American Cities that could have been more prominent

[NothingNow]

Jacksonville, Florida could have been the Capital of the state. So could Pensacola. It would increase their population and standing to be sure.

And the Dispute is why they founded Tallahasse. Smack-dab in between the Two and Inconvenient for everyone.
St. Augustine honestly should have been the Capital, since it's the Oldest city in the state, was a fairly large city at the time and the Spanish era stuff was pretty much all there.

 

[King Gorilla]

To chat a bit about my own home state, as Wisconsinites have an intensely strong sense of regional identity, Milwaukee missed several opportunities to become a greater metropolis than it eventually did.

The first is the easiest, and is a fate that could have been achieved by several other Midwestern cities, such as St. Louis or Cleveland. Milwaukee could have potentially ended up as the rail hub of the Midwest, and therefore the rail depot of America. Much like Chicago its potential for commerce and industry is also boosted by its position on the western shores of lake Michigan. If this was switched, expect the fate of the two cities to be more or less reversed.

Going on to a later date, with Chicago’s regional primacy well established, Milwaukee still stood out as the German American Athens. This granted the city a great amount of prestige as far as Germanic immigration was concerned. However WWI and the immigration restrictions following kind of ended that era of the city’s history. If WWI gets butter flied away, is shorter, or involves a neutral America; Milwaukee will be one of the destinations of choice for German and Austrian immigrants. This could very easily mean another one or two hundred thousand people by 50’s

To go even later, Milwaukee’s borders got more or less frozen during the 50’s. Milwaukee made a ploy to gain sole access to the water rights for the land and suburbs to be, surrounding the city. When the initial move failed, it went to the state legislature, where it was defeated by a single vote, from a Milwaukee legislator who happened to be a rival of the mayor. These moves were unpopular, and it helped galvanize the suburbs against former expansion. Without it, well greater Milwaukee land could have easily become a city of a million

Finally one could remove the biggest instigator of white flight, was a singular race riot in the 60’s. While the trend was probably inevitable, it was a straw the broke the figurative camel’s back. It was the big trigger to a surge of white flight which ultimately led to the urban sprawl of Waukesha. Without a riot, the decline certainly would have occurred, but will be smaller. It would also remove a lot of the racial bad blood in the city, and its environs.

 

[Solomaxwell6]

smAlbany, NY. Being a resident of the upstate area, I say it could have done a heck of a lot better...

If anything, it'd be Troy. Troy had some fantastic things going for it until recent decades. It used to be called "The City that Lights and Moves the World" because GE (which had a monopoly on electric lighting) and some company that had a near monopoly on trains (can't think of the name) were both located there. Granted, they're essentially the same city, just on opposite banks of the Hudson.

But, really, the location isn't that great for either city to become anything to rival NYC or Chicago or anything. Troy had a decent amount of potential, but it'd take a lot for it to become that important.. It was lucky enough as it was.

 

[unclepatrick]

I want to add my home towm of Huntsville Al. The location of the constitutional Convention that set up the State Governent. It could have remained the State Captital and then in 1861 instead of the etablishment of the Confederate Government happening in Mongumery Al , it would have happen in Huntsville. If the Confederate Government had shown bit of sense, it would have kept, it capital there. (It should have kept it in Mongumery in the OTL).

 

[Orville_third]

Charleston, SC was a major port prior to the Civil War, and could have been a major national city, were it not for the Civil War and the earthquake.
Ranger, TX and other towns in the area had a major oil boom before or around the turn of the century. Had the boom continued, the cities could be a major oil center.

A word on Orlando. It did have an industry besides agriculture before Disney came. The Orlando area was home to several military bases, and still has a number of defense contractors.

 

[TheMann]

Detroit, MI. Once it was the highest median income city in the world. With great industry and a reputation for innovation... Really the 60s just murdered it. My dad is from Detroit, he was a kid during the riots. Butterfly a little racial equality into the police force (say, returning Blacks from WWII enter the PD?) and some sense into the Big 3, and it'd be truly massive today. It's really a shame that everything went so, so wrong.

But sense as the Big Three thought of it was in large part why they got so messed up later on. They made money hand over fist on large cars, they were in demand in numbers right up until insurance companies started beating up on muscle cars and then the oil crisis hit them. The war plants all being sited outside of town didn't help. I think what would have been most important for Detroit (and most other cities in the Rust Belt, as well as Los Angeles and Chicago) would have been at least some of the white population deciding that they didn't want to abandon their neighborhoods. The trend of suburban life began after WWII, but it really went south after the Civil Rights Act outlawed deeds limiting where African Americans could live. The Big Three's influence of the time could have been saved - I once wrote about this, with a POD being that the Chevrolet Corvair is a roaring success and leads to Detroit really pushing technology advances in the 1960s - but unless you can keep some wealth in the center cities, you'll still have the mess that is modern Detroit.

