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Old 03-29-2018, 10:03 PM
 
828 posts, read 634,543 times
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Cleveland or any of the three larger cities in upstate NY (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse). I could make an argument for Providence, RI as well.
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Old 03-29-2018, 10:20 PM
 
16,633 posts, read 29,306,224 times
Reputation: 7550
Quote:
Originally Posted by Iconographer View Post
Cities with untapped potential:


Mobile, AL
Jacksonville, FL
Baltimore, MD

Birmingham, AL
Tulsa, OK

Wilmington, DE
Milwaukee, WI
Buffalo, NY

Rochester, NY
Erie, PA
Hartford, CT

Really I choose almost all of these for the same reasons, namely location and bones.
I most definitely agree with the bolded.
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Old 03-29-2018, 10:21 PM
 
16,633 posts, read 29,306,224 times
Reputation: 7550
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vegabern View Post
Cairo, IL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutiny77 View Post
Thus far, all the cities mentioned have valid reasons (e.g., deindustrialization, changes in dominant modes of transportation, etc.) as to why they aren't bigger or more prominent today. My vote goes to Jacksonville, FL which is a sizable, healthy city but could have been a lot more given its built-in advantages and geographical location.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveStavroz View Post
I think it's St Louis.
It's flat and has huge area to develop on all directions.
On the river and so can be a big transportation hub.
In the geographic center of the country and so again can be a major transportation crossroads.
Was the 8th largest city in the country with almost 900,000 people , could have easily been a few millions by now but dropped to 60th place today with less than 400,000 people.
I say yes to all three of these cities.
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Old 03-30-2018, 04:40 AM
 
Location: Phoenix
29,790 posts, read 18,658,108 times
Reputation: 25779
Quote:
Originally Posted by jas75 View Post
I think much the same could be said of Albuquerque, which unlike Tucson is not in the shadow of a larger city. But New Mexico is not a well managed state and has a under-developed private sector economy. Albuquerque could be like a smaller Denver with a milder climate if it could get more aggressive about achieving good quality growth.

I noticed Birmingham mentioned in a few posts. I think that area seems to be on the right track these days, but the problem is they lost a lot of ground to their regional competitors more than a generation ago. Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville just have a lot more to work with today and a momentum that keeps stimulating further development in those metro areas. Memphis seems to be the major Southern city that is falling short of its potential at the present time. While population growth there has kept pace with Birmingham, income growth has not, and Memphis is struggling with crime and social problems to a frustratingly large extent.
I agree on Albuquerque and yes Memphis is a hot mess.
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Old 03-30-2018, 08:27 AM
 
37,796 posts, read 41,518,596 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PortCity View Post
I think Birmingham's Civil Rights past and other past issues are the reason behind it's missed potential. For some reason people seem to want to hold on to what happened in that city during that era. I don't think the state has anything to do with Birmingham's missed potential.

The same goes for Mobile. Mobile's missed potential was it's past short sighted leadership.Though Mobile has a large stock of it's historic pre 19th century : Creole, Italinate, Federal,Mission Revival, Spanish Revival, Gothic ,Egyptian Revival, and etc architecture. It still isn't enough to have our name mentioned along with Savannah and Charleston. Our city officials thought it was progressive to detrsoy many of them in the 60's and 70's for the sake of modernization. Preservation didn't take place until the 80's which was to late. Then you have untapped and undeveloped coast line in Mobile county that is being under utilized. Baldwin County is the fasted growing county in the state and will soon pass Montgomery County as the 4th largest in 2 years or sooner. It's growing off of 1) Mobile's economy and 2) It has more coast utilization so it is deemed as being more desirable. That has nothing to do with Alabama that is all Mobile's fault.Mobile has finally gotten it together and hopefully the city and county will live up to it's potential. There are other cities and counties in Alabama that are blazing and are reaching their potential. The state has nothing to with it.Their local leadership are responsible for that.

Folks in Birmingham love to blame the state and contend with Alabama about it but Birmingham's past enemy is within it's self.
I agree with you concerning Mobile. Although it's a peer of Charleston and Savannah in terms of size/economy, it can't hang with them when it comes to reputation and historic preservation.

