Cities you wish had grown more

[Revive 755]

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?

[rawr apples]

Cairo is dead

Tillamook, OR would make a nice coast city. it has the land to expand.

[Revive 755]

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.

[DrZoidberg]

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.

[un1]

Thunder Bay has a beautiful area, but it is thew lack of population that stops any major new developments.

[brad2971]

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.

[Voyager]

Soledad, CA. Such a beautiful name in a beautiful place.

[corco]

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

[Terry Shea]

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!

[Tarkus]

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)

[SSOWorld]

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

[Terry Shea]

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.

[njroadhorse]

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

[Stephane Dumas]

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

[yanksfan6129]

Mobile, Alabama I could see as a MUCH bigger city (even though it already is an upper-medium sized city)

[Alex]

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.

[Alps]

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.

[sonysnob]

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

[yanksfan6129]

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.

[PAHighways]

Pittsburgh - 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.

[Southern Illinois SKYWARN]

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.

[Revive 755]

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.

[Southern Illinois SKYWARN]

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.

[rmsandw]

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.

[ComputerGuy]

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