I had a couple trips to the Google building in the converted Nabisco factory there.

They'd refinished the hardwood floors, but they left in the giant gouges that the heavy machinery had put there, as a reminder of the past.

the rust belt has good bones, as they say.

> maybe it can be again.

If we can get the Jones Act repealed or heavily amended, maybe some long overdue riverine infrastructure maintenance and upgrades and we could watch the whole region flourish.

How would repealing the Jones Act help? By allowing more ships on the Allegheny River? If anything, I think Pittsburgh would have benefitted from a little protection before cheap foreign steel hollowed out the industrial base.

> How would repealing the Jones Act help?

By removing the restrictions that make riverine transport uncompetitive in many cases with trains and trucks. Without those restrictions sending goods by boat is far cheaper (and less carbon intensive) than the alternatives which would give industry in the entire Mississippi River system a boost in competitiveness. There’s a reason a lot of value add industries are located beside ports. The Jones Act effectively removed the likes of Pittsburgh from the list of port cities.

The Jones Act was passed in 1920?