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So Nova Scotia has nothing to do with Maine or NE? If that's what I understand from the map.
good call. New England and the Maritimes are very very similar.
The main difference is that New England has done very well economically due to proximity to the political and economic centers of the region (dc and ny). The Maritimes are much further from Ontario (and seperated by Quebec). Despite overwhelming cultural and geographic similarities to New England, people in Canada view the east coast more the way Americans view the Deep South or Appalachia (and where the south has shed the negative image and grown/changed a lot, the maritimes are still very much the poor rural area of Canada).
I would say that all of New York State should be in the northeast. There is kind of a transition zone between the northeast and midwest around northeast Ohio, western PA, and western NY; so it's hard to draw the line in that area. I know we were discussing how accents vary in that area, but I don't think that is necessarily the main basis of how to classify the regional borders. Media markets, landscapes, architecture, and industries also are part of it. I grew up in the northeast corner of Ohio and know that general region well. People there do not really identify with the midwest, but certainly not with the eastern seaboard either.
I think there are three places where you could argue the western border of the northeast:
1) Cleveland - driving west to east you can feel the midwest starting to fade away at Cleveland. It goes from a flat farming landscape to a forested and hilly landscape. The largely agricultural based farming towns fade away in this area. Growing up in this area I knew that once I went west of Cleveland I was entering the "flatlands." In this case you would have to call the northeast region of Ohio part of the northeast (i.e. Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Steubenville, Youngstown).
2) the Ohio / PA border - would be the easiest since it is right on the state line, and hey you have to draw the line somewhere.
3) Like your original map - this would put parts of western NY and Erie, PA in the midwest. Really there is not much difference between northeast Ohio, Erie County PA, or the Buffalo and Rochester region. I don't think you will find too many people in western NY or Erie that identify with the midwest though.
The part of NY that's excluded I included in the Midwest. The part of Canada is only on the map because (culturally), part of it extends into Maine.
Sorry, but no part of New York or Pennsylvania is the Midwest (or any other region, for that matter). I know this might be an argument of semantics, but if we're discussing Northeastern boundaries in a country as large as the US, it would be ridiculous to cut off parts of states because they don't necessarily fit into the stereotypical and increasingly narrow view of what comprises "the Northeast." Not to mention your "cut off" boundaries, even if they are based exclusively on NE culture, are pretty arbitrary and very conservative.
My main point is, there is indeed a Northeast outside of the Northeast corridor, regardless of some similarities it might share with the Midwest. That's only because it tends to be much more agrarian, slower-paced and less diverse -- but there are still huge differences in terms of culture and history between the Interior Northeast and the Midwest. At any rate, when we're speaking in terms of geography, there is no denying where the entirety of states like NY and PA are located -- the NE quadrant of the country.
Last edited by Duderino; 08-04-2010 at 11:18 AM..
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