Cleveland: Midwest or Northeastern/East Coast? (Columbus, Toledo: fit in, cities, places)

[BajanYankee]

I came across the following statements.

Not from Ohio originally, and was surprised after I moved here that it was considered part of the Midwest. When I thought of the Midwest, places like Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Illinois came to mind. I always considered Ohio as part of the East Coast, being from the Western part of the U.S.

As a citizen of Cleveland, I categorize us as East Coast/Northeast. Sorry to those who assume we are midwest.

How would you categorize Cleveland? Midwest or Northeast?

[Mr. Joshua]

I've always considered it as more of a Northeast city.

[barneyg]

Cleveland is a Great Lakes city, like Buffalo, Chicago and Detroit to some extent (never been to Milwaukee).

"East Coast"?? wtf? Northeast maybe.

[natininja]

Midwest. I also consider Pittsburgh Midwest.

[nei]

Ohio is one of the first states I think of when I hear "midwest". I talked to someone from upstate NY (from near Albany) and has family in Ohio and doesn't find them that similar. I'd imagine Iowa's rather different from Ohio. But that doesn't mean Ohio is the Northeast.

[BigCityDreamer]

I've been to Cleveland a couple of times. It feels to me like borderline midwest/northeast. It wouldn't feel out of place on the east coast as a mid-sized city, to be honest. I read somewhere that Cleveland has even taken some clues from east coast cities to make changes to the city.

BTW, the poll would have been more interesting if you made it multiple-choice.

[stlouisan]

Midwest. Cleveland has a lot more in common with Detroit and Chicago than Boston or NYC. I've actually always thought of Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Rochester as being more like the Midwest than the Northeast anyway. No way in hell could any of these cities fit into the Bos-Wash corridor.

[SWOH]

I would call it "North Coast".

North coast would include Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Toronto, Toledo, Detroit, South Bend, Chicago, Fort Wayne, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Flint, Pittsburgh, Saginaw, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Akron/Canton and a lot of cities with less than 100,000 like Lima, OH, Erie, PA, Utica, NY, Jackson, MI, Lafayette, IN, Rockford, IL, and Kenosha, WI. Some cities on the I-70 belt like Columbus, Dayton, and Indy might fit in, as well as some PA cities like Allentown and York, and maybe even some more western cities like St. Louis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Des Moines.

Just my two cents...

[Bluefox]

Midwest is sort of an arbitrary term to me. North Dakota has little in common with Missouri which has little in common with Ohio which has little in common with Nebraska. But they're all considered part of the Midwest. I would say Cleveland has far more in common with Pittsburgh than say Omaha. But I would also say Chicago also has more in common with Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Officially Cleveland is in the Midwest though.

I would be interested to have someone come up with a definition of the Midwest which could logically apply to even a single state, much less a massive region spanning hundreds of thousands of square miles.

Ohio is a weird state though. It's in the Midwest but has some Eastern and Appalachian influences as well.

[stlouisan]

Originally Posted by Bluefoxwarrior

Midwest is sort of an arbitrary term to me. North Dakota has little in common with Missouri which has little in common with Ohio which has little in common with Nebraska. But they're all considered part of the Midwest. I would say Cleveland has far more in common with Pittsburgh than say Omaha. But I would also say Chicago also has more in common with Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Officially Cleveland is in the Midwest though.

I would be interested to have someone come up with a definition of the Midwest which could logically apply to even a single state, much less a massive region spanning hundreds of thousands of square miles.

Ohio is a weird state though. It's in the Midwest but has some Eastern and Appalachian influences as well.

Pittsburgh essentially is Midwestern. If you are going to criticize the Midwest's definition as a region, you have to also criticize the South...Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma are all obvious outliers. And Maryland and Delaware are certainly more Northeastern than southern. And Kentucky is a southern state with Midwest influences. And I would certainly say Cleveland has more in common with cities in North Dakota than with cities in the Bos-Wash corridor.