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Well yeah, but those are extremes. You'd probably find that in most states. I doubt whether most rural areas in Texas are like Loving County.
From what I can tell - in Texas, like most states, there is a good mix of larger cities, smaller cities, small towns, and rural areas of various densities. Same for states like California, Illinois, Georgia, Michigan, and many others mentioned.
In Nevada, for example, there is Las Vegas, Reno-Carson City, and empty space. In Colorado, the only city of note not located in a narrow corridor along I-25 is Grand Junction. I would say those are more pronounced urban/rural differences than Abilene (for example) and its surrounding areas.
Well I guess Texas really is like a little nation. Diverse.
But I still maintain my position on New Mexico; the Albuquerque Metro really is an urban island in an empty desert.
Most states have urban areas and rural areas but do you see shades of difference or a real social-political divide? I'd agree with whoever said New York, Illinois, and California. Big difference. Also, Washington has its Seattle tech-cool-coffee culture area and, across the Cascades, a different, cattle ranching rural culture. Massachusetts has difference but no divide: the most rural areas in the western part of the state vote blue along with Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, etc. Mass has an east-west divide, with the west feeling ignored, but that's not the same thing as an urban-rural divide.
There's a big difference between outstate Minnesota and the Twin Cities. There's a sense of resentment among Minnesotans who don't live in the Cities as TC politics tend to dominate the state as a whole (MSP shines blue, and the rest of the state is overwhelmingly red). In fact, outstate Minnesota has far more in common with North Dakota than it does with MSP.
Georgia, Illinois and Michigan. These states all have one large city that is so very different from the rest of the state. California gets honorable mention too, parts of that state are a world away from LA or SF.
I disagree about Michigan, Metro Detroit accounts for less than half of Michigan's total population. After Detroit there are a litany of Metro areas anywhere from 350k- 1million in size that are spread out about 40 mins to an hour apart from each other. However if you drew a line from the bottom of Saginaw Bay west, anything north of that line would starkly contrast to the rest of the state with only about 10% of the population in a massive area.
I live less than twenty miles north of New York State as the crow flies, aboot 35 miles as the road flies. It's hard to imagine that the area of New York State in my immediate vicinity and NYC are in the same state.
I would argue PA has a more significant urban/rural divide than either NY or CA (can't really speak to IL as only have spent time in the Chicagoland area there)
PA goes Amish then even moreso Appalachian for a large portion of the state - NY has rural areas that are more refined and less impoverished. CA has some poor rural enclaves (also more transient bohemian activity) but seem more clustered if that makes sense. Most of PA by land area would feel more like West Virginia whereas NY still has more prosperous and even cultured areas outside of the cities. Just an observation but to me is a more stark difference if that makes sense - not that one is better or worse just to me more of a difference
Oregon/Washington, California, New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado are the ones that come to mind for me. Maryland and IL are good too.
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