CHICAGO - known as STATE and CITY ! (Rockford, Springfield: home, universities)

[whinniethezen]

Originally Posted by PalmBch

How come lots of people thinks that Chicago is a city and state?
Nobody says; "I'm going to Illinois".. everybody says "Chicago".
People know more Chicago than its state of Illinois.

I have a cousin Elsa in Mt Olive IL who always says that Chicago should just change its borders and become part of Wisconsin. Most people from upper Illinois spend an inordinate amount of time in the land of cheese rather than Illinois.

[MannheimMadman]

Originally Posted by WDCJoe

Joliet is part of Chicago proper, while Buffalo will always remain as it's own entity. Comparing the two is difficult at best.

This is an interesting point. Living in Joliet is like living in a miniature urbanized area. We've got our own baseball team, theater, neighborhood/community areas. Most of the longtime residents here don't really associate with Chicago, oddly enough.

I wonder if the recent sprawl in land and real estate has really sucked Joliet in more as a 'suburb'. It's 36 miles and an hour away from the loop, which many people find a bit 'far'.

Although, I do see what you're talking about. Looking at a map, one would see that Joliet is the last southwest suburban frontier until one leaves into the wilderness that is the rest of IL.

[Chicagoland60426]

Originally Posted by sukwoo

Actually, both Chicagoland (not including WI or IN) and metro NYC (not including CT or NJ) comprise approximately 70% of the population of their respective states.

Also NYC is about 30 times larger than the second biggest city in NY (Buffalo) while Chicago is only 17 times larger than the second biggest city (Joliet) and only 16 times larger than the second biggest city not in Chicagoland (Rockford).

Actually Aurora is the second largest in Chicagoland. At least Buffalo is a city with over 200,000(quickly declining though and at one time was the size of Milwaukee) and around 1 million in the metro. Illinois have no city outside of Chicago that reached the 200,000 mark and having a similar metro size like Buffalo. I bet on Aurora to be the first to reach 200,000, but its part of Chicagoland.

Only if Illinois had Milwaukee in the state as an alternative city to Chicago metro. Chicago(starting downtown) is only 1 1/2 hour- 2 hours from Milwaukee. Kind of like how LA is so close to San Diego, except Chicago and Milwaukee is not in the same state.

[Central Illinois 1]

Originally Posted by whinniethezen

I have a cousin Elsa in Mt Olive IL who always says that Chicago should just change its borders and become part of Wisconsin. Most people from upper Illinois spend an inordinate amount of time in the land of cheese rather than Illinois.

Either that or everything south of Litchfield should be annexed into Kentucky. That might make more sense.

[ERS-One]

Originally Posted by whinniethezen

I have a cousin Elsa in Mt Olive IL who always says that Chicago should just change its borders and become part of Wisconsin. Most people from upper Illinois spend an inordinate amount of time in the land of cheese rather than Illinois.

Ask your cousin if she feels the same way about East St. Louis and it's relation to St. Louis metro area and the state of Missouri. Maybe all of the quad cities should be incorporated into Iowa.

I wonder if anyone in Chicago cares where people in Mt. Olive spend parts of their summer vacation? Hmmm....

[Maintainschaos]

Same old song; same old dance. Chicago is in Illinois and, for the foreseeable future, will always be in Illinois. Same as NYC is to upstate NY; same as Atlanta is to Georgia...etc, etc. People that don't know any better really ought to look at a map once in a while.

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by whinniethezen

Most people from upper Illinois spend an inordinate amount of time in the land of cheese rather than Illinois.

If they live in IL, then they probably spend more time in IL than WI, no?

[edsg25]

There are a whole series of guidebooks that cover the nation or strictly the Middle West and will actually arrange their chapters like this:

Chicago
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Minnesota
Ohio
Wisconsin

It's fairly common. Chicago is so big that it really does make that separation from the rest of the state and becomes an entity on its own. The same books will make NYC and NY State separate sections, too.

[WDCJoe]

Originally Posted by ManheimMadman

This is an interesting point. Living in Joliet is like living in a miniature urbanized area. We've got our own baseball team, theater, neighborhood/community areas. Most of the longtime residents here don't really associate with Chicago, oddly enough.

I wonder if the recent sprawl in land and real estate has really sucked Joliet in more as a 'suburb'. It's 36 miles and an hour away from the loop, which many people find a bit 'far'.

Although, I do see what you're talking about. Looking at a map, one would see that Joliet is the last southwest suburban frontier until one leaves into the wilderness that is the rest of IL.

Joliet is firmly Chicagoland. Joliet wouldn't be Joliet if Chicago weren’t there. You have to look at the commuting patterns of the area. People rely on Chicago and regardless of the existence of theatres and the other accoutrement of the local Joliet area Chicago plays a heavy role on the economic structure of that area. A perfect corollary to this example is the Washington, DC region (which has a smaller overall metro area than Chicago). Frederick, Maryland is a small city that exists to the west of the city straddling the foothills of the greater Appalachian mountains to the west. The city is 45 minutes from DC, however exists firmly within the sphere of DC influence. Commuting patterns and economic exchange demonstrate this fact. Heck even portions of the eastern pan handle of WV are considered in the DC area.

Maps and geographic layouts do not always denote metro areas logically, the exchange of goods, people, and monetary functions do however.

[WDCJoe]

Originally Posted by Chicagoland60426

Actually Aurora is the second largest in Chicagoland. At least Buffalo is a city with over 200,000(quickly declining though and at one time was the size of Milwaukee) and around 1 million in the metro. Illinois have no city outside of Chicago that reached the 200,000 mark and having a similar metro size like Buffalo. I bet on Aurora to be the first to reach 200,000, but its part of Chicagoland.

Only if Illinois had Milwaukee in the state as an alternative city to Chicago metro. Chicago(starting downtown) is only 1 1/2 hour- 2 hours from Milwaukee. Kind of like how LA is so close to San Diego, except Chicago and Milwaukee is not in the same state.

Actually census officials are considering clumping Milwaukee and Chiacgo into one large CSA. Now that would be interesting.