How to really revive America's industrial cities | US News Hub
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How to really revive America's industrial cities

A rethink of the 'eds and meds' strategy and what works on the ground.

An American downtown with campus and hospital signage.
Illustration concept: Photo-realistic city main street with university and hospital wayfinding signs at sunrise.

Revisiting the Playbook

City leaders are questioning whether the long-running 'eds and meds' formula can revive industrial downtowns, Bloomberg reported. For three decades, struggling Rust Belt cities have bet heavily on expanding universities and hospitals as economic anchors, pouring billions into medical centers and research campuses while traditional manufacturing employment continued to decline.

New research highlighted by the newsletter argues that clustering hospitals and universities alone fails to generate inclusive growth. A comprehensive study by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program examined 52 mid-sized cities that pursued eds-and-meds strategies between 1990 and 2023, finding that while these anchor institutions created jobs, they often produced bifurcated labor markets with high-paying professional positions and low-wage service jobs—but limited opportunities for middle-skill workers displaced from manufacturing.

"We built world-class medical centers and research universities in cities where half the population doesn't have the educational credentials to access those jobs," said Dr. Amy Liu, director of Brookings Metro. "Meanwhile, we neglected the industrial infrastructure and workforce development programs that could have created pathways for existing residents."

The research revealed that cities investing heavily in eds-and-meds saw healthcare and education employment grow by an average of 34%, but median household incomes rose only 8% after adjusting for inflation—significantly lagging the national average. Moreover, income inequality within these cities increased more rapidly than in comparison cities that pursued diversified economic development strategies.

Economic historians note that the eds-and-meds approach emerged in the 1990s as a response to deindustrialization, championed by urbanists who saw universities and hospitals as "sticky" institutions unlikely to relocate. While this stability proved valuable, the strategy's limitations have become increasingly apparent as gentrification and displacement followed anchor institution expansion in neighborhoods like University Circle in Cleveland and Oakland in Pittsburgh.

What Works on the Ground

Bloomberg noted examples from Pittsburgh and Milwaukee where small advanced manufacturing hubs paired with apprenticeship pipelines attracted investors. Pittsburgh's Hazelwood Green project, built on a former steel mill site, has successfully attracted robotics manufacturers, additive manufacturing companies, and clean energy firms by providing shovel-ready industrial space with modern freight rail access—infrastructure that eds-and-meds districts typically lack.

Local entrepreneurs said access to flexible capital and freight infrastructure mattered more than flagship innovation districts. Milwaukee's Century City initiative demonstrated this principle by redeveloping 84 acres of industrial land with a focus on attracting manufacturing companies that could employ workers with high school diplomas or associate degrees, rather than requiring advanced degrees.

"We realized that innovation districts full of biotech labs don't create jobs for the guy who worked at the foundry for 25 years," explained Milwaukee Economic Development Corporation CEO Cory Nettles. "We needed manufacturing at a new scale—advanced enough to compete globally, but accessible enough to hire locally."

The Milwaukee model includes direct partnerships between manufacturers and local technical colleges, creating customized training programs that pipeline workers into living-wage positions. Companies receive tax incentives tied to hiring local residents and maintaining wage standards, creating accountability mechanisms often absent from traditional economic development deals.

In Erie, Pennsylvania, city leaders partnered with GE Transportation (now Wabtec) to create an advanced manufacturing center focused on locomotive and rail equipment production. The initiative included renovation of existing industrial facilities rather than building new suburban campuses, keeping jobs accessible via public transit and preserving the tax base in neighborhoods that needed it most.

Akron, Ohio, has developed a specialized cluster around polymer science and advanced materials, leveraging the University of Akron's research capabilities while focusing on mid-skill manufacturing jobs in rubber and plastics processing. This hybrid approach connects academic research with production jobs that don't require four-year degrees, creating career ladders for residents with diverse educational backgrounds.

Resilience comes from supporting locals before chasing the next marquee tenant.

Policy Shifts

The report urges federal and state partners to prioritize brownfield cleanup grants and main-street lending for legacy businesses. The Environmental Protection Agency's Brownfields Program has proven particularly effective, with every dollar of federal cleanup funding leveraging approximately $18 in private investment, according to EPA data.

City planners told Bloomberg they are bundling housing rehab with commercial corridor upgrades to keep residents from being priced out. Detroit's Strategic Neighborhood Fund exemplifies this approach, investing $130 million across ten commercial corridors while simultaneously funding affordable housing preservation and home repair programs to prevent displacement.

