Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
New England has a COUNTLESS number of historical buildings... however they are FAR from "ugly and crumbling" and the majority of them are very well maintained with plaques on the front of the exterior of the home or building with the date it was originally built. My grandfather, originally from New Hampshire, came from a much more rural area of New England, than I myself, residing in Connecticut. However his hometown in New Hampshire is nothing short of gorgeous. In addition to that, Connecticut is an absolutely beautiful state with all four seasons and a plethora of urban, suburban and rural areas. New Englanders as a whole definitely DO take pride in their residency; as the first settlers of this very country originally resided in these areas. New England is historically by far one of the most cultured areas of The United States. It is also very much a melting pot. The populace has EXTREMELY diverse cultures, including many Caucasian, African American, Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish, Hispanic, West Indian/Caribbean, Native American, Asian, and ethnic Caucasian residents and neighborhoods. If you haven't had the pleasure of visiting New England thus far in your life, please let me assure you, that you are missing out. The history, the rolling hills, the foliage, the ethnic diversity, the entire experience is well worth your travel.
...but be warned, (and this is more on a comical note than anything else), we do sometimes... ok, most times fit the "stereotypical ideal" of what a New Englander is from those "You Know You're A New Englander If..." ...We DO speak quite fast, we also (for the most part) speak properly, we DO walk fast and we definitely DO drive fast. We know that the things you need to start a campfire are matches, newspaper, tinder, sticks, fuel logs, and spent motor oil, we find that 65 degree ocean water as being warm, all of the potholes just add excitement to our driving experience, we keep an ice scraper in our cars year ’round, we have switched from “heat” to “A/C” in the same day and back again, we can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, we refer to 6 inches of snow as a “dusting, we design our children's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, the speed limit on the highway is 65 mph — we're going 80, and everybody is passing us, women jump their own cars, know how to change their own tires and are fully educated and prepared to use a snow blower if needed, in most cases you could own a small town in Montana for the price of your house, Dunkin' Donuts is a staple, we think if someone is nice to us, they must either want something or they are from out of town and probably lost, we know how to cross 4 lanes of traffic in 5 seconds, we pick our own strawberries, blueberries and apples, New England clam chowder beats Manhattan clam chowder any day of the week, we use the word "wicked" to substitute about 47 different words, Patriots vs. Giants…Yankees vs. Red Sox. Regardless of which side you choose, there’s nothing like the New England sports rivalries anywhere else in the country.
...hopefully these very entertaining but true stereotypes made you laugh, but all in all New England is a wonderful place and I hope that all of you get a chance to visit ...just make sure you bring a snow shovel just in case lol
New England consists of 6 northeast states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. These states share a common identity based on a related history.
But how does that identity make these states different today from the rest of the northeast - namely New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey?
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this since you can go here to see the differences between PA and New England and why some people in PA don't feel Northeast is a good description of PA.
Honestly IMO grouping PA with NY and NJ works because they have similarities but when you group PA with New England it stops working because PA has about as much in common with Georgia as it does with Vermont which is not a whole lot. PA is a rust belt state that was a major industrial power in the country with steel production that got hit hard by deindustrialization unlike New England. Coal is another major factor that separates PA from New England and even separates PA from New York and New Jersey since Coal was and currently still is a major industry in PA. PA shares more in common with other coal states like West Virginia and Kentucky in this regard then other states in the Northeast. Then there is the fact PA speaks midland unlike New England and New York, or the fact most of PA's population lives closer to other states instead of New York and New England with the exception being New Jersey. I can go on and on but it gets redundant.
New England clam chowder beats Manhattan clam chowder any day of the week,
I totally agree, but would like to point out a couple of things about this since it always comes up when New Englanders suddenly and unsolicited, start their charming little New England vs. New York wars.
"Manhattan" clam chowder was invented in Rhode Island by Portuguese immigrants.
Rhode Island is in New England.
Therefore, "Manhattan clam chowder" is from New England.
Manhattan clam chowder is not even the dominant style of chowder in New York. Cream based "New England" chowder is the most common I have ever seen on menus. Italian owned restaurants do tend towards the Portuguese recipe. Probably because they have more tomatoes in the kitchen than they know what to do with. :-)
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,730 posts, read 23,687,075 times
Reputation: 14580
The distinction of New England started when the Dutch were settling the Hudson River and the English had claimed lands to the east of it (NY/NE lines are approximately 35 miles east of the Hudson River). Even though NY was eventually overtaken by the English there are subtle echos of a Dutch past here and there. These urban neighborhoods in Upstate have a style of row-houses that are not common in New England cities with a bit of a Dutch architectural influence.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this since you can go here to see the differences between PA and New England and why some people in PA don't feel Northeast is a good description of PA.
No one was excluding PA from the Northeast in that thread; they were advocating to include it simultaneously in the Mid-Atlantic region. Not to mention there's differences between all of the Northeast states in comparing them to one another. That doesn't mean they're not part of the same geographic region.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cwa1984
Honestly IMO grouping PA with NY and NJ works because they have similarities but when you group PA with New England it stops working because PA has about as much in common with Georgia as it does with Vermont which is not a whole lot.
Pennsylvania and Vermont are actually much more similar to each other than PA and GA (topography, climate, and major agricultural sectors).
