America’s most underrated region: The Rust Belt

America’s most underrated region: The Rust Belt

The people in Ohio the people in the Rust Belt and they call it the rust belt for a reason because everything’s rusting and rotting what do you think of when you hear the term rust belt for many names like Cleveland and Detroit are synonymous with Urban Decay images of abandoned warehouses and factories

Define many Americans views of the post-industrial Midwest for me though I see opportunity Renaissance and a brighter tomorrow for this region in this video I’m going to explain why in order to understand its future we first need to Define what the Rust Belt is it’s generally accepted that the Rust

Belt expands across the Northeast and Midwest of the United States stretching from upstate New York and the east across Pennsylvania Ohio Indiana Illinois and Wisconsin if we think about Rust Belt cities as being cities that boomed in the 19th and early 20th centuries due to manufacturing that have declined heavily in Prestige and

Population since the 1950s then the definition gets it’s a lot bigger St Louis Baltimore and Philadelphia could all be solidly within the Rust Belt now how did the Rust Belt become the Rust Belt in the 1980s presidential candidate Walter Mandel gave a speech at a steel plant while running for president

Against Ronald Reagan he criticized Reagan’s position on trade particularly on lifting quotas on steel Imports saying Reagan’s policies are turning our industrial Midwest into a rust bow right at that moment the industrial midw West was transforming into the Rust Belt a geographic concept not yet formed in the

Minds of Americans but forming Before Their Eyes nonetheless you see for more than 100 years the Northeast and Midwest had been the industrial engine of the United States originally America was an agrarian Nation as the US grew and Americans moved Westward into the interior of the country it became quite

Clear that anyone who could provide efficient transport from the interior to the Atlantic coast would become quite wealthy canals and railroads quickly sprang up competing with one another to connect the great lakes in the midwest to the Atlantic coast as America’s Transportation Network grew rapidly so too did its manufacturing economy

America is naturally blessed with valuable natural resources mines and factories sprang up everywhere to extract and transform these resources into things like oil and steel efficient shipment of these resources and goods was critical and settlements and critical locations became huge centers of manufacturing and shipping Chicago is located where a canal connected the

Mississippi to the great lakes and became the country’s largest railroad Hub iron and copper in northern Michigan and Minnesota positioned Detroit to be the auto manufacturing capital of the US Pittsburgh where the alagan and mananga Halo rivers meet to become the Ohio River was an area with abundant coal and

Became known around the world as the Steel City Cleveland was the site where the Ohio and Erie Canal connected the Ohio River to Lake Erie it would become a manufacturing giant the home of Standard Oil which had a virtual monopoly over oil production in the United States Buffalo sits at the point

Where the Great Lakes meet the Erie Canal the most effective pre- railroad shipping Lane to the Atlantic Ocean at Buffalo’s Peak it would store more grain in its ports than any other city in the world industrial cities in the US were growing at extremely rapid Paces immigrants from many parts of Europe

Poured into these cities supplementing an already sizable population boom during the 1900 census over 7 75% of people living in Cleveland were immigrants or the children of immigrants Chicago Illinois was the largest city in the world in 1900 not to have existed in 1800 going from a small town in 1840 to

Being a city of over 1.5 million people in 1900 as big as Paris St Louis a mere settlement of a few hundred people in 1800 Rose to become the fourth biggest US city by 1900 with a population of 575,000 people unfortunately all booms come to anend end and the massive

Population growth experienced by Urban industrial centers did not last through the 20th century many forces came together to end the reign of the industrial Midwest suburbanization played a major role cities cannibalized themselves by subsidizing ambitious Highway projects enabling people to live outside the urban core they relied on

For income and to not pay taxes to the municipality they lived near Manufacturing in the United States has also declined significantly after World War II collaps Urban economies that relied heavily on a few specific Industries or worse a few giant corporations shipping on the great lakes also deteriorated heavily with the

Advent of trucking and the incentives given for shipping by rail Buffalo’s shipping industry was served a death blow when the St Lawrence Seaway in Canada opened up making the Erie Canal obsolete as Goods began to ship through the St Lawrence River whatever the reasons for decline it’s hard to ere

Exaggerate the extent to which it damaged the economies of manufacturing heavy cities rustbelt cities have experienced staggering population losses Detroit was a city of over 1.5 million people in the 1950s today it’s a city of just 640,000 in 1950 Cleveland had over 900,000 people Pittsburgh almost 700,000 today Cleveland’s population is 370,000 and

Pittsburgh is at just under 300,000 one famous incident that is characteristic of rustbelt decline was the closing of Youngtown sheet in tube on September 16th 1977 when over 500,000 workers were laid off in a single day the already suffering Youngtown economy was devastated Youngstown was once a city with almost 170,000 people and

Today it has just 60,000 as bad as things might look for the Rust Belt we are absolutely turning a corner America is undergoing an urban Renaissance it’s clear that cities that reach Rock Bottom in the second half of the 20th century are making a comeback suburbanization is no longer in Vogue

Put simply people want to live in cities rustbelt cities have lost a lot of people but that trend is reversing Buffalo actually gains 6.5% of its population back and other cities have stopped losing nearly as many people as they had been in the decades prior and

