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Minneapolis by a fairly wide margin imo. It bucks the Midwestern trend in a lot of ways in that it has all of the following: economic and population growth, safety, progressive social policies, intelligent urban planning, comparatively little blight, and a nice natural setting. Some other Midwestern cities have some of those characteristics, but none other has all of them.
Detroit was easily #2 until Minneapolis surpassed it. When that happened, I do not know. I wish Detroit could bounce back to a city of 1.8m. Would be nice to have another heavy hitter in the Midwest just so people would stop acting like there's nothing here except Chicago...
Detroit was easily #2 until Minneapolis surpassed it. When that happened, I do not know. I wish Detroit could bounce back to a city of 1.8m. Would be nice to have another heavy hitter in the Midwest just so people would stop acting like there's nothing here except Chicago...
Surpassed it in what? They're GDP is about the same. They changed hands a few times in the past decade. Now Minny does have a lower unemployment rate but I don't know where people in this thread get this notion that Metro Detroit still has a bad economy, that was nearly 8 years ago. It isn't Texas but Detroit's economy has been just fine for years now. And I also wish Detroit would again be a city of 1.8 million but you don't need to have that many people in the city limits to be a heavy hitter. The Detroit area is large, fairly diverse, fairly wealthy, big economy, lots of F500 companies, great downtown, great and safe communities, great architecture, 4 (and might be getting 5) sports teams all downtown now, good shopping, good food, lots of nightlife options, lots of culture, lots of history, huge airport, ect. It's arguably the most underrated area in the country. Detroit gets my vote.
Surpassed it in what? They're GDP is about the same. They changed hands a few times in the past decade. Now Minny does have a lower unemployment rate but I don't know where people in this thread get this notion that Metro Detroit still has a bad economy, that was nearly 8 years ago. It isn't Texas but Detroit's economy has been just fine for years now. And I also wish Detroit would again be a city of 1.8 million but you don't need to have that many people in the city limits to be a heavy hitter. The Detroit area is large, fairly diverse, fairly wealthy, big economy, lots of F500 companies, great downtown, great and safe communities, great architecture, 4 (and might be getting 5) sports teams all downtown now, good shopping, good food, lots of nightlife options, lots of culture, lots of history, huge airport, ect. It's arguably the most underrated area in the country. Detroit gets my vote.
You know what wasn't mentioned? And the biggest downfall of Detroit: horrendous public transportation, though at least its getting improved. If Detroit can reach Cleveland/St. Louis/ Minneapolis in public transit, watch out, rest of the Midwest
Surpassed it in what? They're GDP is about the same. They changed hands a few times in the past decade. Now Minny does have a lower unemployment rate but I don't know where people in this thread get this notion that Metro Detroit still has a bad economy, that was nearly 8 years ago. It isn't Texas but Detroit's economy has been just fine for years now. And I also wish Detroit would again be a city of 1.8 million but you don't need to have that many people in the city limits to be a heavy hitter. The Detroit area is large, fairly diverse, fairly wealthy, big economy, lots of F500 companies, great downtown, great and safe communities, great architecture, 4 (and might be getting 5) sports teams all downtown now, good shopping, good food, lots of nightlife options, lots of culture, lots of history, huge airport, ect. It's arguably the most underrated area in the country. Detroit gets my vote.
The City of Minneapolis does not face the issues of widespread abandonment/disinvestment that Detroit does. I wholeheartedly agree that Detroit has a lot of fantastic architecture, affluent suburbs, and great entertainment options, but the City of Detroit is a shell of its former self, unfortunately.
The City of Minneapolis does not face the issues of widespread abandonment/disinvestment that Detroit does. I wholeheartedly agree that Detroit has a lot of fantastic architecture, affluent suburbs, and great entertainment options, but the City of Detroit is a shell of its former self, unfortunately.
The city of Detroit still has a population density higher than most cities in the top 25 largest cities. Yeah some parts are only a shell of itself but that does not speak for the entire city, not even close. Yeah, it might have changed quite a bit but a shell it is not.
Last edited by mjlo; 05-17-2017 at 12:00 PM..
Reason: the posts you responded to have been deleted.
Really surprised to see Minneapolis running away with this poll. It's not a bad place, but overall I think lacks the personality of Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee.
Really surprised to see Minneapolis running away with this poll. It's not a bad place, but overall I think lacks the personality of Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee.
I think that's an unfortunate assessment. Having lived in MSP, and been to all of these other places I find it to have a very similar pre-automotive built environment, but without the declines of the others. To be certain we are all entitled to our opinions, but i'd be curious to know what in your experiences makes you feel it lacks the character of the cities mentioned.
University Circle and others near it are great neighborhoods and Cleveland having kept some of its rail transit infrastructure is fantastic. Detroit's strong point is that its downtown still has a very large corporate presence with headquarters of massive companies as well as a very bullish billionaire private investor which has meant downtown Detroit and some of its surrounding neighborhoods have been able to improve at a pace that downtown Cleveland can't quite match. Cleveland's downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods are improving, but still has a ways to go though it's great that the city has other healthy patches of the city outside of the downtown area.
Cleveland, as late as the late 70s/early 80s, had the 3rd highest number Fortune 500 corporate HQs. That diminished substantially when companies like Standard Oil, Republic Steel and TRW where gobbled up and left the area. Downtown through the early 2000s was a ghost town, but has made an amazing recovery in the last 5-7 years as well as a number of close in neighborhoods, like Ohio City, Tremont and University Circle... But I realize a lot of cities are experiencing this kind of growth, too.
Really surprised to see Minneapolis running away with this poll. It's not a bad place, but overall I think lacks the personality of Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee.
It shouldn't be a surprise at all. What is surprising is that people actually think dying and stagnant cities should be considered a 2nd best option. I've been to these cities and they're freakin depressing.
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