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I have never gotten any feeling of the Great Plains in Chicago. And I think you mean the NW corner of IL.
Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana (as well as parts of s. WI, MI and MN) all feel pretty similar to me and pretty much Midwestern through and through.
IL def has the upstate/downstate divide, but also to people outside of the Chicago area, the state is strongly divide into Northern, Central and Southern subsections.
I think they mean the NE corner, i.e. Lakeshore It doesn't just end when chicago ends.
I think they mean the NE corner, i.e. Lakeshore It doesn't just end when chicago ends.
But NW IL is hilly and bluffy and woodsy (Galena, Elizabeth, E. Dubuque) and looks a lot more like WI and parts of MI to me than the extreme NE corner of IL. I guess it could honestly be either.
North Florida still has southern culture and South Florida in almost completely devoid of southern culture. Jacksonville and Miami couldn't be anymore different.
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Florida in my opinion is one of the better examples and would go as far to suggest there's three very different regions with the Southern third (SE/SW), Central third (mostly the I-4 corridor) and Northern third with distinctive varying characteristics that have developed over the past 20-30 years.
Florida in my opinion is one of the better examples and would go as far to suggest there's three very different regions with the Southern third (SE/SW), Central third (mostly the I-4 corridor) and Northern third with distinctive varying characteristics that have developed over the past 20-30 years.[/quote]
Yup I agree. I drove from Miami to Tampa to Orlando to Jacksonville a few years ago. But what is the culture like in Orlando? Is that considered northern or central?
Florida in my opinion is one of the better examples and would go as far to suggest there's three very different regions with the Southern third (SE/SW), Central third (mostly the I-4 corridor) and Northern third with distinctive varying characteristics that have developed over the past 20-30 years.
Yup I agree. I drove from Miami to Tampa to Orlando to Jacksonville a few years ago. But what is the culture like in Orlando? Is that considered northern or central?[/quote]
Kind of split since it's in the middle. North of I-4 is largely like the Northern part of the state (more Southern and conservative) and south of I-4 is like parts of SE Florida (more Liberal in comparison to the Northern part) and becoming much less Caucasian White with a very large influx of Puerto Ricans.
I once dealt with folks in Savanna, IL who said that was "downstate". The Quad Cities definitely would be too.
PA's regional divisions are a bit more complicated than "upstate" and "downstate." Even a division into Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and the "T" is a little too neat to consider how to fit Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, and Erie into it.
I'm surprised nobody has said Michigan. You have Metropolitan Detroit vs. rest of state, or more broadly, I-96 west of Lansing/I-69 east of Lansing vs. rest of the state (or simply UP vs. Lower Michigan, though northern lower Michigan has much more in common with the UP than the rest of the state). The former is rust belt, agricultural, and flat. The later is cold, forested, not so flat, and with smaller cities.
I could also see one for Wisconsin (Madison/Milwaukee area vs. rest of the state)
Finally, a case could be made for New Hampshire (Boston suburbia/exurbia, mill towns, less hilly vs. rugged, rural central/northern NH)
New Hampshire and Michigan are both great examples.
In Michigan, I think the unofficial dividing line between southern lower Michigan and "Up North" is US 10 running from east to west. The line is a little more blurry on the west side of the state, and in that case I think "Up North" begins a little further south than that. You start to see more evergreens and the soil types start to change in spots almost immediately when you get north of Grand Rapids/Muskegon.
Last edited by michigan83; 09-22-2014 at 08:31 AM..
But NW IL is hilly and bluffy and woodsy (Galena, Elizabeth, E. Dubuque) and looks a lot more like WI and parts of MI to me than the extreme NE corner of IL. I guess it could honestly be either.
IL is the story of 3 small scenic corners + flat farmland in between (plus a couple nice river valleys). NE IL has lakes, small morraines and Lake Michigan beaches; NW IL has a small chunk of the Driftless, mentioned above; Southern tip has that woodsy TN feel.
Wisconsin qualifies for this, though it isn't just because Milwaukee is easily the largest city. People in the northern (say) 4/5 of the state lump Madison (government/hippies) with Milwaukee (crime/unions) and live in a very different, often adversarial world. It's very much a story of Milwaukee/Madison vs the rest of the state, though everyone calls it "up north" and not "upstate."
The southern tier bordering PA can be rather conservative, particularly social conservative. The rural parts of western NY area (Outside of the Buffalo area) among the most conservative parts of the state. So are parts of the western Adirondacks, but not many live there. That doesn't mean any of upstate NY has much in common with Mississippi, that was a stupid statement. Map of the last election gives hints:
The southern tier(Jamestown/Cuba/Olean) has some rednecks, but I don't find it terribly conservative. I have gone down to those places a lot because I have relatives out there. Very pretty and hilly, but the atmosphere is borderline Twilight Zone-ish. I don't care for it aside from finding it pretty and enjoying Seneca Allegany casino.
I live in WNY, Williamsville to be exact, and lived in Amherst before that, have plenty of friends and family in the Tonawandas, Grand Island and Niagara Falls. None of these places are conservative to me, you get "some" conservative people you come across, but overall I don't see it.
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It doesn't just end when chicago ends.
