[dave78]

> places like Chicago and New York City are very near the center meridian of their time zone

Chicago is very close to the eastern edge of the Central time zone, though I know that was not true throughout history.

[jcranmer]

If you look at the "natural" disposition of the time zones, Chicago is very near the appropriate longitude (90 W) for the median of the time zone. The border between Eastern and Central time zone should be about halfway through Ohio; instead, the Eastern time zone is skewed westward, since Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan wanted to be in the same time zone as NYC.