# Cities on Borders **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 31, 2009, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418 "2009-03-31T13:17:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/41 "2009-03-31T17:56:03Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Portland, Oregon is quite close to the Washington border. (The town on the Washington side is Vancouver.) The two states have very different tax structures. Oregon has a state income tax and no sales tax; Washington is the other way around. You could save a fortune by living on the Washington side and making any big purchases from stores in Oregon. I don’t know the details, but I imagine the states have measures in place to prevent this, especially on big-ticket, traceable items like cars. Oh yeah. I’ve been at the department of licensing a few times when someone who’d purchased a car in Oregon was trying to register it in Washington. Imagine the looks on their faces when they get asked for $1000+ in taxes to register their new car. Some of them just walk away. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/42 "2009-03-31T17:57:45Z")
There is a half way interesting border issue at the border of California and Oregon. The locals of far northern California and southern Oregon counties felt neglected by their state capitals and a weak secessionist movement started to form the state of Jefferson. > **[Jefferson State Farms](https://jeffersonstate.com/)** > > Jefferson State Farms specializes in greenhouse-grown plants. We aim to produce quality Oregon Cannabis harvests that reflect a genuine regard for the planet’s natural resources. > **[Jefferson State](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Jefferson)** > > Jefferson State may refer to: ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/43 "2009-03-31T18:11:14Z")
I recall Amarillo, Texas, lying in two counties: One wet, one dry. Texarkana is not, regardless of what CCR would have you think “just a mile from Louisiana.” It’s a good 30 miles to there. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/44 "2009-03-31T18:56:11Z")
How come Detroit and Buffalo are on the list? Am I missing something? What identity crisis do these cities share with Windsor and Toronto? And Chicago? Huh? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/45 "2009-03-31T19:04:34Z")
Quantico, Virginia, [is certainly in an odd situation](http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=10137). ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/46 "2009-03-31T19:16:30Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Thanks, **Aesiron** , for clearing up the Georgia “land grab” thing and for explaining how the portion of 'Nooga south of downtown is not really all that Georgia after all. > > BTW, just now on a recorded Antiques Roadshow program, somebody had a Currier and Ives print of Lookout Mountain that looked completely bogus to me. My mental image of the mountain is that it’s part of a wall of high ground rising from the river. This painting looked like a stand-alone peak pretty well surrounded by flat lands. > > Which version fits your view of it? I work about five miles from the Ridge Cut near downtown Chattanooga. You can clearly see a wall of mountains to the south as you drive along, and none really stand out as seperate from the others, so it was a bit of creative license. > [@Zeldar](#): > > I didn’t go looking for this. Honest. It showed up on a search for businesses on the border. Maybe it’s what we have been discussing. In any case: > > [http://www.wdef.com/news/georgia\_vs\_tennessee\_border\_dispute\_continues/02/2008](http://www.wdef.com/news/georgia_vs_tennessee_border_dispute_continues/02/2008) Yeah, that’s exactly what we’re discussing and, as the councilman said, it will be a fight if they ever seriously try it. I’m annoyed just by the idea of it. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/47 "2009-03-31T19:16:48Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > psst - **Poly** - see post 17. 😉 :o I missed that – thanks!! “The oldest city in the world” – Dolni Vestonice[sup]1[/sup], Czech Republic – is in a small tail of Moravia that runs southward along the Danube. It’s in the Czech Republic – but a few miles east is Slovakia, across the river to the west is Austria – and the “tail” peters out into more of Slovakia not many miles south of DV. 1 So called because there was a dateable settlement there 30,000 years ago, one of the first villages known. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/48 "2009-03-31T19:20:07Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > How come Detroit and Buffalo are on the list? Am I missing something? What identity crisis do these cities share with Windsor and Toronto? And Chicago? > > Huh? Detroit is of course across the river from Windsor, as you noted. Buffalo is across the river from Fort Erie, many of whose inhabitants worked and/or shopped in the much larger U.S. city. While we’re doing that, worth adding is Niagara Falls, New York and Ontario, two more sister cities sharing a name across a river. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/49 "2009-03-31T19:21:34Z")
