Surviving the Era of Deindustrialization: The New Economic Geography of the Urban Rust Belt

Abstract

This article details the transformation of the urban rust belt over the course of economic restructuring. It begins by building typologies of cities at the starting point of restructuring and by showing how cities vary in socioeconomic performance by the endpoint. Multiple methods and data sources are then used to provide a general and detailed story of change for successful and unsuccessful performers. Results show that, in general, deindustrialization is not associated with performance. However, manufacturing still matters. Detailed stories show successful cities of one type have diversified manufacturing, becoming post‐industrial producers. Successful cities of another type have specialized, retaining old manufacturing in branch plants. For the first type of city, policies aimed at developing the labor force and encouraging collaboration between local manufacturers is recommended. For the second type, policies targeted at improving the local business climate are encouraged. Results also show all unsuccessful cities have become healthcare‐based economies.

The Ecology of Race and Punishment across Cities

“…Eason (, ) has demonstrated the proliferation of prisons to rural areas and how this has shaped the social, political, and economic conditions of rural areas in the United States. Few researchers have examined small cities—places that have been significantly impacted by deindustrialization (Bell and Jayne ; Cowie and Heathcott ; Hobor ), poverty (Murphy ), and the opioid crisis (Kneebone and Allard ), while not experiencing the same benefits of the crime decline that large cities have experienced (Matthews et al. ).…”

“…Eason (2010Eason ( , 2017 has demonstrated the proliferation of prisons to rural areas and how this has shaped the social, political, and economic conditions of rural areas in the United States. Few researchers have examined small cities-places that have been significantly impacted by deindustrialization (Bell and Jayne 2009;Cowie and Heathcott 2003;Hobor 2012), poverty (Murphy 2007), and the opioid crisis (Kneebone and Allard 2017), while not experiencing the same benefits of the crime decline that large cities have experienced (Matthews et al 2001). The current study analyzes prison admissions disaggregated by race and ethnicity and the spatial structure of preprison neighborhoods across all cities in Massachusetts, moving beyond an urban-rural framework.…”

Can Rust Belt or Three Cities Explain the Sociospatial Changes in Atlantic Canadian Cities?

“…Research on midsize “rust belt” cities, such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Detroit, shows that economic downturns and deindustrialization led to a “hollowing out” of their urban cores (Haller ; Linkon ; Perry and McLean ; Warf and Holly ). A consistent narrative across studies is the labeling of cities as part of the “rust belt” after the once‐thriving city centers became impoverished ghost towns and “shrinking cities” (Deitrick ; Hobor ). Research on Chicago and Pittsburgh, for example, documented “middle‐class flight” from the inner city (Morenoff and Sampson ; Rose and Twigge‐Molecey 2013).…”

Buffalo's West Side Story: Migration, Gentrification, and Neighborhood Change

“…However, during the 1960s and 1970s Buffalo and other places underwent major structural alterations because of deindustrialization, economic globalization, and automation (High ; Hobor ; Pitegoff ; Silverman et al. ).…”