This makes me wonder if these cities are a good study subject in the first place.

Is this a metro area with serious rental price pressure where rent stabilization is greatly altering the market conditions, or is housing so available to begin with that it’s more of a feel-good legislation that doesn’t shift prices around?

It looks like from a quick search that over half of people in this metro area own their own home.

I imagine that rent control in many Midwestern metros is effectively pointless. The rent is already being controlled by flat or declining populations, cheap land, and high homeownership rates.