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"Half-abandoned" areas constitute an extremely minimal proportion of metropolitan Atlanta, particularly in a residential sense. It's important to remember that the city itself has only about 10% of the metro area and has seen significant growth in households despite little in the way of population gains. There is certainly vacant retail space scattered around the region, and many inner suburban areas that have transitioned over time to a less prosperous demographic than they had originally. But overall, Atlanta has hardly any Rust Belt characteristics - aside from a substantial population that has moved into the area from such places.
Exactly. Atlanta's job growth is way too high to be a rustbelt city and every city has their depressed and impoverished areas....that doesn't make a city a rustbelt city.
Beaumont had a rust belt vibe, blended with its deep southern surrounding of the bayou. The place is a dreary location with oil refineries in the backdrop and a horrible smell!
Idk if it will qualify, probably not, but Hialeah, Florida looks rust belt. Full of factories and warehouses.
^^Yea my same reaction, people and their different versions of the south are very interesting
Sorry but I find it hard to consider a town as far north as Philadelphia to be in the South. Don't tell me "but the accent/culture." Why can't we simply accept it to be a northern place with southern influence and leave it at that?
I understand where you all are coming from BUT the OP said "Rustbelt cities of the South" and technically Wheeling is classified as a southern city so....
I'm not sure there is a true Rust Belt type city in the South. I assume it's not just about heavy industry, but also about stagnation, population loss, and a general loss of prominence overall. I guess most would immediately think of Birmingham, but that city has done a complete turnaround and is not languishing at all these days. Same with Chattanooga, Atlanta, Jacksonville, etc. Memphis is probably the southern city that I can think of as stagnating, but even Memphis is not comparable to a Buffalo or Detroit in that category.
The difficulty with Birmingham is that while the industries have "shifted" from steel production thanks to large regional banks, UAB/Medical,The Southern Company,Engineering, etc., the actual "thinking" and attitudes of most of the populace have not completely evolved one bit. If anyone suggests that, they are simply lying to you.The place still has a "segregationist" overtone and "air".The white exodus from the City of Birmingham to the suburbs of Homewood, Vestavia HIlls, Indian Springs, Trussville, Leeds, Pelham, Alabaster, Calera, and all over northern Shelby County, is testimony that there still remains "two Birminghams".Even a prolific poster here, "CPG" doesn't live in Birmingham at all..that poster lives in an extremely insular and affluent enclave of The City of Mountain Brook...but that poster seems to assert Birmingham has matured.No it hasn't. It has "changed", but very much still LAGS behind many,many other cities in the south and in the southwest.The pace of maturation for Birmingham and awful places such as Memphis has been woefully inadequate, and pathetically slow by comparison.The amazing thing is that the locals actually think that the pace of maturation and change is remarkably spot-on and wonderfully accomplished.That is patently false, thus misleading.I know better...lived in both.
I understand where you all are coming from BUT the OP said "Rustbelt cities of the South" and technically Wheeling is classified as a southern city so....
LOL...you honestly believe Wheeling is a Southern city? You've never been to the real South if you think that.
The census' southern designation is generally the states where school segregation was required by law, with the exception of Missouri, which the census placed in the Midwest.
But doesn't West Virginia exist solely because it didn't want to secede from the Union?
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