Great Lakes Cities

[north 42]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Most people that were raised in Metro Detroit between the mid-70s and mid-90s are at least aware of Mr. Dressup. The rest of America has no clue what that is.

Ha ha, yes, and probably the Friendly Giant as well.

[Docere]

Interestingly Ernie Coombs (Mr. Dressup) and Bob Homme (the Friendly Giant) were Americans, from Maine and Wisconsin, respectively.

[Docere]

Windsor actor Johnie Chase says "we grew up American."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP9WBYvXk1o

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Blitz

^ I think those are the only two markets where you can watch CBC on basic television. But yeah, Windsor is obvious...at least half the population here has difficulties with the Celsius temperature scale (including me).

Buffalo and Detroit might be the two largest markets that do, but they're definitely not the only two. You can get Toronto, London, Hamilton, Kitchener, and I'm sure others' channels over the air/antenna and via cable in a bunch of places in NY and PA, probably OH too. And I imagine channels out of Montreal and Ottawa are recevied in NY and New England too.

[Klippenstein]

I'd guess Bellingham WA and towns north of it pick up broadcasts from Vancouver.

[TO2PHX]

Living in Windsor from the mid 50's to the mid 80's I would have to agree that I felt more in tune with what was happening in the US and particularly Detroit than the rest of Canada.

[phone]

My parents talk about how the CBC broadcast in southern Saskatchewan provided weather updates and forecasts for "Williston, Minot, and Dickinson". This would have been in the 60s and early 70s.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Docere

Interestingly Ernie Coombs (Mr. Dressup) and Bob Homme (the Friendly Giant) were Americans, from Maine and Wisconsin, respectively.

yep. Fred Rogers (another American) namesake show also got its start in Canada (a show called "Misterogers"), before going over to PBS.

[Docere]

Interesting to note that while the three cities had very different growth trajectories - Buffalo, Detroit and Toronto all passed the 500,000 mark in 1920/1921. Buffalo boomed earlier and was the biggest of the three in 1900, by 1920 it was the smallest. Detroit and Toronto both had early 20th century booms but Detroit's was much bigger - by it not only crossed 500,000 but nearly hit 1 million (993,000) in 1920. Toronto of course had a second boom after WWII.

Buffalo

1900 352,387
1910 423,715
1920 506,775
1930 573,076

Detroit

1900 285,704
1910 465,766
1920 993,078
1930 1,568,662

Toronto

1901 208,040
1911 378,538
1921 521,893
1931 631,207

[pj3000]

Wow… I know that Detroit boomed, but I’ve never really paid attention to its numbers for that time period.

Going from under 300k to nearly 1.6M in 30 years is crazy

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Wow… I know that Detroit boomed, but I’ve never really paid attention to its numbers for that time period.

Going from under 300k to nearly 1.6M in 30 years is crazy

Yeah, it was a Chicago-level explosion into the big leagues, it just happened exactly 30 years after Chicago went from 300K to 1.7M in 30 years, from 1870 to1900.

In 1900, Detroit was basically the exact same size as Milwaukee, but 3 decades later it was almost 3x bigger, and Milwaukee itself was growing pretty decently at that same too, but the auto industry explosion in the motor city vaulted it to the stratosphere.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Yeah, it was a Chicago-level explosion into the big leagues, it just happened exactly 30 years after Chicago went from 300K to 1.7M in 30 years, from 1870 and 1900.

In 1900, Detroit was almost the exact same size as Milwaukee, but 3 decades later it was almost 3x bigger, and Milwaukee itself was growing pretty decently itself at that same too, but the auto industry explosion in the motor city vaulted it to the stratosphere.

Interesting how the two biggest Great Lakes meccas had close to mirror 30-year population booms separated by 30 years.

Detroit's fivefold population boom in that era really reflects the power that automobile production would have on our country.

Do you think there is a single main factor in Chicago's huge boom from the 1870s-1900s? Is it because it became THE main node for rail and water transport/commerce of the nation at that time?

[Docere]

1870

Chicago 298,977
Buffalo 117,714
Cleveland 92,829
Detroit 79,577
Milwaukee 71,440
Toronto 56,092

1900

Chicago 1,698,575
Cleveland 381,768
Buffalo 352,387
Detroit 285,704
Milwaukee 285,315
Toronto 208,040

1930

Chicago 3,376,438
Detroit 1,568,662
Cleveland 900,429
Toronto 631,207
Milwaukee 578.249
Buffalo 573,076

Growth rate, 1870-1900

Chicago +468%
Cleveland +311%
Milwaukee +299%
Toronto +271%
Detroit +259%
Buffalo +199%

Growth rate, 1900-1930

Detroit +449%
Toronto +203%
Cleveland +136%
Milwaukee +103%
Chicago +99%
Buffalo +63%

[Klippenstein]

Originally Posted by Docere

Growth rate, 1870-1900

Chicago +468%

Is this supposed to be 568%?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Do you think there is a single main factor in Chicago's huge boom from the 1870s-1900s?

The main factor was trains.

Lots of other factors too, but if you had to pin chicago's rise on any one thing, it was becoming the rail center of the nation in the latter half of the 19th century, and all of the commerce and industry that came along with that.

[MolsonExport]

1870

Chicago 298,977
Buffalo 117,714
Cleveland 92,829
Detroit 79,577
Milwaukee 71,440
Toronto 56,092

Interestingly, when it is all said and done, Toronto will very likely end up being the biggest of them all. Late bloomer, but there is seemingly nothing holding back Toronto's insane growth (that is, until the immigration tap is turned off).

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Docere

Windsor actor Johnie Chase says "we grew up American."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP9WBYvXk1o

Slightly o/t, but Windsor must have the most "African American" Black population in Canada, right? There are a few famous or semi-famous Black people from Windsor. It feels like Windsor is the only other place that you hear of Black Canadians originating aside from Toronto.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Wow… I know that Detroit boomed, but I’ve never really paid attention to its numbers for that time period.

Going from under 300k to nearly 1.6M in 30 years is crazy

Yeah, Detroit posted over 500k growth in a single decade. To this day the only U.S. cities to ever have a growth spurt that large are NYC, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles.

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Interestingly, when it is all said and done, Toronto will very likely end up being the biggest of them all. Late bloomer, but there is seemingly nothing holding back Toronto's insane growth (that is, until the immigration tap is turned off).

Forever is a long time.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Yeah, Detroit posted over 500k growth in a single decade. To this day the only U.S. cities to ever have a growth spurt that large are NYC, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles.



Forever is a long time.

Chicago pretty much did it 5 decades in row.

1880s: +596,665
1890s: +598,725
1900s: +485,708 (close enough)
1910s: +516,422
1920s: +674,733

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Chicago pretty much did it 5 decades in row.

1880s: +596,665
1890s: +598,725
1900s: +485,708 (close enough)
1910s: +516,422
1920s: +674,733

Yeah, Chicago's is only second to NYC's string of monster growth decades. From a thread I started last year:

NYC, Los Angeles, and Chicago are the only cities to ever expand by more than 600k in a decade. Additionally, NYC, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles, are the only cities that have ever expanded by more than 500k in a decade. And since 1950 only NYC and Los Angeles have posted a population expansion of 500k or more. Although a 600k population expansion is still fairly routine for NYC in the modern era, it does not seem likely that any other U.S. city is likely to achieve a 10-year growth like that any time soon.

Count of +500k expansions in a decade:

• NYC: 7
• Chicago: 4
• Los Angeles: 3
• Detroit: 2

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=254469

Detroit would've needed to either substantially densify or annex a lot more land to keep up that growth though. It has the smallest area by far of those four cities.