What are the most “rust beltish” towns/cities?

[It’s so Joever]

What is your quintessential, stereotypical rust belt town full of decaying houses, empty factories, and lots of decline?

Obvious big cities such as Detroit qualify, but what are some of the more obscure but just as (if not more) stereotypical rust belt towns?


If you want, feel free to mention towns in other countries with similar crises.

[Kuumo]

Youngstown, OH, seems to fit the bill better than anywhere else.

[If my soul was made of stone]

Youngstown is about as archetypal as it gets. I would also nominate:

Gary, IN
Flint, MI
Duluth, MN / Superior, WI (the "Twin Ports")
Cumberland, MD
Niagara Falls, NY
McKeesport, PA
Wheeling, WV

[Roll Roons]

Saginaw, MI and Johnstown, PA. Maybe Erie, but it’s a bit bigger.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Youngstown, OH, is the first place that comes to mind.

[ottermax]

What about "rust beltish" towns outside the rust belt?

Bridgeport, CT, Lowell, MA, Trenton, NJ? Waterloo, IA? Pueblo, CO? Longview/Kelso, WA?

[Hope For A New Era]

The area that always comes to mind for me is that little bit of West Virginia between Ohio and Pennsylvania.

What about "rust beltish" towns outside the rust belt?

Bridgeport, CT, Lowell, MA, Trenton, NJ? Waterloo, IA? Pueblo, CO? Longview/Kelso, WA?

add:

the area of Clay County, MO between Gladstone and North Kansas City

lots of southern Indiana (or is that part of the main rust belt?)

most of St. Louis (it really is a Great Lakes city that got lost, in every way)

alternate-universe Portland, OR could be more rustbelty than anywhere in the actual rust belt

[Alcibiades]

Youngstown is the first that comes to mind, followed by Gary, Cleveland and Saginaw.

In Europe, Charleroi in Belgium.

[Brittain33]

What about "rust beltish" towns outside the rust belt?

Bridgeport, CT, Lowell, MA, Trenton, NJ? Waterloo, IA? Pueblo, CO? Longview/Kelso, WA?

Camden, NJ

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Hammond and Michigan City in Indiana

[Brittain33]

The area that always comes to mind for me is that little bit of West Virginia between Ohio and Pennsylvania.

I like looking at real estate in Wheeling, West Virginia, especially on the island. A mix of beautiful old homes and rundown places in a very dense setting (by U.S. standards) and it's clear that many of the interiors haven't been updated in decades.

This 1909 house is selling for <10% of what it would get in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/451-N-Wabash-St_Wheeling_WV_26003_M35501-02820

[Beet]

What about "rust beltish" towns outside the rust belt?

Bridgeport, CT, Lowell, MA, Trenton, NJ? Waterloo, IA? Pueblo, CO? Longview/Kelso, WA?

St. Louis, Missouri

Baltimore, Maryland

[Torie]

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What about "rust beltish" towns outside the rust belt?

Bridgeport, CT, Lowell, MA, Trenton, NJ? Waterloo, IA? Pueblo, CO? Longview/Kelso, WA?

Camden, NJ

North Adams, MA
Holyoke, MA
Troy, NY

[DC Al Fine]

Glace Bay, NS
New Waterford, NS
Sydney Mines, NS

[H. Ross Peron]

What about "rust beltish" towns outside the rust belt?

Bridgeport, CT, Lowell, MA, Trenton, NJ? Waterloo, IA? Pueblo, CO? Longview/Kelso, WA?

Camden, NJ

North Adams, MA
Holyoke, MA
Troy, NY

Richmond, CA

Akron, Ohio is another classic example of a Rust Belt city.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Ironically I may live in the most "rust beltish" city in Italy, even though I literally never consider it in these terms.
It's more "Rust Belt but has sort of successfully renovated" but the fact that La Spezia lost 25% of its inhabitants between 1971 and 2001 and is quite recently-developed and non-artistic for an Italian city (and of course is very industrial) must count for something.
Otherwise I don't know, maybe the immediate southern suburbs of Naples?

East Side of Chicago

So Lake Michigan?

[Alcibiades]

East Side of Chicago

So Lake Michigan?

Well one member of this forum is a former resident of Lake Michigan.

[Gracile]

East Side of Chicago

So Lake Michigan?

He's referring to the East Side neighborhood in the southeast corner of the city (bounded by the Indiana border and the Calumet River). The area was once a major steel manufacturing hub.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

East Side of Chicago

So Lake Michigan?

He's referring to the East Side neighborhood in the southeast corner of the city (bounded by the Indiana border and the Calumet River). The area was once a major steel manufacturing hub.

So the area near Hammond/Gary/East Chicago in Indiana, also known as Clarko95 Country? I get it now.

[morgieb]

Portsmouth, Ohio is another significant "rust belt" city:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/03/us/politics/ohio-election-trump-biden.html

[Gracile]

Also, I'm pretty sure the post-industrial, small-town parts of New England/the Northeast are generally considered part of the traditional rust belt, not "outside" of it.

[Mike Thick]

Of the places in the Rust Belt not mentioned here, Chillicothe, OH comes to mind.

In California, there aren't a lot of genuinely postindustrial areas, but a lot of the mid-sized cities in the Central Valley have that sort of "deteriorating urban core" feel. One time I was out in Downtown Fresno on a Saturday afternoon, and I saw a pack of like 20 stray dogs run down the middle of the street past the convention center.

[lfromnj]

Of the places in the Rust Belt not mentioned here, Chillicothe, OH comes to mind.

In California, there aren't a lot of genuinely postindustrial areas, but a lot of the mid-sized cities in the Central Valley have that sort of "deteriorating urban core" feel. One time I was out in Downtown Fresno on a Saturday afternoon, and I saw a pack of like 20 stray dogs run down the middle of the street past the convention center.

Wouldn't the closest in CA be Shasta or Lake County?

[Torie]

What about "rust beltish" towns outside the rust belt?

Bridgeport, CT, Lowell, MA, Trenton, NJ? Waterloo, IA? Pueblo, CO? Longview/Kelso, WA?

Camden, NJ

North Adams, MA
Holyoke, MA
Troy, NY

Haven't all of those towns made substantial progress in reinventing themselves for the post industrial age? In other news, I much prefer Troy to Albany, and when I think of North Adams I think of the art museum.  I would think the big brick former mill buildings there have been repurposed, or are in the process of being, as in so much of New England. Downtown Amsterdam, NY is an empty shell. Check it out!