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What do you think consists of the Rust Belt?
Obviously Cleveland, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Detroit, Akron. Youngstown, Pittsburgh and Erie are all clearly rustbelt.
but the question is at what point does the Rustbelt end?
Is Cincinnati, Louisville, or Evansville Rustbelt? They were distinct from say Milwaukee as they were river port towns prior to industrialization and have historys distinct from Buffalo, Cleveland, Akron and such.
Are the Erie Canal towns of NY (Utica, Rome etc) Rustbelt? They have a clear difference in history, and had much earlier booms.
How about former industrial cities in New England? Lowell, Pawtucket, Pittsfield etc. had light industry (Textiles) as opposed to steel or Automobile manufacturing, are they Rustbelt? (also industry left about 30 years earlier.)
However all these cities have had some degree of depopulation and deindustrialization but I would hesitate to put them all in one region.
What do you think consists of the Rust Belt?
Obviously Cleveland, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Detroit, Akron. Youngstown, Pittsburgh and Erie are all clearly rustbelt.
but the question is at what point does the Rustbelt end?
Is Cincinnati, Louisville, or Evansville Rustbelt? They were distinct from say Milwaukee as they were river port towns prior to industrialization and have historys distinct from Buffalo, Cleveland, Akron and such.
Are the Erie Canal towns of NY (Utica, Rome etc) Rustbelt? They have a clear difference in history, and had much earlier booms.
How about former industrial cities in New England? Lowell, Pawtucket, Pittsfield etc. had light industry (Textiles) as opposed to steel or Automobile manufacturing, are they Rustbelt? (also industry left about 30 years earlier.)
However all these cities have had some degree of depopulation and deindustrialization but I would hesitate to put them all in one region.
The rust belt has no clear geographical boundaries. It's more used as a descriptor of any city which hasn't "gotten it's groove back" economically from the decline of manufacturing than anything. Cities can be surrounded by Rust Belt metros but not be rust belt themselves (Columbus) or considered to be part of the Rust Belt even if they're geographically quite far from it (Baltimore, Duluth, or even Birmingham).
I would say the westernmost extent of the Rustbelt would be St. Louis and the Quad cities. I don't consider Louisville a Rust Belt city as it never deteriorated in the way most Rust Belt cities did. I would say the true Rust Belt cities are St. Louis, Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Cleveland.
The rust belt has no clear geographical boundaries. It's more used as a descriptor of any city which hasn't "gotten it's groove back" economically from the decline of manufacturing than anything. Cities can be surrounded by Rust Belt metros but not be rust belt themselves (Columbus) or considered to be part of the Rust Belt even if they're geographically quite far from it (Baltimore, Duluth, or even Birmingham).
I agree with this. I would consider Newark, Paterson, and Trenton, New Jersey to be rust belt cities but I don't think anyone would refer to New York as rust belt. Furthermore, Cleveland, Akron, Toledo etc. are rust belt cities but Columbus isn't. It's more to do with economic conditions and population decline than geographic location. Richmond, California, a city that developed from manufacturing war ships during the second world war could be considered rust belt based on this non-geographic definition but if you're using a strict geographic definition that I would obviously exclude it.
I think this is a pretty good map. It shows what is traditionally known as the Rust Belt. I think Charleston, WV should be included though. It has a very Rust Belt feel and economy.
Philadelphia and Baltimore are also Rust Belts almost as every bit as Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Cleveland, St Louis, Detroit .. Even Boston has traits of a being a Rust Belt city .... They get overlooked simply because they're in the lavish Acela corridor... And just like many other City-Data exclusive oxymorons, We all know you can't be Rust Belt and have i-95 run through your town.
Philadelphia and Baltimore are also Rust Belts almost as every bit as Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Cleveland, St Louis, Detroit .. Even Boston has traits of a being a Rust Belt city .... They get overlooked simply because they're in the lavish Acela corridor... And just like many other City-Data exclusive oxymorons, We all know you can't be Rust Belt and have i-95 run through your town.
Particularly the Boston area doesn't fit, for a few reasons
1) It deindustrialized earlier thus retooled its economy earlier
2) industrial work was always for the working poor in Boston not the middle class like in Detroit, thus the working class areas of the metro, Somerville, Dorchester, Chelsea are populated with Triple Deckers as opposed to single family homes common in most of the Rustbelt.
3) Boston didn't lose as much population as any of the Rustbelt cities.
Boston doesn't fit, Baltimore and Philly might, because they had much more heavy industry than Boston.
I think this is a pretty good map. It shows what is traditionally known as the Rust Belt. I think Charleston, WV should be included though. It has a very Rust Belt feel and economy.
St. Louis and the Quad Cities are definitely part of the Rust Belt. That is a poor map to leave out those cities. Also, Charleston, WV is Southern...it doesn't have the culture of a Rust Belt city not to mention it wasn't a city that gained in population during the Great Migration.
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