I would have liked to have seen Cairo, IL become a decent sized metropolis. Kind of a Pittsburgh with larger rivers - probably with fewer but larger bridges.
Other candidates for me would be Hays, Kansas, and North Platte, NE, both to provide more excitement on the long drives west on I-70 and I-80.
Other opinions?
Cairo is dead
Tillamook, OR would make a nice coast city. it has the land to expand.
I was kind of thinking more along the lines of a historical "what-if?," not growth onward from today.
But I'll agree that Cairo is dead.
It'd have been interesting to have the capitol cities of the Pacific Northwest (Salem, OR ; Olympia, WA; and Boise, ID) to have become larger metropolises.
Thunder Bay has a beautiful area, but it is thew lack of population that stops any major new developments.
Even though this place is growing at a somewhat solid rate (for a Great Plains community), I think that Rapid City, SD has quite a bit of potential. There's enough available land, favorable tax/cost of living arrangements, and plenty of natural scenery. So much that Rapid City could easily be Spokane, Reno, or Boise-sized. IOW, up to 500K residents in the metro area (as defined by the census bureau).
Right now, Rapid City is barely over 100K in size.
Soledad, CA. Such a beautiful name in a beautiful place.
Boise may very well become one of those big cities DrZoidberg- it's growing at a faster rate than almost anywhere, at least until the recession hit
I've always wondered how cities on the Great Lakes like Chicago and Detroit grew so big while Muskegon with the best natural harbor imaginable has remained a city of about 40,000. Had Muskegon and/or Grand Haven ever grown US 31 would no doubt be an Interstate grade freeway instead having so many inferior divided highway segments. And don't get me started on that Grand Haven drawbridge!
Salem's also overtaken Eugene as the second-largest city on Oregon in the past couple years. I wouldn't be shocked if it got up to about 200,000 here in the next 10 years or so.
I'm kind of surprised that The Dalles, Oregon hasn't grown up all that much more. It's in an ideal spot highway-wise, with Interstate 84 and US-197 passing through it, and US-97 nearby. The terrain around there isn't exactly conducive, but the peninsula there with Dallesport, Washington would probably accommodate more growth--the airport is up there, too.
-Alex (Tarkus)
Quote from: Terry Shea on March 07, 2009, 06:38:39 PM
I've always wondered how cities on the Great Lakes like Chicago and Detroit grew so big while Muskegon with the best natural harbor imaginable has remained a city of about 40,000. Had Muskegon and/or Grand Haven ever grown US 31 would no doubt be an Interstate grade freeway instead having so many inferior divided highway segments. And don't get me started on that Grand Haven drawbridge!
three words...
lake effect snow
Quote from: Master son on March 07, 2009, 10:33:18 PM
Quote from: Terry Shea on March 07, 2009, 06:38:39 PM
I've always wondered how cities on the Great Lakes like Chicago and Detroit grew so big while Muskegon with the best natural harbor imaginable has remained a city of about 40,000. Had Muskegon and/or Grand Haven ever grown US 31 would no doubt be an Interstate grade freeway instead having so many inferior divided highway segments. And don't get me started on that Grand Haven drawbridge!
three words...
lake effect snow
That may sound good on the surface, but cities like Cleveland, Buffalo and Toronto all get pounded by lake effect snow and they've grown quite large I think.
I wish Vineland, NJ would have grown more to anchor South Jersey.
Some of my other cities that would have been interesing to see as large metropolises are:
Erie, PA
Burlington, VT
Athens, OH
Lima, OH
Alexandria, LA
Dothan, AL
in Canada I think of
-Red Deer, AB located between Calgary and Edmonton
-Regina SK
-Saskatoon SK
-Prince-Albert SK
-Prince-George BC
-Kamloops BC
-Gatineau QC
-Waterloo/Kitchener/Cambridge ONT
-Windsor ONT
-Moncton N-B
with the oil shales in Montana and North Dakota, I can imagine the growth of the following cities. Not as big metropolises
-Minot ND
-Bismark ND
-Billings MT
-Great Falls MT
also to note
-Anchorage AK
-Fairbanks AK
Mobile, Alabama I could see as a MUCH bigger city (even though it already is an upper-medium sized city)
Quote from: yanksfan6129 on March 08, 2009, 07:00:09 PM
Mobile, Alabama I could see as a MUCH bigger city (even though it already is an upper-medium sized city)
The city recently annexed a lot of land toward the west end of town. They also now have the airport within the city limits. Problem with the city growing much populationwise outside annexation is a poor economy.