The most prominent Canadian metropolitan area divided by a border is Ottawa, Ontario, and Gatineau, Quebec, on opposite sides of the Ottawa River. Together they’re considered the National Capital Region, although that isn’t actually an administrative division like D.C., for example. The federal bureaucracy has large facilities in both cities, and Gatineau transit connects into Ottawa. Also, since the drinking age in Quebec is 18 instead of 19, lots of young people go to Gatineau to party. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/50 "2009-03-31T19:49:45Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Portland, Oregon is quite close to the Washington border. (The town on the Washington side is Vancouver.) The two states have very different tax structures. Oregon has a state income tax and no sales tax; Washington is the other way around. You could save a fortune by living on the Washington side and making any big purchases from stores in Oregon. I don’t know the details, but I imagine the states have measures in place to prevent this, especially on big-ticket, traceable items like cars. If you live in WA and buy something in Oregon you are [legally required](http://dor.wa.gov/content/findtaxesandrates/usetax/) to report it as a use tax. Almost no one I know does this and it isn’t really tracked. However, big-ticket, traceable items are another story - they’ve been cracking down. Cars, for example, require a bill of sale upon registration, and when they see “zero” you’ll be required to pay a use tax equal to the sales tax in your county. Also, I have never paid sales tax in WA as long as I show the business my OR driver’s license. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/51 "2009-03-31T21:21:39Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Not really, although there’s plenty of satellite towns within a short commute. (Relatives of mine live right on the border - literally, the end of their garden is part of it - and cross into the Republic when they nip to the local shop for a pint of milk.) Ah right, I’m not too familiar with Derry but passing through lately I knew the border wasn’t too far away. Everyone on this side of the border nips up for pints of stronger stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/52 "2009-04-01T03:56:54Z")
In Australia, one of the most potentially significant cross-border issues arises at Cooloongatta/Tweed Heads, at least so far as the population involved is concerned. Both cities are at the southern end of the Gold Coast, which is effectively a large beach tourist resort which is mostly on the south coast of Queensland. The southernmost part of it in Queensland finishes at Coolangatta, but a little bit of it trickles over the border into Tweed Heads (which is in northern New South Wales). But for signs and subtleties, you wouldn’t know you had changed states, or even cities. They are effectively one conglomerate. Notwithstanding that Queensland and NSW and north and south of one another, in summer they have different time zones - NSW has summertime daylight saving and Queensland does not. This attracts partygoers every New Years Eve - you get TWO midnights for the price of one!! Other differences are historical. For decades, Queensland was more conservative, NSW more liberal, and the laws reflected that. A consequence was that gambling on poker machines (slots) was allowed in NSW but not in Qld. And a consequence of that was the creation of freakin’ huge casino clubs just on the NSW side of the border to accommodate gamblers from Qld. Money just firehosed over the border. The rules have changed now, but the Pokie Palaces are still there. I guess they built up sufficient momentum and market share to remain viable. Another historical legacy is sex shops, which were once banned in Qld, and consequently flourished at the border. There is now no greater density of them in Tweed Heads than anywhere else, so far as I can presently tell, but I am not a customer so I don’t pay that much attention. The only other distinction of present significance relates to the football team followed. The dominant football code in the area is rugby league. The Queensland team (known to its detractors as the Cane Toads) wears maroon, as inevitably do its huge armies of supporters. The NSW team (known to its detractors as the Cockroaches) wears blue as does its army. You can tell you have crossed the border by the significant change in sartorial choice among those (and they are very common) given to wearing football merchandise. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/53 "2009-04-01T04:02:38Z")
El Paso/Juarez has been interesting over the years because while the drinking age is 21 in all US states, it’s still only 18 in Mexico, assuming they actually bother to check your ID. Back in Prohibition days, too, those with easy access to the city had a grand time. The same with San Diego/Tijuana, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Batman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@The\_Batman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Batman)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/54 "2009-04-01T04:02:54Z")
