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Well I think you're crazy. Cincy and St. Louis look and feel much older than Chicago, and have narrower streets, more brick, and more rowhouses than Chicago.
Why would Chicago feel more Northeastern than Cincy or St. Louis? Could you give me an argument for Chicago?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nafster
Have you actually been to Chicago outside of downtown? The streets are much narrower all over the North side and there are large amounts of row-homes all over the city, although not nearly as much as the northeast. Lincoln Park, The Near North Side, and the areas around the UIC medical district in particular have a lot of rowhomes.
This isn't true. Chicago does not have a high proportion of rowhouses. Chicago does not have narrow streets. Cincy and St. Louis do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nafster
Indy does not have ANY areas remotely resembling Chicago (just because they both have a blue sky over them doesn't mean they are similar). Have you even lived in the Midwest like you say????
None of this is true either. Chicago and Indy look very similar. They are in the same region, built during the same era, same topography, similar housing stock outside the core, etc. Outside of the city centers, and the North Side areas, no way could most people tell the difference.
Based on your comments, I'm assuming you have either 1. Never been to the Midwest or 2. Are some Chicago former with some dislike of the Midwest and trying to pretend Chicago is located somewhere else.
As an aside, are people crazy on this forum, or maybe just homers? Do people really think that two nearby Midwest cities could possibly be nothing alike? I mean, if I said NYC and Philly had no similarities, and Seattle and Portland had no similarities, but NYC and Portland are totally similar? That's exactly what's being argued here.
Obviously cities right next to each other are more similar, even if they have different levels of prosperity or whatever. Obviously NYC looks more similar to Newark or even Camden than it does to Chicago or San Francisco or New Orleans, regardless of whether or not Newark or Camden is equally as prosperous as NYC. They are in the same area!
I was talking about the neighborhoods, not really downtown.
To me, downtown is the last place to look to really see a city's character. It's in the neighborhoods where you see the "real feel" of a city.
And I am confident that St. Louis and Cincy have older neighborhoods, narrower streets and a higher proportion of rowhouses than Chicago. Obviously they're also far smaller and have all kinds of decay and problems, but I think they have less of the wide-street Midwest grid feel, and more of the crazy-quilt Northeast feel.
Here is a population Census from 1870. You start to get a clue why relatively small cities like St. Louis have a large stock of rowhouses-
1870 census:
1 New York city, NY *.............942,292
2 Philadelphia city, PA..............674,022
3 Brooklyn city, NY *...............396,099
4 St. Louis city, MO.................310,864
5 Chicago city, IL....................298,977
Well I think you're crazy. Cincy and St. Louis look and feel much older than Chicago, and have narrower streets, more brick, and more rowhouses than Chicago.
Why would Chicago feel more Northeastern than Cincy or St. Louis? Could you give me an argument for Chicago?
This isn't true. Chicago does not have a high proportion of rowhouses. Chicago does not have narrow streets. Cincy and St. Louis do.
Chicago appears to use quite a bit of brick. A lot of the bungalows are brick:
I'm a bit puzzled why brick = northeastern. Boston (and New England in general) is definitely more wood than Chicago.
True, brick is more Mid-Atlantic than fully Northeastern. But the Northeast Corridor, in terms of population, is dominated by brick cities. Excepting Boston, all the 200k+ cities are very heavily brick. Midwest cities much less so, though St. Louis and Cincy (and Pittsburgh, though not technically Midwest) have lots of brick.
True, brick is more Mid-Atlantic than fully Northeastern. But the Northeast Corridor, in terms of population, is dominated by brick cities. Excepting Boston, all the 200k+ cities are very heavily brick. Midwest cities much less so, though St. Louis and Cincy (and Pittsburgh, though not technically Midwest) have lots of brick.
NYC is brick partly because it's mostly attached homes and apartment buildings. Row homes and anything other than a small apartment building can't be made of wood. Go to a NYC neighborhood with detached homes and you'll find lots of wooden homes, at least as common in New England:
Could you show me where to look in St Louis or cincy nabes for the look you are talking about on google maps? I did see some St. Louis nabes and corner stores that reminded me of Philly.
Cincy and St. Louis do not, I repeat DO NOT, have a northeast feel at all. You'd really have to squint to feel like you're anywhere besides Missouri and Ohio in those cities.
I honestly don't think you've ever been to St. Louis.
Could you show me where to look in St Louis or cincy nabes for the look you are talking about on google maps? I did see some St. Louis nabes and corner stores that reminded me of Philly.
Yes, you've nailed it. St. Louis has, very, very roughly, a Philly/Baltimore type feel in some parts. It's really Philly/Baltimore look more than NYC. Check out Soulard, to take one example.
One problem though is that St. Louis has some very troubled areas, and lost a lot of its rowhouse stock. They probably had tons more 50 years ago.
Chicago has rowhouses too, but not really a dominant characteristic of any neighborhood, and they have their own unique look.
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