Chicago more like 3 biggest East Coast cities OR 3 biggest Midwest cities (Kansas: house, construction)

[Urban Evergreen Villager]

In comparison to larger Midwest areas I'm not sure why you ignored the largest ones. Minneapolis Cleveland and Detroit. This area is more similar to Chicago. KC Indy and Columbus are 'Lower Midwest' as opposed to the majority of the Midwests population actually residing in the 'Upper Midwest.'

Chicago is similar to areas of the northeast, however overlaps with the Great Lakes and yes also the Heartland. You do not hear agriculture reports on NYC radio stations like you will in Chicago.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by Urban Evergreen Villager

In comparison to larger Midwest areas I'm not sure why you ignored the largest ones. Minneapolis Cleveland and Detroit. This area is more similar to Chicago. KC Indy and Columbus are 'Lower Midwest' as opposed to the majority of the Midwests population actually residing in the 'Upper Midwest.'

Chicago is similar to areas of the northeast, however overlaps with the Great Lakes and yes also the Heartland. You do not hear agriculture reports on NYC radio stations like you will in Chicago.

People say the Great Lakes have the highest concentration of Midwest residents.

But is this only the urban centers of the Great Lakes or the states? Like can we honestly say Indiana is a Great Lakes state to the same degree Michigan is?

Also I know MSP is a large metro of the Midwest but I suggest you a)read my original post and b)check you info on largest Midwest urban centers.

[Master Jay]

I am essentially a lifelong resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. However, I am very familiar with Chicago, and prefer to spend my free time in Chicago. To compare the two, I can say that the reason I prefer Chicago is that it has much more diversity: including a Chinatown, a "Little Vietnam" and pockets of remnants of Italian neighborhoods. Milwaukee does NOT have that. But also, and perhaps a natural result of more people, but there is a higher level of energy. And I find the Chicagoans to be more friendly. In a nutshell, nothing , FOR ME, compares to Chicago!

[EddieOlSkool]

People say Chicago is an outlier in the Midwest but it has aspects of all the Midwest (except maybe the Plains). On the North Side is the small town Lower Midwest feel brought on by the Big 10 transplants. On the South Side is the gritty industrial feel of the Great Lakes. Throughout the city there varying levels of housing stock that are seen in the Lower Midwest (like rowhouses akin to Cincinnati and St. Louis), and 2-3 flat style housing more representative of the Great Lakes. Ethnic groups vary from traditional Midwestern (German) to Great Lakes (Polish) and like other major Midwest centers it has great numbers of immigrants from around the world. It just happens to be a Midwest city on steroids.

I will say though that its pace of life and general attitude of natives seems to place it in its own category that many consider Eastern because of its big city feel.

Also nobody had answered the question about the Great Lakes being the most populous area of the Midwest. Considering Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are all technically Great Lakes states but also have large population centers outside of the Lakes, is it fair the Great Lakes are more populated because of Indianapolis or Cincinnati which are clearly not Great Lakes cities?

[iNviNciBL3]

Its tough, when i was in Chicago people were way more nice and acted more midwestern but those people could of been tourist from like Nebraska or whatever, one person was standing in the middle of the escalator, and people just waited behind them, in the east coast people would do sort of go around them and bump into them if they have to.

Walking on a crosswalk there were cars turning right slowly inching there way through the crosswalk so they can go when the pedestrians would clear, so many people acted so surprised and so bothered that there was a taxi inching closer to them when they were walking... but i assume that was just a group of people who aren't used to walking around in a big city.

However you could easily tell the tourist from the locals when it comes to those people trying to sell tickets to boat tours and stuff, the tourist would look at them and be like "no thank you! thanks though" all in a nice manner.. the locals didn't even make eye contact with them.

[2000_Watts]

Originally Posted by EddieOlSkool

Cornfields? In what direction? West of the city are factories. East is water/factories. North is a long chain of continuous suburbs followed by factories, and South is factories. So...sandwiched huh? Chicago is in the Rust Belt, not the cornbelt.

You could argue it is surrounded by decay and depression. But corn???

Even once you hit Aurora which many recognize is the very terminal of the metro, it is still a Rust Belt feel. Same with Joliet which is Rust Belt. Same with Waukegan. Same with Northwest Indiana (you have to go east of Michigan City and south of Crown Point to begin to see any corn), and same with South suburbs like South Holland or Chicago Heights. Very dense and urban and industrial. You have to get to south of Crete (probably even more to Beecher which is not even in the metro) before any transition to "downstate" starts to happen. I would say Kankakee is probably where downstate truly begins. But to say the city is sandwiched between Cornfields shows that you really don't visit often or are just making things up.

LOL @ no cornfields in Chicagoland. You must never have set foot in Kane or Will counties, or even NW/South Cook for that matter... For all the decay, rust, blight, and urbanity in and around Chicago, there's plenty of corn surrounding the city MUCH closer than Kankakee or the state of Michigan...

[2000_Watts]

Originally Posted by EddieOlSkool

No part of the Chicago metro fits that culture.

