What exactly is chicagoland? (DeKalb, East St. Louis: travel, suburbs, live)

[dragoro]

Originally Posted by j33

Not to mention, quite a few towns in NW Indiana are closer to Chicago than some of the northwest and southwest suburbs. It isn't really that weird when you think about it. In New York cities in New Jersey are considered part of the metro area because they are close by, and cities in Virginia are part of the DC metro area, so it isn't as uncommon as one might think.

Wow I had no idea.

[CarolinaBredChicagoan]

Lots of metros span state lines. Charlotte. KC. Memphis. St. Louis. Cincinnati. Louisville. Portland, to an extent.

It's not uncommon.

[neonwattagelimit]

In NY, we actually call it the "Tri-State Area" for New York, New Jersey Connecticut. It includes pretty much the entire northern half of New Jersey, plus Fairfield County, Connecticut. Some census definitions include Pike County, Pennsylvania as part of the NY metro, but I don't really buy that. So yeah, it's pretty common, and you see it in a number of other places, as others have mentioned.

As for Chicagoland.....is it me or that just a really weird phrase, when you think about it? I've gotten used to it by now, but the first time I heard it I was like "Chicagoland! That's what they call the Chicago region....it sounds like an amusement park with deep-dish pizza and Al Capone." I figured out what it meant immediately, but I just think it sounds strange, almost silly, like a board game or something.

[j33]

Oh, I'm with you in that it is a silly phrase (but sometimes silly phrases just catch on and stick), but I don't find it odd that a metro area would encompass more than one state.

I remember even joking with friends about it when younger saying things like "chicagoland, just like disneyland, but colder, flatter, and with no rides".

[CarolinaBredChicagoan]

Originally Posted by neonwattagelimit

As for Chicagoland.....is it me or that just a really weird phrase, when you think about it? I've gotten used to it by now, but the first time I heard it I was like "Chicagoland! That's what they call the Chicago region....it sounds like an amusement park with deep-dish pizza and Al Capone." I figured out what it meant immediately, but I just think it sounds strange, almost silly, like a board game or something.

I found it silly when I first moved here, too. I barely notice it now.

[neonwattagelimit]

Another thought about this...ever been to New Jersey? The vast majority of the state is either a suburb of NYC, or a suburb of Philly. There are cities in NJ, but people don't really associate with them.

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by dragoro

Wow out of state places? That's kinda wierd.

It's the same as the NYC metro area taking in Jersey, Long Island, Manhattan, the Yonkers/New Rochelle area, and part of CT.

[fine_where_I_am]

In the case of San Diego, a big part of its metro area isn't even in the United States

[Johnny Northside]

Chicagoland is a word that was invented by a newspaper (the Chicago Tribune) back in the day when newspapers were actually important enough to make a word stick. From Wikipedia:

Colonel Robert R. McCormick, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, usually gets credit for placing the term in common use.[7][8] McCormick's conception of Chicagoland stretched all the way to nearby parts of Iowa and Michigan.[9] The first usage came on July 27, 1926 (page 1) with the headline: "Chicagoland's Shrines: A Tour of Discoveries" by reporter James O'Donnell Bennett. He claimed that Chicagoland comprised everything in a 200 mile radius in every direction and reported on many different places in the area. The Tribune was the dominant newspaper in a vast area stretching to the west of the city, and that hinterland was closely tied to the metropolis by rail lines and commercial links.[10]

[Chicago60614]

I think most people would associate Chicagoland as the 10 county area with 9,725,317 people as of 2007.

I thought it was funny when I moved here, but now I don't even think twice. It's just.....Chicagoland.