 

[TheMann]

I think for most American cities, the biggest POD for them to stay prominent in many cases would be the civil rights movement. If you can make the Civil Rights Movement perhaps also gain a big base from baby boomers and those that fought WWII - perhaps an attitude of "I fought with these people, how do I look down on them if they proved my equal in war" - thus causing racism to erode away in the 1960s and 1970s. Combine that with my idea of some people staying in their neighborhoods and changing them to suit new realities, and you might well blunt the suburban sprawl movements, and lead to major rehabilitation of several major American cities in the late 1970s and 1980s as the US economy comes out of recessions and the last of the old racism fades into history in much of the country.

 

[Westbrook 49]

It's not often seen this way, but Boston could have been more prominent. Due to the British blockade of the city in the Revolution, the trade shifted to New York, with the prestige and image. So if Boston isn't blockaded, it becomes New York City, and New York City becomes Boston.

 

[Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy]

Cairo, IL
Golden, CO
Mobile, AL
Santa Fe, NM
Vicksburg, MS

Due to the British blockade of the city in the Revolution, the trade shifted to New York, with the prestige and image. So if Boston isn't blockaded, it becomes New York City, and New York City becomes Boston.

Did the Brits build the Erie Canal during the blockade?

 

[Zacoftheaxes]

Buffalo New York. Borders Canada, pretty good city. Could be huge if something went right

 

[Osakadave]

Did the Brits build the Erie Canal during the blockade?

Nope. it was dug between 1817 and 1825.

And another nomination: the town of Grinnell Iowa, wher I'm living at the moment, and learning some interesting local history.

Probably the best chance for Grinnell would be for H.W. Spaulding of the Spaulding Manufacturing Company to take Henry Ford up on his offer of going together on the assembly line or for Ford to buy out the company like he considered. What fun if Grinnell replaces Detroit as Motor City!

 

[Freizeit]

Hereford, Texas.

Yes, I know it's practically unheard of now. But Hereford has large amounts of land, a warm, dry climate and so many cows it's been dubbed "The beef capital of the world". So if the ranchers made more money and invested in the city, expanding into other money-makers such as industry, Hereford could potentially be massive (maybe 100-200 thousand).

 

[Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy]

Nope. it was dug between 1817 and 1825.

That was a joke.

 

[Lost the game]

I think for most American cities, the biggest POD for them to stay prominent in many cases would be the civil rights movement. If you can make the Civil Rights Movement perhaps also gain a big base from baby boomers and those that fought WWII - perhaps an attitude of "I fought with these people, how do I look down on them if they proved my equal in war" - thus causing racism to erode away in the 1960s and 1970s. Combine that with my idea of some people staying in their neighborhoods and changing them to suit new realities, and you might well blunt the suburban sprawl movements, and lead to major rehabilitation of several major American cities in the late 1970s and 1980s as the US economy comes out of recessions and the last of the old racism fades into history in much of the country.

Maybe if Elanor Roosevelt convinces her husband to desegregate the military during the war fever right after Pearl Harbor, when everybody's too fired up to kill Germans and Japanese to notice? I suppose the SoDems might have created problems, but I assume that by then opposing anything that's "for the war effort" would be condemned in the newspapers a nearly treasonous.

 

[Dr. Hochmeister]

If I recall correctly Springfield OH was in the running for the capitol of Ohio during the 1800's; if it was chosen it could be as big as Columbus instead of the rather small town it is now.

 

[SlideAway]

Had the Mississippi river trade not dried up (and had the city avoided the disastrous freezing of its borders in the late 19th Century), St. Louis could have been (really, remained) the largest population center in the Midwest.

 

[Paul V McNutt]

Cairo, Illinois, the Ohio is a more important river then the Missouri, yet St. lLouis is the big rivet junction city.

 

[Paul V McNutt]

Philadelphia capital of the United States.

 

[SlideAway]

Cairo, Illinois, the Ohio is a more important river then the Missouri, yet St. lLouis is the big rivet junction city.

Sure, but St. Louis was already the preeminent city in the Midwest until the 1880s or so until it got eclipsed by Chicago. Had things been a little different then it could easily have remained the major city of the region.

 

[tiggerfan]

Stockton California is a contender

It was the major supply hub between San Francisco and the gold mines during the gold rush and a strong contender to be the Capitol of California.

It lost to Sacramento because of wealthy citizens in that city more or less bribing the legislature to move there.

Had Stockton become the CC of California it could have become much larger I think