Burlington and Plattsburgh as "twin cities"? (Arlington, Washington: live, shop)

[yofie]

What do you think of the concept of labelling the Burlington and Plattsburgh areas as "twin cities"?

Here, I'm not providing Minneapolis and St. Paul as examples, since they're way closer physically than Burlington and Plattsburgh. I think that Dallas and Fort Worth would be a better comparison, as they're 35 miles apart. In all these cases, the twins have quite different personalities.

[harry chickpea]

"Twins" ???

Twins (1988) - IMDb

[yofie]

What I really mean is that, especially in the Champlain Valley and in Montreal where I live, we often refer to "Burlington and Plattsburgh" or "Plattsburgh and Burlington" - in other words, that those two cities are lumped together as if they're twin cities.

And on the insignia of the local TV stations like WPTZ, there is "Burlington - Plattsburgh [often as well: - Montreal]" or "Plattsburgh - Burlington [often as well: - Montreal]". Plus, WPTZ at least was based in Plattsburgh rather than the Burlington area but has served Burlington and all of Vermont in general as well.

[timberline742]

Hard to think of them as twin cities to me. When I lived in Burlington I never knew anyone that went to Plattsburgh for anything. Sometimes the ferry for transit, but it wasn't to hang out in Plattsburgh.

[Mattks]

Originally Posted by yofie

What do you think of the concept of labelling the Burlington and Plattsburgh areas as "twin cities"?

Here, I'm not providing Minneapolis and St. Paul as examples, since they're way closer physically than Burlington and Plattsburgh. I think that Dallas and Fort Worth would be a better comparison, as they're 35 miles apart. In all these cases, the twins have quite different personalities.

I think you mean Dallas and Fort Worth city centers are 35 miles apart. The cities are built up to each other, just like Minneapolis and St Paul. I'm pretty sure it's over an hour to get from Burlington to Plattsburgh, by ferry or driving.

In my opinion, to be a twin city, the two cities city limits need to be touching. Like KCKS and KCMO.

[yofie]

Originally Posted by Mattks

I think you mean Dallas and Fort Worth city centers are 35 miles apart. The cities are built up to each other, just like Minneapolis and St Paul. I'm pretty sure it's over an hour to get from Burlington to Plattsburgh, by ferry or driving.

In my opinion, to be a twin city, the two cities city limits need to be touching. Like KCKS and KCMO.

The city limits of Dallas and Fort Worth do not touch each other. Cities like Grande Prairie, Irving, and Arlington, not to mention Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, are located between Dallas and Forth Worth.

[Mattks]

Originally Posted by yofie

The city limits of Dallas and Fort Worth do not touch each other. Cities like Grande Prairie, Irving, and Arlington, not to mention Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, are located between Dallas and Forth Worth.

I see, I always thought they touched. But still according to this map, the city limits are about 4-5 miles from each other at their closest point. There may even be more up to date maps with expanded city limits.

Anyway, I'm guessing the areas between Dallas and Forth Worth are built up? It probably doesn't feel like one is ever leaving the city. To get from Burlington to Plattsburgh, one has to drive through some fairly rural areas right?

https://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/texa...rtworth_01.jpg

I couldn't find any maps that show a Burlington/Plattsburgh region either. The cities may have some sort of special connection due to being at opposite sides of Lake Champlain and having a ferry connect them, but I think calling them twin cities is a stretch.

[yofie]

Even though rural areas do separate Burlington and Plattsburgh, and those cities aren't even directly connected by ferry to each other (rather, Burlington-Port Kent, NY and Plattsburgh-Grande Isle, VT), one argument for labelling Burlington and Plattsburgh "twin cities" is that they share a media market, as I hinted at earlier.

[harry chickpea]

The problem is, they don't even really share a media market. Newspapers in Vermont rarely gave more than a passing glance at stories from across the lake, the shopping markets (and hence advertisers) are unique, and the issue with WPTZ was more that the local advertising revenues were poor and the signal reached the greater market in Vermont and it needed those to survive. In order to lure Burlington area advertisers (and fill air time), WPTZ had to cover Burlington news stories. FWIW, Channel 8, WMTW on top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire also reached into the market as well, even though the station headquarters was no where near Vermont.

I'd have to dig deep, but I seem to remember that the original licenses for the stations were granted based on service to local communities, and with WCAX linked with UVM, it was unassailable. However, because it was Vermont-centric, a station in Plattsburgh did have a chance of getting approved. Channel 22 only got in because the UHF frequencies had been opened up and the restrictions that prevented signals from interfering with each other were much easier on the UHF bands.

[ABQConvict]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Hard to think of them as twin cities to me. When I lived in Burlington I never knew anyone that went to Plattsburgh for anything. Sometimes the ferry for transit, but it wasn't to hang out in Plattsburgh.

This applies to a lot of people from the Twin Cities of Minnesota, too.