US Cities With Diminished Influence and Impact: 1950 to 2020 (best, state, better)
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As times and technologies change, so do the locations of where people choose to live.
The 1950s and 60s era in the US were another world than present day era, so just as society was a different planet, so-to-speak, so are today's go-to, influential and economic hotbed cities.
What cities in the poll in 1950, were leaders of the US in terms of the following, but today are a shell of their former self?
*economic impact
*jobs magnets
*cultural influence
*boomtowns
*hotspots for growth
I think the cities that used to be prominent back in 1950, and are today very much diminished with their influence, are:
3 Cleveland, Ohio
2 Buffalo, New York
1 St Louis, Missouri
I was going to choose a bunch, because there are a lot of rust belt cities that meet that definition/criteria.
Buffalo, STL, CLE.. Basically every city in OH, PA, Upstate NY, MI, and then Milwaukee. I wasn't alive back then, so I don't really know how important or what kind of mainstream relevance they had, but I do know one thing; back then they had a lot more people! I don't know if that translates to "better", just different. I know a lot of cities lost the steel mills and that was big business, but if losing one major industry causes multiple cities to take such drastic declines, then I guess it's like putting all your eggs in one basket.
I've thought about this quite a bit, after someone on here brought it to my attention... Just because many cities had peak populations in the 1950 census, does not mean that they were more desirable back then. If population density is the end all for you, then OK, but I imagine most cities with a lot of pollution, crime, terrible race relations, and I couldn't imagine being gay in the 1950's. So, while some cities peaked in population in 1950, I feel like most are better cities today.
I wanted to answer with several, but am only limited to one choice. Can this thread be scrapped so that it can be reborn with a survey that allows multiple answers?
Pretty easy to assume that just about any city where manufacturing was the dominant economic driver will likely be pretty high up on this list since we've seen a mass exodus of manufacturing in the U.S. The worst of the bunch will be the cities that haven't been able to diversify their economies as much.
To me, Detroit is the biggest standout. As a kid in the early 90s, I remember Detroit being much more influential than it is now. And it was already in the midst of decline at that time. It's one of the few metro areas (not just city proper) that have actually declined in size since 1970 - all at a time where others were growing. It was one of the largest cities and metro areas in the country, and one of the most economically influential, It's since been surpassed by Houston, Miami, Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, Phoenix, Washington, and Dallas. That's a big fall. I know Detroit is getting better now, and that's great. Buffalo, Cleveland, St. Louis, etc. all underwent major decline and have been surpassed by many other cities, but it's hard to imagine a city that has undergone a more significant shift in national influence over that span than Detroit. It was soundly one of the top 5 cities in the country for quite some time in recent history. Now it's not even close to the top 10 and is slipping further back.
Cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, all of which were manufacturing centers, were lucky enough to be able to diversify their economy a bit and either stave off the worst of the decline or emerge better off in the long run.
I'd agree that multiple choices is the best. Having said that, I did live in the Pittsburgh metro area from 00-09, and over that time was inundated with the history of that city. And in some suburbs, you can really tell there were better days. So, as much as I do love Pittsburgh and its history, it was just the obvious choice for me.
A good amount of that list fell hard on times at some point, but many of them have bounced back, while others got lost in the shuffle.
St. Louis is probably one of the most obvious choices, followed by any mid-sized rust belt city.
The largest city on that list that fell hard was Philadelphia, but its doing a good job at picking itself back up (a little slower than Boston and NYC).
But everything goes in phases and trends, the hot cities of today may not be the same by 2100. The only US cities that have remained influential / top economic producers since the beginning of the US are New York Boston and Philadelphia.
Other cities have been influential for most of their lifetime (Chicago), but they are not as old.
I agree with the above poster. This thread needs multiple options. I would have voted for at least 5 of them. If I had to pick one, Detroit hands down.
This poll is straight garbage. You've got Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Atlanta on this list. All of these places are stronger and more important now than they were in 1950.
I voted wrong I should have chosen Detroit as I think they did lose the most.
Probably the true rust belt cities match this the best, they just stopped growing (at the high rates) and didn't replace key industries
Detroit
St Louis
Cleveland
Buffalo
jump to mind
Other places like say a Philly has lost its top tier but didn't fall as hard and moved to different industries moreso than the others
Pittsburgh and Baltimore are two others with a similar dynamic
another wild card is NOLA which just sort of stopped being a largest city and maybe with the Mississippi Midwest industrial slide (or none continuous growth) had an impact from that
Not sure on Cinci
but Detroit, St Louis and Cleveland were all among the ten largest at one point, think NOLA was as well going further back
for better or worse sans Chicago the coastal cities weathered the storm a little better
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