Aside from Pittsburgh, what major 'rust belt ' city has recovered the best? (live, compare)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As far as development and not feeling decayed in its central areas, Milwaukee takes it imo.
On a good day the east side can be mistaken for a hip city like Seattle or something, minus the homeless.
Cinci would prolly take this poll.
Cleveland has quite a ways to go
Same for Detroit and St Louis. I personally think Cinci is the first one that has a chance at being a "cool city" esp because it's weather is the closest to sunbelt weather imo.
I think people are focusing on one side of the equation. That’s is “what city is the strongest today?” And that answer is probably Cincinnati.
But a recovery happens after a fall. And that’s where I think Buffalo kind of takes the cake. It was very bleak in like 1995 for Buffalo. Unlike even Pittsburgh there wasn’t a corporate base to stabilize the economy. Everything was in free fall. But they really turned it around. To the point where it’s one of the stronger rust belt cities.
Cincinnati has more of your typical suburban flight while the metro economy was pretty stable if nit growing. The kind of trajectory Boston or New York has rather than Detroit or Pittsburgh or Cleveland. So it’s revived was much more of the “return to city” variety than “rebuilding the regional economy” variety like Pittsburgh, Buffalo or Cleveland. Or what Rochester is trying to do now after the collapse of Kodak/Xerox
I was thinking that one way to argue a Rust Belt city has recovered very well would be cities that aren't even considered Rust Belt. These are cities that also had a fairly prominent industrial base in the 1950s, but weathered things well enough that they often are sometimes not considered Rust Belt at all. I think perhaps that would be Chicago and Minneapolis.
Outside of that, I think the Buffalo mention is pretty good. I also think the small city of Utica is doing alright and its small scale (as well as economic prosperity of downstate leading to a lot of wealth transfer upstate) made its tact of settling a lot of refugees to be large enough that it actually makes a prominent impact. Would've been great if NY-5 never cut through the city though.
I've never considered Cincinnati, Columbus or Indianapolis to be "Rust Belt" cities. I think the answer to this question is Buffalo. Milwaukee is rebounding, but still seems to have some areas of blight on a scale that I didn't see in Buffalo.
I was thinking that one way to argue a Rust Belt city has recovered very well would be cities that aren't even considered Rust Belt. These are cities that also had a fairly prominent industrial base in the 1950s, but weathered things well enough that they often are sometimes not considered Rust Belt at all. I think perhaps that would be Chicago and Minneapolis.
Outside of that, I think the Buffalo mention is pretty good. I also think the small city of Utica is doing alright and its small scale (as well as economic prosperity of downstate leading to a lot of wealth transfer upstate) made its tact of settling a lot of refugees to be large enough that it actually makes a prominent impact. Would've been great if NY-5 never cut through the city though.
Utica’s other issue is that the city doesn’t have major north-south highway access and in turn, may get somewhat forgotten about. With that said, it has had steady city proper population growth in recent years as well.
Utica’s other issue is that the city doesn’t have major north-south highway access and in turn, may get somewhat forgotten about. With that said, it has had steady city proper population growth in recent years as well.
It's arguably a blessing of sorts that a major north-south highway didn't come in and obliterate more of the city as had happened in many other places. I think it's really hard to come across a city in the northeast and midwest that had a large industrial backbone in the mid-20th century that hadn't seen quite a bit of highways cutting through the city.
I also wouldn’t put Baltimore in the rust belt category. It’s economy was historically very different than the other cities.
Though in the 1950s Baltimore along with a lot of other northeastern cities had thriving manufacturing industries. I believe for Baltimore it was textiles, steel and automobiles for the most part. Lost of those jobs likely were a major factor in Baltimore's downturn. The good thing for Baltimore is that it's also a major seaport.
I think if Buffalo. It is more like a normal city where is had large swaths of really quite decent cohesive urban neighborhoods. With pockets of disinvestment and abandonment. (Milwaukee is significantly higher but, a lot of that was suburban sprawl within city limits rather than maintaining inner city population)
Which makes sense, it’s at 48% of its peak population. While most other Rustbelt cities are in the 30s. It was also the densest of the original cities at peak so neighborhoods had to fall a lot further before feeling empty.
Rochester is in decent shape but it’s also imo at it’s lowest point ever maybe? At least at a metro level. Since it never crashed with the rest in the 70s. It was doing well in the 70s and 80s and really started declining in the late 90s
Not sure where you got this impression of Milwaukee. There is relatively little "suburban sprawl" within city limits, especially residential suburban-style development. The vast majority of post-World War II housing was built on 40- to 50-foot lots on grid street blocks, many with alleys and rear garages (see, for example Google aerials of Southwest Side around 60th and Oklahoma or West Side around 76th and Burleigh). It's true that a good amount of central city housing has been demolished, but new housing construction in and near downtown has been very strong in recent decades, and the city is doing okay population-wise.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
