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View Poll Results: Choose: NY or CA
New York state 136 32.46%
California 283 67.54%
Voters: 419. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 05-23-2009, 05:15 PM
 
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NY does have alot of diverse landscapes in a way smaller area, but the difference between the 2 is that Cali has INSANE extremes when it comes to climate, like the 2 pictures I showed above, of the Snow Ski resorts of Bear Lake CA in San Bernardino, and just 2hrs south of that is the EXTREME dry desert of imperial county where the Salton Sea lies, with barren land, and eroded cars and trailers, NO state can even come CLOSE to the EXTREME variations in climate within the same areas as Cali can. No state.
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Old 05-23-2009, 05:16 PM
 
14,256 posts, read 26,937,981 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jman650 View Post
Not really EVERYTHING else, but its got its own versions. NY state has "everything" CA has in the same sense that SF has "everything" NYC has. You get a taste of each aspect in the smaller versions, but you don't have it in the same volume and quality as you get in the larger counterparts.

If NY truly had everything CA had compacted into that little state, coupled with NYC, I don't think there would be ANY migration from NY to CA. And there definitely is plenty of it. But NY state definitely has many strong points, and I will definitely acknowledge that fact.
I like the SF/NYC analogy.
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Old 05-23-2009, 05:18 PM
 
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Well I would not be comfortable living in upstate New York...so if its an entire state vs an entire state, I'd choose California. However, I'd rather live in NYC than anywhere in Cali...but this is strictly a state thing
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Old 05-23-2009, 05:48 PM
 
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Originally Posted by Libohove90 View Post
Well I would not be comfortable living in upstate New York...so if its an entire state vs an entire state, I'd choose California. However, I'd rather live in NYC than anywhere in Cali...but this is strictly a state thing
Why wouldn't you be comfortable living in Upstate NY?
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Old 05-24-2009, 02:14 AM
 
Location: Rural Northern California
1,020 posts, read 2,754,459 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ckhthankgod View Post
I think as far as landscape, the one thing California has over NY is that California has areas of desert, where NY doesn't. NY pretty much has everything else California has, but in a much smaller state.

Also, there are 4 legit seasons here in NY.
NY state certainly has a lot of diversity packed into a small state, but let's be honest, California has the most geographical and biological diversity in the country, and it's not even close. Besides deserts (which you shouldn't understate, the deserts in California are majestic and strikingly beautiful), California has a lot of things that aren't present in NY state, including but not limited to:

1. Rainforests
2. Volcanoes
3. Glaciers
4. Mediterranean Coasts
5. Hot Springs
6. A vast array of wildlife that I can't even begin to list
7. True Alpine Mountains (the highest point in New York is 5,344ft, the highest point in California is 14,505ft. It's a big difference, and California is home to more 'Ultra Prominent' peaks than any other state not named Alaska.)
8. The Redwoods
9. Yosemite (Deserves a mention by itself, because it is that amazing.)

Also, California does have four distinct seasons, if you are in the right places. The coastal regions do not, but if you go inland, the seasons are as pronounced as anywhere else. Now, NY state does have some things that California does not, such as vast deciduous forests and fall colors (though the High Sierra aspens in the fall are gorgeous).
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Old 05-24-2009, 08:06 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jman650 View Post
Okay its not so much different criteria as it is the cities were developed at very different times, and there was more land to work with in CA. But if looking at your example of Rochester here, why don't you look at San Francisco. SF is only 47 square miles, (0nly 50% more land space) yet it blows Rochester's population out of the water (over 3 1/2 x the population).

San Jose, though I agree is very suburban, it is not the best example you could have used here b/c it has almost 5x the population while having just under 5x the land space (174.9 compared to 35.8 square miles). They're pretty even in comparing rates and density. What you say is true though, SJ is way more suburban than Rochester and it does extend for way over 100 square miles.

But how many CA cities are you referring to that actually have over 100 square miles? I mean we're excluding LA here since it doesn't apply to this particular discussion, but other than San Jose the only relevant cities I can think of that applies to are San Diego, Fresno and Sacramento. You're claiming these comparisons aren't fair b/c some of these large CA cities have way more land space (which I'm sorry, but that's a bit of a cop out), but we could just as easily compare CA cities on that same list with comparable land space yet higher populations than they're NY counterparts.

Here, for the sake of argument we'll exclude the largest land-wise cities from the list and just look at SF, Long Beach, Oakland, Santa Ana and Anaheim. And I'll put them up against NY's #2-#6 (which doesn't evenly compare population wise and is not making things fair for the CA cities, but I just want to point something out). Here's each city's land space in square miles/total population:

SF - 47 / 776,733
Long Beach - 50.4 / 461,522
Oakland - 56.1 / 399,484
Santa Ana - 27.1 / 337,977
Anaheim - 48.9 / 328,014

and here are NY's:

Buffalo - 40.6 / 292,648
North Hempstead - 53.6 / 222,611
Rochester - 35.8 / 219,773
Yonkers - 18.1 / 196,086
Syracuse - 25.1 / 147,306

SF's only marginally larger than Buffalo, yet 2 1/2 x the population. Long Beach is smaller than North Hempstead yet it has double the population. If going through this list in order, then Oakland still has a larger population density than Rochester (7,162 vs. 5,770) as does Santa Ana in comparison to Yonkers (12,510 vs. 11,022) and Anaheim in comparison to Syracuse (6,809 vs. 5,543).

