If Your State Could Annex 5 Adjacent Counties, Which Would You Choose? (live in, suburbs)

[Soonhun]

I'm not understanding the point in all these "power grabs" to inflate populations. Yeah the state may end up with a bigger economy or electoral college, but at that point it will only be said state in so few ways. If Wisconsin, for example, annex all of that it would just become Chicagoland, the state, or North Illinois.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by Jandrew5

The state shape would look pretty odd, but for SC, I would take:

Chatham County, GA - Savannah would be a good compliment to Charleston and Beaufort, and would add another 285,000 people to the state, and more coastline.

Brunswick County, NC - it's Myrtle Beach metro and would further extend our coastline, and add 127,000 people, though many of them are probably old.

Gaston County, NC - it would add Gastonia and 216,000 people. I initially put Augusta/Richmond County GA, but it's not growing and Gaston has more going for it and I feel has more in common already with SC.

Mecklenberg County, NC - yes, I'd take Charlotte and it's 1 million plus people. Charlotte would be gains for the SC economy, GDP, wealth, infrastructure and tax base, and would finally give us pro sports teams lol.

Cabarrus County, NC - it's not touching SC, but it's touching Mecklenberg. Cabarrus is growing and would add Concord and Kannapolis, and Concord Mills, NASCAR, and Great Wolf Lodge to SC's tourism portfolio and tax base.

That's a gain of 1.866 million people, pushing SC's population to 6.8 million and up at least 10 spots.

That's nearly identical to my list but I included Richmond County instead of Gaston. I think it's arguable that Gaston has more going for it but if you want a growing county that will add more people in the long run, it's Union County over both.

[LINative]

Originally Posted by Buckeye614

Must have had a mental lapse. Kings County and Queens County don't border NJ

Originally Posted by CityGuyForLife

Not physically, but they do share water borders.

Cityguy is right.

Its just a trivial pursuit type of question because both Brooklyn and Queens are part of NYC but if you are standing on the shore of Coney Island in Brooklyn and you look out toward the ocean, you are actually looking out into Queens waters. If you get a good map it may show it.

The Bronx borders Bergen County in New Jersey
Manhattan borders Bergen and Hudson
Brooklyn borders Hudson
Staten Island borders Hudson, Union, Middlessex and Monmouth
Queens borders Monmouth

Fun fact - Queens borders Staten Island (Richmond County). Queens is the only borough to border 4 other boroughs. Granted the Queens-Richmond border is in the middle of Raritan Bay.

[Jandrew5]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

That's nearly identical to my list but I included Richmond County instead of Gaston. I think it's arguable that Gaston has more going for it but if you want a growing county that will add more people in the long run, it's Union County over both.

Union is a bunch of bedroom sprawl, which is why I left it out. Gastonia is hard to pass up and I like Gaston's location right above York. Yeah I had Richmond too until I saw it had grown like 0.5% or something.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by Jandrew5

Union is nothing but bedroom sprawl, which is why I left it out. Gastonia is hard to pass up and I like Gaston's location right above York. Yeah I had Richmond too until I saw it had grown like 0.5% or something.

I don't think I've ever heard Gastonia described in such glowing terms LOL.

At least Union County's sprawl is of the affluent type. Much of Gaston County looks like scenes right out of Deliverance. Belmont is a nice town though.

Richmond's growth is a bit anemic right now but they have some good things in the works and as a city, Augusta has a good bit more to offer than Gastonia. Also, aside from Savannah, all of the second-tier cities in Georgia are at a bit of a disadvantage because Atlanta sucks all of the oxygen out of the room; that disadvantage would be eliminated if Augusta were in SC where it would be competing with equals (more or less).

But now that I'm thinking about it, I just might replace Richmond with Jackson County, NC to give SC more mountains and natural beauty. The state got shortchanged on that front compared with its immediate neighbors.

[Ghengis]

Minnesota...


Keweenaw County which includes Isle Royale which was stolen from us by trickery from us when we weren't looking. And since MI and WS don't real seem to care much for Lake Superior anyways, we might as well take those other UP counties too and Douglas and Bayfield counties in Wisconsin (which we would rename "Fav-ray" and "4th and 26").

[btownboss4]

I would like to point out RI has 1 possible combination
Worcester, Norfolk, Bristol, MA and New London, and Windham CT.

[LINative]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

I would like to point out RI has 1 possible combination
Worcester, Norfolk, Bristol, MA and New London, and Windham CT.

You left out at least two other possibilities. Rhode Island has extensive water boundaries which gives it boundaries with two island counties.

Dukes County, Massachusetts (Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands)
Suffolk County, New York (including Fishers Island right off Westerly, Rhode Island.

[Sharks With Lasers]

For Michigan, if you have to stay in the U.S. and use land borders only, it would have to be:

1. Lucas County, OH (Toledo)
2. St. Joseph County, IN (South Bend)
3. La Porte County, IN (Michigan City, start sneaking into the Chicago area)
4. Elkhart County, IN (not many other options)
5. Marionette County, WI (could actually help the Upper Peninsula a bunch)

Not that good of options. If we could go into Canada, I'd obviously swap the last three for Windsor, Serbia, and Sault St. Marie (Canada side.)

With water borders, Michigan could annex Cook County, IL, but I'm not sure it's worth it. We'd have to add Lake, Porter, and La Porte counties in Indiana, we'd have Chicago's South Side and Gary in addition to Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw, and it would (most importantly) totally change the character of the state.

[J'aimeDesVilles]

Originally Posted by Sharks With Lasers

For Michigan, if you have to stay in the U.S. and use land borders only, it would have to be:

1. Lucas County, OH (Toledo)
2. St. Joseph County, IN (South Bend)
3. La Porte County, IN (Michigan City, start sneaking into the Chicago area)
4. Elkhart County, IN (not many other options)
5. Marionette County, WI (could actually help the Upper Peninsula a bunch)

Not that good of options. If we could go into Canada, I'd obviously swap the last three for Windsor, Serbia, and Sault St. Marie (Canada side.)

With water borders, Michigan could annex Cook County, IL, but I'm not sure it's worth it. We'd have to add Lake, Porter, and La Porte counties in Indiana, we'd have Chicago's South Side and Gary in addition to Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw, and it would (most importantly) totally change the character of the state.

Serbia? I hope you meant Sarnia. Otherwise that's quite an annexation!

I agree with your choices though. We definitely need to get Toledo back into Michigan where it belongs!