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I would guess that just as many if not more people away from the coasts know more about US geography... broad strokes? I love it when people in Middle America generalize the coasts because of "coastal elitism" or what not yet paint the coasts as all the same.
I do think that people from middle America tend to have a better sense of geography. Middle American's tend to drive further to go on vacation or to visit family flying is much more expensive and less practical.
I went up to rural Iowa last year for Christmas and my Grandmother's 90th birthday. I drove the 12 hours and 4 states because it made the most sense. A flight would have cost me $600 and taken me almost 6 hours because there were no direct flights. That would have only gotten me within 45 min anyway so I prob would have had to rent a car. $120 in gas got me there and back.
The reason I've camped in western Nebraska for example is because my family was road tripping From Idaho to Indiana to visit family. When you drive alot you keep track of the states. You know what they look like. As a kid you can point them out on a map.
The reason they are called flyover states is because people on the coasts tend to fly over them rather than drive through them which makes sense because man, parts of Wyoming are super boring to drive through, but you miss the differences that make each place unique.
I do think that people from middle America tend to have a better sense of geography. Middle American's tend to drive further to go on vacation or to visit family flying is much more expensive and less practical.
I went up to rural Iowa last year for Christmas and my Grandmother's 90th birthday. I drove the 12 hours and 4 states because it made the most sense. A flight would have cost me $600 and taken me almost 6 hours because there were no direct flights. That would have only gotten me within 45 min anyway so I prob would have had to rent a car. $120 in gas got me there and back.
The reason I've camped in western Nebraska for example is because my family was road tripping From Idaho to Indiana to visit family. When you drive alot you keep track of the states. You know what they look like. As a kid you can point them out on a map.
The reason they are called flyover states is because people on the coasts tend to fly over them rather than drive through them which makes sense because man, parts of Wyoming are super boring to drive through, but you miss the differences that make each place unique.
Thats fine and all but to blatantly say coastal folks don't know anything about geography is a bit overkill. I live on the coast and have been to 46 states and can name the Capital of each state. I can also broad stroke middle America and say they are less cosmopolitan because of less interaction and knowledge with the world outside of their driving sphere.
Thats fine and all but to blatantly say coastal folks don't know anything about geography is a bit overkill. I live on the coast and have been to 46 states and can name the Capital of each state. I can also broad stroke middle America and say they are less cosmopolitan because of less interaction and knowledge with the world outside of their driving sphere.
I think coastal folks in general have less geographic knowledge about the interior than people in the interior have about them. I think that is a fair general assessment.
I don't think anyone would disagree that middle America is less cosmopolitan than the coasts.
I would argue that they interact with the major cities more than the major cities do with them. Nearly everyone has access to TV and internet in which major coastal cities dominate the content.
A side point: I do think that knowledge of the outside world has become more complicated with the internet as someone living in rural Montana could know way more about sharks or how the Brooklyn Bridge was built or any number of things than someone who lives on the cape or in Brooklyn does.
I would guess that just as many if not more people away from the coasts know as much about US geography... broad strokes? I love it when people in Middle America generalize the coasts because of "coastal elitism" or what not yet paint the coasts as all the same.
It is true that in the past you could have suggested that the Gulf Coast is underdeveloped with regard to major population centers. As someone else pointed it out up thread that the Gulf Coast unlike the Atlantic or Pacific Coasts still lacks that megacity to anchor it. The Atlantic and Pacific have had decades of a lead to brand their culture around their major population centers, since they've been more populous for so long and in the case of the Pacific, it has been the growth child of the country for about a century now. It quickly went from underdeveloped with regard to population centers to very well developed in less than a century's time. I think in that regard the Gulf Coast has some decades ahead of it before it does that but that isn't really important either way. When you look at every other aspect of a coastal community, there are cities and places along the Gulf Coast that have everything else you could want.
Though that will change in the next 25-30 years when Houston passes the megacity threshold and in addition to Houston, the Tampa Bay Area, will also be quite large and formidable itself. It already is, as an MSA of over 3 million and the "Tampa Bay Area" when including nearby Sarasota and Lakeland, both of which will be absorbed into Tampa Bay Area in a newly created CSA within the next 10 years has a population that is just shy of 5 million right now (4.8 million, also including Homosassa Springs). The Rio Grande Valley area of Texas is a fast growing metropolis with 1.35 million people, it starts at the coast with South Padre and then goes inland into McAllen, with those two counties Cameron and Hidalgo being their core (with two other counties as well). There is also the Naples/Fort Myers CSA, which this decade surpassed 1 million people and already tops 1.1 million people. It is one of the fastest growing places in all of America, the second fastest after Austin among PCSAs above 1 million people. It will only continue to become even larger and it is one of the most expensive places in all of Florida, with prime beachfront properties. Then there is New Orleans, a city quite different from all others in its country. New Orleans will always be New Orleans.
That's not as long of a list of major population centers as the Atlantic or the Pacific, but it is formidable and it came together quickly in the last 50-70 years. If you go back to 1950, the Gulf Coast truly was underdeveloped back then with the only major cities being New Orleans and a very young toddler aged Houston.
I fully expect population growth to continue in the decades to come. More major population centers will be added to the 1 million PCSA + list and the ones currently there will all become much larger and much more formidable than they are now.
Look at #51 on this list, with + 15.65% growth, popularity is not an issue for major population centers along the Gulf Coast.
I don't know this to be fact but I wouldn't be surprised if by mid-century that some of Baton Rouge, Corpus Christi, Mobile, Pensacola, Tallahassee end up with 1 million or more people as a PCSA (metropolis). Baton Rouge is a given, it's not too far off from it now, should get there soon enough. The region does need a coastal spine though, that will serve a safe guard for it against storm surge, other than that, seems ripe for lift off.
If Baltimore, Washington DC and Philadelphia count as "East Coast" cities, then Houston and New Orleans should count as megacities on the Gulf since the distance from them to the Gulf is shorter or similar to the distance between the above 3 cities to the Atlantic Ocean. Houston and New Orleans are both very important ports and New Orleans is also a very popular tourist destination. Mobile, Alabama is also a sizable city and even Baton Rouge is closer to the Gulf coast than DC is to the Atlantic Ocean and Baton Rouge is also a port city.
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Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70
If Baltimore, Washington DC and Philadelphia count as "East Coast" cities, then Houston and New Orleans should count as megacities on the Gulf since the distance from them to the Gulf is shorter or similar to the distance between the above 3 cities to the Atlantic Ocean. Houston and New Orleans are both very important ports and New Orleans is also a very popular tourist destination. Mobile, Alabama is also a sizable city and even Baton Rouge is closer to the Gulf coast than DC is to the Atlantic Ocean and Baton Rouge is also a port city.
Baton Rouge is the last deep port on the river as well. It's a pretty dang big port.
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