East coast, Chicago, West coast? (Washington, Virginia: car, area, cities)

[Chicago_Person]

Chicago is great lakes.

I hate when chicago is clumped with arkansas, omaha, iowa, Nebraska, etc.

[Hiruko]

Originally Posted by smegmatite

Chicago is MOST similar to Toronto, Canada

It is nothing like the older east coast cities or the car centric west coast major cities

Mod cut.

I agree that it is most similar to Toronto. Chicago is less international (less diverse, fewer immigrants), but more transit-rich than Toronto.

[agun77]

If you want to go strictly by party voting patterns, then yes, you could lump in Chicago with the coastal cities. But then again, you could do the same for most major American cities, including other Midwestern cities like Milwaukee, St. Louis, Detroit, and Cleveland.

But culturally as well as geographically, Chicago is distinctly Midwestern. For starters, people in the Great Lakes (and St. Louis) share the same Inland North accent with the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. Although outsiders might think we sound a bit strange, as far as we're concerned, we don't have an accent and are simply speaking proper standard dictionary English. Chicagoans are less rushed than East Coasters and considerably less laid-back than West Coasters. The City of Chicago is also remarkably clean, which is an adjective that I am utterly unable to use to describe New York or San Francisco. I say this as someone who has spent 4 years in the San Francisco Bay Area and visited New York, DC, Philadelphia, and Boston.

Also, this is based purely on my experience and is thus extremely subjective, but during the time I lived in Chicago, I felt that the city exuded an industrial, working-class vibe (probably because I grew up on the South Side, went shopping on the Southwest Side, and saw plenty of old brown industrial buildings along the Kennedy and Dan Ryan.) When I visited St. Louis, I almost immediately felt a very similar vibe with all the old brick industrial buildings. I can't speak for other Midwestern cities because I haven't visited them.

But if you insist on comparing Chicago to the coastal cities and forced me to lump Chicago in with the East or the West Coast, I would say that Chicago is far more similar to the East Coast than the West Coast. For instance, the public transit system is vastly superior to anything you'll find on the West Coast. The politics are more down-to-earth and bread-and-butter-oriented than the West Coast variety. I also feel that Chicago and the East Coast cities have a larger blue-collar presence than San Francisco, though I could be wrong on that.

Toronto is a good comparison to Chicago.

Originally Posted by Chicago_Person

Chicago is great lakes.

I hate when chicago is clumped with arkansas, omaha, iowa, Nebraska, etc.

I know, right? Some of my schoolmates in the Bay Area seem to conflate the Midwest with the Great Plains states and write off the whole middle of the country as one boring expanse with nothing of interest, which I find rather irritating.

[DavePa]

Originally Posted by personone

I have always said that it really depends on what part of the city you are talking about, in regards to housing stock. The googlemaps images that you show as "Chicago blocks" is only one part of the city. I could just as easily show the following images and describe them as "Chicago blocks," which look completely different than what you showed and are more reminiscent of NE cities:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9319...7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9211...7i16384!8i8192

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8732...7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8716...7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9399...7i16384!8i8192

Again, it just depends on what part of the city you are in. Although, I can concede that there are several parts of the city that do look more "Midwestern," such as the images you showed.

Chicago is clearly a Midwestern city (there is no way to change geography). I was just responding to the theme of the initial post that it could be (or shares a lot of qualities) with the major NE cities (it has hardly any similarities to the major West Coast cities).

Yes, but I purposely left out the most highly sought after gentrified neighborhoods of Chicago I love. more dense yes, but still nothing like the mass of Philly row-neighborhoods and tightest of street-grids. I also avoided main streets and Philly's core Colonial areas highly sought after.

These cities differ greatly in housing styles. Philly's vs Chicago's. My point was also the degree Philly's is fully attached housing vs Chicago's. Chicago street-views even have virtually half that show its alleys too. you search randomly and hit alleys half the time on the North side especially. The garage-lined alley's are not common in Philly.

Both LA and Chicago .... created their styles of a new American Bungalow Housing style. Philly no. Even Boston left rows late in the 19th century. Philly did not.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Obviously it is stalks of wild onions.but it’s all mine. Get your own.

