Rust Belt beer, Rust Belt ice cream, Rust Belt diners, Rust belt-errific. In the Great Lakes area we heart our Rust Belt. But it’s the rest of the nation that seems the hard sell. Rarely does the national news use Rust Belt when announcing good news. Actually, rarely does a national news anchor seem able to deliver “Rust Belt” without looking like they are holding back a sneeze or have just stepped in something unpleasant.
So why are we holding on to a negative moniker? There are a lot of great things going on in my hometown – Buffalo, NY – as well as in the other cities of the Rust Belt like Rochester, NY; Pittsburgh, PA; Cleveland or Youngstown, Oh; Detroit, Mi; St Louis, MOor Milwaukee, WI that have nothing to do with turning brown from disuse nor early 20th century industrialization. Buffalo and Cleveland are collaborators in some cutting edge medical research, just to throw out one interesting fact. (Sorry, the link’s for a press release, but here’s some more coverage of the joint medical research going on in this corridor of the country.) Creative capitalists and artists have taken residence in these cities and revitalized neighborhoods and collective civic prides.
There are other options out there. According to writer and urbanologist Jane Jacobs, one fall back is the Great Lakes Megalopolis (or Megapolis or Megaregion). Not only does this score wicked points on Scrabble but it creates a collective positive for the region. It gets rid of a negative visual of the used up rustiness of the no longer productive conveyor belt in a forlorn and forsaken factory rotting on the shores of some great lakes (Hello, Lackawanna!) and may rebrand the region with some positive reactions from outsiders.
Jacobs’ theory on a megalopolis, as explained by skyscrapercity.com, is:
When people cluster in one place, they all become more productive. And the place itself becomes much more productive, because collective creativity grows exponentially. Ideas flow more freely, are honed more sharply and can be put into practice more quickly.
The path to prosperity may not be in a polysyllabic scrabble jackpot, but it may not reside in clinging to an illustrious but ever fading past.
What do you think?
