Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawn
I’d also say nothing in Mass is Rust Belt.
All of the Mass mill cities like Lawrence and Lowell had gone through a form of deindustrialization decades prior to the Rust Belt-defining loss of manufacturing bases experienced by classic Rust Belt cities in the 60s and 70s. These places had either already transitioned into eds and meds or had already fully embraced their newish roles as Boston bedtowns right when outlooks starting going south for the Clevelands and Detroits.
That doesn’t mean the 70s and 80s were kind to Lowell or Lawrence (far from it), but that also doesn’t necessarily equal a Rust Belt experience.
The closest thing to a Rust Belt town in New England is Pittsfield: GE once employed 13,000 in the city, and that’s down to 700. But Pittsfield is also in the middle of the Berkshires, so plenty of wealthy New Yorkers and Bostonians to overcharge for everything basically every weekend of the year.
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You would be mistaken in saying that though.
Springfield/Connecticut Valley fit the EXACT same profile as the "classic" rust belt.
-Large-scale loss of manufacturing jobs in the 1980s and 1990s
-Disinvestment/low property values/high commercial property tax rates
-Middle class abandonment
-Drastic increase in public debt/state oversight
From the late 1960s to the mid 70s, Massachusetts lost nearly 15 percent of its manufacturing jobs because of plant closings. From the late 1980s to mid 90s, Massachusetts lost 150k manufacturing jobs. Springfield area lost over 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs from 1980 to 2000 -- much of that in the metals industry and related industry.