Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
I missed this post earlier.
exactly, to the bolded.
i'm not proposing that places like bloomington or decator wouldn't exist at all, just that in a better world for downstate IL, they would be smaller county seat cities, more in the 15 - 20K people range, and a single city (i propose Peoria) would soak up the lion's share of urban development in the region with the trifecta of port/state capital/flagship university leading it to becoming a bona fide "second city" for the state of IL.
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Thinking about it, this arrangement of several similar-sized, independent cities in Southern Illinois is not a very common phenomenon worldwide. And it indeed usually harms the whole region, preventing the formation of a centre big enough to become attractive. The most famous case is probably the Ruhr Valley.
That made me think of a post of mine of 2016, back in SSC, about two collections of cities in Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo states:
Note the areas are densely populated: 389,000 inh. and 605,000 inh respectively. In the first case (Rio Grande do Sul), the four cities range from 62,000 to 78,000 inh. and in the second (São Paulo) we have five cities ranging from 52,000 inh. to 105,000 inh. What do they have in common? Very slow growth (São Paulo) and already negative (Rio Grande do Sul).
In Rio Grande do Sul, we have on the right Passo Fundo, almost out of the frame, with 200k inh., growing quite fast and being a prosperous agribusiness and health centre. And in São Paulo, the challenging is even bigger with the very wealthy and dinamic São José do Rio Preto (550k inh.) and Ribeirão Preto (800k inh.) growing 15% and 19%/decade. They definitely cast a shadow over the cities in the axis, not to mention the 30 million people São Paulo Macrometropolis less than 200 miles southwards.
I've never been to any those cities, but I have a soft spot for them. Maybe for being underdogs, for being located in a dense region, forming a cute network of cities. And I like the Ruhr as well.
In the US, I think southern Michigan is a bit like that, but cities are sparse and sizes are different.