Does regional dominance make brash Chicago unique? (Washington, Mendota: quality of life, live)

[edsg25]

I wanted to give this subject some thought before posting here. I didn't want on any level to be offensive, but some will find what I wrote to be just that.

And before going proceeding, I'd like to note that I love the Midwest. I'm a Big Ten guy (who thinks both Penn State and Nebraska are interlopers). From Door County to Brown County to Mackinac to the beaches of Harbor Country, I think we're as beautiful as any part of the nation.

And our cities impress: magestic, progressive Minneapolis, historic St. Louis, hilly Cincinnati, gritty Cleveland, post-modern Indy, and the gem that the nation helped destroy: Detroit. Indeed no place in the nation has a midsized city as delightful as Madison. And we are most fortunate to have a gem, an underrated gem, practically in the same metro areas as us in our lakefront neighbor to the north, Milwaukee.

so what I am going to suggest here is no midwest putdown from a Chicagoan who recognizes my city wouldn't be what it is without the middle west.

I may have discussed this some time in the past, but I think it is even truer today.

That said...CHICAGO IS DIFFERENT.

There is a brashness about it...both good and bad...that comes, IMHO, from Chicago's uniqueness among other cities in the nation.

They say that all politics are local. I suppose that "local' is the underlying factor in all our lives. Or, as I might extend it: regional.

And while Chicago interacts nationally and globally like so many other cities, regionally it acts like no city in the United States.

Why?

Chicago's dominance of its region (from its world class status and what that entails) is unaparalleled. Chicago feels like the 800 pound gorilla regionally because nobody else separates itself from the pack as a foil. Chicago's tennacles spread over much of the hinterland to FIP hating Wisconsinites to prime Chicago beachfront property in Michigan.

No city dominates its region like Chicago does its.

New York, for all its greatness, has a very significant power base a few hundred miles away in DC. Formidible Boston and timeless Philadelphia (a huge city) are in the mix. Bowash operates as a regional enterprise and for all Manhattan's glory, that whole stretch shares in the status, with Washington an incredible rival.

The South has no stand out city at all. It isn't like the pecking order of great cities in the northeast: NYC, DC, Boston, etc. It's more like a region where nobody took ascendency. In various ways, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, and even New Orleans for all its problems share the role of major Dixie city, none really escaping from the pack.

Out west? It's a two way rivalry, as great as any between American cities:

LA and the southland matching up with SF and the Bay Area. Too much power to contend with there for either to be truly dominant in the golden state or out west. And other cities in the region like Seattle, Vegas, San Diego, and Phoenix have their own strengths to stand up to.

But Chicago is different. No city in midAmerica can match its status. The Twin Cities offer growth, quality of life, and lack the scars of industrialization that spread through the lower Great Lakes region. But it is no Chicago. Detroit was the most Chicago like city in the region, second in population to it fro so many years up to the mid-20th century, industrial might to match industrial might. But Detroit sadly imploded, the tragedy of America letting its industries decay and move elsewhere.

Historic St. Louis mixes charm with north and south and has a unique feel of its own. Sadly, it too, like Detroit went into deep decay, far earlier than the Motor City, and much of that decay related to the rise of Windy City that eclipsed it.

It would be hard to deny that Cleveland, too, is a shell of its former self. Two cities rose on post-war technology and white collar boom most impressively: Indy (with its Chicago and Atlanta like way of selling itself) and definively American Columbus. Nobody, however, will put these two anywhere near Chicago's status.

Cincinnati and Kansas City are small, backwater to a degree. Milwaukee has stood up better than many of its midwestern peers, but IMHO a good part of that has come from that city taking advantage of it sharing the s.w. shores of Lake Michigan with Chicago and the interconnectiveness of these two metro areas unparalleled in all the cities I've mentioned.

As for a smaller place, Madison, if the climate had been good, you would have seen Austin rising from the shores of Lake Mendota and you would have seen a most formidible city to contend with.

I really do believe that Chicago's ability to separate itself from other midwestern cities (all good places) and dominate its region separates it from cities in other parts of the nation and affects its character.

And again...these are just opinions, not facts, so feel free to disagree with me. And since Chicago's brashness, as noted, has good and definitely bad elements to it, I'm not putting any other city down. In fact, our friends up the road in Milwaukee can enjoy their lakefront city with far less hassles than we can ours.

[urza216]

This might actually get better responses in City Vs. City.

[temp2290]

Comparing cities as if it's some sort of competition to win is kind of weird and really indicative of American culture. Your post also doesn't make much sense to me.

[rickh1954]

I've spent a significant amount of time in most of the cities you've mentioned, and in many more. They are all unique. I really don't get what ever point you are trying to make.

[Avengerfire]

Oh no-not again!

[xavier xerxes]

Yeah i remember edsg25 putting this up in skyscrapercity
a year or two ago.

Its not a bad point for discussion.
But I just dont have any interest in it right now.

[JBVirtuoso]

Sure, I guess the OP has a point. But I really don't see what it means in terms of anything larger. It's a bit unproductive to speculate on what Chicago would be like if it were plopped somewhere different, or if variables X and Y were changed.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by urza216

This might actually get better responses in City Vs. City.

I wouldn't encourage those piranhas to come anywhere near this thread.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Drover

I wouldn't encourage those piranhas to come anywhere near this thread.

The OP encouraged those "piranhas" to begin with with the content he posted.

[Drover]

Well at least he posted it here and not in the "City vs. City" piranha tank where surely it would have ballooned into a 13-page "Chicago sucks!" "No way, Chicago rules! Neener neener!" thread by now.