I heard that awful moniker used over and over again by the national news media at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week.
Ironically, the convention was held at the shiny new Fiserv Forum and its swanky surroundings, largely funded (shamefully) with taxpayer money, but nonetheless very, very nice. And that arena is only blocks away from the Menomonee River Valley. The valley was once the heart of industrial Milwaukee and therefore akin to places like Ford’s River Rouge plant in Detroit. Incredibly productive and important, but not pretty.
And you know what it is today? The Menomonee River is fishable and swimmable and the valley is being redeveloped with clean industries focused on food and sustainability. It’s home to the Harley-Davidson Museum and the Potawatomi Casino Hotel. Like taxpayer subsidies for professional sports complexes, I’m no fan of gambling either, but it is what it is and what it is is pretty upscale. You wouldn’t build it in a rust bowl.
The valley is also home to the lovely Three Bridges Park, the Hank Aaron State Trail and American Family Field, where the Brewers regularly defeat the Chicago Cubs (sorry, had to get that in). In fact, there is an entire organization that has done a masterful job of transforming the valley and you can check out more of their work at Menomonee Valley Partners.
So, sure, the Upper Midwest went through a painful period of adjusting to the loss of manufacturing. But it has long since moved on. The rust has been kicked off. And so that phrase “Rust Belt” is not only insulting but also inaccurate.
If you want to be pejorative about the rest of the country, let’s start calling the West Coast the “Homelessness and High Taxes Belt.” We can call the South the “Hotter Than Hell Belt.” The East Coast can be the “Flooded Cities Belt.”
In fact, climate change is making the Upper Midwest one of the safest and most pleasant places to live. Sure, we’ve got stronger storms and some resultant flooding, but we don’t have hurricanes, we don’t have cities on the verge of being reclaimed by the sea, we don’t have wildfires, and we don’t have heat indexes ranging (and raging) well into the triple digits.
I admit it. I have a chip on my shoulder when it comes to the coasts. Every four years the coastal media rediscovers the “Rust Belt” and sends their reporters into deepest, darkest Wisconsin to try to discern the strange language, cuisine, culture and political views of the inhabitants. I cringe every time I hear NPR anchors tell me that they’re reporting from Washington, D.C., and Culver City, California, as if there’s nothing in between. National news shows often display the time as Eastern and Pacific, leaving viewers to wonder how those two hours in the middle got lost.
But we’ll decide the future. The Democrat (whether it’s Vice President Kamala Harris or someone else) will have to win Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to retain the White House. He or she has to run the table here, but Trump probably only needs to win one of the three states.
Usually, when you’re trying to win someone over, common practice is not to address them with an insult. Democrats could do themselves a lot of good if they went on a rant against “Rust Belt” and started off by better understanding who we really are and where we really live.
Dave Cieslewicz is a Madison- and Upper Peninsula-based writer who served as mayor of Madison from 2003 to 2011. You can read more of his work at Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos.
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