There are many cities along the US-Mexico border that are almost fused into one another: If you ever travel on land from Rosarito, Mexico to La Jolla, CA, you’ll notice that it is non-stop urban development. The fact that so many cities along the US border are so closely packed is becoming a major problem nowadays for obvious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/55 "2009-04-01T04:10:43Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > El Paso/Juarez has been interesting over the years because while the drinking age is 21 in all US states, it’s still only 18 in Mexico, assuming they actually bother to check your ID. Back in Prohibition days, too, those with easy access to the city had a grand time. The same with San Diego/Tijuana, I guess. Agh! I had two teenage girls growing up in El Paso. And yes–they didn’t bother to check ids. I’m just lucky they survived to become productive members of society.😃 But I just wonder how it is now Juarez has gotten so dangerous.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/56 "2009-04-02T01:20:02Z")
Out of respect for the folk that have crawled out of the woodwork to mention The Dillard House, tomorrow is my wedding anniversary and we are going there. I’ve never been. While my address is Sky Valley, Dillard is just a little ways down the mountain, I pass the Dillard House at least twice a day. (And yes, I go in and out of NC and GA the whole way) ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/57 "2009-04-02T02:37:55Z")
I think when the suburbs are in another state it isn’t so much an issue as when you have two cities of similar size or so. For instance, Mobile Alabama is in the same TV market at Pensacola, FL. Even though Mobile is twice as big, some TV stations are in Pensecola and some in Alabama. In Southern Illinois you have ABC in IL, NBC in KY (Puducah) and CBS in Cape Girardeau, MO which gives THREE states in a TV market with each main channel coming from a different area. So that is a bigger problem than say NJ which constantly feels left out of TV as it basically is one “suburb” for NYC or Philadelphia, where TV is concerned. Yeah I now about WGEM but that is a tiny little thing 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/58 "2009-04-03T07:09:39Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > The most prominent Canadian metropolitan area divided by a border is Ottawa, Ontario, and Gatineau, Quebec, on opposite sides of the Ottawa River. Together they’re considered the National Capital Region, although that isn’t actually an administrative division like D.C., for example. The federal bureaucracy has large facilities in both cities, and Gatineau transit connects into Ottawa. Also, since the drinking age in Quebec is 18 instead of 19, lots of young people go to Gatineau to party. Some OC Transpo buses also connect into Gatineau. What’s interesting is that both cities are quite culturally different, despite being so close geographically and economically. Despite the presence of relatively large numbers of French speakers in Ottawa and English speakers in Gatineau, the former is an English-speaking city and the latter a French-speaking city. A large number of people never cross the river, except maybe for what their job requires. Even to many French-speaking Ottawans, Gatineau is a foreign place. In other words, Ottawa is thoroughly an Ontario city, and Gatineau thoroughly a Quebec city, despite the strong links they have to each other. ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/59 "2009-04-03T22:20:52Z")
> [@hellpaso](#): > > In the Rio Grande Valley in Texas there are a bunch of cities that run right into each other–for instance, Mission, McAllen, Edinburg, and Pharr. It can be a matter of what side of the street you happen to be on to determine what city you’re in. As far as being on an international border, there is a feeling that even in the state of Texas, we are considered to be living in northern Mexico. Of course, that’s true as well of the U.S. government. When I lived in El Paso, we felt more akin to New Mexico as far as culture. There was a huge difference, and seems to continue to be (thankfully), between Juarez and El Paso. It always irritates me that so many times on things like the weather channel, they show a map of Texas and it has El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley lopped off. Drive east from El Paso for a couple of hours and you come to a border checkpoint in the middle of nowhere. I was surprised, as I thought I was already in the U.S., but apparently the government has abandoned the whole border region to Mexico. I came from CA through AZ and NM, but despite my CA plates I was asked if I was coming from Mexico. I asked why they don’t do this at the actual border. The guy just said he gets asked that a lot, but didn’t answer. He seemed to be wondering about it himself. Surreal. El Paso is the only place I’ve ever been that needs to post signs pointing out that horse-drawn vehicles don’t belong on the Interstate highway along with the cars going 70 mph. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418/60 "2009-04-03T22:36:41Z")
> [@Rich\_Mann](#): > > El Paso is the only place I’ve ever been that needs to post signs pointing out that horse-drawn vehicles don’t belong on the Interstate highway along with the cars going 70 mph. FWIW, you can find similar signs in London (joining the M11 from the North Circular, for anyone wondering). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-on-borders/491418.md?page=4)