Contentious issue I know, but recently I’ve encountered a number of people who believe that Ohio (and sometimes Indiana and Michigan) is not truly part of the Midwest. Which to me is preposterous since I’ve always considered Ohio the most quintessentially Midwestern state. Midwest to me has always been very nearly synonymous with rust belt, but it seems there are a fair number of people who place the Midwest more in what I’d call the Great Plains, or Greater Minnesota. So I’m wondering where do you all place the Midwest.
Midwest is outdated, imo. More meaningful is to roughly split it into Great Lakes (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota) and Great Plains (the other ones). But really even that's insufficient. We can get a lot more detailed doing cultural mapping of the US. Like, Ohio is Great Lakes (the north), Appalachia (southeast), upper South (southwest), and great plains (Columbus and west). Most of the other states cross a few different distinct vibes: Southern Illinois is more like Missouri than it is Chicago, but St Louis is more like Chicago than it is the rest of Missouri!
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You really gotta think in terms of cities, not just states. The best places are probably Minneapolis, Chicago, and Cleveland, imo. Detroit has a really unique appeal all its own, too; I just dock it for really bad transit. Minneapolis is the best biking city in the country, Chicago might just be the best American city flat out, and Cleveland is really cheap for the quality of urbanism you get. You'll find good small towns all over the place; Ohio and Michigan are packed with them.
Eastern MI has Detroit and a lot more diverse population, western MI is like ~60% chuds (and Dutch chuds in the south 🤮).
Agreed on Chicago though. Basically the cities that chuds whine and scaremonger about constantly, Detroit and Chicago especially, are pretty cool.
I live an hour-ish outside of Minneapolis, even for being a more conservative area of Minnesota it is miles better than any of Missouri IMO.
I've visited MI and OH, I can't endorse Ohio given the experience of friends there, but MI has a certain appeal to me anyway. The growing season is definitely better than what I've got now depending on your proximity to the lakes.
They named the state "Misery". There is no reason to want to live there and even travelling through is unsafe. It's a hell of ruthless right wing reaction, racism, and unspeakably brutal social violence.
You will never make friends in Minneapolis. You will think you have friends, but over the years you'll realize you've never met their families, they never show up when you need help, they never let you in to their inner lives.
There's a joke that "Minnesotans will give you directions to anywhere but their home". It's not a joke. They (at least the white ones) are a cold, cruel people.
I could never live in the Upper Midwest states like Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Too cold for too much of the year. Chicago gets crazy cold sometimes but winters are getting milder thanks to climate change. The more Western Midwest states are too boring for me. There are small cultural enclaves like Lincoln Nebraska or Lawrence Kansas, but they are more remote out there than in the eastern part of the region. Instead of a couple hours drive to see a cool concert you'd need to get a hotel.
I like Cincinnati although I've never lived there. Good mix of culture and affordability plus a drive towards more bike and transit infrastructure. If I weren't concerned with having a career I'd live in a blue city in the South, like Asheville North Carolina or Lewisburg West Virginia. Great weather, good culture, and nice people. Just a lot of poverty and few jobs.
I have never heard anyone describe Lincoln as having culture. I have never heard anyone describe Lawrence at all.
Chicago is okay. In the rest of them you will quickly learn that 'nice' does not mean 'kind".
Columbus is not Great Plains. Too much corn and not enough grassland
I mean culturally, it more resemble those cities. But it's also got a weird bit of silicon valley to it too