Would Cleveland, OH been New York if ...

[Colts]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

If any city (specifically midwestern city) has/had the potential to compete with Chicago, Toronto, NYC, etc. (and it did once before), it's Detroit.

Yes.

[Trimac20]

Toronto was a pretty minor city until quite recently. In 1900, Toronto had 250,000. Sydney, Australia, had 500,000.

[oakparkdude]

Here's a slightly different twist to the original question. What if Rockefeller, instead of founding/funding Rockefeller University in NYC and the University of Chicago, had concentrated his efforts on building a top 10 university in Cleveland (maybe even the #1 University)? Could Cleveland have become Boston?

[funkenstein91]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

Here's a slightly different twist to the original question. What if Rockefeller, instead of founding/funding Rockefeller University in NYC and the University of Chicago, had concentrated his efforts on building a top 10 university in Cleveland (maybe even the #1 University)? Could Cleveland have become Boston?

I think Cleveland would be more comparable to Pittsburgh if that had happened.

[gobucks86]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

If any city (specifically midwestern city) has/had the potential to compete with Chicago, Toronto, NYC, etc. (and it did once before), it's Detroit.

I can agree to that. But, Cleveland could have done it as well if some things could have just been different. Oh well, way of the game I guess.

[stlouisan]

At the turn of the century, St. Louis had the potential to grow to the size of Chicago as well, but the political fathers blocked that from happening.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

Here's a slightly different twist to the original question. What if Rockefeller, instead of founding/funding Rockefeller University in NYC and the University of Chicago, had concentrated his efforts on building a top 10 university in Cleveland (maybe even the #1 University)? Could Cleveland have become Boston?

Doubtful. That's actually one of Cleveland's (and Detroit's) biggest disadvantages: they don't have a critical mass of higher education to benefit much from in terms of jobs and innovation. In Pittsburgh, the three big universities are the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University. Pitt has a large enough enrollment to participate in the top tier of NCAA sports, plus a tremendous research and development history. Carnegie Mellon University is a "New Ivy," and is often mentioned in the same sentences as Stanford and MIT. Duquesne is a large Catholic university. Even with all this, Pittsburgh still isn't on Boston's level in terms of higher education.

By comparison, Cleveland has Case Western Reserve University, which has a good reputation, but not quite the brand equity that Carnegie Mellon University does. There's also Cleveland State University, which is a second-tier university in Ohio. What Cleveland is missing is a large university, but even if it had that, that'd only make it like Pittsburgh, which, again, isn't quite on Boston's level either. Really, the only city I can think of that can give Boston any competition in higher education is Philadelphia.

[foreverdublin21]

Honestly, I would say that Cleveland had the potential to surpass NYC--notably as Euclid Avenue was even at one time wealthier than Fifth Avenue Euclid Avenue (Cleveland) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia But I don't think that's so now. However should Cleveland (and it's metro) improve I do believe it has the potential to be a Midwestern version of the Seattle area or even become a mirror of the Chicagoland area....