Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If I remember correctly, Youngstown has more ties with Pittsburgh than it does Cleveland.
Youngstown seems to be pretty evenly split. Those who live to the north and west gravitate to Cleveland, and those who live to the south and east gravitate to Pittsburgh. One subtle advantage to Youngstown is that whether you go to Pittsburgh or Cleveland, you're very close to important employment centers and upscale shopping in both. Pittsburgh's northern suburbs and Cleveland's eastern suburbs have a lot of money and jobs. With that said, Youngstown does focus more on Pittsburgh than anywhere else in northeast Ohio.
There's a long conurbation from Cleveland to Canton via Akron, and the cities therein feed off each other. Downtown Cleveland is 40 miles from downtown Akron, and 60 miles from downtown Canton. Downtown Akron is 23 miles from downtown Canton. Canton and Akron share an airport, which is located 10 miles from downtown Canton and 14 miles from downtown Akron. By comparison, Youngstown is off in its own corner.
Downtown Youngstown is 51 miles from downtown Akron, 56 miles from downtown Canton, 66 miles from downtown Pittsburgh, and 75 miles from downtown Cleveland. That means a) Youngstown is closer to Pittsburgh than it is to Cleveland, b) Cleveland is closer to Canton than it is to Youngstown, c) Akron is closer to Cleveland than it is to Youngstown, and d) Canton is marginally closer to Youngstown than it is to Cleveland. And practically speaking, since the fastest route from Canton to Youngstown involves secondary roads, it likely takes less time to go from Canton to Cleveland than it does from Canton to Youngstown.
In Boardman, a southern suburb of Youngstown, the nearest Tesla dealership is 46 miles away in Pine Township, a northern suburb of Pittsburgh, and the nearest Nordstrom is 53 miles away at Ross Park Mall, north of Pittsburgh. In Niles, a northern suburb of Youngstown, the nearest Tesla dealership is 61 miles away in Lyndhurst, an eastern suburb of Cleveland, and the nearest Nordstrom is 56 miles away at Beachwood Mall, east of Cleveland. The distance from Boardman to Pittsburgh International Airport is 51 miles. The distance from Niles to Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport is 68 miles. Interestingly, the distance from Niles to Pittsburgh International Airport is 69 miles, so people in Niles can pick one airport or the other.
Also worth noting is that many (most?) of the radio stations serving the Youngstown market have their transmitters just over the state line in Pennsylvania.
This is a question for those people who live between two cities (not in the same metro area) that are close together. In other words, it is for people who have easy access to the two, close enough to both that one would expect you to access both.
Since I'm talking about cities being in two different metro areas, I am eliminating:
Bay Area (SF/Oak/SJ)
Twin Cities (Mpls/StP.....and, heck, there is nothing between the two; they touch)
Metroplex (Dal/FW)
I am including two that are so close they border on being one metro area but they are not quite like the 3 above so they deserve to be part of the conversation:
Baltimore/Washington
And I'm zeroing in on the following (although other examples may be found):
• New York, Boston
• New York, Philadelphia
• Philadelphia, Baltimore
• Chicago, Milwaukee
• Tampa, Orlando
• Los Angeles, San Diego
• San Francisco, Sacramento
Questions:
• In what ways do you use both cities?
• What are you more inclined to do in one than the other?
• Which of the two are you more oriented to? Is anyone out there oriented equally to both?
• In what way do the two cities compliment each other by their different offerings?
• Anything else relevant to living between two major cities
I live in a suburb of Richmond. The Richmond Metro Area touches the Washington Metro Area.
While Richmond has most amenities that a person would need, Washington DC has stores like Ikea and Bloomingdales which are not found in Richmond. Richmond has some nice High End Shopping but it is nothing like the Shopping in Northern Virginia. Basically anything that we need and cannot find in Richmond (Furniture, Clothes, etc.) we would by in Northern Virginia.
Some things that I would do in Washington that I would not do in Richmond are going to the Smithsonian, the Zoo, and to enjoy Georgetown (which is a lot like Carytown).
I would say that I am more oriented to Richmond. Richmond is my home and while Washington is nice and close by, I would not want to live there.
Both cities definitely compliment each others Shopping Venues and historic background. Both cities also tend to compliment each other traffic (especially Washington).
Washington and Richmond along with Baltimore (which I think is more similar to Richmond than Washington) are starting to become one big Metro which is how it should have been all along. All three cities are the cities of the Chesapeake Bay.
I live in Chicago's northwest suburbs in Lake County (the one due north of Cook). So my home base would probably be considered the general northwest, north, and North Shore suburban areas.
