Absolutely! I love learning about why and where people settle in places, especially when they buck what would outwardly appear to be the obvious location.
One of my favorite stories is how, had things gone a little differently, Astoria, Oregon likely would have ended up as the major PNW city rather than first Portland and now Seattle.
The case of Chicago is particularly interesting. If you have not read William Cronon’s classic book on that city, you might want to check out my online book summary:
And by the way, I have written a number of Substack articles on the influence of geography on human history that you and your readers might be interested in:
Minnesota's Lake Superior lakeshore does have a halfway minor (but not very small) city and metropolitan area - Duluth. Together with neighbouring Superior, Wisconsin, the Twin Ports metro area has slightly more than the Erie, PA, metro area, with the Twin Ports metro area counting 290,000 souls. And Duluth proper has 85,000 people, vs. Erie proper having 95,000.
You have to take into account that Lake County, LaPorte County, Porter County, and parts of Newton and Jasper Counties in NW Indiana are in the Chicago Metropolitan area. So, it shares the same characteristics of other counties in the Illinois portion of the Chicago Metro area. Many of those residents work at US Steel in Gary, or commute into Illinois to work in Chicago or surrounding areas and live in more economically-friendly Indiana. Also, Fort Wayne is growing and is consistently listed as one of the best places to live in the US and has topped the list as best city more than once on the cost-of-living lists.
Interesting article. I think the topic of why large cities grew in a specific geographic location is fascinating topic.
Absolutely! I love learning about why and where people settle in places, especially when they buck what would outwardly appear to be the obvious location.
One of my favorite stories is how, had things gone a little differently, Astoria, Oregon likely would have ended up as the major PNW city rather than first Portland and now Seattle.
The case of Chicago is particularly interesting. If you have not read William Cronon’s classic book on that city, you might want to check out my online book summary:
https://techratchet.com/2020/03/06/book-summary-natures-metropolis-chicago-and-the-great-west-by-william-cronon/
And by the way, I have written a number of Substack articles on the influence of geography on human history that you and your readers might be interested in:
https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/t/geography
Keep up the good work!
Minnesota's Lake Superior lakeshore does have a halfway minor (but not very small) city and metropolitan area - Duluth. Together with neighbouring Superior, Wisconsin, the Twin Ports metro area has slightly more than the Erie, PA, metro area, with the Twin Ports metro area counting 290,000 souls. And Duluth proper has 85,000 people, vs. Erie proper having 95,000.
You have to take into account that Lake County, LaPorte County, Porter County, and parts of Newton and Jasper Counties in NW Indiana are in the Chicago Metropolitan area. So, it shares the same characteristics of other counties in the Illinois portion of the Chicago Metro area. Many of those residents work at US Steel in Gary, or commute into Illinois to work in Chicago or surrounding areas and live in more economically-friendly Indiana. Also, Fort Wayne is growing and is consistently listed as one of the best places to live in the US and has topped the list as best city more than once on the cost-of-living lists.