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Ohio is nothing like Pennsylvania. Cross the border on I/76 and it is a whole different world. If anything, Pittsburgh and SWPA have become more like the East Coast. People from Ohio, including the NE portions, are a ton friendlier and positive. It is a much slower pace of life.
cultures don't always radically change along state lines. never have, never will. north florida is more like south georgia and south alabama than it is the rest of florida.
southwest missouri feels a lot like oklahoma and kansas, while st. louis feels more like indianapolis and chicago. northern virginia feels like it belongs in the washington-boston megatropolis while southwest virginia feels a lot more like kentucky, tennessee, and the carolinas.
Ohio is nothing like Pennsylvania. Cross the border on I/76 and it is a whole different world. If anything, Pittsburgh and SWPA have become more like the East Coast. People from Ohio, including the NE portions, are a ton friendlier and positive. It is a much slower pace of life.
?????
I think Pittsburgh people are plenty friendly. The Pittsburgh left where oncoming traffic yields to a vehicle turning left is a good example of the selflessness of the Pittsburgh mentality.
But, things like "friendliness" are subjective. Linguistics and demographics aren't. We can argue about what areas we "feel" more comfortable/accepted/less rushed/more welcome and it won't do crap to address the main point since it's simply anecdotal. Besides, I find it ironic that some invisible border prevented the "East Coast" attitudes to invade Youngstown, a place that is culturally aligned with Pittsburgh more than it is with Cleveland. I simply find it loony to think that the East Coast magically extends to the Western Edge of PA but stops abruptly in Ohio. It's not like it's a Detroit vs. Windsor case where legal authorities have separated two nations and have made international crossing harder.
Pittsburgh and Youngstown have a similar Northeast/Appalachian culture combo the same way Cleveland and Buffalo have a Great Lakes/Northeast combo culture. This isn't to say Pgh is like Youngstown in terms of decline, BUT they are both Rust Belt cities. Pgh just fared better.
The problem with opinion posts that only share personal experience is that it's not a great way to highlight facts. I've heard people from Philly say that Pittsburgh is a whole different world and nothing like the rest of the Northeast. I've also heard people say that as soon as you cross into Ohio, you find a simpler way of life, a ton of country bumpkins, and before you know it you might as well be in the South. In fact to many people, the Northeast (or as they call it, the "East Coast") is this super metropolitan, fast paced, take no bull, bada bing bada boom mafioso area where men will get their cousin Vinny to shoot you and their wives all have attitudes, whereas the Midwest is synonymous with the South and is just a Fargo version of Mississippi. To them, cities like Chicago are for simple minded country folk and are full of gullible people who say dontchaknow every other sentence.
Yeah, opinions without objective substance mean nothing.
I believe that this "identity question" arises mostly from the fact that a lot of people apply the term "Midwest" to everywhere west of Pennsylvania, north of the Ohio, and east of the Missouri. In my perception, the area actually involves two regions, one culturally connected to the Great Lakes, and the other centered on the flat, originally-agricultural areas which expanded out from the river valleys. Cincinnati developed as a hub for trade and commerce well before Chicago.
So when somebody says "I'm from the Midwest", my usual answer is "Lakes or Plains?"
I believe that this "identity question" arises mostly from the fact that a lot of people apply the term "Midwest" to everywhere west of Pennsylvania, north of the Ohio, and east of the Missouri. In my perception, the area actually involves two regions, one culturally connected to the Great Lakes, and the other centered on the flat, originally-agricultural areas which expanded out from the river valleys. Cincinnati developed as a hub for trade and commerce well before Chicago.
So when somebody says "I'm from the Midwest", my usual answer is "Lakes or Plains"?
Better designations would be based around the Great Lakes and the Great Plains. This mostly would place NY State in what would be the Great Lakes region. The NYC metro area would be excluded.
Ohio will never be anything more than the armpit of America
Interestingly, America has two armpits and neither is Ohio. One is Battle Mountain, Nevada and the other I believe is Jersey.
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