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With the major cities I like NYC best, then Philly, then Pittsburgh.. then the rest are here and there. As a state I've traveled more through NY State vs. PA and have enjoyed my time. On a sidenote, I was having a conversation with someone from PA the other day as I was planning a work trip to Allentown and he mentioned that PA has Philly on the East, Pittsburgh on the West and Mississippi in the middle. I've never heard this before..
Really? I usually hear that PA is Philly and Pittsburgh with West Virginia everywhere else.
Really? I usually hear that PA is Philly and Pittsburgh with West Virginia everywhere else.
I suspect that this is a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to rural poverty/standard-of-living?
Based on actual data, rural PA and rural NY have a very similar scope and extent of poverty, which is essentially in-line with all of rural America (with the exception of a few pockets in southern Appalachia, the Southern coastal plains, and interior West):
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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Originally Posted by PatDJohns
Really? I usually hear that PA is Philly and Pittsburgh with West Virginia everywhere else.
That's not entirely true. PA is no more similar to WV than NY, save for presence of coal (NY is not devoid of mining, just coal mining).
In fact I'd argue that these days northern WV is becoming more like PA than the other way around.
Not to mention that the expression is based on an ill-informed stereotyping of the south in general (central PA having been likened to not just WV but also Alabama and Kentucky).
You may know the term "Pennsyltucky". It's more playful than it is accurate. This is another case wherein the western northeast as a whole (NY, PA and yes, even small parts of NJ) is not as different from the rest of the country as people like to think.
There is more struggle with poverty and rural decay in the northeast than anybody wants to readily admit (especially those well off folks who proudly puff out their chests over the region). For some reason PA is the only northeastern state where this has been widely acknowledged, and made into a joke.
I know some parts of central PA pretty well. It's definitely more like analogous regions in upstate NY than it is Alabama. It has a lot more connections to NY as well. Lots of people move back and forth between the two states, and it isn't confined to the twin tiers. I met a woman in a Sheetz near Altoona who's sister had moved to Elmira NY the summer prior (back in 2015 this was). We had gotten to talking about it, I tend to jabber at strangers.
I suspect that this is a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to rural poverty/standard-of-living?
Based on actual data, rural PA and rural NY have a very similar scope and extent of poverty, which is essentially in-line with all of rural America (with the exception of a few pockets in southern Appalachia, the Southern coastal plains, and interior West):
Just curious what those might be, though? Even racially, religiously, politically, historically, and culturally, rural PA has distinct differences from WV.
I think the "Pennsyltucky" moniker often makes reference to Central PA's more entrenched conservative bent, but even then, Republican voting/conservative identification can vary in terms of underlying motivations and worldviews.
Just curious what those might be, though? Even racially, religiously, politically, historically, and culturally, rural PA has distinct differences from WV.
I think the "Pennsyltucky" moniker often makes reference to Central PA's more entrenched conservative bent, but even then, Republican voting/conservative identification can vary in terms of underlying motivations and worldviews.
That is true, but people likely may have generalized assumptions about those parts of PA and of WV as well.
Also, this may go back to what I mentioned about parts of rural/small town NY that can be different from rural/small town PA in terms of having more "liberal" and/or diverse rural/small town areas in NY vs. PA. So, while NY may also have similar areas, there are some differences in that regard as well.
NY is an east coast state. PA has no coast and is more a rust belt state.
As much as this may pain the coastal elite, the entire Northeast is Rust Belt to some degree. Sorry, but it is.
Some of the most downtrodden, depressed and just plain stagnant areas in the US exist in states like Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. It comes as no great shock that the entire Northeast is either losing population or growing at very anemic levels: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research...in-more-states
Also, it's very commonly accepted that "East Coast" is not to be taken literally and includes non-coastal states like PA and VT.
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