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.