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View Poll Results: Midwest cities: more like northeast or plains cities
strongly more like the northeast 11 27.50%
slightly more like the northeast 8 20.00%
like both equally 7 17.50%
slightly more like the plains 9 22.50%
strongly more like the plains 5 12.50%
Voters: 40. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 07-11-2019, 06:51 AM
 
Location: Chicago
6,359 posts, read 8,754,462 times
Reputation: 5869

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I'd like to compare three regions of the US to each other, but in a more specific way. They are:

Northeast: basically the New England and Mid-Atlantic states

Midwest: the Great Lakes region, inland to Iowa and Missouri

Great Plains: Dakotas to Oklahoma

The Midwest is the focus of the thread. It will be compared to the other two regions. But the comparison is a different type, it asks:

ARE MIDWESTERN CITIES MORE LIKE THE CITIES IN THE NORTHEAST OR ON THE GREAT PLAINS

If I were asking for a straight comparison of the three regions, while I would expect a range of answers, my suspicion is that more people would say the Midwest is more like the plains than the northeast. But focusing on cities and their metro areas may well offer a different result.

For each region I selected five cities to represent it:


Northeast: this one was easy for me: the five major cities of the northeast corridor:

Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington


Midwest: this one had the most to choose from but I selected:

Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Cleveland


Great Plains: this was a hard one as there were so few cities to consider. I drew from two states, Missouri and Colorado which are not Great Plains states, but in the first, the city is adjacent to it and in the second actually the furthest west in the high plains. The two in Oklahoma, I will admit, add a touch of the south into the equation:

Kansas City, Omaha, Denver, Oklahoma City, Tulsa

Criteria:

• groups that settled here

• traditional city (like legacy) or products of automotive age

• how downtown-centric they are

• politics: left/right, liberal/conservative

• Influence on nation

• Transportation: mass transit & highways

• Culture

* Tourism

So which cities/metros are more like those in the midwest: the northeast or the plains?
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Old 07-11-2019, 10:19 AM
 
Location: Medfid
6,773 posts, read 5,909,606 times
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Is Denver really a Great Plains city?

Either way, the other plains cities you mentioned (e.g. Wichita and Omaha) just seem so much smaller and less aggressively industrialized compared to what you’d find in the Northeast and Midwest regions.

I voted “strongly more similar to the Northeast” for that reason.

Of course, I also guess it’s sort of a spectrum: St.Louis is probably much more similar to Kansas City than anything in the Northeast, whereas Cleveland is probably much more similar to Pittsburgh and Buffalo than anything in the Great Plains.
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Old 07-11-2019, 11:16 AM
 
Location: Cleveland and Columbus OH
11,045 posts, read 12,310,425 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS View Post
Is Denver really a Great Plains city?

Either way, the other plains cities you mentioned (e.g. Wichita and Omaha) just seem so much smaller and less aggressively industrialized compared to what you’d find in the Northeast and Midwest regions.

I voted “strongly more similar to the Northeast” for that reason.

Of course, I also guess it’s sort of a spectrum: St.Louis is probably much more similar to Kansas City than anything in the Northeast, whereas Cleveland is probably much more similar to Pittsburgh and Buffalo than anything in the Great Plains.

This pretty much nails it.
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Old 07-11-2019, 11:22 AM
 
Location: SLC > DC
503 posts, read 792,814 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS View Post
Is Denver really a Great Plains city?

Either way, the other plains cities you mentioned (e.g. Wichita and Omaha) just seem so much smaller and less aggressively industrialized compared to what you’d find in the Northeast and Midwest regions.

I voted “strongly more similar to the Northeast” for that reason.

Of course, I also guess it’s sort of a spectrum: St.Louis is probably much more similar to Kansas City than anything in the Northeast, whereas Cleveland is probably much more similar to Pittsburgh and Buffalo than anything in the Great Plains.
Denver is the "Queen City of the Plains" Although the culture of the city does revolve more around the Rockies.
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Old 07-11-2019, 12:07 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,159,120 times
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Omaha is in Nebraska.
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Old 07-11-2019, 12:28 PM
 
Location: Brew City
4,865 posts, read 4,131,041 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katarina Witt View Post
Omaha is in Nebraska.
Who claimed it wasn't?
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Old 07-11-2019, 12:40 PM
 
Location: Chicago
6,359 posts, read 8,754,462 times
Reputation: 5869
Quote:
Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS View Post
Is Denver really a Great Plains city?

Either way, the other plains cities you mentioned (e.g. Wichita and Omaha) just seem so much smaller and less aggressively industrialized compared to what you’d find in the Northeast and Midwest regions.

I voted “strongly more similar to the Northeast” for that reason.

