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Old 08-18-2012, 10:01 AM
 
Location: Chicago
303 posts, read 563,503 times
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If Chicago didn't have a massive downtown ,with no tall buildings , Chicago would be different. Would Chicago be similar to it's Midwestern counter parts , just a bigger version or similar to Boston or DC ? What do you guys think ?
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Old 08-18-2012, 11:15 AM
 
Location: Chicago
6,359 posts, read 8,552,447 times
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if Chicago didn't have a massive downtown, everything that surrounds that downtown in both city and suburbs would be fundamentally different. Take a ride down Lake Shore Drive. Better still, start that drive on Sheridan at 6400 N and drive towards downtown. Between that point on Sheridan Road (which would be at Devon if Devon went that far east) all the way down to North Avenue (I'm choosing North Avenue in my definition as the northern end of downtown), you will view an endless stream of residential high rises either directly on your right or a little over on the western edge of Lincoln Park. This is basically an unbroken stretch.

If downtown Chicago weren't what it is, you would be seeing nothing like this.

And without that massive downtown, you never would have had all those el tracks that snake out to the north, west, and south sides in a system that was always designed to get people from the periphery to the center (more so than any rapid transit system in the nation)
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Old 08-18-2012, 11:27 AM
 
28,460 posts, read 83,713,480 times
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Default Some hypotheticals are just too far fetched...

Let's see, "if Portugese settlers out numbered English how would the Declerarion of Indepenamce be different? if the all the water on earth was replace by sand how would life be different? If the sun was a double star would life have evolved on earth? ....

Sorta pointless...


Transit patterns, employment, housing and about ten million other things all EVOLVED together, it ain't like aliens lowered highrises in the Loop and greater downtown from another galaxy....
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Old 08-18-2012, 11:38 AM
 
2,918 posts, read 4,115,440 times
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Strange hypothetical. I guess you could then compare it to Phoenix, Dallas or Atlanta. Those are cities with massive endless suburban sprawl that have smaller (though not tiny) downtowns.

I don't think I'd compare it to other Midwestern cities, because none of those sprawl out as far as Chicago does. Maybe Detroit would qualify, but not as well as the others I mentioned, IMO.

As others are saying, though, you can't really separate downtown from the city. If you took it away, much of the sprawl would go away, too.
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Old 08-18-2012, 11:52 AM
 
Location: Not where you ever lived
11,537 posts, read 29,700,290 times
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Chicago will always be an Alpha city.
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Old 08-18-2012, 12:22 PM
 
28,460 posts, read 83,713,480 times
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Default The 12M people of the region and ...

...and the thousands upon thousands of neighborhoods they live wouldn't have any other way...

Quote:
Originally Posted by linicx View Post
Chicago will always be an Alpha city.
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Old 08-18-2012, 12:39 PM
 
7,237 posts, read 12,527,858 times
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Detroit.
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Old 08-18-2012, 12:47 PM
 
28,460 posts, read 83,713,480 times
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Default What would happen if my uncle was in a freak accident that involved a lawn mower and bicycle seat????

Quote:
Originally Posted by 313Weather View Post
Detroit.
...then I'd have a new aunt...

The single industry focus of not just Detroit bu the entire region has decimated real estate values all around Detroit's nice suburbs too. There just is not way to really seriously evaluate such a crazy hypothetical.
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Old 08-18-2012, 12:59 PM
 
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Why?
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Old 08-18-2012, 01:22 PM
 
7,237 posts, read 12,527,858 times
Reputation: 5640
Quote:
Originally Posted by chet everett View Post
...then I'd have a new aunt...

The single industry focus of not just Detroit bu the entire region has decimated real estate values all around Detroit's nice suburbs too. There just is not way to really seriously evaluate such a crazy hypothetical.
Basically, everything in Chicago (like Detroit) would be sprawled about in its suburbs versus centered in the loop.
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