Chicago, the great coastal city

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by Larry Siegel

Usually Third Coast or North Coast, but OK.

I thought they used "fourth" because the gulf is third.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

That is so true the West Coast in your way of thinking would be flyover country....
Good Point

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by sunnyandcloudydays

That is so true the West Coast in your way of thinking would be flyover country....
Good Point

it's all the beauty of perspective, sunny....and I, for one, don't want to borrow the perspective of NY and Calif on the subject.

[chicago103]

I think the term "flyover country" as it applies to Chicago if anything is more of a contemporary thing as opposed to a historic one. I agree that an argument can be made that Chicago is more cultured today but I also think Chicago had a bigger reputation in the nation as a whole in 1950 than today, I don't think people used the term "fly-over country" back then. In 1950 Chicago was clearly the second largest city in the country by a wide margin and after New York City had the biggest reputation as far as being a "big city" is concerned. If anything Chicago's reputation diminished with the rise of contemporary celebrity culture and the rise of Los Angeles which created the bi-coastal mentality. I know LA existed in 1950 and was already pretty big but back then it was still viewed as a far off place where movies are made to most people east of the Mississippi, before the age of common jet air travel Chicago would be much more familiar and accessible to a New Yorker than LA. I know celebrity culture existed in the 1950's but it expressed itself differently, just think of the I Love Lucy episodes where going to LA was a big deal to New Yorkers like them, today it wouldn't be. In 1950 many would think it very strange if you said New York City had more in common with Los Angeles than Chicago but today many think it is the opposite due to NYC and LA having more in common as far as pop celebrity culture and mass media in contemporary life. This is starting to change with Chicago in recent decades with the city becoming more cultured in the contemporary sense of the word but it is very misguided to say that this is the first time Chicago has been recognized by people on the coasts, if anything in 1950 NYC and Chicago probably looked down upon the "wild wild west" together.

Really Chicago's relationship with NYC has been a bit circular, in the 19th century, think 1893 exposition we were looked down upon, by 1950 Chicago was solidified as a city and was probably lumped in with much of the eastern half of the US, then in the later half of the 20th century Chicago got lumped in with the rest of the Midwest as "flyover country" and now as Chicago is gentrifying it is getting discovered again by New Yorkers. These are all generalizations of course but I think it is the accurate general historical trend. The bi-coastal mentality I think is a total fabrication of recent decades, the bi-product of suburban raised intellectually lazy members of the younger baby boomers and generations X and Y and I say this as an older member of generation Y.

[Milwaukee City]

Originally Posted by reppin_the_847

Certainly O'Hare International Airport has far more international flights than its midwestern counterparts. The next biggest airports in the Midwest are probably Minneapolis & Detroit. Other than flights to Toronto, I don't even think Milwaukee Airport has international flights, but they're so close to O'Hare that it's not a big deal really.

Milwaukee has a international terminal so therefore it has international flights. MKE has passed Midway for passengers and Regan airport in DC however due to recent airline sales and mergers I don't see it staying that way. MKE is 28th in the nation as busiest airport in early 2011 and at last report was still increasing.

General Mitchell International Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[reppin_the_847]

Milwaukee's airport (General Mitchell) has improved dramatically in utility since Southwest Airlines & Air Tran ramped up operations up there. Definitely makes the airport always worth considering for folks in Chicago's northern & NW suburbs. Heck, even for folks in the city it might be worth considering on a good enough deal if you can utilize the Amtrak Hiawatha connection to General Mitchell Airport.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

Milwaukee has a international terminal so therefore it has international flights. MKE has passed Midway for passengers and Regan airport in DC however due to recent airline sales and mergers I don't see it staying that way. MKE is 28th in the nation as busiest airport in early 2011 and at last report was still increasing.

General Mitchell International Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by edsg25

And Cleveland likes to think of itself as part of the "Fourth Coast".

Actually, Clevelanders say "North Coast". As a native Clevelander, I have never heard the term "Fourth Coast".

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by andrew61

Actually, Clevelanders say "North Coast". As a native Clevelander, I have never heard the term "Fourth Coast".

someone else mentioned that, too, and you're both right and i was wrong. I don't know how I got mixed up and included the gulf as the 3rd coast.

yes, it has always been 3rd coast in Cleveland.

[meteorologistChi]

Did you all know that Lake Michigan connects to the Atlantic Ocean?

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by chicago103

I think the term "flyover country" as it applies to Chicago if anything is more of a contemporary thing as opposed to a historic one. I agree that an argument can be made that Chicago is more cultured today but I also think Chicago had a bigger reputation in the nation as a whole in 1950 than today, I don't think people used the term "fly-over country" back then. In 1950 Chicago was clearly the second largest city in the country by a wide margin and after New York City had the biggest reputation as far as being a "big city" is concerned. If anything Chicago's reputation diminished with the rise of contemporary celebrity culture and the rise of Los Angeles which created the bi-coastal mentality. I know LA existed in 1950 and was already pretty big but back then it was still viewed as a far off place where movies are made to most people east of the Mississippi, before the age of common jet air travel Chicago would be much more familiar and accessible to a New Yorker than LA. I know celebrity culture existed in the 1950's but it expressed itself differently, just think of the I Love Lucy episodes where going to LA was a big deal to New Yorkers like them, today it wouldn't be. In 1950 many would think it very strange if you said New York City had more in common with Los Angeles than Chicago but today many think it is the opposite due to NYC and LA having more in common as far as pop celebrity culture and mass media in contemporary life. This is starting to change with Chicago in recent decades with the city becoming more cultured in the contemporary sense of the word but it is very misguided to say that this is the first time Chicago has been recognized by people on the coasts, if anything in 1950 NYC and Chicago probably looked down upon the "wild wild west" together.

Really Chicago's relationship with NYC has been a bit circular, in the 19th century, think 1893 exposition we were looked down upon, by 1950 Chicago was solidified as a city and was probably lumped in with much of the eastern half of the US, then in the later half of the 20th century Chicago got lumped in with the rest of the Midwest as "flyover country" and now as Chicago is gentrifying it is getting discovered again by New Yorkers. These are all generalizations of course but I think it is the accurate general historical trend. The bi-coastal mentality I think is a total fabrication of recent decades, the bi-product of suburban raised intellectually lazy members of the younger baby boomers and generations X and Y and I say this as an older member of generation Y.

you're absolutely correct about how it was LA that created that bicoastal relationship with NY and that its inclusion (once it was seen as a backwater) gave rise to Chicago as "flyover country."

yes, Chi, you bring up excellent points on how it is more LA than NY that has actually given Chicago angst; even though we often go to great lengths to dismiss that city.

but I will contend that it is not only Chicago that ends up feeling compromised by LA, but actually New York itself. For the first time since its rise to power with the completion of the Erie Canal and the opening of the western markets (the era when it transcended Boston and Phila. for good), LA is first city to give New York a run for its money.

I think that, to a lesser degree, NY has been affected by the rise of DC.