Where Is The Rust Belt?

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by benp

Houston in the 1980s mimicked many of the losses and issues associated with the Rust Belt, following the collapse of US drilling when oil prices crashed. Bethlehem Steel, TESCO (Texas Electric Steel Co), Beaumont Well Works, Gray Tool, and many other companies involved in castings, forgings, rolling mills, manufacturing, etc closed down forever. Many parts of Houston held abandoned factories, subdivisions were abandoned, and population in Houston fell for several years in a row. Unlike Birmingham, Houston began a recovery by the early 1990s, as oil prices rose and Houston diversified its employment, and also began a greater role in O&G pipeline development and management, refining, shipping, and international finance and engineering as many companies merged and consolidated in Houston from other cities.

For those not familiar, most of the East and Southeast Houston area is very industrial with large concentrations of poor and working-class residents, and has many similarities to similar norther Rust Belt communities. These are not areas that visitors often see, or even know about, but make up at least half of the city.

Right, hopefully Houston makes some movies to avoid being a future "Fumes belt" city in the next few decades.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by TWAK

I'm still wondering about 100 people leaving California vs millions in the rust belt cities. I get that Rust Belters will want to torment Californians and I'm ok with that, but are y'all really concerned or is this an aha! moment? The houses or apartments in CA are immediately filled, with competition.

Yea, there is no abandoned neighborhood in the California big cities. Even the crummiest parts are still full of people/business/life. NYC's the same way.

There's definitely crappy industrial areas like Vernon but those places seem to be packed with logistics. I wish they tear half of it down for housing but they are jobs for thousands of people.

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Right, hopefully Houston makes some movies to avoid being a future "Fumes belt" city in the next few decades.

Houston is likely fortunate that it is in a big and growing state, Texas. Its growth after the 80s bust would probably be a lot slower if it were in a smaller state like Louisianna or Oklahoma. The cities in those states that have major oil industries, such as Tulsa and Baton Rouge, have grown very slowly for sunbelt cities, as has even Beaumont, right next to Houston.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by DCReid

Houston is likely fortunate that it is in a big and growing state, Texas. Its growth after the 80s bust would probably be a lot slower if it were in a smaller state like Louisianna or Oklahoma. The cities in those states that have major oil industries, such as Tulsa and Baton Rouge, have grown very slowly for sunbelt cities, as has even Beaumont, right next to Houston.

Baton Rouge sort of feels like a Rust Belt city too, actually...


https://www.google.com/maps/@30.4275112,...itch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

For example, when I was in 4th grade (1993) my class took a field trip to Music Hall to see The Nutcracker. The teachers made it very clear that when we got off the bus across the street near Washington Park we were not to talk to or make eye contact with anyone.

Yeah, because it was a bunch of junkies. It wasn't possible to walk through that park without being harassed, or really the whole area.

The sheer scale of the drug dealing, drug using, and prostitution that existed in that area prior to the 2006 Sheriff's Patrols is impossible to exaggerate. Nobody took photos or video of it because...you would be attacked. I attempted to photograph the area in the summer of 2003 and had rocks thrown at me and was threatened with a knife.

The Sheriff's Patrols were the turning point. That's when Simon Leis was pushing for the new jail and so directed his resources into OTR and Downtown. He intentionally overcrowded the existing jail to illustrate that we needed a new jail.

Within 2-3 weeks it was all over. The chaos that Cincinnati Police was never able to control was suddenly...over. And it never came back, even after the county patrols ended.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by DCReid

The only southern 'Rust belt' city I can think of would be Birmingham, which had steel plants like Pittsburgh, and experienced a stagnation due to steel mills closing. But the southern cities did not really attract immigrants like the northern rust belt cities and African-Americans left many of the states because of Jim Crow.

Memphis is one of the rustiest looking places I've ever seen. It seems very much in that St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland category of urban centers.

[Yuri]

Once I was touring the GSV and there is this neighbourhood in New Orleans, the first one downriver from the French Quarter, and it looks rust beltish.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Yuri

Once I was touring the GSV and there is this neighbourhood in New Orleans, the first one downriver from the French Quarter, and it looks rust beltish.

Huh?

The first downriver from the French Quarter is Marigny, and it's highly desirable and quite urban.

Bywater comes next, and it's also very gentrified/desirable, though it's less walkable. Lacks a main drag business district, with just random corner stores and the like.

Mind you, the areas right along the riverfront are not very attractive. Even the riverfront in the French Quarter isn't attractive the whole way up, with the riverwalk ending by St. Phillip Street.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Huh?

