Favorite big midwestern city Chicago,Detroit,Indianapolis, etc.. (Jackson, Dallas: 2013, calculation)

[cheese plate]

St Paul doesn't come anywhere near Milwaukee, give me a break. The Twin Cities collectively have many more people, so surely there are a few more amenities (like an NHL instead of an AHL team) and more total seats when it comes to restaurants and so forth (due to size), but like I said - how is it really that much different in terms of day-to-day life? It's not like the drop-off from Chicago to Minneapolis, where there are world-class amenities that aren't availiable elsewhere in the Midwest.

My first year in Milwaukee I took off of work and I had plenty to do every day. I live in Bayview and have a car, so differences in public transportation don't affect me. I think it's likely that you haven't spent much time in Milwaukee over the last decade if you can only name 3-4 "nice" neighborhoods. You can walk East Side over to Riverwest over to downtown and over to 3rd Ward to Walker's Point to Bayview, which is the entire N-S length of the (long, due to Lake Michigan) city. People do it all the time, on bikes or on foot or via bus.

Again, if you're like me and live in a good neighborhood and drive, there's really no appreciative difference in day-to-day life between Milwaukee and the Twin Cities. Anyone who can't find anything to do in either is simply boring and uncreative. The same cannot be said of, say, Green Bay or Rockford or Duluth in relation to the Twin Cities.

[MidwestRedux]

I visit Milwaukee at least once or twice a year and always spend some time looking around and seeing what has changed. I'm not saying its a bad place, but for my taste it is completely lacking in urban vibrancy/density.

Every time I pull into downtown Milwaukee after not seeing it for a while, two things catch my attention:

1. The skyline or lack thereof. I like tall buildings and lots of them close together. Milwaukee doesn't have that, Minneapolis does. St. Paul has a downtown cluster that's equal to (better than?) downtown Milwaukee.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8072946@N06/2365862234/

Minneapolis Skyline by Shawn Everhart - Minneapolis Skyline Photograph - Minneapolis Skyline Fine Art Prints and Posters for Sale

2. How dead most of downtown Milwaukee is. I remember rolling into Milwaukee at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon a few years back. The intersection of Wisconsin and Water was dead, as was just about everything else. It was a nice day. There were very few people out and about and surprisingly few cars. I was in downtown Minneapolis two Fridays ago. There were people flooding out of the tall buildings getting into buses, trains and cars and people arriving to go out for the night. The place was jumping. Milwaukee only has that feel while Summerfest is going on.

Again, I know this stuff doesn't matter to everyone, but for me its a big deal. I like to be around hustle and bustle. Milwaukee has little or none. I haven't spent much time in Detroit, so can't comment on the scene there. I have spent lots of time in the other cities on this list. For dowtown vibrancy/buzz/downtown I would rate them as follows:

Chicago (2nd only to New York among US Cities. However, can be very congested and difficult/expensive to park)
Minneapolis (Surprisingly large and vibrant downtown for a mid-sized midwestern city, but still easy to drive right in and park anytime of day)
Indianapolis (While its not huge, their entertainment district downtown is pretty awesome for a metro area under 2 million pop.)
Columbus (Columbus just edges out Milwaukee because of the new development downtown over the last few years.)
Milwaukee (For me, this is where Milwaukee falls short on this list and compared to other similar sized cities.)

[cheese plate]

For a variety of reasons, Milwaukee doesn't have a tall skyline, and the skyline (which sits right at lake level) sits low vs the rest of the city. You're completely wrong about density, however, and it makes me wonder if you really do spend any time in the city. Milwaukee is the 3rd densest city in the Midwest. In fact, the top 3 of Chicago/Minneapolis/Milwaukee are a solidly, uncontested top 3 no matter how far away from the city core you move.

