[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Philadelphia feels much more tied to New Jersey than it is tied to the rest of PA, including the Lehigh Valley and south central PA. It really has nothing to do with an "East vs West" divide of Pennsylvania. The fact is that Philly more closely associates with south Jersey and up to NYC than it does with the vast majority of eastern PA even.

Across the Delaware River is Philly suburbs. While sprawl has stretched northward, it would be a very long shot to refer to the Lehigh Valley similarly. To say nothing of trying to make the same association with south central PA... I mean, you really think that Philadelphians think of York, Chambersburg, Shippensburg, etc. the same way they think of south Jersey in relation to their city/region?

And I'm not at all claiming that NJ is homogenous. Philly, due to its geographic location within the state of PA, its history, and its proximity to NYC wtih its massive pull, is just naturally going to be attracted away from the rest of its own state... and that force of attraction pulls it into NJ, way way way more than any notion of a cohesive "Piedmont PA" pulls it in the other direction.

I always thought that Metro Philly was tilted to the PA side more than the NJ side. I also think that eastern PA towns, out to about Harrisburg, feel like little Philadelphias. Western PA is definitely its own thing, though.