The first downriver from the French Quarter is Marigny, and it's highly desirable and quite urban.

Bywater comes next, and it's also very gentrified/desirable, though it's less walkable. Lacks a main drag business district, with just random corner stores and the like.

Mind you, the areas right along the riverfront are not very attractive. Even the riverfront in the French Quarter isn't attractive the whole way up, with the riverwalk ending by St. Phillip Street.

Bywater. There is a rough, unkept quality there: https://www.google.com/maps/@29.9617321,...s39T0amIp_hGKRoh398SA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Yuri

Bywater. There is a rough, unkept quality there: https://www.google.com/maps/@29.9617321,...s39T0amIp_hGKRoh398SA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

that's just kind of how the urban South looks, no evidence of wholescale abandonment (there definitely is in New Orleans in other places, though not sure to what extent it's hurricane-related).

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

that's just kind of how the urban South looks, no evidence of wholescale abandonment (there definitely is in New Orleans in other places, though not sure to what extent it's hurricane-related).

Looking on Realtor, homes in Bywater go for $250,000-$700,000, so it's definitely not an undesirable area.

[Yuri]

Just to clarify I didn't mean in a negative way. I found the place fascinating, exotic. Not sure how it's like to actual live there, but I liked it.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Yuri

Just to clarify I didn't mean in a negative way. I found the place fascinating, exotic. Not sure how it's like to actual live there, but I liked it.

The condition of the roads is terrible for the wealthiest nation on Earth. That helps give it a 'forgotten about' vibe

Probably home to mostly good folks just trying to get their slice of the American Dream pie

[Crawford]

The urban South has a ramshackle, vaguely third world-ish vibe in terms of infrastructure and public realm. You see it in the boomtowns like Nashville and the backwaters like Jackson. Leaning utility lines, limited sidewalks, often no curbs or drainage, etc. Doesn't mean the neighborhood isn't desirable.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Wigs

The condition of the roads is terrible for the wealthiest nation on Earth. That helps give it a 'forgotten about' vibe

Probably home to mostly good folks just trying to get their slice of the American Dream pie

The wealthiest nation on Earth actually has quite a lot of roads in terrible condition. I'm surprised anyone is surprised by that lol.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Crawford

The urban South has a ramshackle, vaguely third world-ish vibe in terms of infrastructure and public realm. You see it in the boomtowns like Nashville and the backwaters like Jackson. Leaning utility lines, limited sidewalks, often no curbs or drainage, etc. Doesn't mean the neighborhood isn't desirable.

I didn't notice this in Charleston and Savannah, but they probably have special business improvement districts covering the historic areas.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I didn't notice this in Charleston and Savannah, but they probably have special business improvement districts covering the historic areas.

those are outliers…this is more typical… https://maps.app.goo.gl/GKuzBHHsDjhzRLv49?g_st=ic


infill…with carriage houses at that (almost certainly astronomically priced for being this far inland in the eastern half of the united states) fairly urban proportion with new sidewalks (no sidewalks on the rest of that street) and an alley that ends past the infill. i don’t even see storm sewers. power and coms run on poles on the street. this is two miles as the crow flies from downtown nashville in a desirable “urban” neighborhood.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

those are outliers…this is more typical… https://maps.app.goo.gl/GKuzBHHsDjhzRLv49?g_st=ic


infill…with carriage houses at that (almost certainly astronomically priced for being this far inland in the eastern half of the united states) fairly urban proportion with new sidewalks (no sidewalks on the rest of that street) and an alley that ends past the infill. i don’t even see storm sewers. power and coms run on poles on the street. this is two miles as the crow flies from downtown nashville in a desirable “urban” neighborhood.

I clicked the link before I read your message and thought "this looks like Nashville infill".

I have photos of The Nations that I took last year and never posted here because people get upset when I post photos of Nashville. They accuse me of picking on the place but...that's what most of Nashville looks like. People want to think it's this cutesy little place they see on HGTV but it's not.

[Xing]

You mean we’ve been having all these discussions about the rust belt without establishing exactly where it is?

[pj3000]

Buffalo-Cleveland-Pittsburgh -- the Rust Belt Trinity.

The region contained within this rough triangle is likely the "rustiest" part of the country overall. Eastern OH, Northern WV, Western PA, and Western NY. The sheer amount and diversity of heavy manufacturing that occurred in the this area and the subsequent decades of malignant decay is rather astounding.