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.
You left St. Louis out....I think....St. Louis certainly behaves and looks like a rustbelt city. i dunno. Hard to say. I think they're all gonna turn around at some point. They already are improving ever so slowly.
Would Kansas City and Cincinnati also count? they certainly had rust-belt reputations at one time...not sure about today. I can tell you with 100 percent certainty though that St. Louis should be on that list. i really hope all the cities listed here bounce back to the way things used to be. St. Louis especially has experienced severe population loss. In 1950, I believe around 850,000 were living within the city limits alone. With white flight, experienced in every city at that time, St. Louis City's population dropped by half. I'd say with St. Louis it's going to be a challenge especially considering St. Louis City broke itself free from the "parent county" (St. Louis County) in 1876. Stupid move IMO, one that cannot be undone. Parts of St. Louis City are ok...North City is still in terrible shape. South City and the downtown area are experiencing rebounding effects slowly but surely. East St. Louis as always is a problem but then again, that's not really St. Louis' problem because East St. Louis is in Illinois, not Missouri. It al depends. St. Louis given its prime central location has a fighting chance if they use it to their advantage.
New York seems to be doing well right now. Still looks kinda rusty.
Rustbelt cities essentially mean cities which once were doing strong industrially and then essentially shut down. New York has never shut down so I would not call it a rustbelt city by any means.
I think most rust-belt metropolitan areas are pretty prosperous overall Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Cincinnati despite all the doom and gloom are still overall very prosperous metropolitan areas just as prosperous as many sun-belt metropolitan areas in fact. I am sure their growth rates are probubly not nearly as impressive as many sun-belt cities but these rust-belt cities were at the top for so many years with good manufacuturing and many large corperations unlike many sun-belt cities.
Cleveland, Ohio could go from being one of the most crime-ridden, poverty-ridden cities in the country to being in the middle of the pack if it annexed all of Cuyahoga county and became a city of 1.3 million people. Pittsburgh, PA would go from being a rather violent, poor city to being one of the most affluent and safest if it could just magically annex Allegheny County overnight. So this has more to do with annexation then anything else. The thing is unlike with sun-belt cities with a vast majority of the county populations living in their quaint suburbs its very, very unlikely that any of these cities would ever annex the entire counties.
I am sure Louisville, Kentucky looks good now since it annexed all of Jefferson County its gone from being a violent, declining city to being a middle-class, low-crime city for its size.
The problem is more with the inner-cities with-in the rust-belt metropolitan areas which have severe problems because they are so boxed in. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee all have had massive population declines in their cities over the years and have had alot of the wealthier previous residents out-migrate to the suburbs which has caused massive problems for their tax bases. Unlike sun-belt cities which can annex alot because they dont have lots of old suburbs alot of these rust-belt cities are filled with suburbs which would object to becoming part of the poor city so thus these rust-belt cities continue to be unable to provide even basic services such as public safety to the extent needed so property values decrease and its a big cycle.
Overall, I dont think its so much of a metropolitan issue as its a city proper issue and the city with the best chance of turning it around will be the one to gentrify the largest percentage of the city first. Alot of these rust-belt cities to turn around really need to either annex or gentrify neither one is easy.
I was going to say Pittsburgh but they are probubly 2nd. Pittsburgh does have a massive higher education base, lots of medical, very large corperate city. But the city itself is very boxed in and unable to annex so that causes some issues. I remember looking up Allegheny county is being suprised that its overall a very affluent county with the suburbs but the city overall has major issues unlike the metropolitan area which is rather prosperous.
Rustbelt cities essentially mean cities which once were doing strong industrially and then essentially shut down. New York has never shut down so I would not call it a rustbelt city by any means.
NYC almost went bankrupt in the 70's. The city did shut down. City services were cut and quality of life plunged. The city was also once doing strong industrially, look at areas like Red Hook. Those abandoned warehouses and factories were once full of life.
NYC was doing okay for a while, but the trend seems to be reversing itself slowly. I blame administrations passing the current problems to the next.
I don't see cities in the rust belt doing big things. I mean the sunbelt is doing big things right?
Last edited by Hustla718; 06-18-2007 at 12:34 PM..
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.
