William Bostwick explores how locally-sourced, niche product manufacturing could help the Rust Belt rise.
Stating the fact that much of the recent growth in American manufacturing has been happening in globally branded cities such as San Francisco or Brooklyn, Bostwick looks at how those lessons can be translated to Rust Belt towns like Allentown, PA. Rust Belt cities have the opportunity to be manufacturing centers of regionally-focused goods, or be activated as co-manufacturing sources for the nascent, small-scale manufacturing already underway in the larger, global markets. Bostwick posits a future that is local, networked, and based on leveraging place-specific assets, helped by programs such as the Urban Manufacturing Alliance.
Thanks to Ben D. Schulman
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