Chattanoogans definitely consider themselves Tennesseans, not Georgians, and while growing up in Cleveland, a city of 40,000 just twenty miles northeast of it, I’d’ve never assumed anyone would have thought otherwise.
And to answer your question:
Growing up in Southeast Tennessee, I thought of Georgia and North Carolina as closely related areas, Alabama a little less so, and didn’t give any thought to the other five neighboring states, especially Arkansas, Virginia, and Missouri.
Living in Oregon now, I consider Washington and California as being related but not Idaho or Nevada.
In my home region of central Iowa, we’re equidistant from 6 bordering states. Nevertheless, we relate best North, toward Minnesota, and West, toward Nebraska and eastern South Dakota. Yes, North-West. Breaks the paradigm a bit. Why do I say so?
I think the northern and western orientation comes about because we’re primarily flatland, given over to row-crop, cattle and hog farming. The northern mindset is accented by the fact that the only really vibrant ethnicity left is Scandinavian; everybody else is highly assimilated. The western mindset can be partly explained by the rivalry between two Big 12 universities (Iowa State and Nebraska).
To the south and east, Iowa becomes more rolling and gently hilly. To the south, the Missouri (chiefly Anglo-Celtic) influence increases. To the east, Iowa becomes more industrialized, looking toward Chicago or Milwaukee, and the communities a bit older, with German and Slavic ethnicities more noticeable. (Iowa became a state in 1846, but the western two-thirds wasn’t incorporated till 1851, and settlement began later still.)
In my adopted home in Westchester County, towards the north of the greater NYC metroplex, the orientation is rigidly North-South. I’ll theorize on that a bit later.
When I lived in Houston, Denver, and LA, i didn’t feel like the area related to anywhere. The outer areas (Colorado Springs, Pasadena Pasadena, Galveston, etc…) related back the big city, of course. But it didn’t seem to happen in reverse.
Especially so in Houston, it seemed. It’s not like the rest of Texas. It’s on the Gulf, for one, so there’s a swamp feel to the land. It’s huge, enormous, gargantuan. So, the smal towns near it are rapidly becoming assimilated as suburbs. The city exists in it’s own big damn plastic bubble is how I see it. Also, despite the heat and the bugs, it was a great place to live. Any other Houstonias care to comment?
Ohio, if you ask me, is a bit complicated. The three main population centers are as follows, in decreasing populaiton order:
Northeast Ohio–Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown (sort of), etc.
Southwest Ohio–Cincinnati, Dayton
Central Ohio–Columbus
Within the state, from what I can tell, the southwest and northeast hardly relate to one another at all, but each relates somewhat to Columbus in the center. Columbus, however, aligns itself more with the northeast than the southwest (not in a political sense, though). If I had to guess, Columbus might relate better to Michigan than other states, maybe with help from the OSU-Michigan rivalry; and the northeast perhaps to Pennsylvania. I imagine northwest Ohio (Toledo, etc.) would also go in the Michigan category.
My part of the state, the southwest, may be divided somewhat. Here in Dayton, I can relate better to nearby Indiana than other states, if only because the rural areas there look the same as the rural areas here. I’m not really sure about Cincinnati. There are suburbs, of course, that are within Kentucky, but it may not be appropriate to say that Cincinnati relates best to Kentucky so much as it would be to say that northern Kentucky relates better to southwest Ohio than to the rest of Kentucky.
So I think in Ohio it can be north, south, east, or west, depending where you are. From my perspective, I relate to neighboring places in the following order: Cincinnati, Columbus, eastern Indiana, the rest of Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, eastern neighboring states.
When I was in early school age we lived in Prattville, which is now a bedroom community to Montgomery. We made fairly regular trips to Birmingham (100 miles north) to visit with an aunt and uncle. Somehow my orientation to other parts of Alabama seemed to be in a N-S direction. In later years after we moved to Montgomery, and made regular trips to Auburn (60 miles east) for football games, I began having some E-W feelings at least that far. Except for occasional trips to the beach (Destin, Gulf Shores and Panama City – 150 miles south) I had few reasons to relate to further south.
After moving to Tennessee in my college years, the relation to places further north was reduced and I began feeling that pull to the south more than anywhere else.
Local TV coverage tends to include North Alabama, Southern Kentucky and “Middle Tennessee” so the news I’m exposed to seems to cover this little area mostly, with just those “big stories” relating to other larger Tennessee cities (Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, etc.) getting any play.
The football rivalries are a factor, but my Auburn-Alabama feelings from childhood seem to have more influence than latter day UT-Vanderbilt. And I rarely pay much attention to college sports outside the SEC.
I still feel that the time zone differences keep me from relating as much to the Atlantic Coast states as I do to other Central Time states/areas. That helps me explain the weaker connection with Georgia. And I have failed to mention South Carolina, since it’s not an adjoining state and since I have only recently done any traveling there. Just Charleston and Myrtle Beach. Lovely places but just no special ties. Same can be said for Savannah.
I do. I like the part of Ohio where I’ve lived for the last 24+ years, (aside from our tropical summers), but I’ll always be a Michigander. (And I am quite as comfortable in Detroit, the Little Finger, the UP, or just about any place else in the state.)
When I actually lived in Michigan, I agree with zweisamkeit that I felt “closer” to Ontario than to Ohio or Indiana. But that is affected by the way that before UHF TV, Windsor provided our only “alternative” television, and, of course, CKLW, “The Big 8,” was a dominant Rock and Roll radio station in the 60s and CHYR, Leamington, provided another radio station in the 70s.
My understanding is that people on the West end of the state–Kalamazoo, Holland, St. Joseph, Benton Harbor–have more affinity with Chicago than with the rest of the state.
