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I would also argue that Pittsburgh and Erie are the Midwest.
Pittsburgh feels a lot like Cincinnati. If Cincinnati is midwestern so is Pittsburgh. I'm not sure if I'd call Pittsburgh 'great lakes' but it definitely has much more in common culturally, economically, and historically with other great lakes cities than east coast cities despite being in the same state as philadelphia
yes they are. I've been there plenty of times (especially buffalo) and honestly, as much as you guys won't admit you have just about nothing in common with the east coast cities (nyc, philly, boston, etc) but much in common with the great lakes/rust belt cities (cleveland, detroit, chicago).
I grew up in Utica. The northeast that I know best isn't the one along the coast, but the other one. A lot of people who aren't from the region equate the northeast with the east coast. They can't get their heads around the fact that there is another part of the northeast that has nothing to do with Bos-Wash. Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Binghamton, Erie, Pittsburgh, Altoona, Harrisburg, Scranton, Hagerstown, Springfield, Mass. and large swathes of rural area are all part of the interior northeast. It is a cohesive region unto itself, not an extention of the Midwest.
I grew up in Utica. The northeast that I know best isn't the one along the coast, but the other one. A lot of people who aren't from the region equate the northeast with the east coast. They can't get their heads around the fact that there is another part of the northeast that has nothing to do with Bos-Wash. Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Binghamton, Erie, Pittsburgh, Altoona, Harrisburg, Scranton, Hagerstown, Springfield, Mass. and large swathes of rural area are all part of the interior northeast. It is a cohesive region unto itself, not an extention of the Midwest.
I'm born and raised in Los Angeles but it's not just me saying these things. I know plenty of people born and raised in NYC who will dismiss a place like Buffalo as midwest. The only people who resist the label are people from...buffalo, pittsburgh (pennsylvania), rochester (I dunno much about albany, utica so I'll ignore them for now). And that makes perfect sense, it's sexier to be part of the east coast than the midwest. It's kinda like how people in spokane, washington consider themselves part of the pacific northwest when they really aren't.
as someone from los angeles and looking at this from an objective level as possible. Buffalo shares more similarities to Cleveland than NYC in about any comparison you can give me except the state it's in. Really, calling buffalo the northeast because it shares a state with NYC is like saying you're ivy league educated because your brother got his degree from Harvard.
You seem to not be able to grasp the concept that the northeast contains more than the coastal cities. A very large part of the northeast consists of inland cities that don't have much in common with places like NYC but have even less in common with the midwestern cities. I am from Rochester and am in the Albany Saratoga area right now. I have much more in common with somebody from here than I do with any part of the midwest. You obviously haven't spent much time in the midwest and interior northeast.
You seem to not be able to grasp the concept that the northeast contains more than the coastal cities. A very large part of the northeast consists of inland cities that don't have much in common with places like NYC but have even less in common with the midwestern cities. I am from Rochester and am in the Albany Saratoga area right now. I have much more in common with somebody from here than I do with any part of the midwest. You obviously haven't spent much time in the midwest and interior northeast.
you can say that about any city in the midwest.
someone from cleveland will have much more common with cities nearby him (in ohio) than elsewhere in the midwest.
But what I'm saying is that the midwest is a bad label since it lumps two dramatically different regions into the USA (great plains/great lakes). if we adopted just the great lakes label, it will lump rochester with detroit and separate it from the east coast label alltogether.
Either way rochester is much more similar to cities in the great lakes region than cities on and east of the 95. Agree or disagree. And if not state your reasons. If forced to categorize rochester as great lakes (chicago, detroit, cleveland) versus east coast (NYC, Philadelphia, or even smaller towns like Providence, Wilmington) which would you say is more similar?
I'm born and raised in Los Angeles but it's not just me saying these things. I know plenty of people born and raised in NYC who will dismiss a place like Buffalo as midwest. The only people who resist the label are people from...buffalo, pittsburgh (pennsylvania), rochester (I dunno much about albany, utica so I'll ignore them for now). And that makes perfect sense, it's sexier to be part of the east coast than the midwest. It's kinda like how people in spokane, washington consider themselves part of the pacific northwest when they really aren't.
as someone from los angeles and looking at this from an objective level as possible. Buffalo shares more similarities to Cleveland than NYC in about any comparison you can give me except the state it's in. Really, calling buffalo the northeast because it shares a state with NYC is like saying you're ivy league educated because your brother got his degree from Harvard.
Many native New Yorkers (city) are pretty ignorant about geography to be honest. If it wasn't for the fact that so many people move there it would be an extremely provincial city. I would go down there and meet people who had no idea where Utica was, I would tell them Upstate and they would think Westchester. A lot of them know nothing about the northeast outside of NYC, Boston, Philly, Jersey and Connecticut. The world ends at the Catskills for that type of person.
As far as Cleveland goes I would make the argument that it has more in common with the interior Northeast than it does with the rest of the Midwest. It is a cultural border area that is considered Midwestern for historical reasons.
Last edited by Drewcifer; 07-23-2012 at 05:38 PM..
As far as Cleveland goes I would make the argument that it has more in common with the interior Northeast than it does with the rest of the Midwest. It is a cultural border area that is considered Midwestern for historical reasons.
I think by interior northeast you just wanna say great lakes/rust belt. I would say all the cities around the lakes (and towns nearby them) have more similarities than they do to other cities.
from Milwaukee, down to Chicago, across the state of michigan to Detroit, then down to Toledo, across to Cleveland, then follow the lake up to Erie, then to Buffalo, and finally switch lakes to Rochester.
yes, most of those New York cities have more transplants from the east coast but overall you can't deny what I'm saying.
someone from cleveland will have much more common with cities nearby him (in ohio) than elsewhere in the midwest.
But what I'm saying is that the midwest is a bad label since it lumps two dramatically different regions into the USA (great plains/great lakes). if we adopted just the great lakes label, it will lump rochester with detroit and separate it from the east coast label alltogether.
Either way rochester is much more similar to cities in the great lakes region than cities on and east of the 95. Agree or disagree. And if not state your reasons. If forced to categorize rochester as great lakes (chicago, detroit, cleveland) versus east coast (NYC, Philadelphia, or even smaller towns like Providence, Wilmington) which would you say is more similar?
Demographically, culturally, pace of life, etc has much more in common with the rest of the northeast. A person from Rochester will have much more in common with a person from Springfield, Albany or Providence than somebody from Detroit, Akron or Toledo. When ever I travel anywhere west or south of Cleveland, I"m made to feel like an outsider by the locals as my personality clashes(not in a bad way) with the way people do things.
A couple examples such as higher Italian and Puerto Rican populations; and the sarcasm and ball busting are things most of the northeast shares. You keep mentioning the rust belt. The rust belt is not a midwestern thing, but a region that extends into several parts of the country. Nobody is saying the midwest is a bad label except for you. It's not a bad label. It's just a label that does not apply to some of these cities you are speaking of.
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