Quote:
Originally Posted by cwa1984
PA is a rust belt state that was a major industrial power in the country with steel production that got hit hard by deindustrialization unlike New England. Coal is another major factor that separates PA from New England and even separates PA from New York and New Jersey since Coal was and currently still is a major industry in PA. PA shares more in common with other coal states like West Virginia and Kentucky in this regard then other states in the Northeast.
Coal is just one industry out of many. States like Montana, Illinois and Utah also have coal industries -- should Pennsylvania be included with them? Should New Jersey be included with Nevada due to its robust casino industry? Not to mention, PA, NJ and NY all had historic mill towns, very similar to New England.
Also, if you don't think New England can also be included in the Rust Belt, you've clearly never been to many of its cities (e.g., Lowell, Hartford, Springfield, New Bedford, New Haven, etc that clearly have had better days).
Quote:
Originally Posted by cwa1984
Then there is the fact PA speaks midland unlike New England and New York, or the fact most of PA's population lives closer to other states instead of New York and New England with the exception being New Jersey. I can go on and on but it gets redundant.
Much of NJ is also in the "north midland" in terms of linguistic geography. It's a rhotic northern accent with some other unique vowel pronounciations.
No one was excluding PA from the Northeast in that thread; they were advocating to include it simultaneously in the Mid-Atlantic region. Not to mention there's differences between all of the Northeast states in comparing them to one another. That doesn't mean they're not part of the same geographic region.
I was as well as jmh1975. JettaPA leaned more on PA not really being northeastern as well. Then there is the whole is Maryland a southern state thread with others there not considering PA to be a northeastern state. It works if we are just talking about PA, NY, and NJ. If you add new england to the equation it doesn't work.
Quote:
Pennsylvania and Vermont are actually much more similar to each other than PA and GA (topography, climate, and major agricultural sectors).
PA is actually closer to VA if you want to go that way. Either way your missing my point that PA is not very similar to New England...hmm...I'll stick to the Rhode Island isn't like PA to make my point crystal clear next time.
Quote:
Coal is just one industry out of many. States like Montana, Illinois and Utah also have coal industries -- should Pennsylvania be included with them?
The point is coal has never been a major industry in New England where as in PA it has and has influenced were towns and cities ie Scranton got built. So to answer your question in regards to coal the answer is yes. PA has historically been a fossil fuel powerhouse with coal, oil (first oil well in the world in Titusville, PA) and natural gas.
Quote:
NY all had historic mill towns, very similar to New England.
So does the South what's your point here?
Quote:
Also, if you don't think New England can also be included in the Rust Belt, you've clearly never been to many of its cities (e.g., Lowell, Hartford, Springfield, New Bedford, New Haven, etc that clearly have had better days).
They've seen better days but I haven't seen the wide spread abandon factories in big cities and small towns in New England like I have in the rust belt states. There is a reason why New England is not considered part of the rust belt.
Quote:
Much of NJ is also in the "north midland" in terms of linguistic geography. It's a rhotic northern accent with some other unique vowel pronounciations.
Point is it's another example of a difference between PA and New England.
Point is it's another example of a difference between PA and New England.
Once again, differences don't preclude states from being within the same region. Geography isn't debatable.
Also, I can't tell you how many times I've heard New Englanders talk about how other New England states are so different. Like any other region, it's not going to be monolithic.
Once again, differences don't preclude states from being within the same region. Geography isn't debatable.
In reality PA just gets clumped together with New England without much thought to it is what I'm getting at. In reality the area Northeast really doesn't mean anything because there is no "northeastern culture" and the history of the states differ quite a bit ie Puritans vs Quakers etc.
Also if you want to get technical geography is extremely debatable ie is "Europe really a continent?" "How many continents are there?" "Should we just stop with the whole Europe and Asia as different continents idea since they are on the same landmass?" "Eurasia is a continent not Europe or Asia?" Geography actually does get debated a lot.
Quote:
Also, I can't tell you how many times I've heard New Englanders talk about how other New England states are so different. Like any other region, it's not going to be monolithic.
That is a really really bad example. There history is really similar and they are very similar culturally. That is not the case with PA in comparison with New England states.
In reality PA just gets clumped together with New England without much thought to it is what I'm getting at. In reality the area Northeast really doesn't mean anything because there is no "northeastern culture" and the history of the states differ quite a bit ie Puritans vs Quakers etc.
Also if you want to get technical geography is extremely debatable ie is "Europe really a continent?" "How many continents are there?" "Should we just stop with the whole Europe and Asia as different continents idea since they are on the same landmass?" "Eurasia is a continent not Europe or Asia?" Geography actually does get debated a lot.
That is a really really bad example. There history is really similar and they are very similar culturally. That is not the case with PA in comparison with New England states.
I agree that there is no uniform northeastern culture, although there are some common traits you aren't acknowledging (e.g., strong colonial history, strong local government, higher rates of Catholicism and Judaism, stronger white ethnic identity, stricter zoning, more public park space, widely denser urban fabric, etc). Those are just a few.
Yes, if you want to get extremely technical you may group states however you'd like based off of any selected similarity, but there are commonly accepted geographic regions for a reason, and they're pretty time tested.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
...just make sure you bring a snow shovel just in case lol