Obviously Lake County is one of the key components of Chicagoland. But I think people unfamiliar with our area would find may find it surprising that Milwaukee is very much on our radar and many of us go there a number of times. Milwaukee is a day trip to us, close enough (maybe about 80 miles from Lake Co.) and we enjoy what that city has to offer (when I mentioned the three parts of Chicagoland above, my references here are for people in all three parts). When the Cubs play the Brewers in Miller Park, usually the better part of the crowd is made up of Cub fans, making the trip north. Pottawatomi Casino is, by far, the largest casino along the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan...so even with the competition from the Chicagoland casinos, going up to Pottawatomi remains a big deal. Chicagoland harbors on Lake Michigan are basically full and extremely hard to gain access. So a number of Chicagoans have gotten second homes in the historic Third Ward area of Milwaukee, parts of which are on the Milwaukee River. These converted warehouses/lofts into condos have slips for boat (there is also new construction). We in the area have long gone up to Milwaukee for the great German food. During the summer, Milwaukee's Summerfest and the Taste of Chicago run more or less concurrently. Going up to Summerfest (which is far more a complete experience than Taste) is common place. Marquette University, a Catholic school, draws a huge number of students from the Chicago area. Lots of connections between our two cities. And, in some way, Chicago's attraction towards Milwaukee is understandable in light of the fact that (IMHO), the Chicago Area as a whole is more oriented towards Wisconsin than it is the Downstate (anything outside of Chicagoland) Illinois. Wisconsin is basically our playground.
I'm not sure if this exists in other cities that are in that 90 miles apart range as Chicago and Milwaukee, but our two metros have, almost in the exact middle between them and straddling both sides of the state line, an area that is developed as it is toward its role of serving two metro areas: Themed park/Water Park Great America, a water park/hotel across the street and huge outlet shopping at Gurnee Mills, all in Gurnee, IL. Across the line in Kenosha, a heavy concentration of retail, including a huge (Lakeview) outlet mall, multi-make auto agency, and endless amounts of cheese (the capital of the cheese empire is Mars Cheese...which is a real castle, of sorts....and this unbelievable store is where it is because of the Chicago market.
There is a lot of rivalry between Chicagoland and Wisconsin...be it Cubs vs. Brewers, Bears vs. Packers, Bulls vs. Bucks, to a much smaller extent, even Northwestern vs. Wisconsin. But the rivalries tend to be friendly. On the whole, I would have to rate the Chicago-Milwaukee relationship very good. Both benefit from the two being near each other. and make use of what the other city has. For those of us in Chicagoland, Milwaukee offers something we lack: a smaller city, still packed with attractions, but exceedingly accessiblbe, far more hassle free, offering enough pleasures to make the trip north well worth it.
I live between Washington and Baltimore. By road, I'm about 15 miles from Baltimore and about 30 from Washington. For me, personally, I'm far more tied in to Baltimore. Mainly, this is because that's where I work. But also, I just feel more connected to it. We get TV and radio stations from both cities, but I default to selecting the Baltimore stations. I read the Baltimore Sun instead of the Washington Post. If I'm going to go to a concert (which, admittedly, I rarely do anymore) I'll go to one in Baltimore. I always prefer to fly out of BWI (Baltimore's airport) instead of either of the two that primarily serve Washington. And so on.
That said, there are many wonderful things to see and do in Washington, and we do pop down there sometimes. But the traffic congestion is so much worse heading down there than it is heading up to Baltimore that it often discourages me from going there.
This one is influenced by artificial factors, namely the tolls on Interstate 95. Not counting the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore itself, there are two substantial tolls to be paid between these two cities. One is to the immediate north of the Susquehanna River (approximately 40 miles north of Baltimore and 65 miles south of Philadelphia) and the other is to the immediate north (technically, east) of the MD-DE state line (approximately 60 miles north of Baltimore and 45 miles south of Philadelphia).
Anyone south of the Susquehanna River will almost certainly default to Baltimore. Anyone north of the MD-DE state line will almost certainly default to Philadelphia. And those tolls are an important component in why this is. As for the people in the approximately 20 mile stretch in-between those two tolls -- which is to say, Cecil County, MD -- I would say that they could go either way. They are just as likely to use Philadelphia's airport as Baltimore's; they pick up the media from both cities (I think); they root for the sports teams of both cities; and so on. (A factor in them leaning towards Philadelphia is that the I-95 toll by the state line is easily avoided by using parallel surface streets; this is not at all true of the Susquehanna River toll.)