In what part of Chicagoland have you lived?

[2000_Watts]

Originally Posted by Bluefox

You must have never visited the Midwestern cities he listed. Kansas City for example looks absolutely nothing like Chicago, and the difference between Chicago and Kansas City is an order of magnitude more than the difference between Chicago and those east coast cities. And no I'm not referring to just the downtowns.

You must never have visited the east side of KCMO.

Picture the following scenario:

Ten mile long expressway ripping apart majority black neighborhoods from about 18th to 95th whose original plans called for exits only every couple of miles with a mass transit line running down the median.


The highway I just described isn't the Dan Ryan Expressway, rather, it's KCMO's Bruce R. Watkins Drive. Where do you think KCMO/MoDOT would get such an idea? The next state away in Chicago perhaps? Why do you think KCMO/MoDOT thought a Dan Ryan clone would work here? Are the cities perhaps laid out at a similar scale with similar types of development...?


Can anyone tell me the MAJOR differences between Halsted & Prospect? Or Indiana vs Indiana? Broadway in uptown Chicago looks like a more intense version of Broadway in Midtown KCMO. Does Ashland look THAT different from Troost...? Outside the Loop and ADJACENT PARTS of the North Side, Chicago feels much more like a supercharged version of its Midwestern peers than it ever will anything outside the Midwest despite the size difference(s). Chicago's South & West sides their neighborhoods & railyards take up a vast majority of the city's land area and resemble the landscape of other Midwest cities far more than anything on the east coast

[DavePa]

Originally Posted by 2000_Watts

You must never have visited the east side of KCMO.

Picture the following scenario:

Ten mile long expressway ripping apart majority black neighborhoods from about 18th to 95th whose original plans called for exits only every couple of miles with a mass transit line running down the median.

The highway I just described isn't the Dan Ryan Expressway, rather, it's KCMO's Bruce R. Watkins Drive. Where do you think KCMO/MoDOT would get such an idea? The next state away in Chicago perhaps? Why do you think KCMO/MoDOT thought a Dan Ryan clone would work here? Are the cities perhaps laid out at a similar scale with similar types of development...?

Can anyone tell me the MAJOR differences between Halsted & Prospect? Or Indiana vs Indiana? Broadway in uptown Chicago looks like a more intense version of Broadway in Midtown KCMO. Does Ashland look THAT different from Troost...? Outside the Loop and ADJACENT PARTS of the North Side, Chicago feels much more like a supercharged version of its Midwestern peers than it ever will anything outside the Midwest despite the size difference(s). Chicago's South & West sides their neighborhoods & railyards take up a vast majority of the city's land area and resemble the landscape of other Midwest cities far more than anything on the east coast

You reopened this older thread to lessen Chicago to merely a bigger Kansas City? You do know Eastern cities had expressways rip thru neighborhoods too? Honestly..... then these expressways in Chicago .... originally built in the 50s. Ripped thru mostly White neighborhoods then. One devastated was the Italian one. Meaning homes demolished for it.

Then there is far more to the south and west sides of Chicago then rail-yards to be more only Midwestern. Eastern cities have them too. Yes Chicago probably had and has more. But that was its location and reason it became the dominant hub-city over a St Louis or any other.

There is far more to the city then rail-yards and the Dan Ryan and others to claim a city more like. Cores especially. Chicago's core is spectacular in scope, grandeur and scale and the city has heavy rail as these Eastern cities.

https://www.cleveland.com/datacentra...27th_most.html

Rank - City - Pop. Per square mile - 2018

1 - New York, N.Y............... 28,492
2 - San Francisco, CA ......... 18,868
3 - Jersey City, N.J ............ 18,306
4 - Boston, MA ...................14,190
5 - Miami, FL .................... 12,917
6 - Santa Ana, CA ............. 12,253
7 - Chicago, IL................... 11,934
8 - Philadelphia, PA............. 11,789
9 - Newark, N.J.................. 11,788
10 -Washington, D.C........... 11,367

Metro Area stats 2016

Metro Area ----- Pop. Density -- Tot. pop.

New York City --2801.5 ....... 20,483,268
San Francisco --1754.8 ......... 4,335,560
Honolulu ------- 1586.7 ........... 953,207
New Haven ---- 1426.7 ........... 862,474
Chicago -------- 1314.6 ......... 9,461,537
Boston --------- 1305.4 ......... 4,552,412
Philadelphia --- 1296.2 .......... 5,965,368

Kansas city would be WAAAY down on the list. Now in % of homes as unattached .... it is less like a Eastern city and standard frontage. But lot sizes are still narrow and close-knit housing. Even its bungalow-belt is tight-knit housing. It is true Chicago's North side is denser then the Southside.

A Super-charged Midwestern City .... Chicago surely is. But it and St Louis. Could be plucked down in the Northeast too.

[MassVt]

Someone chose the wrong Midwestern cities for a comparison. Should have chosen from Cleveland, Milwaukee, St. Louis or Detroit. If the first three had been chosen, then's there's no contest here...