As far as Birmingham goes, none of the nastiness that occurred there during the CRM happened in a vacuum; it was essentially a coordinated statewide effort with Birmingham catching a good bit of the flack, in part, because it was the state's largest city and the face of the state. So I'd have to disagree with you that the state didn't have anything to do with Birmingham's missed potential. Certainly there were horrendous things happening in Georgia during this era, but the fact that you really can't name a political figure from Georgia during that time of similar stature with George Wallace and Bull Connor really says something.

But the point I was responding to when I mentioned the state has to do with today, not in the past. Just look at the crap Atlanta has to put up with from the state of Georgia or how NC's conservative legislature are hobbling its major metros. To say that Birmingham would have an uphill battle in fashioning itself as a more business-friendly, progressive city while fighting its battles with the state of Alabama would be an understatement.
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Old 03-30-2018, 11:22 AM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,209,612 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by biscuit_head View Post
St. Louis could've been the Midwest's Boston to Chicago's NYC. It might not have been the #1 in the region, but a strong #2 or 3 like Minneapolis-St. Paul or Detroit. It's centralized location and history of corporate headquarters made it a strong "B" city for much of its history, but deindustrialization and corporate mergers and consolidation (like TWA being bought out by American Airlines) definitely hampered its growth and potential. There's also the fact that Chicago became a railroad city and the hub of the American Railroad system quite early while St. Louis focused on riverboat transportation a lot longer than it should have (and charged high tolls on the Eads bridge back in the day) that affected it as well. St. Louis "should" have a major air hub like Atlanta or Dallas-Ft. Worth and be a major transportation and logistics hub in general like those two cities, but fate gave it another hand.
St. Louis' climate sucks. Big problem.
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Old 03-30-2018, 12:50 PM
Status: "Save the people of Gaza" (set 4 days ago)
 
Location: St. Louis Park, MN
7,725 posts, read 6,368,183 times
Reputation: 10387
Mobile, Alabama.
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Old 03-30-2018, 01:25 PM
 
28 posts, read 45,895 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BadgerFilms View Post
Mobile, Alabama.
Why do you think Mobile?
Because it's on the Gulf Coast and can be a major resort town?
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Old 03-30-2018, 01:26 PM
 
Location: Mobile,Al(the city by the bay)
4,984 posts, read 9,055,285 times
Reputation: 1954
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutiny77 View Post
I agree with you concerning Mobile. Although it's a peer of Charleston and Savannah in terms of size/economy, it can't hang with them when it comes to reputation and historic preservation.

As far as Birmingham goes, none of the nastiness that occurred there during the CRM happened in a vacuum; it was essentially a coordinated statewide effort with Birmingham catching a good bit of the flack, in part, because it was the state's largest city and the face of the state. So I'd have to disagree with you that the state didn't have anything to do with Birmingham's missed potential. Certainly there were horrendous things happening in Georgia during this era, but the fact that you really can't name a political figure from Georgia during that time of similar stature with George Wallace and Bull Connor really says something.

But the point I was responding to when I mentioned the state has to do with today, not in the past. Just look at the crap Atlanta has to put up with from the state of Georgia or how NC's conservative legislature are hobbling its major metros. To say that Birmingham would have an uphill battle in fashioning itself as a more business-friendly, progressive city while fighting its battles with the state of Alabama would be an understatement.

I don't know man. If that's the case then why the reputation of Bob Wallace hasn't slowed down other parts of the state that is growing. Like I said Mobile's missed potential had nothing to do with Wallace. The short sighted city leadership is the reason.Our economy is growing and a neighboring county is benefiting from it and not Mobile County. In 2018 I just dont think the state is holding Birmingham back.
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Old 03-30-2018, 01:34 PM
 
Location: Mobile,Al(the city by the bay)
4,984 posts, read 9,055,285 times
Reputation: 1954
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveStavroz View Post
Why do you think Mobile?
Because it's on the Gulf Coast and can be a major resort town?
Being a resort town would be out of charecter for Mobile.That's more suited for Fairhope or Dauphin Island. Mobile's name just isn't mentioned amongst what I call other Southern Gothic cities. Such as No la, Savannah , and Charleston.When architecturally the city has some of what they have inspite of failed preservation from 50's - 70's.
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