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Saratoga County north of Albany has been one of the fastest growing counties in NY State and has places like Clifton Park, Malta and Halfmoon that have seen a lot of growth in recent years.
Memphis. Little Rock. Birmingham. New Orleans. They all struck me as lacking that typical sunbeltish suburban development feeling.
Really though, there isn't much difference anymore between sunbelt sprawl and the sprawl up north. The manufacturing/agrarian division has long been dissipated.
West Virginia is a unique state because it's where the South meets the Rust Belt. If you drive through Charleston, for example, the architecture and industry looks a lot like Ohio or Pennsylvania. However, culturally, that part of West Virginia does have some southern traits. If anything, it's a transition zone between the two regions. The coal country of southern West Virginia (Beckley, etc.) is in the South, but the industrial cities of northern West Virginia (Wheeling, etc.) are in the Rust Belt. Charleston and Huntington are right in the middle and could go either way.
To respond to the topic of the thread, I agree with the others that Indianapolis and Columbus are probably the two best examples. Those two cities have never relied on heavy industry compared to other areas in the Midwest. The Cincinnati area has some industrial pockets, but it also fits the bill to an extent. All three cities have diversified their economies to remain competitive.
In the South, I would say Petersburg, Virginia is a good pick. It's a very gritty city, as it used to rely on the tobacco industry but it has never fully recovered since the tobacco plants closed down. There are many areas throughout southern Appalachia and the Carolina Piedmont that have slight industrial vibes, too. Roanoke, Winston-Salem, Gastonia, etc.
^^^^^ Gosh yes. It's hard to know what the OP is looking for but Chattanooga has a heavy industrial past but is hard at work redeveloping the old industrial sites.
Memphis. Little Rock. Birmingham. New Orleans. They all struck me as lacking that typical sunbeltish suburban development feeling.
Really though, there isn't much difference anymore between sunbelt sprawl and the sprawl up north. The manufacturing/agrarian division has long been dissipated.
Memphis has a little bit of them. They are just in Northern Mississippi. Not extensive though.
Birmingham as well. Its the Pittsburgh of the South as far as growth and insulation is concerned.
It shares a lot of similarities but I’m not sure the growth point is right. B’ham isn’t booming like many sunbelt cities, but the metro has seen pretty steady, modest population and job growth (and low unemployment in recent times). I thought Pittsburg MSA was slowly losing people, but I could be wrong.
I’d agree, though, that B’ham definitely has a Midwest/Appalachian industrial vibe sometimes, especially on dreary winter days.
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