Do you consider Cincinnati the "rust belt"?

[13th Alphabet]

I consider it to be, however I don’t consider “Rust Belt” a pejorative term.

As soon as you cross the Brent Spence Bridge going north on 75, Cincinnati undoubtedly looks and feels like a Rust Belt city IMO.

Like Cincinnati, Chicago and Indy both have a large white collar economic base and they largely are considered to be part of the Rust Belt. I’ve even heard the term loosely applied to Birmingham, AL.

[KY_Transplant]

No, I do not view Cincinnati as a rust belt city.

[HiGuys007]

More so than Chicago or even Pittsburgh, but not as rusty as Gary, Ind. or Flint, MI, or Toledo, OH. I would say Cincinnati is equal with Cleveland.

Cincinnati is positioned like Cleveland or Detroit in that it is not a place you are actively trying to escape, but also not a place people actually want to move to/live in if they didn't happen to be born there (or its the only place they got a job offer). Cincinnati used to have an impressive industrial base, think Camp Washington turn of the century/pre WW2. Ultimately it wasn't China or Reagan or Unions or Jesse Jackson getting GM to kill the Norwood plant instead of the one in Cali, or anything, all of it was dead in the water in Cincinnati when rail-freight overtook the canals.

[426HemiCA]

I have restored a few classic cars from the Cincinnati area, based on those I would consider it the Rust Belt. Glad I have access to Az and California cars now, much easier to deal with sun damaged interiors than salt damaged body and frame issues.

[SenseofPlace]

Originally Posted by HiGuys007

More so than Chicago or even Pittsburgh, but not as rusty as Gary, Ind. or Flint, MI, or Toledo, OH. I would say Cincinnati is equal with Cleveland.

Cincinnati is positioned like Cleveland or Detroit in that it is not a place you are actively trying to escape, but also not a place people actually want to move to/live in if they didn't happen to be born there (or its the only place they got a job offer). Cincinnati used to have an impressive industrial base, think Camp Washington turn of the century/pre WW2. Ultimately it wasn't China or Reagan or Unions or Jesse Jackson getting GM to kill the Norwood plant instead of the one in Cali, or anything, all of it was dead in the water in Cincinnati when rail-freight overtook the canals.

As someone who lived in Pittsburgh for several years, Pittsburgh's MSA feels significantly more rusty than Cincinnati. Head into the Mon Valley and tell me how bustling that is. When you compare the two cities (inside their smaller limits) Cincinnati doesn't feel any more rust belt than Pittsburgh does. Cincinnati was always a more corporate city, and that still shows to this day with it being one of the highest per capita in the country for Fortune 500 based companies. It's an older city, so you're going to see areas where industry once was, but is no longer. You can say this for just about any city in the industrial north, including cities in the South like Louisville, Memphis, and Birmingham. I work back and forth between Ohio and Michigan. When people compare Cincinnati to Detroit, they clearly have never been to both cities. Cincinnati is in no way like Detroit, not even close. You can actually leave downtown Cincinnati and still find very attractive and viable city neighborhoods (to live and work in) that take up a large section of the square mileage within the city. In Detroit there are some neighborhoods, but most of the action has taken place along Woodward.

Originally Posted by 426HemiCA

I have restored a few classic cars from the Cincinnati area, based on those I would consider it the Rust Belt. Glad I have access to Az and California cars now, much easier to deal with sun damaged interiors than salt damaged body and frame issues.

If this is your definition of the Rust Belt, then it looks like the Rust Belt got a lot bigger:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped.../Salt_belt.svg

You can add Kentucky to that because when I was going to school in Louisville, there were plenty of rusty old Kentucky cars driving around.

And still going by your definition of Rust Belt, it looks like Michigan and New York are the most rusty of them with their usage of salt per mile, and New England is rusty all over:

http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs...35/017-030.pdf

But I think your definition is a little off. I think you're thinking of the Salt Belt.

[WILWRadio]

Originally Posted by HiGuys007

More so than Chicago or even Pittsburgh, but not as rusty as Gary, Ind. or Flint, MI, or Toledo, OH. I would say Cincinnati is equal with Cleveland.

Cincinnati is positioned like Cleveland or Detroit in that it is not a place you are actively trying to escape, but also not a place people actually want to move to/live in if they didn't happen to be born there (or its the only place they got a job offer). Cincinnati used to have an impressive industrial base, think Camp Washington turn of the century/pre WW2. Ultimately it wasn't China or Reagan or Unions or Jesse Jackson getting GM to kill the Norwood plant instead of the one in Cali, or anything, all of it was dead in the water in Cincinnati when rail-freight overtook the canals.

Yes, this is true. I'm from Connecticut. I didn't want to move here and bought a house to prove it.

[CarpathianPeasant]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

Yes, this is true. I'm from Connecticut. I didn't want to move here and bought a house to prove it.

That's good to know.

[ABQConvict]

The term Rust Belt has nothing to do with the propensity for cars to rust. It describes cities or regions that formerly had a strong, but not necessarily dominant, industrial sector that has declined resulting in population loss and a noticeable, but not necessarily devastating, effect on the region's economy.

Is Cincinnati in a region that once had a strong industrial sector? Does said sector still exist? If not, is the decline of said sector correlated with population loss and/or economic decline of any part of the remaining population?

[SenseofPlace]

Originally Posted by ABQConvict

The term Rust Belt has nothing to do with the propensity for cars to rust. It describes cities or regions that formerly had a strong, but not necessarily dominant, industrial sector that has declined resulting in population loss and a noticeable, but not necessarily devastating, effect on the region's economy.

Is Cincinnati in a region that once had a strong industrial sector? Does said sector still exist? If not, is the decline of said sector correlated with population loss and/or economic decline of any part of the remaining population?

Cincinnati like Philadelphia or Baltimore can be considered Rust Belt because it lost people and has industrial areas that really are no longer relevant. But Cincinnati always has had a large corporate, white collar style economy. The metro area has consistently shown population growth and the city is growing as well. I would not say someone is wrong in calling Cincinnati Rust Belt, but I think it is "recovered Rust Belt".

Have you seen that map where they show the Rust Belt with the recovered areas? Pittsburgh is mentioned as recovered, but Cincinnati isn't. Columbus is also considered Rust Belt in that map, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The city of Pittsburgh has made a lot of progress, but outside of Pittsburgh and a few well-to-do suburbs, the Pittsburgh region is a classic story of Rust Belt. I don't think the Cincinnati metro fits Rust Belt as much as the Pittsburgh metro does. Looking at cities like Cleveland and Detroit, they have some very wealthy and nice suburbs really all over, and the cities themselves are classic Rust Belt. Cleveland has much more going for it in the city than Detroit does (mostly downtown and along Woodward in Detroit like I posted earlier), and has more areas experiencing growth outside of its downtown than Detroit. So it will be interesting to watch in Cleveland as the city turns the corner, there are not as many areas there spread out through the metro area that are as blighted as many tend to think.

Rust Belt I think is such a dated term to begin with. You can really go to most of the Rust Belt and find new construction and people going about their daily lives with amenities that don't exist in most developing countries. Problem is, that wouldn't fit the media's agenda of making them out to be wastelands, so we must stick with that term.