Upending the basin: Name the best town in the Great Lakes

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Upending the Basin rotationOutside Magazine is revisiting its best towns in America feature, this time allowing readers a vote.

Recently surviving round two in the Midwest bracket:

  • Houghton, Mich. defeated Madison, Wis., with 52 percent of the vote: 9,267 to 8,506
  • Minneapolis defeated Cincinnati with 56 percent of the vote: 18,130 to 14,490
  • Duluth defeated Athens, Ohio, with 79 percent of the vote: 23,541 to 6,330
  • La Crosse, Wis., defeated Grand Rapids, Mich., with 52 percent of the vote: 14,668 to 13,644

You can vote before 11:59 p.m. Thursday in round three which for the Midwest features Houghton against Minneapolis and Duluth against La Crosse.

The heck with the Midwest, what about the binational Great Lakes region?

Ahhh…but what do those Outside readers really know about great towns that make up great regions?  Echo readers, here’s your chance to weigh in with your pick of a community that best represents the Great Lakes region in a best town contest.

Make your pitch in the comments below. The criteria? You tell us.

You can certainly nominate those mentioned in the Outside contest, provided that they meet Echo’s requirement that nominees are communities within the Great Lakes watershed.

Don’t like limits? We’re expanding Outside’s criteria to include Canadian towns.

Unclear on the watershed? Here’s a map of the Great Lakes basin for a start with an important caveat: Communities that drain to the St. Lawrence River are also eligible.

Great Lakes watershed boundary.

Great Lakes watershed boundary.

If we get enough nominees, we’ll put together some brackets and let everyone vote and argue over which is best and why that is so.

Upending the basin is an occasional column about reporting on the environment written by Great Lakes Echo Editor David Poulson.

One thought on “Upending the basin: Name the best town in the Great Lakes

  1. Ann Arbor, MI. Dense, walkable, bike-friendly downtown. great restaurants and bars. very good craft breweries. amazing sports scene with University of Michigan sports and Detroit less than an hour away. International airport 30 minutes away. Diverse, interesting people. Only Natural and Scenic River in southeastern Michigan (Huron). Great outdoor areas (the arb, hudson mills, pinckney state rec area, lakes). Beautiful, glaciated rolling hills, lots of trees.

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