Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton
It kinda reminds me of how since Columbia MD is defined as one of the principal cities of the Baltimore metro area, it literally cannot be moved into the DC metro, given within-county commutes count.
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Exactly. The definition of how MSAs are defined is very confusing, but it changes the narrative. It's not simply commuting patterns. At some point, a (very likely, political) decision was made to define Trenton as a principal city of NYC as opposed to a principal city of Philadelphia and its just been a self fulfilling prophecy from there.
The more I think of it, I think there are exactly 3 or 4 municipalities in Mercer County that probably align more with NYC than the rest (Princeton Borough, Princeton Township, West Windsor Township, and Plainsboro) for the obvious reason that they're on direct transit to NYC and have excellent schools, which makes them an attractive location for commuters into NYC. Prices, even though expensive, are still cheaper than points further north.
The balance of Mercer is firmly oriented toward Philadelphia.
Anyway. I digress. The original point stands. The statistics actually don't confirm Mercer should be in the NY MSA at all.