Based on the OP, I should have some affinity for Pennsylvania, but being raised in Michigan with lots of family roots in Indiana, I tend to look all the way across the state to the West rather than looking at the neighbor a 40 minute drive to the East.
Looking at some of the other responses, I suspect that this may be typical. As a really mobile society, Yanks tend to look back at our travels or origins rather than our current neighbors. In order to find “real” answers to the OP, you might need to limit responses to people who are at least second generation residents.
The defining feature of Colorado is the mountains, and for that reason people here relate to Wyoming (N) and New Mexico (S), much, much more than Utah (W) and Nebraska and Kansas (E).
Utah really only has a sliver of mountains on the eastern edge (excellent snow, though) and the rest is pretty much desert. Plus, it’s Utah. No state relates to Utah. There are a lot of people who have moved here from Kansas and Nebraska, but they are the only ones who have any affection for those places. Most Coloradoans regard KS and NB as flat, boring places that you have to drive through to get to someplace interesting.
People will spend a weekend fishing and camping in Wyoming or vacation in Yellowstone, and Santa Fe is regarded as a cool city, but I’ve never heard of anyone taking a vacation trip to Salt Lake City or Omaha.
I’ve lived in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and the states aren’t as different as people living in them like to think.
I grew up in a town in Iowa along the Mississippi River. It was about halfway down the state, so except for Illinois, all the other border states were a few hours’ drive away. As such, we probably related best to Illinois. I knew plenty of people who lived on one side of the river and worked on the other. We had school trips going to Chicago. My family was from Wisconsin, so I always thought that was special, but the other states just seemed to be destinations: Missouri had the St. Louis Arch, South Dakota has the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore, and Minnesota had the Twin Cities.
People from Wisconsin don’t seem to like any of their neighbors. The deride Illinois has home of the FIBs (probably because a lot of people from the Chicago area vacation in Wisconsin), people from Iowa are looked down as hicks (“what do they have besides corn?”), Minnesota has the Vikings and Gophers, and as for Michigan, “We should have the UP.”
Minnesota and Wisconsin are probably more alike than any of the other states in the upper Midwest, which is probably why people go to great pains to point out how different from each other they are.
Actually man, it was so windy, I left for Montana in '03.
I’s born and raised in New Jersey, went to school in Arizona, first job in North Dakota (a la lno), and have my current one in Montana.
There’s a definitive difference in people from New Jersey. The North Jersey types usually associate themselves with New York City, while the South Jersey types usually lean towards Philly. Me, being raised in the North, with my folks growing up in the South (where the grand-kin are), could never figure out where the hell I stand. But now, I currently feel more at home in North Dakota than anywhere else (even though I still consider myself wholly a Jersey Guy)–maybe it’s because all of my best friends were from Minot, and we’re all still keeping in touch. Montana’s great and all, but I’m never here: I just have an apartment to keep my stuff in while I’m gone. Arizona was great, but I haven’t been back to Prescott for any length of time in nigh on 5 1/2 years. The people in AZ and ND are great (too many hippies in MT), and it’s a laid back lifestyle–more than I can say for North Jersey.
Tripler
But if it’s all the same, I’m a Devil Worshipper. Since October 5, 1982. I’ve even got the pennant to prove it.
Orange County (“OC”) relates to LA but tries to distinguish itself, although it’s hard to draw a big distinction given the lack of geographic barriers
Inland Empire relates to LA, OC, and San Diego (“SD”) because nobody who lives in the Inland Empire actually works there
Ventura County relates to LA economically but likes the mountains separating them
SD does everything in its power NOT to relate to LA but doesn’t mind relating to Inland Empire. SD also seems to relate better to Tijuana, BC, Mexico than to LA.
NorCal begrudgingly relates to SoCal but SoCal doesn’t seem to relate to NorCal
Sacramento Valley tries not to relate to San Joaquin Valley
Central Coast seems to keep to itself for fear of being run over by LA or Bay Area
Mt. Shasta area seems to relate better to southern Oregon than to the rest of California , and is especially hostile to SoCal
LA relates somewhat to Las Vegas, Nevada and NorCal relates to Tahoe and Reno for vice
In North Carolina, especially in the Greensboro area, it is really hard to tell. Sometimes people relate to Charlotte, but overall we kind of do our own thing, in my experience. Most people were born, raised, and will die here, with little intentions of mingling elsewhere (SE, the hickier part, YMMV).
But, I can offer one bit of info: IME southern Pittsburgh around Elizabeth and Bunola relates to Morgantown a whole lot. It is very common for those cats to pull for WVU over Pitt and all that.
Austin, Tx. here, born in Galveston and raised in Houston.
By my Texas Official Travel Map, Orange, on the Louisiana state line, is 262 miles away; Texarkana (yes, at Arkansas) is 340 miles; It’s 283 miles to Wichita Falls, up near Oklahoma, and El Paso, on the New Mexico border, is 573 miles away. I guess that I feel the closest relationship to Oklahoma, but that’s because an uncle’s family lives in Lawton and a good friend grew up near Altus.
Family ties aside, I think of Louisiana as being a next door neigbor to Houston, but as a kid I though of Louisiana as “that long bridge over the swamp.” I’d guess that Louisiana is “close” to Houston, in that a lot of oilfield and offshore work is done on both sides of the state line.
On the whole, apart from Dallas/OKC and El Paso (which is so far out West that its residents consider themselves a land apart from the rest of Texas) there just isn’t that much business or shopping done across state borders.
As a transplant to the NoVa/DC area I must say that DC people most certainly do not relate to anyone outside of the DC border. In fact they are actively discourteous about it. When we tell a DCer that we live in Virginia their reaction is usually somewhere along the lines of “oh I’m sorry” or “that’s rough” or “why?”.
Yeah…
It’s really rude and quite annoying. Not to say that all DCers are rude but this has happened on several occasions.