Quote from: njroadhorse on March 08, 2009, 04:10:53 PM
I wish Vineland, NJ would have grown more to anchor South Jersey.
Some of my other cities that would have been interesing to see as large metropolises are:
Erie, PA
Burlington, VT
Athens, OH
Lima, OH
Alexandria, LA
Dothan, AL
Scott C., is that you? Some cities I've wondered about:
Trenton, NJ - there's farmland within three miles of it.
Pittsburgh - to the west. It's expanded pretty well every other direction.
In NY: Binghamton, Rochester, Syracuse, Auburn, even Buffalo. It's sad how these cities lived and died with the rail and canal ages. They had a lot of potential but now western NY is rather economically depressed.
I'd love to see Thunder Bay Ontario have a hundred thousand extra residents. Same for Sudbury. It would be nice to see some larger cities in Northern Ontario
Quote from: AlpsROADS on March 14, 2009, 07:08:08 PM
Quote from: njroadhorse on March 08, 2009, 04:10:53 PM
I wish Vineland, NJ would have grown more to anchor South Jersey.
Some of my other cities that would have been interesing to see as large metropolises are:
Erie, PA
Burlington, VT
Athens, OH
Lima, OH
Alexandria, LA
Dothan, AL
Scott C., is that you? Some cities I've wondered about:
Trenton, NJ - there's farmland within three miles of it.
Pittsburgh - to the west. It's expanded pretty well every other direction.
In NY: Binghamton, Rochester, Syracuse, Auburn, even Buffalo. It's sad how these cities lived and died with the rail and canal ages. They had a lot of potential but now western NY is rather economically depressed.
Upstate NY has been in a depression/recession since I think like the '80s.
Quote from: AlpsROADS on March 14, 2009, 07:08:08 PMPittsburgh - to the west. It's expanded pretty well every other direction.
The Airport Corridor is pretty much where the growth is nowadays in Allegheny County, especially in Robinson Township.
It would have interesting to see Evansville, IN grow more, I could have seen the city becoming a Louisville-size metro area, especially with the close proximity of Owensboro, KY. It would have been very interesting to see what would be done with the routing of I-64 and I-164.
Quote from: Southern Illinois SKYWARN on March 15, 2009, 05:38:36 PM
It would have interesting to see Evansville, IN grow more, I could have seen the city becoming a Louisville-size metro area, especially with the close proximity of Owensboro, KY. It would have been very interesting to see what would be done with the routing of I-64 and I-164.
I think if Evansville had been Louisville sized when the interstates were being laid out, I-64 would have dipped down more, like I-70 dips between Kansas City and Indy to reach St. Louis. I-164 would probably have been part of a north-south or diagonal interstate. Assuming no other population changes besides the Evansville-Henderson-Owensboro area, I think I-57 would have been omitted from the original interstate plans in favor of a route through Evansville, but I'm undecided whether it would have been part of a Chicago-Memphis route or a Chicago-Nashville route.
Also, we probably won't be talking about extending I-69 to Evansville, it would have been built already.
Quote from: Revive 755 on March 15, 2009, 07:50:38 PM
I-164 would probably have been part of a north-south or diagonal interstate. Assuming no other population changes besides the Evansville-Henderson-Owensboro area, I think I-57 would have been omitted from the original interstate plans in favor of a route through Evansville, but I'm undecided whether it would have been part of a Chicago-Memphis route or a Chicago-Nashville route.
I have always thought that it wouldn't be overly difficult to make I-164 into a loop (renumbered to say, I-464) thanks mainly to the "Vanderburgh County bottoms" southwest of downtown. I am assuming KY would go ahead with their parkway plan, but the Pennyrile might have linked up with some spur in TN for a route to Nashville, so a EVV-MEG route would probably be the most likely, tied in with the parkways.
Kankakee, IL...one major problem is there is no major east-west route across the north side of the metro area. You either have to cross the river at downtown or drive 10 miles out of town to cross. One more bridge near Bourbonnias between IL 102 & IL 113 would help. Along with the manufaturing jobs that left in the last 20 years. If it would not be could up in Northern IL politics to. One boost would be if the Metra line would ever make it to town.
Mount Vernon, WA - I-5 is still only 4 lanes!!!