Federal policymakers are taking notice. The Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration has launched a $500 million "Good Jobs Challenge" prioritizing workforce partnerships that create pathways into quality jobs for underrepresented populations. Unlike previous programs that measured success by job creation alone, this initiative requires evidence of wage levels, benefits, and local hiring outcomes.

State governments are also revising their economic development toolkits. Ohio recently reformed its tax incentive programs to reward job quality and local hiring rather than merely job quantity. Under the new formula, companies receive larger incentives for creating positions paying above-median wages and hiring from specified zip codes with high unemployment.

Municipal leaders are increasingly using community benefit agreements (CBAs) to ensure that large developments deliver tangible benefits to existing residents. These legally binding contracts can require developers to hire local workers, pay prevailing wages, include affordable housing units, and support local businesses—mechanisms largely absent from earlier generations of urban redevelopment projects.

Financial innovations are also emerging. Cleveland's Evergreen Cooperatives model, which creates worker-owned businesses anchored by purchases from local hospitals and universities, has inspired similar initiatives in Richmond, Virginia, and Rochester, New York. These structures ensure that economic development generates wealth for residents rather than extracting it to distant shareholders.

Community Voice

Grassroots coalitions insist successful turnarounds hinge on hiring locals and supporting childcare so workers can take new shifts. The Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children documented that childcare deserts—areas where available slots serve less than one-third of children—correspond closely with neighborhoods where residents cannot access new employment opportunities despite living near eds-and-meds institutions and emerging manufacturing hubs.

Neighborhood groups are also pushing for transparent metrics to show whether subsidies are reaching longtime residents. The Detroit People's Platform successfully advocated for the city's first comprehensive Community Benefits Ordinance, requiring developments receiving public subsidies above specified thresholds to negotiate formal agreements with community groups and report annually on compliance.

"We were tired of seeing ribbon-cutting ceremonies for developments that displaced us or created jobs we couldn't access," said Sandra Hines, executive director of Eastside Community Network in Detroit. "Now we have a seat at the table and legal mechanisms to hold developers accountable."

Transportation equity has emerged as a crucial component of inclusive revitalization. Workers in deindustrialized cities often lack reliable access to emerging job centers, particularly when economic development focuses on greenfield sites or districts poorly served by public transit. Community advocates in Buffalo successfully pressured county officials to reroute bus lines to serve the RiverBend industrial park, where advanced manufacturing companies were hiring but workers couldn't reach facilities via public transit.

Faith-based organizations and community development corporations play increasingly sophisticated roles in ensuring revitalization benefits existing residents. The Jeremiah Program, operating in multiple cities, provides housing and support services for single mothers pursuing education and career training—addressing the reality that workforce development requires wrap-around services, not merely job training programs.

Measuring Impact

Economists said they will watch labor-force participation, small-business formation, and commute times to judge whether the revamped strategy delivers. Traditional economic development metrics like gross job creation or total investment dollars fail to capture whether growth benefits existing residents or primarily attracts newcomers while displacing longtime communities.

The brief concludes that patient capital and civic coordination, not marquee megaprojects, determine which industrial cities truly rebound. Evidence from successful turnarounds suggests that sustained, modest investments in workforce development, infrastructure maintenance, and small business support generate more inclusive growth than occasional large-scale projects that dominate headlines but produce limited community benefit.

Leading economic development experts now advocate for a "dashboard" approach to measuring revitalization success, tracking multiple indicators including:

  • Labor force participation rates by race and education level—revealing whether new jobs reach disconnected populations
  • Median wages for workers without bachelor's degrees—indicating middle-skill job creation
  • Small business formation and survival rates—measuring entrepreneurial opportunity for local residents
  • Housing cost burden by income quartile—assessing whether revitalization triggers displacement
  • Spatial distribution of job growth—determining if employment opportunities remain accessible to existing neighborhoods

Cities like Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Buffalo, New York, have implemented quarterly "equity scorecards" that publicly report these metrics, creating transparency and enabling course corrections when development patterns threaten to exclude longtime residents from economic gains.

The National League of Cities has developed a peer learning network connecting economic development officials from 30 industrial cities to share strategies and data on inclusive revitalization approaches. Early results suggest that cities adopting comprehensive strategies—combining advanced manufacturing recruitment, workforce development, affordable housing preservation, and community engagement—outperform those relying on single-sector approaches by nearly every measure of broadly shared prosperity.

Sources & Methodology

US News Hub summarizes original reporting from trusted outlets and adds context from subject-matter experts. For this story we drew on Bloomberg reporting and official briefings.

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