Flight of the Rust Belt Millennial

The Rust Belt has been losing jobs and population for decades, creating a tension between home and economy

As a child, my mom would tell me about how our little mountain town in Western Pennsylvania used to be bustling. “There were people all over the streets,” my mother told me. “Everyone worked at the steel mills or the coal mines. Guys could support a family easily.”

My mother worked for Pennsylvania Mines as an administrative assistant, intaking new hires. “I think we hired about 25 guys a week.”

It was strange to learn my hometown area was once part of the economic powerhouse of the entire United States. By the time I was a teenager in the early 2000s, I only knew of one person who worked in a steel mill, and nobody worked in coal mine.

Now it’s called “the Rust Belt.” I don’t love the term, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t fit — the infrastructure here is literally rusting away, to the point that a bridge in Pittsburgh collapsed last year. Beautiful old houses with good bones built by steel and glass tycoons in the 1800s and early 1900s are now falling apart. It’s not uncommon to see a “NOT SAFE” sign stuck to the side of a dilapidated Victorian. Many of these old houses sell for as low as $30,000.