Darrington, WA - Nice mountain community...not hit hard by recession, only 2 ways in and one way out :biggrin:
Since I-5 is only 4 lanes in Mount Vernon, you want it to grow?
A town with 2 ways in and one way out and you want that to grow too?
If they did grow, they'd be recognized for road improvement, thus improving their transport!
Not necessarily. Many areas have grown with little to no improvement. Look at Poinciana, Florida. Outside of the roads built for the developments, no other road improvements were made or new roads built. Outside of a private toll road to Interstate 4 being a possibility, nothing is planned despite further expansion of the community to the south (where there are no other connections).
The reasons why many of our freeways have failing grades, is that growth has far outpaced infrastructure improvements. With funding becoming more and more of an issue, the gap between growth and improvements is not likely to improve.
The quote button keeps doing modify on me...
Hmm...you have a good point, aaroads. I change my mind...I wish that North Lakewood (my area) would grow so it could split from the hands of Marysville, Arlington and Stanwood.
Quote from: Revive 755 on March 06, 2009, 01:04:16 AM
I would have liked to have seen Cairo, IL become a decent sized metropolis. Kind of a Pittsburgh with larger rivers - probably with fewer but larger bridges.
Other candidates for me would be Hays, Kansas, and North Platte, NE, both to provide more excitement on the long drives west on I-70 and I-80.
Other opinions?
I thought the exact same thing about Cairo on my recent trip to and from Chicago. When you think about how American cities developed in the early days, they were mainly along water. With two major rivers intersecting here, I see no reason why Cairo didn't develop into something much, much bigger.
Several that I can think of:
-Superior, WI - Occupies a HUGE area of flat land (contrasting with now much more populous Duluth, MN - located right across the harbor and all mountainous) and a gorgeous natural harbor, much better than Chicago's. They had dreams of becoming another Chicago back in the mid-late 19th Century, but it stagnated.
-Ashland, WI - A smaller version of Superior.
-Appleton, WI - Had Wisconsin's municipal boundary law been a bit friendlier, my hometown would now have at least twice the population and several times the land area than it does now within the existing metro area.
-Calumet, MI - Once had over 10K population (during the glory days of the area's copper-mining industry) and at one time may have been in line to become Michigan's state capitol. Imagining what it would be like now if it had.
Mike
Daytona Beach, FL to complete the trifecta of metropolises across the I-4 corridor. Maybe, if only I-95 was built a bit closer to town instead of ~6 miles out. Also, the original planning for Palm Coast to have become the state's largest city...that would have been interesting to see.
I don't wish for any city to grow. We have enough humans already!
Quote from: agentsteel53I don't wish for any city to grow. We have enough humans already!
Actually:
Bigger cities = bigger skyscrapers = more residents living in tall apartment housing skyscrapers = more farmland in rural areas = more food for everyone.
___
So, let me think...
-Vineland, Millville, and Bridgeton, NJ could grow into each other and be annexed by one city Oh, and there is a glob of farmland around the area!
-Cape May and Atlantic City, NJ: Both are nice coastal areas, and it would form a good reason to widen the busiest toll road in the US. I still can't believe that it has some sections with four lanes! :pan:
-Sailsbury, MD and Dover, DE: They aren't that big, and if they were nicely sized cities, it could bring extra use of the Bay Bridge, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Oh, and it would bring the Delmarva Peninsula a nice economy.
-Harrisburg, PA: The city is not big enough, IMO, to be the state capital of Pennsylvania. Make it, meh, 175,000-300,000ish.
-Burlington, VT: That would make Vermont a bigger state (pop. wise), and probably cause a half to three quarter loop around the "city". It'd also make Lake Champlain a big tourist attraction. That equals a big economy.
-Hannibal, MO: Right smack dab in the middle of farmland, would make I-72 six lanes, and make me happy.
-Lincoln/Omaha, NE: :sleep: (does that explain the drive through NE?) Make a boredom lifter, that's for certain.
-Cheyenne, WY: Wyoming is the smallest state in the US. Why not make a big city to fix that?
-Casper, WY: Same reason as above.
-Billings, MT: It's... eh... in the middle of farmland, and it'd make a fun stack for a beltway called I-290! :sombrero:
-Cour d'Alene: Idaho's french named town should be big, shouldn't it? :rolleyes:
Whew, that was a lot.
Quote from: City on September 05, 2009, 04:46:57 PM
Quote from: agentsteel53I don't wish for any city to grow. We have enough humans already!
