Rust Belt Ruins: The Gothic Genius Loci of Detroit

2020 ◽  
pp. 149-163
Author(s):  
Leila Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Rust Belt

scholarly journals Rethinking “Disinvestment”: Historical geographies of predatory property relations on Chicago’s South Side

2021 ◽  
pp. 026377582110130
Author(s):  
Rea Zaimi
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Private Institutions ◽  
Rust Belt ◽  
South Side ◽  
Real Estate Markets ◽  
Property Relations ◽  
And Function ◽  
South Side Chicago

As vacancy in Rust Belt cities becomes a focal point of planning and policy efforts, Chicago planners and private institutions attribute it to “disinvestment” and seek to remove barriers to real estate investment in order to unlock the market’s purported ability to bring land to “productive use.” Drawing on findings from an analysis of nearly 10,000 postwar property records in the South Side Chicago neighborhood of Englewood, this article demonstrates that vacancy stems not from disinvestment but from predatory and hyperextractive investments in housing that derive economic feasibility and legal sanction from property’s historical articulation with race. I argue that racial regimes of ownership are endemic to the operation of real estate markets and function as central modalities for the appropriation of ground rent. As an analytical lens into the political economy of land, racial regimes of ownership expand urban geographers’ capacity to address the mechanisms that mobilize difference to accommodate capital’s circulation and, more broadly, to account for the racial logics that configure the terrain of contemporary land struggles.

Industrial Policy and Local Economic Transformation: Evidence From the U.S. Rust Belt

2021 ◽  
pp. 089124242110228
Author(s):  
Ben Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Policy ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
State Level ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Rust Belt ◽  
Industrial Policies ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
State And Local

State and local governments frequently invest in policies aimed at stimulating the growth of new industries, but studies of industrial policy and related economic development initiatives cast doubt on their effectiveness. This article examines the role of state-level industrial policies in contributing to the different economic trajectories of two U.S. metro areas—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio—as they adapted to the decline of their legacy industries. Comparative case studies show that industrial policies in Pittsburgh, which empowered research universities as local economic leaders, contributed to the transformation of the local economy. In Cleveland, by contrast, state industrial policies invested in making incremental improvements, particularly in legacy sectors. The article concludes that by empowering new local economic actors—such as universities—industrial policies can foment political change that enables structural economic change to follow.

Rust Belt Burlesque

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIN O’BRIEN ◽  
BOB PERKOSKI
Keyword(s):  
Rust Belt

Rust Belt Boomerang: The Pull of Place in Moving Back to a Legacy City

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Ann Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Return Migration ◽  
Knowledge Workers ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Rust Belt ◽  
Return Migrants ◽  
Young Professionals ◽  
Legacy Cities ◽  
Depth Interviews

Research and journalistic accounts on the Rust Belt consistently focus on population decline and its consequences. As a result, we know little about the growing trend of return migration of young professionals and knowledge workers to the region. Why have these individuals chosen to return to a place that they once left? I answer this question using in–depth interviews with young professionals who have moved back to Youngstown, Ohio. Results indicate that return migrants chose to return despite reporting alternative and perhaps more economically rational work opportunities elsewhere. While some reasons can be anticipated from the literature, such as family need, I emphasize how place–specific considerations worked in combination with economic and social factors to pull them back. Findings hold implications for the literatures on place and return migration and for city planners who believe that return migration presents an opportunity for economic growth of legacy cities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document