Here are the midwest's 15 largest cities ranked by population within a certain radius from each city's respective city hall (2010 census numbers):

Within 1 mile of city hall:
1. Chicago: 63,120
2. Minneapolis: 31,036
3. Milwaukee: 21,587
4. Cincinnati: 17,681
5. St. Louis: 17,359
6. Grand Rapids: 16,099
7. Omaha: 15,582
8. Indianapolis: 14,058
9. Kansas City: 13,709
10. Akron: 12,479
11. Cleveland: 9,471
12. Dayton: 9,182
13. Detroit: 8,709
14. Toledo: 8,304
15. Columbus: 7,416


Within 2 miles of city hall:
1. Chicago: 181,714
2. Minneapolis: 123,526
3. Milwaukee: 86,261
4. Grand Rapids: 75,613
5. Cincinnati: 65,264
6. Omaha: 56,244
7. Toledo: 55,739
8. Akron: 53,715
9. Columbus: 49,667
10. Indianapolis: 45,079
11. Dayton: 41,053
12. St. Louis: 40,184
13. Kansas City: 32,900
14. Detroit: 32,810
15. Cleveland: 32,193


Within 3 miles of city hall:
1. Chicago: 318,522
2. Minneapolis: 228,927
3. Milwaukee: 208,776
4. Cincinnati: 138,235
5. Columbus: 134,826
6. Grand Rapids: 127,535
7. Akron: 122,395
8. Omaha: 113,044
9. Indianapolis: 102,412
10. Dayton: 101,817
11. Toledo: 94,058
12. St. Louis: 94,038
13. Kansas City: 77,388
14. Cleveland: 64,721
15. Detroit: 64,046


Within 4 miles of city hall:
1. Chicago: 508,949
2. Minneapolis: 325,198
3. Milwaukee: 319,111
4. Columbus: 221,466
5. Cincinnati: 205,624
6. Grand Rapids: 184,887
7. Akron: 177,674
8. Omaha: 168,724
9. Toledo: 166,569
10. Indianapolis: 166,266
11. St. Louis: 160,117
12. Kansas City: 155,802
13. Dayton: 152,789
14. Cleveland: 139,945
15. Detroit: 109,104


Within 5 miles of city hall:
1. Chicago: 764,400
2. Minneapolis: 448,499
3. Milwaukee: 438,629
4. Cincinnati: 315,665
5. Columbus: 314,557
6. Omaha: 253,723
7. St. Louis: 251,432
8. Grand Rapids: 247,473
9. Indianapolis: 240,970
10. Akron: 227,825
11. Cleveland: 227,309
12. Kansas City: 216,483
13. Dayton: 214,614
14. Toledo: 213,529
15. Detroit: 198,341

source: http://allcolumbusdata.com/?p=1079

Everything else you include is opinions and a visit several years ago for a few minutes etc. The data shows Milwaukee is in fact very dense, and anyone who has spent time at ground level (not driving through downtown looking at the skyline) can confirm this.

[steeps]

Originally Posted by kpl1228

I know it's called that now, but I have SUCH a tough time with Chicago being called a "world city." It is not Rio. It is not NYC. It is not Tokyo, Shanghai, London, Paris, Sydney. It's not even Singapore, Sao Paolo, Mumbai, Hong Kong or Seoul. Hell, it ain't even Moscow, if you look at world impact.

Chicagoans and their politicians love sprinkling that term on everything like hot sauce. World City World City World City. Such a reach.

Love Chicago, used to live there, and it's big. And has great stuff and it's a great city. But it's more of a great Level 2 "regional city," like Cairo, Berlin, Warsaw, Toronto, Madrid, Cape Town, Manila. Those places ain't Tokyo or NYC either, great as they are.

"World City" designations need to tighten up. Period. They need to look at other categories. Chicago's Midwestern, it's not on a ocean coast (despite world port access via Seaway) and hardly impacts WORLD economy/issues/politics. US and regional/continental? Certainly.

This below makes Chicago a valid candidate..... arguably to a title of WORLD CITY

From Wikipedia⤵

In 2012, Chicago hosted 46.37 million international and domestic visitors, an overall visitation record. 34.07 million domestic leisure travelers, 10.92 million domestic business travelers and 1.369 million overseas visitors. These visitors contributed more than US$12.8 billion to Chicago's economy. Upscale shopping along the Magnificent Mile and State Street, thousands of restaurants, as well as Chicago's eminent architecture, continue to draw tourists. The city is the United States' third-largest convention destination. A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked Chicago the fourth most walkable of fifty largest cities in the United States.


Chicago was listed as the top alpha global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, just shy of alpha+ status and ranks seventh in the world in the 2014 Global Cities Index. As of 2012, Chicago had the third largest gross metropolitan product in the United States, after the New York City and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, at a sum of US$571 billion. The city has also been rated as having the most balanced economy in the United States, due to its high level of diversification.

