3. The Domino Effect of Plant Closures in the Rust Belt
This 1978 report from the MacNeil/Lehrer Report demonstrates how deindustrialization did not only affect large cities like Detroit and New York. Campbell, Ohio—a small city adjacent to Youngstown—was one of hundreds of small- and medium-sized cities that had also been also built around industry. Most of these cities were concentrated around the Great Lakes, and by the late twentieth century, they formed the economically depressed region that came to be known as the Rust Belt. The lifeblood of Campbell was the Youngstown Iron Sheet and Tube factory (the city was named after a former chairman of the company), which abruptly closed in 1977, upending the community. As the report shows, closures of a particular factory could trigger a destructive domino effect; stores that relied on consumer spending from local workers struggled, while municipalities lost tax revenue that had been paid by companies and their employees.
3. The Domino Effect of Plant Closures in the Rust Belt
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Steel industry layoffs devastated the tax base in small Mahoning Valley cities like Campbell. According to a 1983 Wall Street Journal piece, the nearby small city of Struthers closed its parks and swimming pool, and laid off ten full-time municipal employees. According to John Kovach, the city finance director, “we derive the majority of our income from the city income tax. And 50 percent of our workers aren’t getting income.”
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The economy continued to struggle in Campbell, as efforts to revive the local mill failed and deindustrialization in the region continued. According to Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the population of Mahoning County fell by around 13% between 1970 and 1990. Over the same time period, the poverty rate increased from 9.2% to 15.9%.
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Indeed, LTV Steel did end up buying the parent company of Youngstown Sheet and Tube. LTV filed for bankruptcy in 1986, and finally dissolved in 2001.
The MacNeil/Lehrer Report; "The Impact Of Massive Layoffs In Steeltown, U.S.A" | NewsHour Productions | March 1, 1978 This video clip appears from 23:47 - 26:28 in the full record.