Living in NW Indiana, do you feel part of the Chicago area or disconnected? (South Bend: price, airport)

[Northwest Indiana]

I think people need to remember. Everywhere that is considered "The Region/suburbs" is within Northwest Indiana. However, not everywhere within Northwest Indiana is considered "The Region". Example: North Judson.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by artemis

I agree with Bridget. I never thought of Michigan City as part of NW Indiana.
I think once you get beyond Porter County you're out in the middle of nowhere.

Have you seen a map? It definitely can't be anything but Northwest Indiana. But since you want to use "middle of nowhere" arguments, we'd have to eliminate Will County and certain parts of Lake County as Chicago suburbs because they're too "middle of nowhere" for your tastes.

Funnily enough, what even is "middle of nowhere"? I classify something like Minooka or Mattoon as middle of nowhere or maybe Danville. To me, that phrase implies not being attached to any metropolitan area, which Michigan City clearly is.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by Northwest Indiana

I think people need to remember. Everywhere that is considered "The Region/suburbs" is within Northwest Indiana. However, not everywhere within Northwest Indiana is considered "The Region". Example: North Judson.

Yeah I think a place like DeMotte is firmly in Northwest Indiana but since there's too much rural living between it and say Crown Point, it technically isn't attached to The Region.

[subject2change]

Originally Posted by PILMAN

It's clear that you are going to continue to believe what you want to believe.

The same could be said of you my friend! Once again, Michigan City is just about as far away from Chicago as you can get in Northwest Indiana, and not representative of the region as a whole. And no I don't really care how people think of it, but when someone keeps insisting everyone else should agree with them, it gets annoying. I thought I remembered that the suburb question came up on the Chicago Suburbs forum, and as a matter of fact it did. Yours is a minority viewpoint. If you want to keep believing it fine, but your posts are getting tiresome.

//www.city-data.com/forum/chica...a-suburbs.html

[midwest1]

Regarding Michigan City's connections to Chicago...

Historically, it had a gazillion times more connection to Chicago than virtually any other suburb...it was Chicago's Florida...before people could travel by rail even. The historic ship that sank, forget the name, in the Chicago River was en route to Michigan City...anyhow, those connections withered but some has always remained. And it seems now, a new generation of Chicagoans are discovering the entire region very much including Michigan City. I know two people in the city currently looking to buy in MC. More will come.

[artemis]

Originally Posted by EddieOlSkool

Have you seen a map? It definitely can't be anything but Northwest Indiana. But since you want to use "middle of nowhere" arguments, we'd have to eliminate Will County and certain parts of Lake County as Chicago suburbs because they're too "middle of nowhere" for your tastes.

Funnily enough, what even is "middle of nowhere"? I classify something like Minooka or Mattoon as middle of nowhere or maybe Danville. To me, that phrase implies not being attached to any metropolitan area, which Michigan City clearly is.

Of course I've seen a map. I consider it Northern Indiana, not part of the Region.

Demotte, Hebron & North Judson are country. Somebody's gotta live there.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by artemis

Of course I've seen a map. I consider it Northern Indiana, not part of the Region.

Demotte, Hebron & North Judson are country. Somebody's gotta live there.

Northern without Western would imply some central positioning, but it doesn't have this. It's definitely not in the middle of Indiana's North by any means. North Central would be more like Goshen.

[BridgetJones]

Just a note, I wasn't trying to say Michigan City isn't considered a part of Northwest Indiana or that it doesn't have cultural ties to Chicago. I was just commenting that because he kept mentioning MC, and in my mind areas like Hammond, Munster, and Highland are much more typical of what one might think of as a suburb of Chicago as I'm sure many more people commute to Chicago from Munster than do from MC. I was just saying that judging all of NWI on what Michigan City is like is completely ridiculous.

[artemis]

Originally Posted by BridgetJones

Just a note, I wasn't trying to say Michigan City isn't considered a part of Northwest Indiana or that it doesn't have cultural ties to Chicago. I was just commenting that because he kept mentioning MC, and in my mind areas like Hammond, Munster, and Highland are much more typical of what one might think of as a suburb of Chicago as I'm sure many more people commute to Chicago from Munster than do from MC. I was just saying that judging all of NWI on what Michigan City is like is completely ridiculous.

Yes, you're right.

Michigan City is more closely aligned with SW Michigan than they are with NW Indiana.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by artemis

Yes, you're right.

Michigan City is more closely aligned with SW Michigan than they are with NW Indiana.

No disagreement here. But I take it you haven't been to the extreme portions of SWMI. They align with Chicago, too. Now as a Chicagoan would I say that SWMI is the burbs of Chicago? No that's a long stretch. But, the culture is more Chicago than a place like North Central Indiana or Holland, Michigan.