of decline.

Even those with no memory of the old station can recognize the present one as a symbol of urban decline.

He had grown very conscious of all these symbols of decline now that he had become a rebel.

By the 70's the South Bronx was a burned-out shell and a national symbol of urban decline.