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I always thought Peoria was too urbanised and city-like to be a beacon for Middle America anyway.
Though saying this, it contradicts my point of claiming Des Moines as the quintessence of Middle America, which not only has a population of 200,000, but is also a state capital.
To me the true answer to the OP’s question is almost impossible to answer, strictly speaking, and it’s a question I’ve always been curious to know as well, evidenced by the large majority of posts I’ve made on this forum.
I still think Muncie, Indiana can still plausibly be considered this however. Other candidates would be Middletown, OH, Decatur, IL, Belleville, IL or Marshalltown, IA. But I’m not sure, because others would argue that not a single town can represent America, but a metro area, for example.
I actually think this topic is very relevant to discuss right now though, given the socio-economic state the US is currently in.
Last edited by Doughboy1918; 02-20-2023 at 06:58 PM..
Probably an outer-ring suburban county of a major metro. It should have sizable black and Hispanic populations, so maybe it'd be a place with a blue-collar history and/or in the Sunbelt.
I'd look at places like:
- Will County, IL (Joliet seems like a good "microcosm of America": small Rust Belt city wrapped by miles of featureless cul-de-sacs and office parks)
- Las Vegas, NV
- Denton/Rockwall/Collin Counties, TX
- Suburban Atlanta
- Solano County, CA (most blue-collar part of the Bay Area --- Vallejo, Fairfield, etc. also includes a good amount of farmland)
there's a lot of areas of cobb and gwinnett counties outside of ATL that are true lower middle-middle class melting pots with many different ethnic groups living alongside each other. much more representative of 'real america' than the gentrified city ITP
there's a lot of areas of cobb and gwinnett counties outside of ATL that are true lower middle-middle class melting pots with many different ethnic groups living alongside each other. much more representative of 'real america' than the gentrified city ITP
North is more segregated than the South these days according to geographers' data. Places you mentioned may be too atypically integrated, for suburbia especially, to be 'average'. Last I checked, the Milwaukee metro area had Detroit beat for most racially segregated metro, and my area of Buffalo was ranked 5th or 6th. (out of probably the top 100 metros for population or something like that) This was as of 5ish years ago...the refugee resettlement that's gone on here is probably enough to bump Buffalo down a few spots.
North is more segregated than the South these days according to geographers' data. Places you mentioned may be too atypically integrated, for suburbia especially, to be 'average'. Last I checked, the Milwaukee metro area had Detroit beat for most racially segregated metro, and my area of Buffalo was ranked 5th or 6th. (out of probably the top 100 metros for population or something like that) This was as of 5ish years ago...the refugee resettlement that's gone on here is probably enough to bump Buffalo down a few spots.
Absolutely north is more segregated. I would argue that the most segregated states are in the northeast USA. At the forefront is New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
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