Pittsburgh and the rest of the Northeast (York, Washington: transplants, neighborhood)

[ny789987]

Originally Posted by SammyKhalifa

It's absolutely Northern. So is West Virginia. In fact, West Virginia owes its very existence to the fact that it did NOT consider itself part of the South.

I think the population of West Virginia, as a whole, did want to be part of the South. It was the politicians in the state capitol of Wheeling, who decided to move to the North.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by ny789987

I think the population of West Virginia, as a whole, did want to be part of the South. It was the politicians in the state capitol of Wheeling, who decided to move to the North.

Yeah, I'll buy that. Wheeling really had it going back then. Part of it also though was that much of the (more pro-Northern) population was up here.

[LIRefugee]

Pittsburgh is.

[Katarina Witt]

When I was a kid in the 50s we thought W VA was the south. It's true, Appalachian has a southern connotation (though yes, I know that's not true) and nothing is more Appalachian than W VA.

[tabinekotaro]

Originally Posted by steindle

What was true in 1863 is not necessarily the case today. I would be curious whether most West Virginians consider themselves "Northern" or "Southern" today. I would guess that the majority (especially outside of the Panhandle) would say Southern.

I'm not sure what the answer is. I think most people I know would vote neither, and say "Appalachian" or "West Virginian." I'm a regional/cultural outsider in WV, but as a whole the feeling I get from the state is one that is neither Northern nor Southern, but distinctly its own. It also varies so much by region--some parts of the state identify culturally with Morgantown & Pittsburgh, others with Charleston. Still others are closer to the DC metro. But nowhere in the state do I feel like I'm in the Capital-S-South.

Growing up in the Detroit/Toledo area, we definitely viewed Pittsburgh as a Northeastern industrial city. It has some Appalachian cultural influence and some rust belt grit, but it's still in the Northeast.

[MikeNigh]

I think a big issue is that people do not properly respect the small towns of appalachian pennsylvania. Small town folk of pennsylvanian appalachia are not the same as small town folk of mississippi. Last I knew CMU was the best software engineering college in the WORLD. How is it that it beats stanford in the heart of silicon valley? It's surely not because it's in the center of a "redneck wasteland".

[Buckeye Burgher]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Except that it's not true. Appalachia is rural, so the context will always be rural.

It's like saying Cleveland is the Manhattan of corn fields.

I will issue a challenge. Let me blindfold you and take you to either the backside of
Mount Washington or a holler in central West Virginia. When I take the blindfold off,
I dare you to tell me where you are.

[Buckeye Burgher]

Originally Posted by tabinekotaro

Growing up in the Detroit/Toledo area, we definitely viewed Pittsburgh as a Northeastern industrial city. It has some Appalachian cultural influence and some rust belt grit, but it's still in the Northeast.

Yep. When I lived in that part of the world the opinion was near unanimous that
Pittsburgh was "a very East Coast kind of town".

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Katiana

When I was a kid in the 50s we thought W VA was the south. It's true, Appalachian has a southern connotation (though yes, I know that's not true) and nothing is more Appalachian than W VA.

That's cuz you grew up in Beaver Falls, Sewickley was South to you Hillbillies.

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by ny789987

I think the population of West Virginia, as a whole, did want to be part of the South. It was the politicians in the state capitol of Wheeling, who decided to move to the North.

I think that while most of the western half of Virginia did consider itself southern, two things led to the breakup. One, is that there had long been friction between the Richmond/Tidewater elites, whose interests were dominated by the plantation economy, and the related slavery issue, and the westerners, who resented the power of Richmond, and who felt that their concerns were constantly ignored. The second is, that while the people in western Virginia considered themselves southerners, many did not want to see the country broken up, especially over slavery, which was not nearly as important to them as it was to the easterners. This was basically true all along the southern Appalachians, where pro Union sentiment tended to run much higher than it did in the lowlands of each state.