Actually:
Bigger cities = bigger skyscrapers = more residents living in tall apartment housing skyscrapers = more farmland in rural areas = more food for everyone.
or we could just use more condoms.
I have more cities that should grow.
-Laredo, TX: The southern terminus of Interstate 35 should be bigger. It would be an even bigger trade hub with the Mexico and US, as well. A partial loop around the city would possibly form. Maybe I-135, with both termini at the Mexican Border?
-Brownsville, TX: This area has a freeway in it already, but it needs a full fledged connection to the interstate system. US-281 or US-77 would be a nice expressway to fix that. Plus, it'd be a bigger trade hub with the US and Mexico.
-Amarillo, TX: A beltway would be awesome around this city. x27 or x40 anybody? The growth would stimulate the Texas Panhandle's economy, to "boot"! :-D
-Lubbock, TX: Same reason as above.
-Midland/Odessa, TX: It'd be nice to see such an unknown city burst into life and be a prospering metro area.
-Abilene, TX: Same as above.
Whew, that was a lot of Texas cities. I'm not done yet, though:
-Colorado Springs, CO: It deserves to be bigger. It'd be very nice to witness it grow to be very big. Oh, and an x25, as well.
-Marquette, MI: I wish the Upper Peninsula of Michigan had a nice population with it. This is the biggest city there, and it is only around 10,000 people. Why not 250,000? And that would make an extension of I-43. :biggrin:
-Green Bay, WI: It'd make I-43 more useful.
-Ephraim, WI: It'd make that area a much nicer place to live. On the shore of the actual Green Bay, it'd be scenic, alright.
Whew, that was a lot of typing!
Quote
-Marquette, MI: I wish the Upper Peninsula of Michigan had a nice population with it. This is the biggest city there, and it is only around 10,000 people. Why not 250,000? And that would make an extension of I-43.
-Green Bay, WI: It'd make I-43 more useful.
-Ephraim, WI: It'd make that area a much nicer place to live. On the shore of the actual Green Bay, it'd be scenic, alright.
the main reason why these towns are so charming and scenic is because they aren't teeming with humans. Let's keep 'em the way they are!
(I oughta go into the admin panel and change your name to "Hellhole" ;) )
oh, and Colorado Springs is home to the Focus on the Family morons. There's far too many of them already.
They even have their own highway exit green sign. Someone needs to accidentally run an 18-wheeler off the road through that sign.
Quote from: City on September 05, 2009, 04:46:57 PMSo, let me think...
-Harrisburg, PA: The city is not big enough, IMO, to be the state capital of Pennsylvania. Make it, meh, 175,000-300,000ish
It would be if Pennsylvania's municipal boundary laws were better - the City of Harrisburg proper covers a microscopic percentage of its metro area.
Mike
Quote from: City on September 12, 2009, 01:06:05 PM
-Amarillo, TX: A beltway would be awesome around this city. x27 or x40 anybody? The growth would stimulate the Texas Panhandle's economy, to "boot"! :-D
Have you ever been to Amarillo? I was just there this week... it's somewhat odd, a city out in the middle of nowhere, really, and has no real downtown I could pick out (at least from I-40 or I-27). The weirder thing is, it just stops and starts, not like most cities that just peter out. You cross Soncy Road, and bam, you're either in Amarillo or out of it. Really unusual.
Quote from: City on September 12, 2009, 01:06:05 PM
I have more cities that should grow.
-Laredo, TX: The southern terminus of Interstate 35 should be bigger. It would be an even bigger trade hub with the Mexico and US, as well. A partial loop around the city would possibly form. Maybe I-135, with both termini at the Mexican Border?
-Brownsville, TX: This area has a freeway in it already, but it needs a full fledged connection to the interstate system. US-281 or US-77 would be a nice expressway to fix that. Plus, it'd be a bigger trade hub with the US and Mexico.
-Amarillo, TX: A beltway would be awesome around this city. x27 or x40 anybody? The growth would stimulate the Texas Panhandle's economy, to "boot"! :-D
-Lubbock, TX: Same reason as above.
-Midland/Odessa, TX: It'd be nice to see such an unknown city burst into life and be a prospering metro area.
-Abilene, TX: Same as above.
Whew, that was a lot of Texas cities. I'm not done yet, though:
-Colorado Springs, CO: It deserves to be bigger. It'd be very nice to witness it grow to be very big. Oh, and an x25, as well.