It’s not like the Metro areas of these cities have declined substantially since the 50s Metro Detroit has grown by 34% since 1950 and the Milwaukee metro area has grown by 57% suburbanization has a big role to play with the losses that rustbelt City have faced in Buffalo the

Footprint of development has gotten 300% bigger but the population has remained the same reurbanization is much more important than reindustrialization for cities like Buffalo if people return to the cities from the suburbs that will make a huge difference another thing working in rustbelt City’s favor is that

The cost of living throughout the United States major cities is extraordinarily High there are excellent opportunities to build more affordable housing in older US cities with lower prices population growth is critical for the Revival of Rust Belt cities and their affordability will play a large role Rust Belt cities are also older than

Sunb Bel cities and are therefore generally more walkable they have good bones and it will be very easy to fill these cities with more mixed used walkable neighborhoods in the future rustbelt cities are also a lot more livable now than they were during the peak of the Industrial Age the pollution

And general dinginess of industrial cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were abysmal take Pittsburgh for example one traveler said of Pittsburgh in the 1880s in truth Pittsburgh is a smoky dismal City at her best at her worst nothing darker dingier or more dispiriting Can Be Imagined

Herbert Spencer a British philosopher put it more bluntly six months residence in Pittsburgh would justify suicide sud and slag covered every surface in downtown Pittsburgh and sewage and waste polluted waterways fast forward to the present and it’s easy to see that quality of life in the city has improved

Immensely the Waterfront of post industrial rust Bel cities is also able to be used for recreational purposes something that wasn’t possible before during the height of industrialization the Waterfront would be reserved for heavy industry and inhospitable to Urban explorers today cities across the Rust Belt are revitalizing their waterfronts

And turning them into strong points within the city in many ways today is a much better time to live in rustbelt cities than their industrial Peak as a tourist rust Bel cities provide a unique experience if a downtown is thronged with people you lose out on having a lot

Of space to yourself definitely a downside older Rust Belt cities have more historic skylines older buildings get to shine whereas in cities with late 20th century booms you get much less interesting arrangement of architecture it’s just way cheaper to Vacation one of these cities and the urban exploration

Is amazing and that brings me to my next Point fundamentally Rust Belt City ities are undervalued in city nerd’s video on the most undervalued cities in the US five of the 10 cities he lists are solidly within the Rust Belt and you can make a strong case for eight of the 10

Now there’s this idea that Rust Belt cities are doomed because Americans don’t want to live in cold areas anymore the invention of air conditioning which was invented in Buffalo funnily enough is supposed to have been detrimental to the Rust Belt I think looking at counter examples is useful here Minneapolis is

An amazing success story and it’s often not counted in the Rust Belt that’s probably because when a city starts doing really well it leaves the Rust Belt in people’s imaginations Minneapolis was declining steadily like most American cities after a peak in the 1950s from 1950 to 1990 its population dropped from 520,000 to

370,000 since then the population has slowly risen back up to 430,000 people honestly the truth is almost every major American city experienced a bad population drop in the second half of the 20th century powerful cities like Boston Washington DC and Philadelphia all lost tremendous numbers of people

During this time even New York City struggled hard in the second half of the 20th century growing by only about 1% compared with an 87% population growth in the US as a whole these cities like Minneapolis have reached recovery As Americans have decided that they want to live in a more urban environment

Rustbelt cities will find their way it’s just taking a little more time despite all the positives I’ve mentioned a lot of people can’t get past crime crime is always an issue in any US city but crime is down from historical highs in the 80s and 90s rather than flee areas with high

Crime we should try to invest where we can by no means should you put yourself in danger but I encourage everyone to support businesses in Lower Class neighborhoods and encourage those areas to grow and Thrive disinvestment is a vicious cycle people decide a neighborhood is no good anymore and they

Move out slowly devaluing the neighborhood further until more people decide it isn’t worth living there anymore reinvestment is the same way give more neighborhoods a chance and after a while you might find those neighborhoods have even more to offer the Renaissance of all these Rust Belt cities is exciting people will ask me

Questions like what industry is driving Buffalo’s economy for rustbelt cities like Buffalo it’s not like there’s going to be one single thing that drives the economy it doesn’t work like that technology Finance Innovation it’s all going to play a role in driving the future of these cities in the next 50

Years there will definitely be some new emerging cities that aren’t on anyone’s radar right now with luck those newly emerging cities will be in the Rust Belt

Have you ever thought about the Rust Belt beyond the haunting images of abandoned factories and urban decay? Join me on a journey as we redefine the narrative surrounding cities like Cleveland and Detroit.
In this video, I challenge the conventional perception and shed light on the untapped potential, renaissance, and a brighter tomorrow that lies within the post-industrial Midwest.

Topics Covered:

Understanding the Rust Belt: From Upstate New York to the heart of the Midwest, unraveling the geographical and historical dimensions.
Redefining Rust Belt Cities: It’s not just about Cleveland and Detroit; delve into the broader spectrum that includes St Louis, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.

What to Expect:

Insightful analysis on why Rust Belt cities thrived in the past and the factors contributing to their decline since the 1950s.
Unveiling the untold stories of resilience, innovation, and community efforts that hint at a resurgence in these once-booming industrial centers.
🌐 Join the Conversation:
Have your say in the comments! Share your thoughts on the Rust Belt, its challenges, and the potential you see for its future. Let’s reshape the narrative together!

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