Problems of supporting the development of depressed territories on the example of the Rust Belt region

Abstract

The article studies the features of the unsuccessful policy of territory development on the example of the canonical depressed region from the practice of the United States of America - the Rust Belt. The study cites the genesis of the term Rust Belt, emphasizing the derogatory connotations used to describe regions of the country that used to be manufacturing centers and are now suffering from deindustrialization. The difference between the terms Rust Bowl and Rust Belt is emphasized. The Rust Belt more often refers to specific formerly prosperous manufacturing centers in cities in the Midwest and Northeast, such as Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo, New York. The Rust Bowl in turn characterizes the once prosperous agricultural regions of Oklahoma, Kansas and parts of Texas that have suffered years of drought and are literally filled with dust. The article highlights the chronology of decline - from the 30s to the 70s of the previous century. It all started in the 1930s in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as a result of the Great Depression. In the 1950s, the decline spread north into Upstate New York. In the 1960s, the spread of the Rust Belt moved westward, capturing the ferrous metallurgy of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, western Ohio, and northern Indiana; Akron, the “tire capital” and Cincinnati, a machine-tool maker. The 1970s marked the beginning of the decline in the American automobile industry. The reason for this was the oil crisis of 1973. The Rust Belt extended from Detroit northwest along the Warren-Pontiac-Flint-Saginaw line and south to Lyme. The statistics of the decline of the population of the Rust Belt are given - a comparison of the peak indicators in 2000 and 2020. It should be noted that, despite the gradual slowdown of negative trends in the 21st century, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to another wave of decline in the region. Despite all of the above, the states of the Lake District, Pennsylvania and New York still retain a huge innovation potential characterized by the concentration of a significant number of universities and research laboratories.