Of course, I also guess it’s sort of a spectrum: St.Louis is probably much more similar to Kansas City than anything in the Northeast, whereas Cleveland is probably much more similar to Pittsburgh and Buffalo than anything in the Great Plains.
I explained why I was including Denver. My inclusion of it was based on the smaller amount of large cities in the plains. I pretty much identified both Denver and KC as outliers. Both are in states not considered Great Plains states. Kansas City is no on the great plains but is close enough to them while Denver, a relatively flat city, is still on the plains, albeit the high ones, albeit on the edge.

And if you asked people what city is most like Kansas City, a good percent would say Denver. For Denver, I would imagine, Kansas City would be the leading answer.
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Old 07-11-2019, 12:41 PM
 
Location: Chicago
6,359 posts, read 8,754,462 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katarina Witt View Post
Omaha is in Nebraska.
wait a minute, Katarina. I thought in Lincoln they sing, "There is no place called Nebraska"
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Old 07-11-2019, 12:59 PM
 
Location: Chicago
6,359 posts, read 8,754,462 times
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For more than half a century, major league baseball (lower case as opposed to today's official MLB), "the majors", consisted of 16 teams in nine cities. Each of those cities was east (on the banks) of the Mississippi River, all were north of the nation's capital which did have a team.

In essence, these 10 cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago and St. Louis) were in either the northeast or the midwest during the first half of the 20th century (where no team moved, no new ones created) at a time when baseball was virtually the only national sport and being a member made you "major league".

Northeast and Midwest cities were the most dominant in the nation and they shared so much in common. Cities in both regions exploded in size after the Civil War and virtually all saw a large scale immigration of European ethnic groups and the growth of industry.

If the era in question here when baseball hovered around the nation's northeast quadrant, cities from the other three quadrants were not the major cities back then. I could see some cities (perhaps New Orleans) possibly being included as being that major kind of a city at the time, but to me only one US city would be a lock on inclusion: San Francisco. The only other city I think would have deserved a team was in that very norths section of the US and that would be Baltimore.

That period between the Civil War and WWI was the era when US cities were most coming to age. And, generally speaking it was in the northeast and midwest.

I have no doubt that midwestern cities have much in common with northeastern ones.
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Old 07-11-2019, 01:57 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,159,120 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vegabern View Post
Who claimed it wasn't?
The OP.


Quote:
Originally Posted by edsg25 View Post
I'd like to compare three regions of the US to each other, but in a more specific way. They are:

Northeast: basically the New England and Mid-Atlantic states

Midwest: the Great Lakes region, inland to Iowa and Missouri

Great Plains: Dakotas to Oklahoma

The Midwest is the focus of the thread. It will be compared to the other two regions. But the comparison is a different type, it asks:

ARE MIDWESTERN CITIES MORE LIKE THE CITIES IN THE NORTHEAST OR ON THE GREAT PLAINS

If I were asking for a straight comparison of the three regions, while I would expect a range of answers, my suspicion is that more people would say the Midwest is more like the plains than the northeast. But focusing on cities and their metro areas may well offer a different result.

For each region I selected five cities to represent it:


Northeast: this one was easy for me: the five major cities of the northeast corridor:

Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington


Midwest: this one had the most to choose from but I selected:

Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Cleveland


Great Plains: this was a hard one as there were so few cities to consider. I drew from two states, Missouri and Colorado which are not Great Plains states, but in the first, the city is adjacent to it and in the second actually the furthest west in the high plains. The two in Oklahoma, I will admit, add a touch of the south into the equation:

Kansas City, Omaha, Denver, Oklahoma City, Tulsa

Criteria:

• groups that settled here

• traditional city (like legacy) or products of automotive age

• how downtown-centric they are

• politics: left/right, liberal/conservative

• Influence on nation

• Transportation: mass transit & highways

• Culture

* Tourism

So which cities/metros are more like those in the midwest: the northeast or the plains?
I've spent a lot of time in Omaha; my husband is from there and still has family there. It is in Nebraska. Omaha is a typical city. Its hills and rivers remind me somewhat of Pittsburgh.

Groups that settled there- It has a lot of Scandinavians (Swedes especially) and also Czechs and Italians. The latter two again, remind me of Pittsburgh and virtually every northeastern city.

Traditional products-meatpacking, insurance.

Downtown centric-They've tried hard to keep downtown viable. There's the "Old Market" with its boutique-y shops and horse drawn carriage rides. There are also lots of restaurants there, and the College World Series stadium.

Politics-Moderate in the city.

Influence on nation-Obviously, none, as some don't even know what state it's in.

Transportation-I-80 "the nation's highway" goes through the city. Has mass transit. How good, I don't know. None of my family uses it to the best of my knowledge.

Culture-Lots of museums, theater, a great zoo, nice botanic gardens.

Tourism-None. No one goes there for a vacation except to visit family.


Quote:
Originally Posted by edsg25 View Post
wait a minute, Katarina. I thought in Lincoln they sing, "There is no place called Nebraska"
LOL! Maybe so. I haven't spent much time there.
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