I grew up in the Great Lakes region, and I can attest to the fact that the winter weather and lake-effect snow are ample grounds for emigration. The legend at Notre Dame was that Father Sorin and his companions camped out in Northern Indiana in the winter of 1842 with the understanding that they’d leave as soon as the weather improved. It never has, and so the University is still there.

For one reason or another, economic progress has not been kind to Midwestern cities this decade, even though most of the manufacturing jobs disappeared much earlier. Census 2010 numbers are correspondingly merciless.

Recommended Stories

Trump drops a narco-trafficking nuclear bomb into Mexican politics

Vermont’s transgender authoritarianism in school sports must be torn down

Recall when Virginia attorney general fantasized about murdering a Republican and his children and Democrats still voted for him?

This week’s results from Detroit illustrate in rather stark terms that the urban renewals being enjoyed in places like Washington, D.C. and New York are not being shared in other parts of the U.S. In Detroit’s case, bad governance and economic decline have depopulated the city almost as badly as a devastating Hurricane depopulated New Orleans. Detroit has been hit hardest, but it is not the only Great Lakes city to lose population and representation in this year’s census. Chicago, whose pricey downtown glitters like gold after being improved with borrowed money, has also suffered a huge population loss that will no doubt cause Democrats much grief as they try to draw Illinois’ congressional map to their own advantage.