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You might throw just about any of the Rust Bowl cities in there. The big question being how long it might take some of them and in what form they might come back.
For me the better question is what is the underlying values that any city / town might have that makes it a place that has a future. Not all cities might make it.
Reminds me a bit of a conversation I had with a guy that lived the street behind me when Boston was in the dumper and people were trying to guess would it / and when make some sort of recovery. This guy was a police Lt, lawyer and real estate agent and his take was the places that were desirable / valuable / or neccssary in the year 1900 would be the same places that would be desirable / valuable / necessary in the year 2000 for all the same reasons. That prediction turned out to be just about right on. But it didn't happen over night, took the better part of 20 years.
Things like easy access to a core urban area, higher ground, the better natural location, better shopping, roads, etc. A lot of it may be the original reason that caused a city / town to be there in the first place. Is that reason still valid? Certain minerals, transportation hub, good land, center of something, cheaper energy, best collection of whatever. So I do think you have to be able to identify the factors that will cause it to bloom again.
Two example might be the towns of Wellsville and East Liverpool, Ohio. Used to be two pretty important manufacturing and transportation hubs, good access to water, rail, road, air, well located to serve a lot of important markets. Both really hit the skids. You could have bought a house for peanuts. Like well below $10K, both have turned around to some extent, those same cheap houses might be worth 4 or 5 times as much in say a span of only 5 years. So it also depends on when you have the foresight to jump in. It is not without some risk at the bottom and you may have to endure some pain. Both of those places are still pretty drab but probably will become pretty desirable again at some time in the future. Industry starting to move into that area again.
Lots of towns down along the Ohio River that hit the skids about the same time and their future is still a bit in doubt. I think you have to know the why's a lot more and be able to predict some sort of growth path. Helps to be in just a tad before the bottom when they will give the real estate away, no lines, no waiting.
Once everybody is raving about the new miracle it is too late.
So it may be more than just finding a place that is in a turn around mode. The timing factor might be the most important thing. In the end the success may kill it anyway. About like Boston, lots of money flowed in, lots of people jumped on the band wagon, built on every scrap of available land, got the most dense sprawl available. Yeah, had to love that traffic. The grime and crime to polish the crown jewel that became so, so dense. You may not wish for it to get too successful, too quick.
All of the Hudson River/Newark Bay cities in New Jersey... Bayonne, Jersey City, Union City, and even Newark itself. These are my top cities poised for a rebound!!!
Plus I really respect what Cory Booker is doing in Newark, but that's a topic for another thread
For me the better question is what is the underlying values that any city / town might have that makes it a place that has a future. Not all cities might make it.
Things like easy access to a core urban area, higher ground, the better natural location, better shopping, roads, etc. A lot of it may be the original reason that caused a city / town to be there in the first place. Is that reason still valid?
Once everybody is raving about the new miracle it is too late.
So it may be more than just finding a place that is in a turn around mode. The timing factor might be the most important thing. In the end the success may kill it anyway.
Cosmic, those are some great thoughts about how a place can climb back out of a bad slump. An "out of the way" one company town that was once thriving primarily because there was a giant mine or factory (now shut down) might not have a chance of making a comeback as soon as a similar place that is located closer to other cities that could be tapped into for economic activity. I agree lots of places in Ohio that are currently struggling have potential to do better, because almost anywhere in the state is not far from a metro area that might be doing better.
One might be surprised, but I see a lot of change being made in Detroit. A lot of people are tired of the bad rep, the blight, etc. etc. and are working to make a positive change. Even recently, jobs have been added, with Chrysler adding over 1100 and GM surely to add more as well as they roll out several new models (Spark, Cruze (Ohio, but still a sign of future success), Volt, etc.)
Detroit will go far, it may take a WHILE as it's down, but it is NOT out.
I have noticed is that in terms of a rebound are midwest cities outside of the rust belt core. The cities seem to of diversified their economies better and less younger people are moving away as in the past. They still have little immigration and migration to and will likely have worker shortages in the next decade or two as many people start retiring. Also my opinion will be faster growth as these same people retiring are oftentimes the people holding an area back from growth with their viewpoints and solving the problems a particular area has, St. Louis seems to have a huge generation gap involving this and I presume similar cities as well have this. (The divide is somewhere around 40)
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location, location, location?