I live in Chicago's northwest suburbs in Lake County (the one due north of Cook). So my home base would probably be considered the general northwest, north, and North Shore suburban areas.
Obviously Lake County is one of the key components of Chicagoland. But I think people unfamiliar with our area would find may find it surprising that Milwaukee is very much on our radar and many of us go there a number of times. Milwaukee is a day trip to us, close enough (maybe about 80 miles from Lake Co.) and we enjoy what that city has to offer (when I mentioned the three parts of Chicagoland above, my references here are for people in all three parts). When the Cubs play the Brewers in Miller Park, usually the better part of the crowd is made up of Cub fans, making the trip north. Pottawatomi Casino is, by far, the largest casino along the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan...so even with the competition from the Chicagoland casinos, going up to Pottawatomi remains a big deal. Chicagoland harbors on Lake Michigan are basically full and extremely hard to gain access. So a number of Chicagoans have gotten second homes in the historic Third Ward area of Milwaukee, parts of which are on the Milwaukee River. These converted warehouses/lofts into condos have slips for boat (there is also new construction). We in the area have long gone up to Milwaukee for the great German food. During the summer, Milwaukee's Summerfest and the Taste of Chicago run more or less concurrently. Going up to Summerfest (which is far more a complete experience than Taste) is common place. Marquette University, a Catholic school, draws a huge number of students from the Chicago area. Lots of connections between our two cities. And, in some way, Chicago's attraction towards Milwaukee is understandable in light of the fact that (IMHO), the Chicago Area as a whole is more oriented towards Wisconsin than it is the Downstate (anything outside of Chicagoland) Illinois. Wisconsin is basically our playground.
I'm not sure if this exists in other cities that are in that 90 miles apart range as Chicago and Milwaukee, but our two metros have, almost in the exact middle between them and straddling both sides of the state line, an area that is developed as it is toward its role of serving two metro areas: Themed park/Water Park Great America, a water park/hotel across the street and huge outlet shopping at Gurnee Mills, all in Gurnee, IL. Across the line in Kenosha, a heavy concentration of retail, including a huge (Lakeview) outlet mall, multi-make auto agency, and endless amounts of cheese (the capital of the cheese empire is Mars Cheese...which is a real castle, of sorts....and this unbelievable store is where it is because of the Chicago market.
There is a lot of rivalry between Chicagoland and Wisconsin...be it Cubs vs. Brewers, Bears vs. Packers, Bulls vs. Bucks, to a much smaller extent, even Northwestern vs. Wisconsin. But the rivalries tend to be friendly. On the whole, I would have to rate the Chicago-Milwaukee relationship very good. Both benefit from the two being near each other. and make use of what the other city has. For those of us in Chicagoland, Milwaukee offers something we lack: a smaller city, still packed with attractions, but exceedingly accessiblbe, far more hassle free, offering enough pleasures to make the trip north well worth it.
Chicago is a BIG reason I love Milwaukee. The two cities will, one day, be part of the same CSA, and Milwaukee's MSA will probably shrink, as Racine will, eventually, join Chicago's MSA. Whatever, though, the proximity of the two cities is a huge plus to both cities. It's also part of the reason I like Milwaukee so much more than Minneapolis...they can't go to Chicago for lunch, if they want, and then head home for dinner.
This one is influenced by artificial factors, namely the tolls on Interstate 95. Not counting the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore itself, there are two substantial tolls to be paid between these two cities. One is to the immediate north of the Susquehanna River (approximately 40 miles north of Baltimore and 65 miles south of Philadelphia) and the other is to the immediate north (technically, east) of the MD-DE state line (approximately 60 miles north of Baltimore and 45 miles south of Philadelphia).
Anyone south of the Susquehanna River will almost certainly default to Baltimore. Anyone north of the MD-DE state line will almost certainly default to Philadelphia. And those tolls are an important component in why this is. As for the people in the approximately 20 mile stretch in-between those two tolls -- which is to say, Cecil County, MD -- I would say that they could go either way. They are just as likely to use Philadelphia's airport as Baltimore's; they pick up the media from both cities (I think); they root for the sports teams of both cities; and so on. (A factor in them leaning towards Philadelphia is that the I-95 toll by the state line is easily avoided by using parallel surface streets; this is not at all true of the Susquehanna River toll.)
though the tolls between Philly and NYC are more significant I don't think they have any factor
One thing to me is the suburbs of NYC and Philly are probably the only two that truly overlap in the list not in the same CSA - they never stop. I have not seen that anyplace else (again none same CSAs) that has that dynamic
Philly and NYC are 60 minutes DT to DT by the fastest train (also more expensive), you can drive barring tunnel backups etc in 90 minutes between the two DTs
I would say they overlap but more southern NJ is Philly Central some grey and North Jersey NYC; its easy to get to NYC for a day on multiple transit modes and back but they lean strongly toward their actual city regardless
Williamsburg is about halfway between Richmond and the Norfolk metro area.
