Do people in Maryland consider themselves North, Southern, or in Between? (Baltimore: employment, buying)

[NENC]

Maryland is the North. I'm not sure why this is even a question. Even the area of MD that Marylanders call their "most Southern" area - the Eastern Shore - is not that southern to me. Yes, it does "look" like some areas of eastern VA and NC there (I live in northeastern NC). But if you turn on the radio on the MD Eastern Shore, you are listening to stations out of Baltimore and DC. And Philadelphia is only a couple of hours away. Maryland is geographically too far north and too far removed from other southern states to be the South. Even Maryland's borders with Virginia provide very few crossings and rather difficult access from one state to the other. Check out a map. There are only a handful of crossings from Maryland into Virginia along the entire Potomac border. I think this lack of crossings due to the Potomac is one of the reasons that Virginia as a whole has remained so different from Maryland even though they share a border.

I'm also curious about the many folks on here claiming to be neither northerners or southerners but "Mid-Atlantic". What does that mean? I have never heard of a "mid Atlantic" culture or accent. That term gets thrown out there alot and it really doesn't mean anything. I've heard the term used for areas as far flung as New York to the Carolinas. When I was working in Northern NJ for a while, the folks up there thought they lived in the "Mid Atlantic" area while I've heard folks here in Eastern NC and Southeastern VA say the same thing. What gives? Eastern NC/Southeastern VA and Northern NJ/NY have next to nothing in common geographically, culturally, or climatologically.

I agree with some of the previous posters who pointed out the rural/urban aspect of this topic. Folks mistakenly assume if someplace is urban then it is not "Southern". I think most major metropolitan areas around the country, including those in the South, have become homogenized to a degree. I think someone likened being in Hampton Roads VA to being in New York or Long Island because Hampton Roads is urbanized. That would be a flawed assessment. The way you measure the character of an area is in its rural areas. True, HR has become quite urbanized and is much like any other large metro area in this country. However, drive 30 or 40 miles outside of downtown Norfolk and you are in the hardcore South...cotton and peanut fields, heavy Southern accents, confederate flags, etc...places like Southampton County, VA and Gates County, NC are about as Southern as you can get...and they are but a 40 minute drive from downtown Norfolk. And if you don't believe me, go spend some time in Boykins or Ivor or Zuni or Franklin, VA. You'll think you've stepped back in time 50 years. Gates County NC (just south of Suffolk, VA) still doesn't even have a single stoplight in the entire county. Drive 30 or 40 miles outside of New York and you're still in New York or New Jersey or Connecticut. To me, that is the difference. Look at Atlanta for example. Drive 30 or 40 miles outside of Atlanta and you're back in rural north Georgia.

[nickluva]

Originally Posted by TheWereRabbit

Okay, this post was a long way back and I'm sure people have taken the conversation a million different ways since then but DC suburbs are NOT AT ALL like suburbs of Boston. I have lived my whole life outside Boston and I have friends basically every suburb in Montgomery County and all the suburbs outside DC are just huge 6-lane roads with named subdevelopments off of them. The aren't town centers just strip malls. The suburbs of Boston aren't like that, they are individual towns and the neighborhoods have more than one entrance and were made before 1995

What the hell are you talking about? Every suburb in Montgomery County and suburbs outside of DC are huge 6-lane roads with named after subdevelopments??? Have more than one entrance and were made before 1995?? Oh please so Rockville, Gaithersburg, Takoma Park, Laurel, College Park and Greenbelt aren't individual towns with town centers?? Those places are individual towns and have been around way before 1995 shoot I think Rockville is even older than DC. Even unincorporated areas like Bethesda and Silver Spring aren't even like what you mentioned and their downtowns blow any suburb outside of Boston or Cambridge out of the water(or should i say wadda to relate to you better)

[nickluva]

Originally Posted by spoonman3

I agree bro.

North Jersey, New York, Massechusetts all have town squares and a European feel.

Maryland IS the south, I lived there for a lot of my life, lived in the northeast for a year and the people in Maryland are more southern then people in the northeast.

Maryland is also very RACIST. If you are not white or black I would not suggest moving there. I'm north Indian and people would say all kind of trash to me. I think I got one racial comment every week there, and I'm not exaggerating. The people in the northeast who are mainly of Irish and Italian Catholic background were much more welcoming of north Indians from my experience.

So Maryland is the south because the people are more southern than the northeast because you lived there for a year? I bet that if you lived in North Carolina or Georgia for a year you would say something like Maryland is in the north because the people are more nothern than people in the southeast.

Maryland is very RACIST?? Even more racist than Boston or Jersey? Are you kidding me? Irish and Italians are some of the most upfront people in the world and sometimes won't think twice about saying something that's offensive to another race. Man take off those rose colored shades you've been fooled

[nickluva]

Originally Posted by spoonman3

.

Go to the suburbs in the places I mentioned above, and compare them to suburbs in Maryland and the rest of South, there is completely different culture and even architecture. Again "Southern" is a whole way of thinking and acting.

