I don’t know which candidate won that county last fall though.

McCain won the Cincinnati CSA with 57% of the two party vote, which is a higher margin than the one he won Phoenix by. Meanwhile, Obama won the Cleveland CSA 61-39 and the Indy and Columbus CSAs 52-48.

I do agree with you about the weather comment. The weather tends to be much milder in the Ohio valley. However, I really don’t see Kentucky regaining any of its western heritage. Kentucky is content on being a southern state. Louisville is a different story. The city holds on to some of its western values, but it also holds onto its southern and midwestern heritage just as much.

Louisville has somewhat of an identity crisis. We are far enough south to almost be a southern city, but we are also far enough north to almost be a true midwestern city. We are also far enough west (from a historical standpoint) that we have some of those values as well. Hence our identity crisis. We are still trying to figure that part out.

It also doesn’t help that Louisville and the state of Kentucky are usually at odds. Louisville is in Kentucky, but it doesn’t feel like Kentucky. It’s almost like Louisville is it’s own state within a state. As you can imagine this leads to a lot of conflict. But I digress.

I also agree that for the most part most of the midwestern cities are just trading people. Some just do a better job of it than others. The trick is getting people form outside the region.

(from WIBC.com)
Ballard Robbed in Detroit
By Amber Stearns
4/6/2009

Mayor Greg Ballard was not hurt, but his cell phone was stolen Saturday while he was in Detroit for the NCAA Final Four.

The mayor was walking back to his hotel when he saw a man who looked like he was having a seizure.

Ballard walked over to help him and police say he was surrounded by three or four others who took his phone. The man faking the seizure then jumped up and ran off.

Alon: I’m not so sure the out-migration is overstated. The exodus to states such as Washington, Nevada, and Colorado is well documented. I know, personally, many Bay Area refugees along the Front Range of CO. Many of them still telecommute and prefer the what they term a better quality of life than what they had in CA.

Nonetheless, you make a good point about those who simply leave the MSA but remain instate. Most relocation is “local”. That’s true for the Rust Belt, as well. Even the best apples typically don’t fall far from the tree.

A lot of the ideas listed here are right on — yes, the Midwest does have an image problem, and it does have a product problem. I believe it also has a bit of a culture problem that underlies the first two points. From what I've read on this blog so far, the culture problem has been fairly well described — a desire to restore our places to "the way things were," an undervaluation of education, a stubbornness that prevents regional or local cooperation and even some rigidity toward improving racial relations. I've always thought that once the culture problems are resolved, the product problem is much easier to fix and we're better equipped to create a new image.

Here's a question that might be off-the-wall, but I think it's legit: what role could global climate change have in reversing Midwest out-migration? Specifically, if Vegas, Phoenix, LA, and even Atlanta and Charlotte, run out of water, will people relocate to the Rust Belt? People gotta drink water, and Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee have plenty of it. Even Indy, Columbus, Cinti and Minny (compared to the Sun Belt).

And one last point. I think Detroit missed a HUGE opportunity in the early '70s that would've made the economic restructuring there much easier to deal with. When Motown was still there, Detroit could've turned itself into an R&B version of Nashville — a haven for artists, musicians, sound engineers, producers and studio execs who would create not just a Motown sound but a new R&B sound. Detroit could've had its version of Nashville's Music Row. In fact, it still could — Detroit is still a place where there is creativity in music genres like hip-hop and techno/electronica. What about a SXSW-type festival in Detroit?

Other cities have similar "brands" to exploit.