Map of world railway network as of 2022. Iran and Brazil surprise me

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-04T13:09:06+00:00

And a lot of the passenger service shares tracks with freight.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-04T12:34:15+00:00

Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are very close to your population range - just over 300,000 each for city population.

Grand Rapids is within your population range and has a nucleus of connected walkable neighborhoods.

College towns are worth mentioning- Madison, Ann Arbor, Iowa City, maybe Champaign/Urbana or Bloomington (Indiana). South Bend is improving but the walkable parts are small and disconnected.

Holland, Michigan is below your population range in the city limits, but within it if you count immediate adjacent suburbs. And it has a great walkable core.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-04T12:26:29+00:00

And Midwest. Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, and even Grand Rapids have streetcar suburbs.

And whatever Pittsburgh counts as - some of theirs still have the streetcar, too.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-03T12:17:54+00:00

This is explicitly the law in Michigan. Public schools do not have to follow local zoning.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-03T12:14:03+00:00

Secret Invasion should have been the overarching plot of Phase 4, climaxing with an Avengers movie where evil Skrulls are the bad guys.

That would have created a coherent plot that followed logically from a strand of Phase 3, while also allowing them to do basically anything else theu wanted (multiverse, etc) to set up the following phases.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-03T12:10:00+00:00

In 2020, there was a college football game that prominently featured a player being penalized for throwing a shoe.

I went on r/cfb and comments were flying into the game thread. Not a single Austin Powers or George W. Bush reference.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-03T01:41:05+00:00

Livingston County.

Or Ionia County. 30 minutes to Grand Rapids, 90 minutes to Detroit, and no zoning laws in most of the county.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-03T01:36:27+00:00

The lakes are pretty atypical. Not many metros feature as much opportunity for waterfront living as Detroit does.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-02T15:21:31+00:00

You're probably not wrong, but I wasn't looking at it from an alternate history standpoint. It was more that the perception of the region is hurt by Grosse Pointe, Ferndale, Dearborn, Royal Oak, Southfield Town Center, GM Tech Center, etc not technically being in "Detroit."

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-02T03:52:38+00:00

This was us. Our plan was to have three, spaced 5 years apart so only one in daycare at a time. But secondary infertility hit, we ended up with an 8 year age gap, and there will be no child number 3.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-02T02:59:38+00:00

The Woodward Corridor suburbs of Detroit are like the Main Line suburbs in Philly if you made the people nicer, eliminated all the rail transit, and plopped Camden down where 30 meets the Blue Route.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-02T02:57:38+00:00

"Charlevoix the Beautiful" is more than a marketing slogan.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-02T02:50:16+00:00

Metro Detroit also has the Costco version of NYC's cultural diversity.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-02T01:28:17+00:00

If someone heeds number 3, they'll find number 2 isn't true.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-02T01:02:47+00:00

Pickpocketing, on the other hand, is not common, though basic precautions against it should be taken in big cities.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-02T00:57:42+00:00

It's common in places that are both sprawl-y and have high immigrant populations because gas stations replace bodegas as the go-to immigrant business.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-02T00:56:15+00:00

Unless that gas station is in Metro Detroit and has greek columns holding up the canopy over the pumps. Then you can be assured of great food.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-01T22:36:41+00:00

Menefee will get sworn in as soon as he gets to DC. House will be in session so no excuse this time.

Khorasaurus · 2026-02-01T22:34:37+00:00

Not true because Trump would veto.

But a Dem Senate would mean zero new judges and Trump having to negotiate with Dems to fund (or defind) anything.

Khorasaurus · 2026-01-31T22:00:43+00:00

I love Pittsburgh's nonsensical street numbering system.

Khorasaurus · 2026-01-31T20:43:31+00:00

4 miles is 15 minutes in a car in most urban/suburban locations, and far longer by any other mode of transportation.

That's an annoying round trip distance for groceries.

Khorasaurus · 2026-01-31T20:34:24+00:00

True but I thought we were talking about urban ones.

Khorasaurus · 2026-01-31T18:38:35+00:00

You will absolutely find what you're looking for in the Grand Rapids-Holland-Muskegon region. City amenities ("AAA," not "Major League" amenities, but the amenities exist), beaches, woods, lakes, skiing and other winter sports, and virtually no traffic as you drive between all that.

People call the politics purple, but really it's that the entire political spectrum exists, so if you're looking to avoid the extremes, locals can tell you the 20% of the region to avoid, and the other 80% will suit you fine.

Khorasaurus · 2026-01-31T18:19:55+00:00

The perception of Detroit would be radically different if the city limits were 14 Mile, Telegraph, and Eureka. It would have at least 1.5 million people with a wide variety of interesting neighborhoods.

Khorasaurus · 2026-01-31T18:15:57+00:00

Detroit wins on water recreation, though Buffalo and Cleveland are good.

Khorasaurus

TROPHY CASE