-Marquette, MI: I wish the Upper Peninsula of Michigan had a nice population with it. This is the biggest city there, and it is only around 10,000 people. Why not 250,000? And that would make an extension of I-43. :biggrin:
-Green Bay, WI: It'd make I-43 more useful.
-Ephraim, WI: It'd make that area a much nicer place to live. On the shore of the actual Green Bay, it'd be scenic, alright.
Whew, that was a lot of typing!
Laredo is growing pretty quickly. It's almost near a quarter-mil, up from around 175K from 2000. Brownsville is also growing at a nice clip. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Brownsville has been talked about as a southern terminus for I-69, which makes sense since U.S. 77 is already at freeway standards in that area.
Lubbock benefits by having a major university there, so it will, no doubt, get bigger.
I like cities located at major rivers.
So I think it would be cool to have a bigger;
* Jefferson City, Missouri
* Cairo, Illinois
* Portsmouth, Ohio
* Keokuk, Iowa
* Dubuque,Iowa
* Quincy, Illinois
* La Crosse, Wisconsin
* Sioux City, Iowa
* Pasco, Washington
Cairo is an utter ruin, despite being in a significantly advantageous position at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.artistjake.com%2Ff%2Fca%2Fx4626.jpg&hash=338d77632e8e7d1f2bf5847315fc57a7b75f5abf)
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.artistjake.com%2Ff%2Fca%2Fx4629.jpg&hash=daffa802b17c8a5968b36c3232f0bdcfe0a7879c)
would you vote for a man named Street Preacher?
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.artistjake.com%2Ff%2Fca%2Fx4635.jpg&hash=52f9bb5d1eddf7ef782404991e907dcef0cd0741)
a building in fine shape.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.artistjake.com%2Ff%2Fca%2Fx4639.jpg&hash=b03c26e7a5ba21b7f6da791d237122130c5dbb80)
Commercial Ave., the town's main drag.
Cairo is clearly a town that grew too much.
Bulldoze it, and rebuild it :cool:
The location is just perfect. US 60 and US 62 even run through Illinois here for like 1 mile.
RE: Cairo, IL - It probably has to do with the apocalyptic earthquake that devastated the area while it was first being settled.
But very few people were living there then. Still, places like St. Louis and Memphis grew to where they are now. Even Cape Girardeau, MO, a little bit north of the Ohio-Mississippi junction, managed to develop into a fair-sized community.
the earthquake was in the 19th century, no? Like 1818 or something. A lot of those industrial buildings seem to date back to about 1900-1920.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on September 12, 2009, 01:13:44 PM
oh, and Colorado Springs is home to the Focus on the Family morons. There's far too many of them already.
They even have their own highway exit green sign. Someone needs to accidentally run an 18-wheeler off the road through that sign.
Well thanks for being open minded and not offending anyone. :rolleyes: What have they ever done to you?
Re: the earthquake - more like that's probably why St. Louis became the trade center for the Mississippi, leading to Cairo's greater demise with deindustrialization.
The New Madrid Fault is the only thing that's not strategic about its location. And how not strategic it is.
Quote from: Terry Shea on March 07, 2009, 06:38:39 PM
I've always wondered how cities on the Great Lakes like Chicago and Detroit grew so big while Muskegon with the best natural harbor imaginable has remained a city of about 40,000.
It is because of its location, facing west, on a peninsula. There are closer, east facing Great Lake ports and there isn't large local natural resource extraction taking place to increase port demand. Milwaukee was positioned to be a Great Lakes railroad terminus for western and pacific railroads. Cleveland was positioned to take advantage of nearby natural resources from western Pennsylvania. Chicago's growth is obvious being at the lower elbow of the great lakes and also being the best connection between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River system.
Quote from: DrZoidberg on March 06, 2009, 10:50:30 AM
It'd have been interesting to have the capitol cities of the Pacific Northwest (Salem, OR ; Olympia, WA; and Boise, ID) to have become larger metropolises.
Boise and Olympia grew fast over the last decade. Boise is now similar in size to Spokane while Olympia has grown to be the third largest population center in Washington outside of the Central Puget Sound region (though Tri-Cities, the fastest growing part of Washington, may pass them soon).
Quote from: Landshark on June 09, 2010, 04:44:20 PM
the third largest population center in Washington outside of the Central Puget Sound region (though Tri-Cities, the fastest growing part of Washington, may pass them soon).
that statement sounds awfully over-qualified.
how did Olympia manage to beat out Seattle
and Tacoma to be the state capital?
