Where do people use the term "East Coast?" to mean the Northeast? (association, metro area)

[eschaton]

As for the last three replies...I was not asking why, I was asking where. It's geographically inexact (and pointless, since Northeast works just fine and is more accurate - Vermont isn't on the coast after all), but I can see why people do it.

[PatDJohns]

I think it does depend where you live. I never here anybody refer to the East Coast as just the Northeast. The East is divided into 2 regions, North (DC metro and north) and the South (everything south of DC).

[le roi]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I grew up mainly in Connecticut, outside of New York City, and I don't think anyone I knew ever used the term "East Coast." People talked about the Northeast, New England and the Mid Atlantic, or (if you were talking about the Bos-Wash megaplex in general) the Northeast Corridor.

But I've noticed a lot of people online use the term East Coast to be synonymous with the Northeast, which I find kind of odd, given the East Coast continues all the way down to Florida. Is this something that people in the Midwest and West do?

i think so, yes.

along the south atlantic coast we never used the phrase "east coast."

[bryson662001]

Originally Posted by Bo

The northeast is home to 3 of the 5 largest media markets in the USA.

1 New York
2 Los Angeles
3 Chicago
4 Philadelphia
5 Boston

Plus, Washington DC is #8. News events in those top markets draw a lot of national news attention, because the coverage of them is sure to get high ratings.

I think this is a factor. South of Washington DC there are no major destinations on the east coast (Miami and Orlando are more of a vacation destination if anything) South of Washington is "The South" before it is "East Coast"

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by le roi

i think so, yes.

along the south atlantic coast we never used the phrase "east coast."

Yeah, I assumed that people in Virginia (besides NOVA), the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida might get a bit upset at the usage of "East Coast" to mean "everything from DC on up).

[just_sayin']

You know what else is odd/annoying? When people use/associate the term "northeast" ONLY with the Bos-Wash corridor. Upstate NY, most of PA, most of New England......sort of get left out of the "northeast" definition by many people. We're here too...and we aren't the dense/crowded/expensive/liberal whatever other characterizations that so many people associate with the term "northeast". It also isn't the sticks either.

[LINative]

I am guessing that the term "East Coast" for only the Northeast is probably an outdated histrocial tradition that has stuck around out West. While many Southeners moved west over the years, I am fairly sure that the majority of the early settlers came from the Northeast simply because there were a lot more of them. It is also where so many of the immigrants first landed.

So if the majority of early settlers of first the Midwest and then later the West came orginially by way of the Northeast, NOT ALL but the majority --- it seems reasonable to assume that they would call New England or Pennsylvania "East Coast" or "back east", not say The Carolinas or Florida.

Anyway here is a breakdown of the top 12 states in population. All East Coast states are either red or blue, blue for the North and red for the South.

1. California
2. Texas
3. New York
4. Florida
5. Illinois
6. Pennsylvania
7. Ohio
8. Georgia
9. Michigan
10. North Carolina
11. New Jersey
12. Virginia

You can see that whatever the population differences that existed in the 1800s or early 1900s, the Southeast "East Coast" states are catching up to the Northeast ones in population. Maybe one day folks in California will call the Southeast states instead of the Northeast states the "East Coast".

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I've always used Pacific Northwest to mean WA and OR only. I can understand why you would want to include British Columbia, but given it refers to the Northwestern part of the United States, and BC isn't in the northwest of Canada, I don't think it's applicable.

Idaho was part of Oregon Country, as was small parts of Montana and Wyoming, but none of these are on the Pacific. I could see you saying they were part of "Cascadia," but not the Pacific Northwest itself. They are Rocky Mountain/Interior West states.

To be precise, some aspects of the "Oregon Country" went much further east than that. The US Government initially entered post offices in Nebraska as part of Oregon. Crazy, I know. But they did it. Just as the plat to lay out the city of San Francisco was filed at the Oregon City (Clackamas County) court house.

Okay. That's the way you use the term. I've lived my entire life in the PNW, and no one, no one I know uses the term "Cascadia," which you obviously do.

But the term "Pacific Northwest" does not mention anything about the US. It's a geographic region, and BC is included in that. Oregon has much more, culturally, in common with BC than it does, say, Iowa.

[gwillyfromphilly]

In the Hip Hop music community, the term "East Coast" is only used to describe the Northeast.

[Mahatma X]

East Coast = Maine to Maryland/DC an NoVa*.
Eastern Seaboard = Maine to Florida.

The east Coast term has more to do with culture than anything. Someone who lives in North Carolina and Georgia are SOUTHERN, no east coast vibe in those places.