Chicago was named after wild onions, after all.

[OyCrumbler]

Chicago is Great Lakes, settled and burgeoning around the same time as many other Great Lakes cities, but the largest of them by far. This runs from Rochester to the Twin Cities even though the Twin Cities aren’t on the Great Lakes. These are usually further to the north and hit boom periods in the first half of the 20th century and a couple decades before and are usually platted out with more of a regular grid and wider streets.

There’s another string of cities in the interior northeast and the midwest that share history with each other that Chicago glancingly counts as, but calling them Great Lakes cities would be a misnomer which are the usually older (as in boomed older) and more densely platted riverport cities running from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, Louisville (well, technically in the South), St. Louis that often need to contend with a bit of hilly geography due to their locations on land carved out by mighty rivers. These were the first interior boom cities and these boomed more around the middle of 19th centuries with Cincinnati first doing so.

These aren’t perfect categories or descriptions, of course, but Chicago’s supersizing is a result of being the meeting place of both the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watershed and Chicago boomed greater than the others because of it.

[edsg25]

I hate to be a broken record (am I showing my age), but....

I never said that Chicago is like the east coast; I went out of my way to say it wasn’t
I never said that Chicago was like the west coast; I went out of my way to say it wasn’t

What I did say was in the United States, when we use the term “coastal”, we are really are talking about the northeast corridor and the California coast (largely LA and the Bay Area). We use the term “coastal” to compare and contrast with the odious term “flyover country”.

By “coastal” I am talking about places 3000 miles apart...so obviously they are far different from each other in ways that geographic areas differ from each other.

So I am taking geography out of equation (while realizing both Bowash and the shoreline of California, both on the coast.....but so is Mobile Tampa...but nobody calls them coastal)

What is “coastal”? It is hard to give an exact definition, it generally includes the power centers, areas that are blue, liberal, diverse, higher educated, similar to social democracies, etc.

My contension was that Chicago belongs wih Bowash and LA/SF. And though I already said I dislike the term “flyover contry”, it is pretty common the restriction that they were “not including Chicago”

Ii do see Chicago belonging with those two regions and, no, I don’t think any other place in the nation does belong in thecsamecway.

Just opinion, folks. I never said I was right. That’s why I ask you how you see his and included a poll to register what you belive

[VA All Day]

Mod cut.

And for the type of people that use terms like flyover country...they are most definitely including Chicago despite whatever you want to believe.

[Master Jay]

Let's be nice, everyone. Ed is Ed. VA is VA. Master Jay is Master Jay, etc. We're all unique. In fact, someone complimented Ed today, I believe, on his post in the Europeans that settled in Chicago! Everyone comes on here with their own questions and feedback. And I like that you all bring something to the table on so many topics. I hope everyone has a great day. It's pretty rainy in Milwaukee. How's Chicago today? You have to get ready to dye that river soon! - Master Jay in Milwaukee

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by edsg25

I hate to be a broken record (am I showing my age), but....

I never said that Chicago is like the east coast; I went out of my way to say it wasn’t
I never said that Chicago was like the west coast; I went out of my way to say it wasn’t

What I did say was in the United States, when we use the term “coastal”, we are really are talking about the northeast corridor and the California coast (largely LA and the Bay Area). We use the term “coastal” to compare and contrast with the odious term “flyover country”.

By “coastal” I am talking about places 3000 miles apart...so obviously they are far different from each other in ways that geographic areas differ from each other.

So I am taking geography out of equation (while realizing both Bowash and the shoreline of California, both on the coast.....but so is Mobile Tampa...but nobody calls them coastal)

What is “coastal”? It is hard to give an exact definition, it generally includes the power centers, areas that are blue, liberal, diverse, higher educated, similar to social democracies, etc.

My contension was that Chicago belongs wih Bowash and LA/SF. And though I already said I dislike the term “flyover contry”, it is pretty common the restriction that they were “not including Chicago”

Ii do see Chicago belonging with those two regions and, no, I don’t think any other place in the nation does belong in thecsamecway.

Just opinion, folks. I never said I was right. That’s why I ask you how you see his and included a poll to register what you belive

Can you make it Chicago-Milwaukee? Chicaukee? Milwaugo?