Quotehow did Olympia manage to beat out Seattle and Tacoma to be the state capital?
When Olympia was designated capital in 1853, it was roughly the same size as Seattle, if not larger. Tacoma didn't even exist until 20 years later when Northern Pacific decided "Hey, this is a good spot for the railroad to end." Olympia also had the region's Customs house (although it was moved shortly thereafter), so it made sense to put the territorial government down there. When it became a state, they just kept the capital in Olympia.
Hmmm...let me see...these cities are smaller cities but could be bigger, like St. George, Utah-sized, not huge.
--Price, UT; it's near one of the largest oil reserves in the country, it's fairly big right now, and it should--one day--have an Interstate serving it, being on one of Utah's most-travelled non-Interstate routes (US-6 between I-70 and I-15)
--Cedar City, UT; before St. George exploded, Cedar City was the largest city in southwestern Utah, being a college town (Southern Utah University), near a rail line, and all-around good weather (though a bit cold for the winter for much of S. Utah), unlike St. George's 100-degree plus summers. It and St. George could be twin cities of sorts (though not right next to each other), if Cedar became about as big as St. George.
--Flagstaff, AZ; I know, it's about as big as St. George, but with its mild summer weather, proximity to the Grand Canyon, and being one of the only places in Arizona with considerable mountains, why isn't it bigger?
QuoteChicago's growth is obvious being at the lower elbow of the great lakes and also being the best connection between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River system.
Being an early railroad hub certainly didn't hurt Chicago's growth prospects either. If anything, I'd argue being a railroad hub helped the city MORE than it's water location.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on June 09, 2010, 04:47:29 PM
how did Olympia manage to beat out Seattle and Tacoma to be the state capital?
To add to Corco above, back when Washington first became a territory, Vancouver was the largest settlement while Tumwater and Olympia were the first settlements on Puget Sound. Also, the railroads weren't here so people had to rely on waterways and primitive overland routes to get from place to place. Olympia's location at the south end of Puget Sound, near the Puget Sound-Chehalis-Pacific portage, and along the Cowlitz Trail made it a natural location for the capital. It was the railroads later crossing the Cascades from the east that made Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett boom towns. Olympia beat out Vancouver and Monticello (now Longview) for territorial capital and later Ellensburg (which burned down) and North Yakima (now called Yakima, as the original Yakima is now Union Gap) for state capital in a statewide vote. Centralia, Pasco, Union Gap (then called Yakima), Tacoma, Walla Walla, Waterville, and Spokane (then called Spokane Falls) also were mentioned as candidates.
Quote from: froggie on June 09, 2010, 05:48:21 PM
Being an early railroad hub certainly didn't hurt Chicago's growth prospects either. If anything, I'd argue being a railroad hub helped the city MORE than it's water location.
It's location on the elbow of Lake Michigan is why the railroads were there. The railroad companies were not going to build massive trestles to cross Lake Michigan, they were naturally going to go around the lake. That's also why Chicago also has so many U.S. highways going through it.
Transportation related what ifs:
Portsmouth, Ohio. Washington said "a great city will rise here", as it was where the Scioto met the Ohio. What if the Scioto was canalized and then connected by something similar to the Erie Canal to a north flowing river in Ohio, and thus to the Great Lakes?
Tidewater, Virginia. To me the biggest "what if" in early American history. Say something like the Erie Canal conncects the James and Kanawha rivers, which was goal specifically mentioned in the Virginia Constitution of the time, or an effective railroad was invented earlier. Tidewater, Virginia would have thus been the port of choice for the entire midwest, and thus a city similar to New York.
Reno, NV. Las Vegas outpaced Reno simply by having better air service and friendly government. If Reno had some smarts in the 1950s, Las Vegas' and Reno's roles might be reversed today.
Quote from: SP Cook on June 09, 2010, 09:59:39 PM
Reno, NV. Las Vegas outpaced Reno simply by having better air service and friendly government. If Reno had some smarts in the 1950s, Las Vegas' and Reno's roles might be reversed today.
did Reno not cooperate with the mob correctly?
Quote from: SP Cook on June 09, 2010, 09:59:39 PM
Reno, NV. Las Vegas outpaced Reno simply by having better air service and friendly government. If Reno had some smarts in the 1950s, Las Vegas' and Reno's roles might be reversed today.
