cultural superpower. a magnet for everyone with a deep future from eastern europe to the deep south. american dream, you came here. >> the one straight ahead with the green roof. >> yep, completely empty. >> empty? unbelievable. >> the white one is being rehabbed. there's money coming into it. the one on the right is completely empty. the gray pyramid with the spire on top sold for $5 million. >> $5 million for that? you can't buy a garage in the hamptons for that. >> $5 million for a skyscraper. >> it's post apocalyptic. it's like a science fiction film. what the hell happened here? >> it is post-apock liptic, except there's 700,000 people living here. >> charlie leduff is a writer, journalist, television reporter. he grew up here. >> it used to be 2 million people. that was rubber. that guy was steel.