What makes something a “Lakewood” is that it is reasonably close to major Jewish centers, and not expensive – and attrats a community of Bnei Torah. The “not expensive” part rules out downstate New York and New Jersey. There are some possibilities elsewhere. Baltimore is cheap, and increasingly the community within the city limits is become haredi (it helped that someone just planted an hasidic kollel) while the modern prefer the suburbs or Washington. There are places in upstate New York and Pennsylvania that could manage. There are many possibilities in the “sunbelt” (blue states, tending to lack the ultra-secular bigotry that often is a problem in blue states). While the frum community isn’t into central planning, all it takes is some people with money to “plant” a yeshiva in some place affordable but still in a day trip of a major community.
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