Since 1997, Harris Interactive has conducted an annual poll asking Americans where they would most like to live other than their current state. In seven years, no Midwestern state has ranked in the top 15.
What’s the problem? Granted, the weather can get a little dicey, an understandable turnoff for folks fond of gentler climes. But writing off the Midwest goes beyond climatic conditions.
According to regional-identity experts, outsiders view the Midwest as an uninteresting landscape inhabited by overweight, Protestant whites — a backward region that is resistant to change and where a gala event is more apt to be a tractor pull than a night at the opera.
“In spite of cities like Detroit and Chicago, we’re perceived as relatively rural — not red-necked hillbillies, but a rurality that translates into hardworking and honest but also plain, ordinary and dull,” says Dennis Preston, a linguistics professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Never mind that Minnesota and Iowa rank among states with the healthiest population, according to the United Health Foundation, which bases annual state rankings on a variety of statistics such as prevalence of smoking, motor vehicle deaths, violent crime and high school graduates.
And when it comes to real estate, the Midwest market compares favorably to other regions in the country, says Walter Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which has been tracking national and regional prices since 1968.
For one thing, the Midwest shows the steadiest
growth rate in prices, avoiding wild swings seen in other regions.
“When it comes to buying power, you can afford more house for your money in the Midwest,” Molony says. “And for entry-level buyers, there are greater array of housing choices. Most can afford to buy a single-family house, which isn’t always possible in the Northeast and West.”
Why, then, the bad rap? Experts explain that regional perceptions — whether positive or negative — are influenced by a number of factors.
“How people become attached to a landscape has a lot to do with where they grew up,” says Cary de Wit, assistant professor of geography at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. “There’s no universal standard for beauty, which can play into the perception of place. Some people love the flat landscape of the Great Plains and feel claustrophobic in places with mountains or too many trees.”
Typically, people are partial to areas that resemble where they already are, says Steven M. Schnell, assistant professor of geography at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.
Case in point: Each year Schnell asks students to rank the top and bottom five states in terms of where they want to live. When he taught in Missouri, Midwestern states appeared as favorites. However, with Schnell’s Pennsylvania students, the Midwest doesn’t register at all or it ranks in the bottom five. Kutztown students sum up their vision of the Midwest in three concise terms: flat, farms and nothing to do.
Conversely, Kutztown students frequently pick New Jersey as one of their favorite places, which may surprise outsiders who might associate the state with the stereotypes of toxic-waste dumps and mobsters. “If you’ve experienced a place, it becomes both less stereotyped and less romanticized in your mind,” Schnell says. “You understand both its warts and good points. It’s no longer a caricature.”
Yet familiarity becomes a stumbling block for the Midwest because fewer people live there. About 22 percent of Americans reside in the Midwest with a greater concentration of U.S. population along the coasts.
What’s more, though Midwesterners travel to other parts of the country, experts say there’s less of a tendency for people on the coasts to travel to the Midwest. In fact, the Midwest is often referred to as “Flyover Country,” a disparaging nickname that implies it is a place to avoid, says de Wit.
According to the U.S. Census, the Midwest comprises 12 states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. That’s a pretty big area to pigeonhole — another reason so many stereotypes are inaccurate.
Most Americans are also in the dark about the Midwest’s precise location. “Some people believe it lies west of the Mississippi River, others put it east of the Mississippi,” says James R. Shortridge, professor of geography at the University of Kansas in Lawrence and a senior editor of “Encyclopedia of the Midwest” (Indiana University Press, 2005). A project managed by Ohio State University’s Humanities Institute, the book examines regional identity along with political, economic, cultural and social phenomena that illustrate the Midwest’s diversity.
Without experience, people’s mental maps are more vulnerable to marketers, the media and second-hand reports.
“When people leave the Midwest, they aren’t always positive spokespeople for it,” observes Ruth Olson, associate director of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Olson, who previously lived on the East and West Coasts, recalls hearing transplants describe the Midwest as a good place to be from. “That suggests it’s not a good place to be,” she says.
Advertisers frequently capitalize on regional images prevalent in the public’s mind to promote products. This reinforces and perpetuates stereotypes, says de Wit. Even if the image of a place was once valid, it’s frequently out-of-date, lagging reality by several decades.
When it comes to entertainment venues, movies have a significant effect on our sense of place. And cinematically speaking, the Midwest has not fared well.
Movies frequently perpetuate negative images of the Midwest and can do damage, even if they’re brief references. For example, in “Dogma,” instead of being sent to hell, the erring angels were doomed to spend eternity in the Milwaukee airport, Olson points out.
A more recent film, “Love Almighty,” depicts Wisconsin women as buxom and promiscuous. One of Olson’s students was traveling in England at the time the movie debuted and endured considerable teasing from her British friends.
Yet perhaps no movie has wielded more influence on people’s perceptions of the Midwest — particularly Kansas — than “The Wizard of Oz.”
