First I want to thank everyone for reading, sharing and commenting on my recent post on talent, ambition and culture in the Midwest. It was easily the most popular piece I’ve written in this iteration of the Corner Side Yard and I’m glad it connected with many of you.
I do, however, want to rebut a couple of points made in the comments. I am not saying the Midwest is bereft of talent, by any means. The region is full of talent of all sorts. But it seems the region has issues with trying to support those with talent with the kind of nurturing and development they need to blossom here in the Midwest. I might be conflating talent with ambition somewhat (the two are different but can rise together) but when both are present in a person, all too often that person must move from the region to achieve wider success.
I’m also not saying the Midwest displays a “loser’s” mentality. I’d characterize it as an attitude of contentment when things are going well for the region that becomes resentment when things aren’t. A loser’s mentality to me would be meekly accepting one’s fate, as decided by someone else. But for people who never outwardly get too high or too low, resentment without action might be mistaken as such.
Pass-through place, weaker connections
In my earlier piece, I mentioned that the American settlement of the Midwest always had at least a small pass-through quality to it, as ambitious eyes continued looking further west:
“The region has always been overlooked by the ambitious, even as it was cleared of Indigenous people and settled by American colonists and European immigrants.
The sentiment is captured in Horace Greeley’s 1854 quote, “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.” The Midwest was the first non-Thirteen Colonies American territory to be settled, after the War of 1812. That also made it the first to begin exporting its strivers in search of excellence.”
There was usually a pattern established in settlement that created relationships along the way. Following the War of 1812 in the Midwest, the American military would establish forts in Indigenous territories. The military would clear the lands of Indigenous people by war or treaty. White settlers moved in and established new farmsteads.
But we all know that settled communities would require much more to become functioning places. East Coast banks and financiers sought to exploit the riches of the region, and invested in people and businesses that would help them do it. At different times in the Midwest, the fur trade, the timber industry, large-scale farming, the national rail network, minerals extraction, and ultimately, large-scale manufacturing, pulled East Coast investors into the region.
Read the rest of this piece at The Corner Side Yard.
Pete Saunders is a writer and researcher whose work focuses on urbanism and public policy. Pete has been the editor/publisher of the Corner Side Yard, an urbanist blog, since 2012. Pete is also an urban affairs contributor to Forbes Magazine's online platform. Pete's writings have been published widely in traditional and internet media outlets, including the feature article in the December 2018 issue of Planning Magazine. Pete has more than twenty years' experience in planning, economic development, and community development, with stops in the public, private and non-profit sectors. He lives in Chicago.
Photo: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Scientific Data and Computing Center (SDCC), formerly known as the RHIC and ATLAS Computing Facility, via Flickr in Public Domain.
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