Small cities in the US Rust Belt are leading an urban transformation effort

Life in Evansville, IndianaDuring the 20th century it mirrored much of the rest of the US industrial Midwest: rapid growth driven by manufacturing in the early decades – then a sharp decline that left the streets empty and the economy in practical ruins.

Since its heyday as an industrial power in the 1960s, Evansville’s population has fallen by 18%.

But today, after decades of urban decay, life in the center of this city of 115,000 inhabitants is changing.

It has hundreds of new apartments, a number of breweries, a thriving arts scene and even a Taylor Swift themed escape room.

“It’s a more vibrant space. You have more residents in the city center, which means more businesses, more hotels [and] a new medical campus,” Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry recently said of today’s downtown compared to a decade ago.

“People are really energized.”

These and other changes led Southern California native Logan Jenkins to move to Evansville last year as part of a project relocation program which offers a series of advantages for moving there and to other cities.

“I would have been one of 10 such companies in Indianapolis, or one of 20 in Cincinnati,” he said.

Jenkins works with technology startups and the local university, and said living in the city center means he is within walking distance of about 20 restaurants and cafes.

“The important thing for me is that there are times when I don’t need to drive for a week,” he said.

Evansville is not alone.

At a time when some large US cities are struggling with business closings and high rents, a number of small post-industrial cities in the Midwest are experiencing a boom centered in their downtown cores.

In Lansing, Michigan, another former industrial center that has lost tens of thousands of residents since its mid-20th century heyday, local and state officials plan to invest more than a quarter billion dollars about housing, a music and arts center and other community projects.

Similar experiences are happening in DaytonOhio; Charleston, West Virginia; It is another minorindustrial cities that were previously struggling.

The recovery is being fueled by a combination of affordable housing, flexible work environments and other opportunities. Joe Biden’s White House is spending billions of dollars across the Midwest in an attempt to transform the Rust Belt into America’s “Rust Belt.”Silicon Heart” – it means that thousands of new jobs are on their way to the region. A 40-minute drive north of downtown Evansville, Toyota is investing US$1.4 billion to manufacture a new electric vehicle that is expected to bring hundreds of new jobs to the area.

The rise of work from home means that cities are looking at concepts like 18 Hour Cityscape, which places recreation and housing alongside, rather than secondary, access to work. In many Midwestern cities, this means breweries inside residential buildingsfree outdoor concerts and whitewater parks Opening.

In 2019, Evansville was ranked the city with the highest number of homeowners in their 20s per capita in the country. Affordable housing projects in the city Lincoln Avenue, Street Market It is Bond Street have all been started or opened in recent years, with the number of housing units in the city center increasing from 176 a decade ago to 568 today – with another 228 under construction.

But while there has been significant progress in the Midwest’s smaller cities, challenges remain.

Although housing costs are a fraction of those in large U.S. cities, many small post-industrial communities still need thousands of more affordable housing units, an issue that has given rise to tenants’ unions. training in several cities. A shortage of grocery stores and pharmacies is also a common complaint from central Ohio residents, such as Toledo and Dayton – and in another placeincluding Charleston, West Virginia.

And despite the recent progress made, the populations of many smaller post-industrial cities are stagnant or continuing a decades-long decline.

However, experts say this situation has been alleviated in part by the growing number of immigrant communities moving into city centers and inner-city neighborhoods.

“Many Midwestern cities are becoming destinations for new immigrants,” said Faranak Miraftab, a professor in the department of urban and regional planning at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“Creating welcoming immigrant cities It’s an approach city officials are taking because these new populations have been a source of renaissance, whether they’re small towns or mid-sized cities.”

One thing that many small Midwestern cities don’t lack is the availability of developable space in the city center. In downtown Evansville, an 18-story former bank on Main Street that was demolished three years ago is set to be replaced with commercial spaces and 165 apartments, some of which are designated as affordable housing.

A five-minute walk down the same street toward the Ohio River, there’s a line out the door of an Irish bar that opened for the first time the day before, one of 44 new ground-floor businesses in the area. Recently, there was a pulsating atmosphere of revelers watching Poland v Austria in Euro 2024.

Three blocks south, the celebrated design firm Sasaki was hired to assemble a plan that would reimagine the city’s riverfront for kilometers in any direction.

As Terry, the mayor, said: “Just the number of community respondents we had for the plan – over 2,000 people contributed.

“It’s proof that people are really excited.”