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It's actually also: Minneapolis, Detroit, St. Louis, New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, Charlotte, Memphis, Grand Rapids, Raleigh-Durham, Columbus, Milwaukee, Tampa, Orlando, Charleston, Richmond, Madison, and Louisville. Which makes this an even more unbelievable blow out .
Minneapolis, St. Louis, and New Orleans are technically Western cities if we are looking at the Mississippi River as the dividing point, but they do technically straddle that line.
I do believe the West is a place where a person really does feel freer and less restrained, much more so than in the East.
I feel more restrained expressing myself living out west than I did back east.
My heart is with the east, where my roots are (and where I spent most of my life), but the west does have certain advantages. I love the energy of density, but I also like being able to have peace and quiet. I think it's easier to find the latter out west, even within urban areas.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Quote:
Originally Posted by goat314
Minneapolis, St. Louis, and New Orleans are technically Western cities if we are looking at the Mississippi River as the dividing point, but they do technically straddle that line.
Look at the map in the OP.
The Mississippi is not the halfway point from coast to coast by any means.
Minneapolis, St. Louis, and New Orleans are technically Western cities if we are looking at the Mississippi River as the dividing point, but they do technically straddle that line.
Saint Louis is west of the Mississippi River
Minneapolis straddles both sides of the Mississippi River (although most of the city + downtown is west of the river)
New Orleans is both north and south of the Mississippi River (although nearly all of the city is north of the city). Since you have to cross the river to go from New Orleans (excl. Algiers) to anywhere west of the city, New Orleans is more "East" of the River than "West."
The true halfway line is well to the west of what is shown on the map. For example, the entire Texas Gulf Coast belongs to the east, along with everywhere north corresponding to the longitudes.
The realistic east/west divider in this country is the Mississippi. Sure, it's not the actual midpoint, but it's the realistic midpoint for east/west. And I'm a city guy; mountains and beaches and stuff are of minimal interest to me so the region with the most appealing cities wins...and I'm giving The West Minny and Nola:
LA, Dallas, Houston, SF, Phoenix, Seattle, Minny, SD, Denver, St Louis, Oakland, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Portland, Sacramento, Vegas, KC, Austin, San Jo, OKC, New Orleans, Salt Lake, Tucson, Honolulu, Tulsa, Fresno...
Half of the interest in The West is in California and Texas; two states! They both have outsized culture and influence that I'd think is fair to say dominates large swaths of the general western region. That makes it easy to choose East for me. More urban diversity and less regional dependence on one or two states...
Also demographically, i prefer cities with large racial and ethnic diversity, and The West is known for having some of the most diverse cities in the nation. Something also important to me though are places with visible black culture. Of large metros in The West, I'm not gonna get that outside of The Bay, LA, DFW, Houston, St Louis, Kansas City, New Orleans, the only city of which I'd even consider living in being Los Angeles ("maybe" Dallas). In The East, I'm going to get that in virtually every large metro except Providence, but even Providence is sandwiched between cities and metros with higher black populations and black diversity, and I'd live in many more East cities given the right circumstances. Which means, as a place to live, I'll experience more of a "best of both worlds" thing--urban centers with high diversity and optimum black culture...
Last edited by murksiderock; 12-10-2017 at 01:28 AM..
When I was in 4th grade in 1964, we were taught that the Mississippi River is the dividing line between the Eastern half and the Western half of the United States.
The Gateway Arch in St Louis is a National Monument to where the West begins. With very few exceptions, all of the radio station east of the Mississippi began with the letter W and all of the radio stations west of the Mississippi began with the letter K.
I agree the actual East-West physical dividing line are the states along the Texas-Louisiana, Oklahoma-Arkansas, Kansas-Missouri, Nebraska-Iowa, and the Dakotas-Minnesota borders.
But historically, or to be more specific, since, at least, 1912, when the country was 1st made up of all of all the current Lower 48 states, it has always been widely accepted that the Mississippi River is the official East-West dividing line, just as the Ohio River has always been the official North-South dividing line.
But if you look at a Rand McNally Road Atlas, it's easy to see the actual physical North-South dividing line is along the Kentucky-Tennessee and Virginia-North Carolina borders. Kentucky and Virginia are both physically located in the Northern half of the country.
West of the Mississippi River, it looks like along Interstate 70 is the North-South divide. Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah are split in two to where Interstate 70 ends in Utah, and then along Highway 50 thru Nevada and on out to San Francisco, splitting Nevada and California in two.
Last edited by Ivory Lee Spurlock; 12-10-2017 at 09:19 PM..
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