And that's just comparing the cities on the top ten list. There are plenty more CA cities that could be used to compare here in terms of comparable population and land size, such as Stockton (pop. 243,771/54.7 sq. miles), Glendale (pop. 194,973/30.6 sq. miles), Huntington Beach (pop. 189,594/26.4 sq. miles) or Salinas (pop. 151,060/19 sq. miles), or even smaller suburbs that have high densities like San Mateo (pop. 92,482/12.2 sq. miles - density 7,511) Daly City (pop. 103,621/7.56 sq. miles - density 13,342) or Berkeley (not truly a suburb, but a smaller city - pop. 102,743/10.5 sq. miles - density 9,693).

So although you do have a case that there are CA cities that extend for over 100 sq. miles that allow for more growth than NY cities, at the same time there are plenty of CA cities who do fit the same criteria and are either comparable in population or exceed their NY counterparts. So there is truly no cause to cry foul in this comparison. But I do see where you were coming from in what you were trying to point out.
I get what you are saying. Even when comparing similar land areas, the cali ciies will be bigger. I'm just saying when somebody throws a list out there comparing a bunch of cities populations, you have to look beyond the raw numbers since SOME of these places aren't a valid comparison.
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Old 05-24-2009, 11:38 AM
 
2,957 posts, read 6,474,194 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by garmin239 View Post
I get what you are saying. Even when comparing similar land areas, the cali ciies will be bigger. I'm just saying when somebody throws a list out there comparing a bunch of cities populations, you have to look beyond the raw numbers since SOME of these places aren't a valid comparison.
Absolutely true, and I appreciate your point of view. What you said was definitely the truth, there was just more to the story.
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Old 05-24-2009, 05:50 PM
 
93,276 posts, read 123,898,066 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Widowmaker2k View Post
NY state certainly has a lot of diversity packed into a small state, but let's be honest, California has the most geographical and biological diversity in the country, and it's not even close. Besides deserts (which you shouldn't understate, the deserts in California are majestic and strikingly beautiful), California has a lot of things that aren't present in NY state, including but not limited to:

1. Rainforests
2. Volcanoes
3. Glaciers
4. Mediterranean Coasts
5. Hot Springs
6. A vast array of wildlife that I can't even begin to list
7. True Alpine Mountains (the highest point in New York is 5,344ft, the highest point in California is 14,505ft. It's a big difference, and California is home to more 'Ultra Prominent' peaks than any other state not named Alaska.)
8. The Redwoods
9. Yosemite (Deserves a mention by itself, because it is that amazing.)

Also, California does have four distinct seasons, if you are in the right places. The coastal regions do not, but if you go inland, the seasons are as pronounced as anywhere else. Now, NY state does have some things that California does not, such as vast deciduous forests and fall colors (though the High Sierra aspens in the fall are gorgeous).
I'll give you that but NY does have some things that people don't know about like:

Letchworth State Park(the Grand Canyon of NY)




Montezuma Wildlife Refuge
http://i.pbase.com/o6/43/284843/1/79066587.L3JBTmCf.RedWingedCloseup.jpg (broken link)






I know in the Saratoga Springs area, there are mineral springs and the only Hot Spring is in the Albany area: Hot Springs Enthusiast

Also, the Adirondacks are in a park in which 43% belong to the state of NY and 57% to private holders. It is so big that it is the size of Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Glacier and the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks combined: Adirondack Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm not sure about California in terms of Gorges and Waterfalls, but NY has plenty of those as well.

Can't forget Howe Caverns as well:



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Old 05-24-2009, 06:09 PM
 
Location: Concrete jungle where dreams are made of.
8,900 posts, read 15,933,384 times
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Awesome pictures, you should post that in the Texas vs. NY thread too.
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Old 05-25-2009, 12:27 PM
 
Location: NJ
327 posts, read 1,050,680 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rah View Post
10 largest cities in New York:

New York - 8,274,527
Buffalo - 292,648
Rochester - 208,123
Yonkers - 196,086
Syracuse - 147,306
Albany - 95,658
New Rochelle - 72,182
Mount Vernon - 68,321
Schenectady - 61,821
Utica - 60,651


10 Largest cities in California:

Los Angeles - 3,834,340
San Diego - 1,266,731
San Jose - 939,899
San Francisco - 764,976
Fresno - 470,508
Long Beach - 466,520
Sacramento - 460,242
Oakland - 401,489
Santa Ana - 339,555
Anaheim - 333,249

NY's second largest city is smaller than CA's 10th largest. In fact, it's smaller than the 12th largest too...but that's not too surprising given CA's population.
in that case lets do Philly up to Boston so we can make up for the large size difference...plz and isnt like half of socal strait desert...Northeast! Great cities and nature
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