What's Great About Midwestern Cities
You want urbanism? Build on the urbanism we have already.
Downtown Milwaukee. Source: gettyimages.com
Anyone who follow me here knows I write quite a bit about Midwestern cities. They’re what I know best and love most. They’re chronically under-discussed in American urbanist discourse, where most of the talk is about the pros and cons of the coastal or Sun Belt cities. Fair enough. That’s where the money is made and the people are moving.
I write critically about Midwestern cities because they can be better. But every once in a while it’s good for me to remember why I do this. The Midwest’s cities have fabulous assets that are rarely recognized, at least on a national scale. And those assets are the fundamental pieces that can catalyze their revitalization. So let’s look at the assets that set Midwestern cities apart.
They are actual cities. You want a great downtown experience? It's here. You want cool neighborhoods? They're all around here. You want a fantastic restaurant scene? The possibilities are endless. You want music, concerts and events? We have them. And you want it all in a walkable environment? You can find it here, because they have a pre-WWII development foundation that gives them the real urban feel.
Wealth of cultural resources. Chicago has a wonderful collection of museums and other cultural amenities that allows it to compete with any large city on the globe. The city’s Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, Art Institute and Field Museum of Natural History are among the most visited museums in the nation, and are internationally recognized for their collections and research. Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh each have museums that rank among the largest in the world in exhibition space, a legacy of their industrial pasts.
Excellent architecture. This article from iF Design captures the significance of the Midwest on 20th century architecture. Architect Josh Lipnik’s quote on Midwestern places to visit for architecture sums it up: “Chicago for the early skyscrapers, wealth of modernist architecture, and the works of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Detroit for the early industrial architecture of Albert Kahn and the Art Deco skyscrapers. Cincinnati for the intact 19th century neighborhoods and Victorian streetscapes.”
Pleasant quality of life. You can take a U.S. News and World Report’s list of the "Best cities in the U.S. to Live for a Great Quality of Life" with a grain of salt. Be that as it may, it still highlights the Midwest for one thing that it’s well known for – a great quality of life. Its 2024 list of the 25 best cities by their quality of life metrics is topped by Ann Arbor, MI, with six other Midwestern cities – Madison, WI, Kalamazoo, MI, South Bend, IN, Grand Rapids, MI, Pittsburgh, PA and Green Bay, WI – making the list. Perhaps they’re smaller than many would urban-oriented people would like; on this list only Pittsburgh and Grand Rapids have metro areas with more than one million residents. However, some have easy access to nearby major cities (Ann Arbor is 45 minutes from Detroit, Madison is 75 minutes from Milwaukee, and South Bend is a 90 minute drive from Chicago, but also connected by commuter rail) that put you close to major city amenities.
Quality higher education. The Midwest has its share of elite private educational institutions. According to the U.S. News and World Report’s annual national university rankings, Northwestern and the University of Chicago in Chicago, Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland are all ranked among the top 60 universities nationally. However, the region also holds some of the best public universities in the nation as well, in the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin, the Ohio State University, Purdue University and the University of Minnesota, which join the private institutions in the top 60. In addition, there are numerous small liberal arts colleges with national reputations yet located in small towns.
Affordability. Something else the Midwest is quite well known for is its housing affordability. It’s been true for decades and is still true today, but might be changing. I pulled some data from the National Association of Realtors, looking at the 15 largest metro areas in the region I identify as the Midwest. Of the 223 metro areas that NAR tracks, only four rank among the top 100 priciest metros for existing single-family home sales in the second quarter of 2024. The four – Milwaukee (69th), Minneapolis/St. Paul (72nd), Chicago (76th) and Grand Rapids (100th) – still sit well behind pricy metros like San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, New York City, Washington, DC and Miami, all of which rank in the top 25. The median price range for those metros is anywhere from $646,000 (Miami) to $2 million (San Jose). See this table to see how the Midwest metros fare:
Notably, several Midwest metros have prices rising faster than the national rate of 4.9% year-over-year (in green), with a few exceeding the Midwest region’s rate of 5.5% year-over-year (green and bold), which led the nation’s regions in growth rate.
Maybe the region’s affordability is finally becoming an attraction.
The “Midwest Friendly” reputation. “Midwest Nice” really is a thing. People here are polite, friendly and non-confrontational even when they vehemently disagree. The world saw that when two Midwesterners debated each other a couple of weeks ago. It might be viewed as off-putting or passive-aggressive to some who prefer to hash out strong opinions, but it usually comes from a genuine place.
Interesting landscapes and outdoor recreation opportunities (really!) The region’s reputation is one of bland, flat landscapes with few trees that stretch on for miles. But I can point you to very interesting places within 200 miles of the Chicago metro area, where I live: the artistic Lake Michigan beach towns of Saugatuck, Douglas and Fennville; the rugged terrain of the Driftless Area where the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa meet; or the 200-foot-tall beachfront sand dunes of one of the nation’s newest national parks, the Indiana Dunes.
Sports culture. If you’re a sports fan, the Midwest has perhaps the best collection of well-supported college and professional sports teams of any region in the nation. The Big Ten Conference set the standard for top-notch collegiate athletics by becoming the first athletic conference nearly 130 years ago. Midwestern cities, just like their East Coast brethren, were among the first cities to see professional sports flourish in America, and there are storied histories in baseball, football, basketball and hockey throughout the region.
They’re already closer to the American urbanism ideal than most American cities. Detroit, despite all its challenges over the last half century, is closer to being the city that urbanists want than Atlanta is. Cleveland is closer to the American urbanist ideal than Phoenix is. St. Louis is closer to than Dallas is.
We have the urbanism template we want right in front of us. Why turn our back on it?
I've gone back and forth on this with many people. I get your point but let me explain. I view western Pennsylvania, the Ohio River Valley parts of West Virginia and Kentucky, the southern thirds of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and Missouri south of St. Louis and Kansas City as a north-south transitional zone. This region, which I've called the Midland Valley, definitely has a very different history, culture and economy than the Great Lakes metros, even distinct from the Heartland region that stretches from central Ohio westward into northern Missouri and Iowa. It's neither North or South to me; the region is hard to fit neatly into either the Midwest or the South. However I do believe places in the Ohio Valley, upper Mississippi Valley and Missouri River Valley west of St. Louis deserve to be in the same region, whether Midwest or South. I just chose the broadest definition of Midwest I could.
Long time reader, first time commenter. I loved this article! Those of us who live in, and care about, the cities of America's Inland North* know all too well the region's myriad challenges and shortcomings, but sometimes we also need to remember all the good stuff that we do have. A little optimistic wide-eyed boosterism from time to time is a nice break.
As for universities, I feel that Notre Dame in South Bend, as one of the nation's most prestigious Catholic universities, also deserves shout-out.
And yeah, this region has great public universities out the wazoo. In addition to the 6 mentioned in the article, there's a second tier of public universities in the region that fall outside of US News' top 60 ranking, but are still widely considered very good universities. Schools like SUNY Buffalo, U.Pittsburgh, Michigan State, Indiana U., U.Illinois Chicago, U.Iowa, and U. Missouri.
One minor quibble: the cover picture of Milwaukee's lakefront is about a decade out of date. Northwestern Mutual built a brand new shiny HQ tower for itself on the site of one of the older buildings on the left of the image. Not a big deal, of course, but I just wanted to shout-out Northwestern Mutual for being one of those key anchor corporations that has stayed committed to its Midwest city downtown and continues to re-invest in it
(*) Intentionally used here to avoid any triggering effects of the word "Midwest" ;)