America’s 7 mega regions.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Any more info on moving containers via river? Trucking is faster but lb for lb water transport is the cheapest way to move goods.

I figured containers would be too heavy for barges and thats why they already dont move goods that way along the Mississippi/Ohio system.

Bulk transport is a weird side interest of mine lol so if you could link something about that Id love to read it.

New Orleans moves a growing percentage of its cargo via containers on barges now.

https://www.nola.com/news/business/a...5f8789db3.html

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by pj3000

New Orleans moves a growing percentage of its cargo via containers on barges now.

https://www.nola.com/news/business/a...5f8789db3.html

Thank you, I just went on a wild barge google hunt (Sorry boss). Im very surprised container shipping on the Mississippi system hasn't been a bigger thing going back decades.

Looks like they are beginning to design both open river barges and lock-mobile barges.

This could be a godsend for struggling Midwestern/southern cities. Allow small manufacturers to ship product cheaper.



https://www.marinelog.com/news/misso...-as-visionary/

[goat314]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

thats the way the port of st. louis is, mostly grain/bulk terminals strung out along the river over many miles, although they are building container docks now. because we are past the last lock and dam on the river we run the larger barges down to new orleans and while not high value i imagine it still represents a lot of activity. this push to move containers on the mississippi keeps coming up so im guessing the port of new orleans could see a bump from that.

I've heard this will be a big deal for the St. Louis economy with the containers coming. A lot of money being dump into it. St. Louis' is a natural logistics center. It's kind of let Kansas City, Memphis, and Indianapolis steal some of it's thunder in recent decades.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by goat314

I've heard this will be a big deal for the St. Louis economy with the containers coming. A lot of money being dump into it. St. Louis' is a natural logistics center. It's kind of let Kansas City, Memphis, and Indianapolis steal some of it's thunder in recent decades.

If river shipments come back into popularity then it will indeed be a big deal for every city on and close to the major Midwestern rivers.

The modern version of what made those cities in the first place was the ability to ship grains down river and around the country cheaply, eventually that switched to industrial goods but since modern trucking and highways, river traffic has shrunk and struggled.

Everything old is new again.

[bnk]

ChiPitts baby

2025 Population ~ 65 million



https://www.professorprice.net/blog/...f-the-nazarene

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Megalopolis

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by bnk

ChiPitts baby

2025 Population ~ 65 million



https://www.professorprice.net/blog/...f-the-nazarene

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Megalopolis

In general I like the mega-city concept but I think its a stretch to include Minni and KC, even St. louis.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by goat314

I've heard this will be a big deal for the St. Louis economy with the containers coming. A lot of money being dump into it. St. Louis' is a natural logistics center. It's kind of let Kansas City, Memphis, and Indianapolis steal some of it's thunder in recent decades.

yeah i guess when say indianapolis or whatever was jumping on logistics st louis was cocksure about becoming a high tech aerospace (with apollo and the cold war) and biotech hub, perhaps doubling down on mere logistics was not so flashy . both sort of half-baked with the changes in the corporate environment.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by bnk

ChiPitts baby

2025 Population ~ 65 million



https://www.professorprice.net/blog/...f-the-nazarene

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Megalopolis

Way too geographically, economically, and culturally widespread... with vast swaths of rural land... to be grouped together into an associated “region”.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Way too geographically, economically, and culturally widespread... with vast swaths of rural land... to be grouped together into an associated “region”.

once you hit indiana, illinois, thats sort of just the lay of the land. i have jobsites that are near I-80 that i go to there and back in the same day, and things start gravitating towards chicago across large distances like some kind of gravity sink in space and everything starts stretching out. however, excepting minnesota i’d cut out anything not contiguous and louisville is a bridge too far. there is a weird, branded chicago to kc expressway/truck route, though. i wouldn't expect to see something like that in say ohio.

[niwell]

I was in Pittsburgh last fall and it has way less to do with Toronto than Detroit or Chicago do. And they don’t have much. Once that region slips over into Canada things kinda fall apart.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by Obadno

LOL at the Las Vegas "megaregion". Obviously whoever made that has never been there. In that megaregion is Las Vegas and its standard suburbs and NOTHING. I guess you can be generous and say that those oh-so-big metro areas of Kingman, Bullhead City, and St. George are worth mentioning. Just ignore the 60 miles of barren wasteland in between these places and the Las Vegas metro.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by bnk

ChiPitts baby

2025 Population ~ 65 million



https://www.professorprice.net/blog/...f-the-nazarene

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Megalopolis

It's hard to convince people that Minneapolis and Kansas City are part of this Midwestern megaregion when you don't even color in any urban areas to connect them to the main section.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

LOL at the Las Vegas "megaregion". Obviously whoever made that has never been there. In that megaregion is Las Vegas and its standard suburbs and NOTHING. I guess you can be generous and say that those oh-so-big metro areas of Kingman, Bullhead City, and St. George are worth mentioning. Just ignore the 60 miles of barren wasteland in between these places and the Las Vegas metro.

