Can entrepreneurs revive the Rust Belt?
Posted by: John Tozzi on February 18, 2009 Anita Campbell has a good post about how the Youngstown Business Incubator is nurturing a cluster of software start-ups in the Rust Belt city. The incubator was featured in an NPR story yesterday, about how the burgeoning tech sector there is helping to revive the town — the intangible boost to Youngstown’s image is as important or more than the 300 jobs the new companies provide. To be sure, the business incubator is a salve, not a cure, for Youngstown’s ailment. The city still has 15 percent unemployment (according to ZoomProspector). Youngtown’s situation is particularly interesting in light of this Atlantic cover story by Richard Florida about how the economic crisis will reshape America’s geography. Here’s Florida’s grim take on what will happen to Rust Belt cities like Youngstown: Sadly and unjustly, the places likely to suffer most from the crash—especially in the long run—are the ones least associated with high finance. While the crisi