• In what ways do you use both cities?
Actually, we don't go to either one all that often. We do most things right here in Williamsburg. I do go to concerts, museums, and parties in the two larger cities, however. I'd say we go to the two cities about equally for that sort of thing.
• What are you more inclined to do in one than the other?
Richmond:
We prefer the airport in Richmond. Since there is a fabulous bike trail between Williamsburg and Richmond we head up there for cycling events. Also, we enjoy a dance troupe from Richmond, but we usually catch their shows when they come to Williamsburg. Not sure if that counts. We have friends in Richmond so we're more likely to go there for events and to eat out.
Norfolk: We go to Norfolk for fishing and water sports. We like the news station from Norfolk better. I also went furniture shopping in Norfolk, and I've never gone shopping in Richmond.
Equal:
We go to both cities equally for their museums.
• Which of the two are you more oriented to? Is anyone out there oriented equally to both?
Probably Richmond, since we have friends there. Also, if we are going to a winery as part of the expedition the wineries are on the way to Richmond.
• In what way do the two cities compliment each other by their different offerings?
Between all that they offer (and all that we offer) we have everything we could want.
Last edited by Piney Creek; 12-12-2018 at 02:44 PM..
though the tolls between Philly and NYC are more significant I don't think they have any factor
One thing to me is the suburbs of NYC and Philly are probably the only two that truly overlap in the list not in the same CSA - they never stop. I have not seen that anyplace else (again none same CSAs) that has that dynamic
Philly and NYC are 60 minutes DT to DT by the fastest train (also more expensive), you can drive barring tunnel backups etc in 90 minutes between the two DTs
I would say they overlap but more southern NJ is Philly Central some grey and North Jersey NYC; its easy to get to NYC for a day on multiple transit modes and back but they lean strongly toward their actual city regardless
It shouldn't even 90 minutes I wouldn't think. I got from Jersey City to my front door in 2:10.
I grew up in the Inland Empire of CA. If we had to leave the area to do something (event, beach, etc), it was most likely to Orange County (25 miles). Los Angeles is 50 miles away (through Orange County in many cases), and that is much more of a "day trip" than OC is, and would most likely be to do something that can't be done in OC (LA is generally viewed as being "gross" by many IE residents as well, and the vast majority would be living in OC if they could ). San Diego serves almost no purpose beyond Tijuana, Sea World, or the zoo, and I myself had probably gone there only 5 or so times in life in 20 years prior to moving away (and I myself still have little use for it, to be honest ).
I lived in Ridgecrest, CA, a town of 25K in the Mojave Desert. The relationship with other cities was unique IMO. For shopping that wasn't in Ridgecrest (anything beyond Wal-Mart/K-Mart honestly), one has the choice of traveling to Lancaster (86 miles) or Bakersfield (103 miles). Lancaster is the quicker/safer trip, but is generally viewed to be less glamorous overall (if you're viewed as less glamorous than Bakersfield, you've got problems ). Bakersfield is in the same county as Ridgecrest, and serves some public-type use as well (whereas Lancaster isn't). Ironically, Ridgecrest gets Los Angeles TV stations, but Bakersfield's newspaper (Bakersfield has its own TV stations that Ridgecrest doesn't get).
Alternatively, Ridgecrest residents could go to Victorville for shopping (88 miles), but people from Ridgecrest absolutely AVOID doing so because US 395 between the two cities has claimed many lives, so people avoid it altogether for that reason.
Ironically (IMO), Ridgecresters have nearly no use for Los Angeles (156 miles), but have this strange fascination with San Diego (225 miles). All the kids want to move to San Diego after high school, and it's where many of the adults want to spend the weekend. LA may as well not even be there to them, which I always found strange.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
). San Diego serves almost no purpose beyond Tijuana, Sea World, or the zoo, and I myself had probably gone there only 5 or so times in life in 20 years prior to moving away (and I myself still have little use for it, to be honest 
).
). Bakersfield is in the same county as Ridgecrest, and serves some public-type use as well (whereas Lancaster isn't). Ironically, Ridgecrest gets Los Angeles TV stations, but Bakersfield's newspaper (Bakersfield has its own TV stations that Ridgecrest doesn't get). 
