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Agreed. The absurdity of Chicago going down the tubes is too ludicrous to even answer. And if Chicago did go down those tubes, you can pretty well kiss off the whole of the midwest as Chicago is its center and focal point. Chicago is a global alpha city, among the top ten, and obviously the only one in the midwest. It you look at Amtrak designated HSR systems, the one in the midwest is called, with good reason, the "Chicago Hub".
As far as the other cities/metros in the region, I'm a Chicagoan and I am also a Midwesterner. I like midwestern cities. A lot. But none have any potential of a future of being an alpha city. As far as the breakdown, Chicago is clearly the top of the heap. Below it comes the one metro area that fits with the rise of places like Atlanta, Seattle, Dallas or Nashville: the Twin Cities. After Chicago and its wide gap to Mpls-StP is a far bigger gap down to the other major midwest cities. Two of them, Columbus and Indianapolis, get high marks for being the post-industrial white collar dominated cities that rose largely after WWII. But I don't see either of them becoming a regionally dominant city as their potential and draw are not conducive with this.
There is only one Chicago in the midwest. And the midwest benefits greatly because it is there. If Chicago goes down the tubes, you'd pretty much have to put up signs in huge letters that can be seen from 3000 feet above scattered from Cleveland to Kansas City that proclaim "Officially Designated Flyover Country".
And however lame that joke is, I'm not putting down other places in midwest; I'm talking about how the rest of the nation likely would see the midwest.
My Chicago homer JK lol . The rest of the nation already sees the rest of the Midwest like that. They think beyond Chicago that the rest of the Midwest is poor, industrial, uneducated people, no culture, smoky, and filled with factories with smokestacks. You can thank our great "informed" media, TV and Hollywood for that as well as social media for building those reputations.
My Chicago homer JK lol . The rest of the nation already sees the rest of the Midwest like that. They think beyond Chicago that the rest of the Midwest is poor, industrial, uneducated people, no culture, smoky, and filled with factories with smokestacks. You can thank our great "informed" media, TV and Hollywood for that as well as social media for building those reputations.
To large degree, Chicago is lumped into that amorphous boring/culturally bereft/flyover country. In many of their twisted minds -- and I'm talking particularly of the snobby East Coast, though I sense some in glitzy Hollywood/LA feel this way, too -- Chicago is just a bigger, more-intense manifestation of the negative Midwest. Why give to you-know-whats about Chicago sitting out in the middle of nowhere when you have the real deal in New York, and international city connected to the 'more important' centers, like DC, Boston and even Philly, while also being a shorter flight to Europe... Quite obviously, though, Chicago is rightly the 'capital' of the Midwest... it is our 'New York.'
No Chicago will likely never be a New York, at least in 100 years, but to me, that's in many ways a good thing because Chicago satisfies on so many urban levels as does NYC, ... who needs the friggin' East Coast?
My Chicago homer JK lol . The rest of the nation already sees the rest of the Midwest like that. They think beyond Chicago that the rest of the Midwest is poor, industrial, uneducated people, no culture, smoky, and filled with factories with smokestacks. You can thank our great "informed" media, TV and Hollywood for that as well as social media for building those reputations.
Only literally nobody thinks that. It’s a made up victim complex.
In fact you hear a lot more about the Midwest/South being “real America” in Presidential contests with no real blowback but imagine if someone explicitly stated that they don’t represent the modest and they want to represent the real Americans on the coasts.,
Last edited by btownboss4; 06-30-2019 at 11:00 AM..
I'm going to be an optimist and say Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago, with the brightest futures.
Bleakest futures I honestly do not care. Midwest has been in the *&*(*)#$( for so many decades I don't care to think about how bad things are in some of those cities.
Can I suggest that the cities with the slowest growth have the brightest futures?
I think a lot of the Midwest's problems are quick growth, predicated on a single industry, or in some cases a single company.
At this point I'll take slow growth, even if as small as 10,000 a year, over quick growth 5% to 10% each year if it is sustainable, because that 10% a year growth isn't.
Agreed. The absurdity of Chicago going down the tubes is too ludicrous to even answer. And if Chicago did go down those tubes, you can pretty well kiss off the whole of the midwest as Chicago is its center and focal point. Chicago is a global alpha city, among the top ten, and obviously the only one in the midwest. It you look at Amtrak designated HSR systems, the one in the midwest is called, with good reason, the "Chicago Hub".
As far as the other cities/metros in the region, I'm a Chicagoan and I am also a Midwesterner. I like midwestern cities. A lot. But none have any potential of a future of being an alpha city. As far as the breakdown, Chicago is clearly the top of the heap. Below it comes the one metro area that fits with the rise of places like Atlanta, Seattle, Dallas or Nashville: the Twin Cities. After Chicago and its wide gap to Mpls-StP is a far bigger gap down to the other major midwest cities. Two of them, Columbus and Indianapolis, get high marks for being the post-industrial white collar dominated cities that rose largely after WWII. But I don't see either of them becoming a regionally dominant city as their potential and draw are not conducive with this.
