Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
Yeah, Ohio built way too many regular size cities.
They should've picked one single spot on the map and built a fucking chicago.  |
Having grown up in western Pennsylvania, and being somewhat familiar (mainly eastern OH; Cleveland and Youngstown areas) with Ohio, it was always notable to me how PA had a higher population than OH... considering how many sizable cities OH had/has in comparison to PA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by westak
Cleveland is the biggest city in NEO, no question, but it's not the Center of NEO in how you're describing it. People in Akron, Canton or Youngstown lives don't revolve around Cleveland. Cleveland is not where folks from these cities look to for their identity nor do they see themselves as being from the Cleveland area....even if they root for the Browns, Indians or Cavs. This is sometimes the disconnect that I see from Clevelanders when they look at the aforementioned cities. Because they are bigger they think these other areas are just an extention of them which historically has never been true. We are all in the same region and are neighbors but we are not simply sattelite cities now becuase our sprawl now touches each other.
|
Based on
geography, no, Cleveland is not the center... but its fortunes govern the rest of the area's fortunes. Cleveland is the primary market influencer, and it is becoming increasingly prominent in that position, as we continue to develop into more of a regional city-state economic structure throughout the country (and it's especially unique in the rustbelt, as it's a matter of maintaining relevance/survival).
Historically, the connection did not exist as prominently because each individual city had more of their own economic independence, population, attributes, and thus, culture and identity. But incremental regional consolidation happens in the rustbelt in a very interesting way -- independent places grow closer together due to the decline we've experienced since the 1960s.
It's regional growth via city decline. Cleveland/NE OH is a textbook example of this.
With incremental consolidation that occurs in rustbelt regions, comes an incremental erosion of individual city identity (however unnoticeable it is in any particular moment). In this way, Akron is, or is in the process of becoming, a "ring city" of Cleveland... no matter how prominent its historical position was and strong its own identity was/is).
Becoming part of the Cleveland media market and losing its own local TV stations is a major indicator; media absorption happens for a reason. And when there's no compelling reason to maintain separate media markets, well, it's easy to draw conclusions...
---
To me, regarding Youngstown... it seems much, much less connected to Cleveland than Akron does. Youngstown is that "in-between" Cleveland and Pittsburgh area... and arguably more connected regionally with western PA. The Mahoning/Shenango/Beaver Valley steel towns in PA, like Sharon, Farrell, and New Castle are basically part of Youngstown.