I wouldn't necessarily quote "air service" as a major contributing factor to Vegas' growth outpacing Reno's--unless you qualify it by referring to commercial air service as we know it today, which did develop more rapidly in Vegas. If I recall correctly, both cities had airfields established around the same time.
In "friendly government", one must assume 'friendly' as open to gambling & vices & mob influence...
My current hometown of Belmont, WI could have been much larger. The first state capitol was located here, until it was moved to Madison after the first legislative sesssions back in 1836 or so. This little town of about 900 could instead swap places with Madison and easily have a population over 200,000.
Las Vegas, NV also has the electric power resources that Reno, NV does not.
Mike
Salt Lake City. Not in the suburbs (although the extreme southwestern quadrant remains undeveloped) but in the downtown core. Although the metro area has 1.1 million, the city proper has only 180,000. What we need is a good downtown (right now it's rather stale) that is teeming with people on the streets... and lessen accessibility to cars. Widen the sidewalks... what have you.
Quote from: mgk920 on June 10, 2010, 01:02:11 AM
Las Vegas, NV also has the electric power resources that Reno, NV does not.
If you're referring to the hydro-electric power generated at Hoover Dam, only about 25% of it goes to Nevada (with that being distributed amongst much of the southern part of the state, not just the Vegas area).
However, one could argue that the construction of Hoover Dam itself in the 1930's may have helped lead to population increases in the Las Vegas region that the Reno region did not have. Without looking at actual census numbers, I believe it was around the 1920s or 1930s that the Vegas area began to rival the greater Reno area in population, with the 1950s/60s marking the beginning of substantial population increases that exploded even further later on.
I would have liked to seen Youngstown, OH much bigger -- if only for the fact that they had built several freeways surrounding downtown that weren't quite completed, mainly because the freeways they had planned into the suburbs never materialized thanks to the closing of the steel mills beginning in the late 70s.
The only freeway they did complete was SR-711, but now that the the city is just a shell of it's former self, that group of freeways creating an "inner loop" (SR-193, US-422, US-62, SR-7) is pretty much overkill.
The geography of the Wisconsin Dells area lends itself to the construction of a large dam on the Wisconsin River and in an alternate universe where Wisconsin was settled by Europeans at a later date, such a damn would've been built a hundred years ago thus recreating a smaller version of Glacial Lake Wisconsin. I'd imagine it extending upstream about as far as the current Petenwell Flowage does. Where Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton exist in the real world, a single large city called simply "Delton" would occupy that location. Delton grows so quickly that the state capital is moved there shortly after the dam's construction.
Today, Delton would be a Madison sized city, so the entire transportation grid in central Wisconsin would be drastically different. I-39 would follow the eastern shore of Lake Wisconsin up through WI Rapids en route to Stevens Point & Wausau. I-90 & 39 would swing west of a much smaller Madison and come into the Dells from the south. I-94 probably would've hugged old US 16 a lot closer. US 151 would be a freeway heading straight for Oshkosh. WI 13 would be the main corridor on the lake's western shore.
Interesting to ponder. Such a dam, though would be a horrible idea. Central Wisconsin is home to some of the most valuable wetlands in the state and I'd never want to see most of Juneau County under water. Plus most of the lake would be really shallow and subject to intense, annual algae blooms.
Quote from: yanksfan6129 on March 08, 2009, 07:00:09 PM
Mobile, Alabama I could see as a MUCH bigger city (even though it already is an upper-medium sized city)
Mobile is an absolutely beautiful area, I too wish it were a big city, so I could live there.
It would be cool if Fort Wayne, IN would become a bigger city. If the Indiana Toll Road went further south through Fort Wayne and then traveled to the Chicago area I could see it growing. On top of that maybe an upgrade of U.S. 33 to freeway standards so that travel between Columbus to Chicago and Detroit would be faster.
Wouldn't mind seeing a huge metropolis in the western Dakotas or Montana. That entire area is so far removed from large city amenities.
City that I think can take it to the next level? Cheyenne. It's on the Front Range and only 100 miles from Denver with plenty of growth in between. Also, it's on 2 interstates. I think you'll see Wyoming lose its rank as the smallest state soon enough.
Casper will eventually over take Cheyenne. Sioux Falls grew quite a bit this past decade. Rapid City, Fargo, & Bismarck grew too. Williston, ND is witnessing a recent boom to due oil and has a housing shortage (http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=37628).