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If the great lakes are not within 1 hour drive, it is not a great lakes city.
Called Kansas City/St Louis a great lakes city is like calling Nashville/Atlanta a coastal city.
Yep those are all fine. Just no Canadian cities or Chicago. The city dosent have to be right on the water but atleast close enough to be able to take a day trip to the water.
If the great lakes are not within 1 hour drive, it is not a great lakes city.
Called Kansas City/St Louis a great lakes city is like calling Nashville/Atlanta a coastal city.
I agree, please do not include cities that are over an hour away, hour and a half at the very most.
I don't know if you count Cincinnati or Indianapolis, but those are good cities too.
Edit: Minneapolis is 2 hours from Lake Superior, but it is of course in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, so there's no shortage of water activity. I still don't know if it's really a Great Lakes city though.
I guess. I personally think calling Kansas City, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Altoona "Great Lakes" city is ridiculous, though. An argument can be made for Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, and Columbus since they are all within 2-3 hours of a Great Lake. I also don't know why they didn't include Syracuse.
Good call about Syracuse, as the metro area touches Lake Ontario and the city is 40-45 minutes from that lake. Same with the new Watertown-Fort Drum metro area too.
As for suggestions, I'd suggest Farmington/Farmington Hills or the Plymouth/Canton/Salem area of the Detroit metro. Perhaps Royal Oak, Berkley and Birmingham too.
In Cleveland, Solon, Twinsburg, Mentor and Lakewood, among others.
In Buffalo, I'd say that Williamsville, East Aurora, Amherst, Lancaster and Orchard Park.
In Rochester, Pittsford, Brighton, Penfield, Webster, Fairport, Brockport, Spencerport and Victor.
In Syracuse, Baldwinsville, DeWitt, the Fayetteville-Manlius area, Liverpool(village), the Westhill SD and Camillus/Fairmount.
In Lansing, East Lansing, Okemos, Haslett, DeWitt, Grand Ledge and Holt.
In Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids, Rockford, Jenison, Grandville, Ada/Forest Hills, Kenowa Hills and Lowell.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 09-02-2014 at 07:10 PM..
Pittsburgh, Columbus and Minneapolis/St. Paul are not Great Lakes metropolitan areas. The major Great Lakes metropolitan areas are Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Buffalo and Rochester, in order from largest to smallest.
I have to disagree with those who are including Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. For me the definition of a "Great Lakes' City" requires that one of The Great Lakes plays a major cultural and/or economic role in that city's profile. This just isn't the case with Minneapolis or Pittsburgh. In fact, both are "river cities" long before they are Great Lakes cities.
Minneapolis, Colombus, Cleveland, Pittsburgh are all great cities within driving distance of Great Lakes. I'm not gonna include Detroit as it's really run down and the metro isn't good anymore.
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