Geographic oddities

[jd3189]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

I've figured this out very quickly. In Virginia no one flew the state flag (it sucks too), but I felt way more connected to the state. Here in Chicago, the only time I remember I'm in Illinois is writing down my address or going to the DMV. Very weird but cool, its like living in a city-state.

When I went to visit Chicago for the first time, it felt very exotic for some reason. Maybe the city/state aspect had something to do with it.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

It's hilly and green roughly NW of Route 1.

South and east of Route 1 it's very flat and barren.

Flat yes, but I wouldn't say barren.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Crawford

What about NJ with a reputation least closely resembling reality?

Reputation - giant rusty factories overlooking tired, polluted towns full of foul-mouthed working class guidos? Basically the Sopranos intro.

Reality - very hilly and green, tons of New Englandy looking towns, and as affluent, educated, white collar as any state. Basically the same as Connecticut, yet Connecticut is stereotyped as ultra rich WASPs in quaint towns.

Same with California.

Reputation - Golden Gate Bridge, Big Sur, Yosemite, Hollywood, beaches. Basically the Full House intro.

Reality - hot, dusty, dry. Basically the same as Texas.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by edale

I mean, what else is there of note in Illinois outside of Chicagoland? Not a whole lot. If downstate IL was a scenic tourist area like northern Michigan, the Illinois brand would be stronger. If it had another city of note, that would also expand the brand possibilities. But there's not a whole lot to brand at the state level for Illinois.

I think Chicago's location squeezed into the NE corner of the state also factors into it.

It means that Chicago's reach spills out quite a bit into Indiana and Wisconsin, and that a lot of people access Chicago by way of those two states, as opposed to from the rest of Illinois.

[kool maudit]

One of the many "Canadian being weirdly unpleasant to an American in Canada" encounters I remember was my Torontonian college roommate just scoffing at the idea that New Jersey could be anything but a wasteland, despite the girl from New Jersey sort of meekly pointing out that "you know it is the Garden State". I didn't know anything about New Jersey at the time, but I remember she was from Lambertville, which I later found out was one of those pretty towns on the Delaware near Philadelphia, and he was from like Mimico.

I mean, honestly, which is the more "Sopranos intro" of the two? But you couldn't get a word in edgewise.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Same with California.

Reputation - Golden Gate Bridge, Big Sur, Yosemite, Hollywood, beaches. Basically the Full House intro.

Reality - hot, dusty, dry. Basically the same as Texas.

Sarcasm right? Hard to tell lol

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

Sarcasm right? Hard to tell lol

Partially... I mean it is somewhat true haha. Some parts of CA, especially the Central Valley totally remind me of Texas, or what I imagine Texas to look like.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

One of the many "Canadian being weirdly unpleasant to an American in Canada" encounters I remember was my Torontonian college roommate just scoffing at the idea that New Jersey could be anything but a wasteland, despite the girl from New Jersey sort of meekly pointing out that "you know it is the Garden State". I didn't know anything about New Jersey at the time, but I remember she was from Lambertville, which I later found out was one of those pretty towns on the Delaware near Philadelphia, and he was from like Mimico.

I mean, honestly, which is the more "Sopranos intro" of the two? But you couldn't get a word in edgewise.

I mean, all my friends from Jersey are from, like, Elizabeth, and they tell me to stay the hell away from Jersey at all costs.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Partially... I mean it is somewhat true haha. Some parts of CA, especially the Central Valley totally remind me of Texas, or what I imagine Texas to look like.

It does. There's parts of West Texas that are absolutely desolate minus the Permian Basin workers in the area.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Arizona has more of an identity than Phoenix or Tucson, probably because most of the state's best known attractions are outside city limits. The giant hole for which we're most famous is 3.5 hours north/northwest of Phoenix.

Hell, the pro sports teams, with exception of the Suns, use Arizona as an identifier. The NFL and NHL teams originally used "Phoenix" when they relocated here, but eventually changed to "Arizona" allegedly to appeal to more fans.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

One of the many "Canadian being weirdly unpleasant to an American in Canada" encounters I remember was my Torontonian college roommate just scoffing at the idea that New Jersey could be anything but a wasteland, despite the girl from New Jersey sort of meekly pointing out that "you know it is the Garden State". I didn't know anything about New Jersey at the time, but I remember she was from Lambertville, which I later found out was one of those pretty towns on the Delaware near Philadelphia, and he was from like Mimico.

