Where Is The Rust Belt?

[eschaton]

Eyeballing the immediate downtown areas on the map:

Highways: Columbus is worse than Indy. Downtown Columbus is completely surrounded by a ring of highways. In contrast, Indianapolis is only surrounded on three sides, with direct access to the west to neighborhoods across the White River.

White Flight: Columbus again is actually a bit worse, as there are black neighborhoods immediately to the Northeast and Southeast of Downtown. Indy's black areas start a bit further out from the core. It should be noted that the immediate black neighborhoods close to the core in both cities don't show much in the way of blight, however - Maybe 10% to 20% vacant lots, but not Rust Belt style urban prairie.

Residential development within core: Indy looks a bit better here again. There's big non-residential zones (like around the stadiums) but the historic residential neighborhoods of Fletcher Place and Lockerbie Square remain intact, with heavy infill in areas like Renaissance Place. In contrast, outside of a few blocks, Downtown Columbus really lacks a residential fabric. Downtown Indy has about 22,000 people as well, while Downtown Columbus has about 10,000.

I guess the conclusion I draw from all of this is it seems whatever has helped Columbus is outside the immediate core zone around Downtown. The Ohio State University undoubtedly helped. Even if there wasn't a ton of new development, rising student enrollment does help to cancel out the impact of falling household size - particularly when a half dozen college kids are renting a house together.