[novawolverine]

Baltimore is not a rust belt city. If Baltimore is rust-belt than so is DC east of the Anacostia River. Maybe Norfolk and Richmond are as well. They have bombed out areas and saw massive decline. Baltimore's issues have more to do with crack, crime, poor management and services, issues that plague predominantly Black cities than with manufacturing jobs going away. Most importantly, people in Baltimore don't see their city as being a part of the rust-belt. It's not b/c of denial, it's b/c it just isn't and outsiders love to apply labels. And Baltimore losing people doesn't mean much, until a few years ago, DC was losing people as well. Baltimore's not hemorrhaging people and has followed a path, in part due to its geography to DC, that separates it from true rust belt cities. You can't just relegate all the military and gov't jobs in close proximity to Baltimore to a mere mention. Driving through Baltimore on I-95 is not enough, neither is watching The Wire. It has been a relatively white-collar city for some time now.