The mega regions are more presumptive than reflective of current times

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

It's hard to convince people that Minneapolis and Kansas City are part of this Midwestern megaregion when you don't even color in any urban areas to connect them to the main section.

i cant personally speak for minnesota other than i think western wisconsin is less populated than the east side of the state (i drive theough iowa to get to minneapolis and yes its a lot of open space and takes almost as long as new orleans). regarding kc, it historically functioned as a bit of an economic satellite of chicago as the #2 rail hub and some other ties. however, rural missouri does not have a lot of larger towns and is of a different nature than say central illinois, and kc is pretty squarely a western midwest/eastern plains city. its likely a bridge too far from the great lakes. minneapolis is a bit different.

i think a good measure (anecdotally) for myself is how much time people spend in chicago (for work or otherwise) and do they vacation in western michigan? for st louis the answer seems often to be “a lot” and a fair number. nobody goes to michigan in kansas city unless they have ties there.

minnesota IS a great lakes state so i think its a pretty good case, even though minneapolis is a bit isolated.

[Reverberation]

Originally Posted by ThePhun1

First time I'm seeing Oklahoma City included in the Texas Triangle.

We will come for it when the time is right.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by Obadno

In general I like the mega-city concept but I think its a stretch to include Minni and KC, even St. louis.

Internationally speaking, this entire map is a stretch.

[subterranean]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Here's a good map that displays the major rivers scaled according to volume of water they convey. And how it's truly the Allegheny River that flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

From the US EPA and USGS National Hydrography Dataset project

This is super cool. And also hilarious.

[subterranean]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Way too geographically, economically, and culturally widespread... with vast swaths of rural land... to be grouped together into an associated “region”.

Not other area of the country is as disconnected, due to the enormous inland seas we call the Great Lakes. It's literally impossible to have anything linear. Much more in common than not, too.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

once you hit indiana, illinois, thats sort of just the lay of the land. i have jobsites that are near I-80 that i go to there and back in the same day, and things start gravitating towards chicago across large distances like some kind of gravity sink in space and everything starts stretching out. however, excepting minnesota i’d cut out anything not contiguous and louisville is a bridge too far. there is a weird, branded chicago to kc expressway/truck route, though. i wouldn't expect to see something like that in say ohio.

Yeah, I hear ya. I'm not too familiar with areas west of Columbus, though I can understand how large swaths of flat agricultural land dotted with smaller cities/towns are within a major city like Chicago's (or St. Louis' or Indianapolis') sphere of strong influence.

Obviously, including Kansas City in a "Great Lakes" megaregion is a major stretch, but even including a place like Johnstown, PA is a stretch as well. Johnstown has very little in common with Erie, much less Rochester, or Des Moines or Duluth

About once a year it seems, someone throws this map into a thread and we have all pretty much levied the verdict that it's fucking stupid.

I was talking to a friend the other day... he lives on the West Coast and really wants to relocate to the Great Lakes region. But for the life of him, he just cannot decide between Toronto or Topeka. From a pure city standpoint, he's leaning towards Toronto, but thinks he wants to stay in the USA. And even though Toronto and Topeka share A LOT of similarities as megaregion sister cities, he feels that Topeka might not provide the "Great Lakes experience" he's looking for. I'm thinking of suggesting that he look into Terra Haute or maybe even the Steubenville-Weirton area in order to stay domestic and get that same Great Lakes vibe. Thoughts?

I wish this map could be banned from the forum.

Originally Posted by niwell

I was in Pittsburgh last fall and it has way less to do with Toronto than Detroit or Chicago do. And they don’t have much. Once that region slips over into Canada things kinda fall apart.

Pittsburgh has tight connections to Cleveland and Erie, but doesn't even have much to do with Buffalo, to say nothing of its nonexistent connection to Toronto.

Originally Posted by subterranean

This is super cool. And also hilarious.

Hilarious... because it looks like the colon?

Originally Posted by subterranean

Not other area of the country is as disconnected, due to the enormous inland seas we call the Great Lakes. It's literally impossible to have anything linear. Much more in common than not, too.

Disconnected from what?

It would be interesting to hear what specifically this ridiculous "Great Lakes" megaregion shares "much more in common than not".

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Way too geographically, economically, and culturally widespread... with vast swaths of rural land... to be grouped together into an associated “region”.

I don't think the map is that ridiculous. You could drop MSP, STL, KC, and Indy and still have about 50M people in an area that is not much larger than the BosWash corridor.