It is the height of the holiday season but Derry City Airport is empty.

BBC: Strikes hit services countrywide

Housing stock is crumbling, and the center city is a study in urban decay: empty lots, boarded-up businesses, foreclosure signs.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Inventing Niagara'

In the commercial, a seemingly empty city is actually full of people who blend in perfectly with their surroundings.

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Say there is empty land inside the city.

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Even by the standards of most big American cities, Oklahoma City's centre is still disconcertingly empty.

ECONOMIST: Oklahoma��s capital three years on

But the vast empty car park outside the Art of War City and its near-deserted courtyards suggest the town is struggling.

ECONOMIST: China abroad