American Cities that could have been more prominent

AltSptHst

In your opinion, what American Cities could have been more prominent on the national stage?

My candidate is Portland, Oregon.

In 1962, they tried to lure the 68 Olympics to their city, and they also tried to build a domed stadium to lure the Raiders. They weren't selected for the American bid, and the domed stadium was voted down in 1964, thus assuring that the Silver and Black would remain in Oaktown.
 

AmIndHistoryAuthor

Banned
Six other cities served as capitals for Texas:

Washington-on-the-Brazos
Harrisburg
Galveston
Velasco
Columbia
Houston

The tiny hamlet of Sisterdale was also proposed as the capital.

Any one of these cities (except Houston, which would probably still be largely defined by oil) could have grown into the role Austin plays today, not just a seat of govt but also a musical and cultural center and home to the nation's largest center for computer technology outside of Silicon Valley.
 
Osakadave

Osakadave

AmIndHistoryAuthor said:
Six other cities served as capitals for Texas:

Washington-on-the-Brazos
Harrisburg
Galveston
Velasco
Columbia
Houston

The tiny hamlet of Sisterdale was also proposed as the capital.

Any one of these cities (except Houston, which would probably still be largely defined by oil) could have grown into the role Austin plays today, not just a seat of govt but also a musical and cultural center and home to the nation's largest center for computer technology outside of Silicon Valley.
Click to expand...

Barring ASBs or serious PODs, Houston and Harrisbug(h) are going to merge. If the revolution goes slightly differently, maybe they'll be called Harrisburg or Harris now.

Galveston is probabaly the best case - redirect the 1900 hurricane into New Orleans, and don't dig the ship cannal, and Galveston remains a major US port.

Velasco might do better it you did away with the cholera epidemic and a couple of hurricanes, and combined it with Quintana and eventually Freeport.

El Paso could easily be more prominent.

Another could've been is Las Vegas, New Mexico.
 

Larrikin

Banned
San Diego.

With San Diego right there, you really have to wonder how San Francisco became what it is.
 

Fyrwulf

Banned
Topeka, Kansas. It has a major rail yard and manufacturing presence that, coupled with Wichita's Boeing plant and the state's food output, could've easily rivaled any other city in strategic importance if there had been further development of the rail links and the international airport had gone to Topeka instead of KC.
 

99lives

Birmingham, Alabama could have taken the place of Pittsburgh as the Steel city, but policies during Reconstruction basically make it impossible for the city to transport steel profitably to the rest of the country.
 

Douglas

Waco, TX: heading towards status equal to, say, Austin or San Antonio, then had its city center knocked flat in a freak tornado in the 1950's.
 
TheMann

TheMann

I've always been surprised that the population of the West isn't considerably bigger than it is, particularly the cities of the Pacific NW (read: Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham and Portland) and California's Central Valley.
 

GreatScottMarty

Duluth MN

In the early 1900s it had the most millionaires per capita of any city in the US. Also in the 1910s US Steel narrowly chose Pittsburgh over Duluth when it was building it's steel plants. Also Duluth was the primary Railhead of to transcontinental railroads with a third in Carlton MN (about 15 min. south on I--35 from Duluth) Imagine Duluth MN the size of Pittsburgh with the rail that Chicago is known for.

Duluth could have been larger than St. Paul and Minneapolis and possibly even rivaling the big ones like Chicago or Kansas City.
 

wormyguy

Banned
Boston has been screwed!

Screwed!

(Of course, that may have something to do with our idiotically confusing and inefficient road network, based on early-18th-century milkmaids' routes).
 

NothingNow

Banned
Tampa, Florida. It's got the Best port on the Gulf, in a good location and Home to the Cigar industry. Miami and Orlando really don't have anything special going for them.
 

codynomad

Galveston, TX for certain. Had it not been completely decimated by a hurricane it would be one of the nations #1 port cities. And with its close proximity to the Houston area, it would probably be part of an even greater metropolis than it is now.
 

KittyKat

Any large city in New Jersey(Paterson:which was the silk capital of the u.s.a, Jersey City: once a big trade center, Elizabeth:Big industrial center). They all had so much potential to become a mini Nyc, of course the riots didnt help.
 
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