Chicago was named the fourth most important business center in the world in the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index. Additionally, the Chicago metropolitan area recorded the greatest number of new or expanded corporate facilities in the United States for six out of the seven years from 2001 to 2008.

The Chicago metropolitan area has the third largest science and engineering work force of any metropolitan area in the nation.In 2009 Chicago placed 9th on the UBS list of the world's richest cities. Chicago was the base of commercial operations for industrialists John Crerar, John Whitfield Bunn, Richard Teller Crane, Marshall Field, John Farwell, Julius Rosenwald and many other commercial visionaries who laid the foundation for Midwestern and global industry.

Chicago is a major world financial center, with the second largest central business district in the United States. The city is the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (the Seventh District of the Federal Reserve). The city is also home to major financial and futures exchanges, including the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the "Merc"), which is owned, along with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) by Chicago's CME Group. The CME Group, in addition, owns the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the Commodities Exchange Inc. (COMEX) and the Dow Jones Indexes. Perhaps due to the influence of the Chicago school of economics, the city also has markets trading unusual contracts such as emissions (on the Chicago Climate Exchange) and equity style indices (on the U.S. Futures Exchange). Chase Bank has its commercial and retail banking headquarters in Chicago's Chase Tower.

Chicago is an international hub for finance, commerce, industry, technology, telecommunications, and transportation, with O'Hare International Airport again being the busiest airport in the world; it also has the largest number of U.S. highways, and railroad freight entering its region.

IN REPLY TO THE PREVIOUS POST.... I'D CALL MILWAUKEE a little sister city to Chicago. Or a mini-Chicago ...... or its mini-me LOL...

[JoshB]

I had to vote Chicago #1 as I have limited experience/exposure to the Twin Cities and MKE hasn't truly made me go wow.

[Rynldsbr]

Originally Posted by JoshB

I had to vote Chicago #1 as I have limited experience/exposure to the Twin Cities and MKE hasn't truly made me go wow.

The only WOW I feel about Chicago is either "Wow, traffic here sucks!" or "Wow. Could the delays in this airport (O'Hare) get any worse?"

[cheese plate]

Considering the traffic, I'd say O'Hare does pretty well. I mean, it's the busiest airport in the entire world, yet there are others across the country (let's not even start with foreign airports) that are way harder to deal with (like LaGuardia, LAX, Dulles, Philly, etc.). I used to have to fly constantly, and O'Hare was never a bother for me. I'm always surprised when people compain about it!

As for surface level road traffic, yeah, Chicago is the worst. Or one of the worst. But it certainly has the "wow" factor as a city, unless you simply hate all major metros.

[Empidonax]

My favorite cities on the list are Chicago, Milwaukee, and Columbus.

Minneapolis has some good things going on, but is not one of my favorites.

Indianapolis and Detroit have good things to offer, but not as much as the other four.

[JoanCrawford]

Originally Posted by cheese plate

Considering the traffic, I'd say O'Hare does pretty well. I mean, it's the busiest airport in the entire world, yet there are others across the country (let's not even start with foreign airports) that are way harder to deal with (like LaGuardia, LAX, Dulles, Philly, etc.). I used to have to fly constantly, and O'Hare was never a bother for me. I'm always surprised when people compain about it!

As for surface level road traffic, yeah, Chicago is the worst. Or one of the worst. But it certainly has the "wow" factor as a city, unless you simply hate all major metros.

O'hare the busiest airport in the world? LOL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%2...siest_airports

[steeps]

Originally Posted by JoanCrawford

O'hare the busiest airport in the world? LOL.

World's busiest airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

O'Hare regained its title lost to the newbee on the block It lost to in the late 90's to Atlanta.....this year. But even Dallas/Fort Worth's new airport did not overtake it. OLE GRANDADDY O'HARE THAT WAS CALLED ALREADY OUTDATED AND TOO SMALL IN 1960 WHEN IT OPENED. IS NOT ROLLING OVER PUSHING DAISY'S LOL. Why would you laugh Joan as if ridiculous ? The airports remained close in numbers all them years? Really says a lot of you and intent?

MultiBrief: O’Hare regains busiest airport crown