Strong cultural ties/fewer commuters vs weaker cultural ties/more commuters

[Docere]

Fairfield County, Connecticut seems like a good example of the former. It doesn't qualify for inclusion in the New York MSA on commuting patterns, yet I suspect it's likely as much if not more so connected culturally than a lot of very-far flung places in New Jersey, Hudson Valley etc. that do.

[Crawford]

Fairfield has large commuting share to Manhattan. But Fairfield is the most job-rich suburban NYC county, so serves as an important secondary core. It isn't part of the MSA because there are too many jobs within Fairfield, not because there aren't enough commuters to Manhattan.

Historically, there were some distinctions between Fairfield and other affluent suburbs. WASPier and more Republican, certainly. The differences have blurred, but Fairfield is still the least Jewish major suburban county, and Dems didn't dominate until very recently.

[Docere]

True, there's a sort of snowball effect that brings say Toms River into the New York MSA (with one "core" county flowing into the next in terms of commuting).

[KB0679]

Due to the geography of the region, there isn't enough commuting from the Hilton Head/Beaufort, SC area to Savannah, GA and thus they are separate MSAs and do not share a CSA, but there are definitely cultural ties as they are part of the same media market and share a commercial airport.

[Docere]

Work in Manhattan

Hudson 22.1%
Westchester 18.7%
Nassau 15.2%
Bergen 14.3%
Rockland 12.9%
Putnam 9.2%
Essex 8.6%
Monmouth 7.7%
Middlesex 7.1%
Union 6.8%
Orange 6.3%
Suffolk 6.1%
Fairfield 5.9%
Pike 5.2%
Morris 4.8%
Somerset 4.1%
Dutchess 3.1%
Hunterdon 1.9%
Ocean 1.4%

http://demographia.com/db-nyc-employ.pdf