“Rustbelt” is a term used to describe the Great Lakes and northeastern regions of the United States that were devastated in the 1970s by the decline in manufacturing. Thus, the term has come to signify the physical, economic, and social degeneration of the once thriving industrial region. Presently, many rustbelt cities are characterized by large abandoned factories, loss of population, high poverty rates, dwindling tax bases, inferior schools and other public services, and hypersegregation.