When the movie appeared in 1939, Technicolor was a relatively new process, and MGM shot all Kansas scenes in black and white to make the transition to Oz more dramatic. So, Dorothy’s home state is forever linked not only with bad weather and provincial people but also a bleak landscape.
“Kansas is hillier and greener than people think,” says de Wit, who grew up there. “Yet the Wizard-of-Oz image is impossible to get rid of.”
In fact, when driving across the Great Plains to the Rockies, people often believe they’re in Kansas until they reach the mountains, adds de Wit: “They’re actually in eastern Colorado, which is relatively flat, but Kansas gets the blame.”
Another factor: The Midwest lacks the cultural mystique associated with other states and regions. For example, the East and West Coasts are noted for setting trends in fashion and movies.
“Much of the West is also characterized by a rugged, spectacular landscape and is historically associated with the rugged individualism of the pioneer spirit,” says Marcus Gillespie, a geography professor at San Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. “People like to identify with this spirit.” In fact, Gillespie says one of his colleagues moved to Texas precisely because of its cachet.
Other regions derive their distinctiveness by contrasting to a national standard. “Yet Midwest has always personified the norm for the United States rather than a deviation,” Shortridge explains. “We don’t have mystique because we stand for the average, which can be translated as bland.”
That hasn’t helped tourism, he adds. “Travel is all about escape,” he says. “If you travel to the average part of the country, you’re not really escaping anything.”
Aside from being average, perhaps the strongest association with the Midwest is of a rural lifestyle. Never mind the fact that rural communities are declining.
“When people think of the Midwest, there seems to be a disconnect between rural and urban,” says Schnell. “The rural Midwest is what sticks in their minds. For example, people don’t associate Chicago as being part of Illinois.”
Paradoxically, though people may poke fun at the Midwest and eschew the idea of living on a farm, they’re attracted to rural ideals such as wholesomeness, a strong work ethic and looking out for one’s neighbors.
Shortridge believes Americans are becoming more nostalgic for these values. “Although the Midwest’s rural image hasn’t changed, what’s changing is the nation’s judgment of that image,” he says. “First it was good, and then as the nation became more urbanized, the pastoral image became negative. But now it’s starting to look good again.”
Whatever their perceptions might have been, many transplants give the Midwest a thumbs-up.
“New York is a very competitive town,” says Bill Kelly, an advertising executive who moved to Chicago in November after growing up in New Jersey and living in Manhattan for 10 years. “Although I defended the New York attitude for a long time, having been away for several months, I now realize how much nicer people are in other regions.”
And Kelly counts some of the most enjoyable social events he’s ever attended as taking place in Chicago. “In New York, people go to parties with no intention of being social,” he explains. “They go to be seen, so you end up in a lot of superficial situations. Here, you can talk to anyone.”
What’s more, the cost of living is lower — at least for real estate. Kelly now pays one-third less rent while his Chicago apartment is two-thirds larger than his Manhattan digs.
Kelly does notice a different “pulse” in Chicago. “People here are less concerned about the theater and fashion, but that’s not necessarily bad,” he says. His only beef is about pizza — not quality but availability. “In Manhattan, I can walk anywhere, get a slice and go,” he explains. “Here, you have to sit down and order.”
Though Madison Avenue is the hot spot for advertising, Kelly says it would be hard to return to New York: “My new quality of life is higher, so it’s become my benchmark.”
Architect Doug Kelbaugh grew up on the East Coast and spent 13 years in Seattle before relocating to Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1998.
“My wife and I were worried that we would be bored, especially because we were moving to a smaller city,” says Kelbaugh, dean of the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. “We assumed there was less going on culturally. It turns out that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Ann Arbor is hotbed of cultural activities. And because the cost of living here is less and access is easier than in Seattle or New York, we can take greater advantage of them.”
Recreational opportunities are also richer than the Kelbaughs imagined. “There isn’t the same kind of hiking and skiing that we had in the Pacific Northwest. But we’re avid bikers, and the biking here is actually better. It’s hilly but not mountainous,” Kelbaugh says.
“The beaches and dunes are remarkable,” he adds, referring to Lake Michigan and the state’s numerous waterways. In fact, Kelbaugh regards many Michigan resort towns, such as Harbor Springs and Petoskey, as superior to their East Coast counterparts.
When it comes to weather, some transplants even prefer the Midwest’s unpredictable conditions.
Joy Kitamori, a native of Hawaii, spent five years in San Diego before moving to Chicago in January 2000. Though she’s always glad to trade in sub-zero temperatures for milder ones each spring, she still prefers the Windy City’s mixed grill of weather to the West Coast.
“The weather in San Diego was too good all the time,” Kitamori says. “I think human nature needs some kind of change — even if it’s the weather — otherwise it’s too easy to get into a rut.”
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By the numbers
Median price of existing single-family homes, April 2004 and appreciation from April 2003
Midwest
$143,200
5.3%
Northeast
$214,100
19.3%
West
$257,300
11.5%
Source: National Associatoin of Realtors
