From SuspireWiki

The Area

Copal is... unfortunate. It has suffered the past fifty years from crime, flight and each of the economic downturns. Now the whole area is something of just a playground for urban exploration and a showcase for urban decay. Monthly, groups of urban explorers take to the abandoned plants, tunnels and railroad stations that people just have forgotten all about. It goes without saying that almost every street sidewalk is overrun with grasses and shrubbery.

Carcosa hasn't slated any revitalization projects for the area, and since the population in the area is miniscule when compared to every other area of the city, there just isn't even a good reason to try and win votes by doing it. It's not exactly a ghost town, since in a city so large, it's truly impossible to "get away" from other people, but it's almost like the back-roads all are in Copal. Construction and farm equipment dealers is about the only "going-on" business in the area, with a maximum of two or three whiskey bars scattered about.