I mean, honestly, which is the more "Sopranos intro" of the two? But you couldn't get a word in edgewise.

I've witnessed this as well and may even have participated in some of that stuff at one time. For all the talk about "America Fuck Yeah!" the vast majority of Americans seem quite gracious in the face of it all. (Probably not representative of all them, but more a selection bias related to which Americans tend to go abroad more.)

I too realized the silliness of it all when I finally visited some of these places that had been derided as hellholes.

[kingkirbythe....]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Same with California.

Reputation - Golden Gate Bridge, Big Sur, Yosemite, Hollywood, beaches. Basically the Full House intro.

Reality - hot, dusty, dry. Basically the same as Texas.

This is Hollywood’s stereotypical idea of all of Texas.

[SFBruin]

The first (and only) time I visited Texas, I was surprised at how green it was.

I had an image in my head that it was like the second picture, above.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

It's hilly and green roughly NW of Route 1.

South and east of Route 1 it's very flat and barren.

Well over 80% of the NJ state population is north of Route 1 in Central Jersey. Essentially all of that is hilly. So, yeah, NJ is pretty hilly. I mean, go to any non-poor town in North Jersey, and there will be steep elevations. I mean, why you think towns are named Alpine, Mountainside, Mountain Lakes, and the like?

And I don't know any part of NJ that is "barren" unless you're referring to the Pine Barrens, which is a large South Jersey forest. It's "barren" for agriculture (sandy soil) but it's thick coastal woods, the largest of its type on the U.S. eastern seaboard.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

The first (and only) time I visited Texas, I was surprised at how green it was.

I had an image in my head that it was like the second picture, above.

East Texas is very green and once you get down around the Houston area, it's particularly lush.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by jd3189

When I went to visit Chicago for the first time, it felt very exotic for some reason. Maybe the city/state aspect had something to do with it.

chicago, st. louis, and cincinnati all sort of are midwestern city-states that transcend, have overpowering flavors, or straight up pre-date their states by a lot. i don’t know if people in cincy fly their city flags but they are ubiquitous on houses and bumperstickers around st louis and chicago.

i can imagine chicago being in its own great-lakes state of some kind, with st. louis as some sort of capital of a weird illinois/eastern missouri thing, cincy crossing the ohio with its hinterland.

[Buckeye Native 001]

I don't think people in Cincinnati fly the city flag too much, outside of maybe FC Cincinnati fans?

[edale]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

chicago, st. louis, and cincinnati all sort of are midwestern city-states that transcend, have overpowering flavors, or straight up pre-date their states by a lot. i don’t know if people in cincy fly their city flags but they are ubiquitous on houses and bumperstickers around st louis and chicago.

i can imagine chicago being in its own great-lakes state of some kind, with st. louis as some sort of capital of a weird illinois/eastern missouri thing, cincy crossing the ohio with its hinterland.

All multi-state metros...That probably has a lot to do with the whole city-state thing. And I definitely agree that Cincinnati shares in this feeling. The Cincinnati area has its own culture different from that of Ohio, Kentucky, or Indiana- the three states it spills into. You see it in local foods that haven't really expanded outside of the 275 loop, but also in the highly provincial attitudes of the population. It's like a little snow globe where high school rivalries and such actually impact development and politics. You even see it in the topography, where the steep hills and valleys of Cincinnati stand in contrast to the general flatness of other Ohio cities.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by edale

You even see it in the topography, where the steep hills and valleys of Cincinnati stand in contrast to the general flatness of other Ohio cities.

And most of the rest of the great midwest cornbelt.

My mom's sister moved to cincy and raised her family there so we made the drive down I-65/74 a lot as a kid to visit them.

Even as a young child I would take notice of that inflection point somewhere along I-74 where the unceasingly flat indiana cornfields all of a sudden give way to these large hills and steep ravines that kinda pop up outta nowhere.

There was always a palpable sense that we had left our old familiar midwest world behind and entered a strange new realm.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

...entered a strange new realm.

For better or worse, that is Cincinnati in a nutshell.

I don't encounter the high school question much whenever I'm back there because a) I didn't go to high school there (although I briefly attended Turpin before moving to AZ when it was 7th through 12th grade so...yeah,) and because, especially on my dad's side, at least three or four generations went to the same damn high school (Highlands).

And to answer Kool's question: I don't think we gave Cleveland much thought other than when the Browns and Bengals played.