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I think California is a better answer for the West. It’s almost like a greatest hits compilation of every subregion in the western US.
PNW - temperate rainforests, volcanic peaks, foggy rugged coastline
Southwest - deserts, grasslands, warm to hot weather, pine forests
Rocky Mountain states - analogous to the Sierra Nevada region
Colorado Plateau (red rock country) - while I don’t think California has any visual equivalent s to this, it does share in common the high concentration of National Park units and large amounts of sparsely populated land.
The Bay Area and greater LA are obviously their own things, but you can pick out elements of those cities in pretty much every western US city.
The western US is far too large and diverse to be represented by a single state. You need to break it into at least 2 separate categories, maybe more: Southwest and North West, and perhaps even Mountain West.
The western US is far too large and diverse to be represented by a single state. You need to break it into at least 2 separate categories, maybe more: Southwest and North West, and perhaps even Mountain West.
The problem with the west is California. It tends to be a region on its own.
The same goes for Texas -- not Plains or Southern or Western
The Southwest would easily be New Mexico.
The Northwest would be Oregon.
Intermountain West is likely Colorado.
I would pick Kansas for a Plains state.
South would probably be Georgia.
The Northeast would be New York
The Midwest is toughest for me -- coming from there. It is commonly thought of as a monotonous fly-over region, but it is not that at all. It butts up against the Appalachians and the Ozarks. It has the Great Lakes and thousands of lakes in Minnesota. There are dense forests and farmland, huge rivers and small rivers, and great cities. I am tempted to go with Michigan -- but could be swayed toward Ohio or Wisconsin. Chicago almost eclipses Illinois. Iowa is too agricultural. Missouri is influenced by the plains and south and river culture more than other Midwest states.
The problem with the west is California. It tends to be a region on its own.
The same goes for Texas -- not Plains or Southern or Western
The Southwest would easily be New Mexico.
The Northwest would be Oregon.
Intermountain West is likely Colorado.
I would pick Kansas for a Plains state.
South would probably be Georgia.
The Northeast would be New York
The Midwest is toughest for me -- coming from there. It is commonly thought of as a monotonous fly-over region, but it is not that at all. It butts up against the Appalachians and the Ozarks. It has the Great Lakes and thousands of lakes in Minnesota. There are dense forests and farmland, huge rivers and small rivers, and great cities. I am tempted to go with Michigan -- but could be swayed toward Ohio or Wisconsin. Chicago almost eclipses Illinois. Iowa is too agricultural. Missouri is influenced by the plains and south and river culture more than other Midwest states.
Outside the small states of the Eastern US, the problem is that each state is large enough to be unique in its own way. Idaho (my home state) is also a region on its own: Part PNW, part Northern Rockies, part Great Basin. It's a mix of craggy snow capped mountains with alpine lakes, high desert, buttes, rolling farmland (the Palouse), rugged canyon lands, amazing waterfalls, tons of rivers. The following are all photos of Idaho.
It's not really clear how to classify the state in such simplistic terms.
Georgia for the south. Home of the civil rights movement, has its own collard green, most economically powerful city of the “pure” South, big into college football, rich traditional southern coastal cities with weeping willows and oaks to Appalachians with snow and loblollies and orange soil in between. Has swampy areas too. All the soul food one can ask for. Home of Coca Cola and Waffle House which both are staples. Sweet tea can be relied on here. BBQ is still a thing too.
If the Carolinas weren’t split then maybe but Charleston and like the Appalachians are like in two different states. NC beach culture is just not the southern beaches people think of stereotypically. Georgia lacks the gulf, but the gulf states don’t have the piedmont.
New England: Massachusetts
Mid-Atlantic: Maryland
South: Georgia (mix of New South and Old South)
Midwest: Ohio
Plains: Nebraska
West: Arizona (I always picture Monument Valley when I think of the West.)
PNW: Washington
1) Old industrial city with great bones and great legacy institutions
2) A sort of sunbelt-ish city that is growing and sort of considered cool, or at the very least desperate to tell you how cool they are
3) A cool rivertown that anchors this sort of Appalachia, sort of southern, sort of Midwest region
4) A nice blend of college football fanatiscm and pro sports franchises that range from well supported to total apathy
5) Desperate to tell you they are not in the Midwest as soon as you call them Midwestern - "We're not associated with those Midwesterners, we're actually more like New York"
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