There is only one Chicago in the midwest. And the midwest benefits greatly because it is there. If Chicago goes down the tubes, you'd pretty much have to put up signs in huge letters that can be seen from 3000 feet above scattered from Cleveland to Kansas City that proclaim "Officially Designated Flyover Country".
And however lame that joke is, I'm not putting down other places in midwest; I'm talking about how the rest of the nation likely would see the midwest.
This.
I don't quite get why Chicago does not get more national respect. Few people out here on the east coast seem to even give the place a second thought. As if it's just a bigger Cleveland or something.
The place is booming. Overall population may be relatively flat, but much of the city is still rapidly developing and outside of NYC, there is no other city in the country that can touch Chicago's urbanity.
To the average person Chicago is a larger Cleveland. Actually, Chicago being a larger Detroit might be more accurate.
Not taking anything away from Chicago but it does not change people's perceptions of the Midwest that much.
And who really cares? Chicago is a Midwestern city for a Midwesterner that appreciates Midwestern cities. It isn't for anyone else. I don't even know why people want it to be for anyone else. It is as though Midwesterner's appreciation for Chicago, is not good enough. I don't want Chicago as another New York. If anything I like it because it is not New York.
I love the region but, at least on C-D, a Midwesterner fights so hard for recognition from the West and East coasts, and even the South to a lesser degree, that they lose their own identity as a Midwesterner. Not supposed to really care what people outside of the region thinks about the Midwest but so many apologists do on this board. It is sickening, and it is disturbing.
To the average person Chicago is a larger Cleveland. Actually, Chicago being a larger Detroit might be more accurate.
Not taking anything away from Chicago but it does not change people's perceptions of the Midwest that much.
And who really cares? Chicago is a Midwestern city for a Midwesterner that appreciates Midwestern cities. It isn't for anyone else. I don't even know why people want it to be for anyone else. It is as though Midwesterner's appreciation for Chicago, is not good enough. I don't want Chicago as another New York. If anything I like it because it is not New York.
I love the region but, at least on C-D, a Midwesterner fights so hard for recognition from the West and East coasts, and even the South to a lesser degree, that they lose their own identity as a Midwesterner. Not supposed to really care what people outside of the region thinks about the Midwest but so many apologists do on this board. It is sickening, and it is disturbing.
Chicago is the third largest city in the country, third most prominent city, and second biggest and most prominent urban city outside of NYC. Comparing it to Detroit, outside of architecture, is very misleading. It's not "only for Midwesterners", it's a world class city with people not only from all over the country living there, but all over the world too. Anyone who thinks Chicago on the whole is as dangerous or run-down as Detroit and lacks any industry/jobs as much as Detroit watches too much Fox News, period. If Chicago can be called a "bigger Detroit", then it can also be called a smaller New York, London, or Paris too. Chicago is the only city in America that by far, can be considered New York's "younger brother" when it comes to urbanity. No other city is even close.
Also I don't see how Midwesterners are any more stuck up and defensive about their region than anyone from any other region is. East/west coast snobs are the worst offenders there. Naturally though when everyone on this site thinks any city not by an ocean or mountains immediately is an "awful place to live", naturally some places need more defending from ignorance than others. Too many ignorant people on this site and in real life who think the Midwest is nothing but cornfields.
I don't quite get why Chicago does not get more national respect. Few people out here on the east coast seem to even give the place a second thought. As if it's just a bigger Cleveland or something.
The place is booming. Overall population may be relatively flat, but much of the city is still rapidly developing and outside of NYC, there is no other city in the country that can touch Chicago's urbanity.
great post, kcmo.....and talk about underrated cities...KC is just that.
I think our attitude about New York is pretty much that we hardly want to be like them. If there is anything that could kill New York, I'm guessing it is success. Too successful. That works on a number of ways, but I'd like to give one that (literally) stands out in my mind:
New York's skyline is at a disadvantage going up against every other skyline in the US. Why? Only New York with its insane prices, the insane cost of real estate, its insane wealth could create the most miserable skyline kilers I can imagine: the various pencil sticks, a zillion feet high with a footprint the size of a shoe box, that make up billionaire's row make up one of the ugliest structures a skyline could have.
Extreme popularity ruins anything it touches. SF suffers the same in this regard as NY.
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. The rest of the nation already sees the rest of the Midwest like that. They think beyond Chicago that the rest of the Midwest is poor, industrial, uneducated people, no culture, smoky, and filled with factories with smokestacks. You can thank our great "informed" media, TV and Hollywood for that as well as social media for building those reputations.