Maryland is southern no doubt.

Why do people say this crap? The suburbs in Maryland don't look anything like the suburbs in say Atlanta or Memphis. Maryland's suburbs are way more developed and established than southern suburbs. You act like all the Maryland burbs have nothing but cookie cutter houses and Walmart's on every corner which is FAR from the truth. There are lots of towns in the Maryland suburbs that have great architecture. Also since when did suburbs start having so much culture in the first place?? Yeah Paramus and Short Hills Mall are so full of culture *yawn* North Jersey suburbs really don't look that much different from suburban Maryland with the exception that every piece of Jersey is incorporated and they have too many ding dang school districts. Don't even get me started on Boston with their round-a-bout burbs..lol I'm done

[mom2boys37]

Me being a Maryland resident all my life I consider it north

[chillwill]

The more I've learned and traveled throught the South, I feel Maryland is what you make it. The Eastern Shore, where I live, is part of the South. The food, speech and overall culture is Southern. I once traveled to N.Y.C. and on the way back stopped in Jersey for breakfast. I ordered grits and laughter occured. They explained that N.J. doesn't serve grits and asked what part of the south I was from. I said Maryland and they all agreed I was a southerner. Two states so close but so different. It has taken some time to understand the place I call home. Existing between two distince cultures was an unusal experience. But, I do like Maryland and hope we keep our identiy as long as we can before the whole country is one big strip mall.

[pbr33]

Originally Posted by mom2boys37

Me being a Maryland resident all my life I consider it north

Me being a Maryland resident all my life I consider it Southern with Northern characteristics. And hey, if Southern Living covers it it must be in the south, right?

[mom2boys37]

Don't they call it Mid-Atlantic for a reason??? I don't consider it southern until you get it to southern VA...I mean there is a reason that Alexandria and such are considered Northern Virginia

[spoonman3]

Originally Posted by nickluva

Why do people say this crap? The suburbs in Maryland don't look anything like the suburbs in say Atlanta or Memphis. Maryland's suburbs are way more developed and established than southern suburbs. You act like all the Maryland burbs have nothing but cookie cutter houses and Walmart's on every corner which is FAR from the truth. There are lots of towns in the Maryland suburbs that have great architecture. Also since when did suburbs start having so much culture in the first place?? Yeah Paramus and Short Hills Mall are so full of culture *yawn* North Jersey suburbs really don't look that much different from suburban Maryland with the exception that every piece of Jersey is incorporated and they have too many ding dang school districts. Don't even get me started on Boston with their round-a-bout burbs..lol I'm done

Every northern Jersey suburb is different from the other. You will also rarely see a Walmart or generic fast food joint in any of them. There are a lot of original Irish pubs, Italian restaurants, Indian restaurants and European sweet shops with QUALITY food and drink.

In Maryland every shopping center includes a Safeway, Giant or Shoppers. A Starbucks mobbed by 10 year old kids getting hopped up on coffee, along with a Mcdonalds, Popeyes or Burger King. Theres also always one very bad Asian restaurant that all the neighborhood types swear by as well as some kind of sports bar populated by local tools.

I kid you not that is literally about 90 percent of the shopping complexes.

And these are typically surrounded by sprawling townhouses or single family homes with small yards.

As for not looking like suburbs in Atlanta or Memphis thats funny because I've been to both areas quite recently and I could see very little if ANY difference.

Like I said there is a fundamental cultural difference between the north and the south. Maryland is firmly south. A lot of the less traveled and intellectual types here seem to think that "northern" means rude, urban and dirty. That couldn't be anything further from the truth and quite honestly it makes you look uncouth. People go to Newark or Camden or the Bronx and develop an opinion from that. Its hilarious and sadly very ignorant.

[Patapsco]

To be honest I haven't read all 200+ posts here and someone may have already said so, but...

During the Civil War (or War of Northern Agression, depending on whom you ask...) The Union troops actually "occupied" Baltimore. There were cannons on Federal Hill (downtown, basically) that were actually trained on the city below, b/c they feared an uprising of the occupied Southerners.

So, by that account, Baltimore was in the South.

And as the state song goes, "the despot's heel is on thy shore..."

And Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave heroine who returned again and again to help other slaves escape, was from Dorchester County (Cambridge area) on the Eastern Shore.

What's funny (not funny, sad!) is that I grew up here and in school we were led to believe she was from somewhere REALLY south, like Mississippi... it was never said that she was escaping from HERE!

For some slaves, like Frederick Douglass, Baltimore was far north enough to have his freedom...eventually.

Maryland is "technically" southern b/c it is below the Mason-Dixon line.

However, most of it is a northern-type state. During the civil war, similar to West Virginia, there were brothers of the same family fighting on opposite sides of the battle fields.

In modern times, I think we use Mid-Atlantic for this very reason... because we're both and neither northern or southern. AND we ARE in the Mid-Atlantic region!

I grew up here, and have lived here for 35 of my 39 years.

Hope this helps!