NYC becomes the American Montreal (i.e. #2)

[pikachu]

It’s hard to picture. NYC bounced back from the urban crisis better than any other Northeastern/Midwestern industrial city, so you need a scenario where NYC collapses harder and longer than it did irl. But even if it follows a demographic path similar to Chicago, the gap between NYC and LA is still so large….

Tbh you might need to go back to the antebellum era, not have Philadelphia squander being one of the country’s financial capitals, and New York not seeing the potential of the Erie Canal.