New Orleans to Shreveport?
Thank you! I live here and in spite of all of New York’s problems (the cities and the hinterlands), it IS mostly beautiful. I have to agree, though, once you venture out of the suburbs, it can look like you’re in Detroit (inner city) or Appalachia (trailers and shacks with lawns strewn with gross plastic kids toys).
When we were staying at Disney World, we were in the Polynesian resort, ate in restaurants every day, you know - lived it up. Then we went to visit a friend of modest means in Orlando, and it was shocking how humdrum and ordinary it was.
The actual area may be too small to meet the OP’s requirements, but the area around Camden, NJ is astonishingly different from Camden itself. Go two towns over and you’re in predominantly-white suburbs with excellent schools, extremely low crime rates, big old houses on leafy streets with happy little Wonderbread ads playing out all over. Go into the city of Camden itself and you’re in one of the poorest, most blighted cities in the country. It’s pretty jarring.
Illinois is a counted as a solid blue state in all recent national elections, but that’s almost entirely the influence of the Chicago area. Downstate is very conservative and the agriculture industry rules the rest of the state. There is a mutual disdain between Chicagoans and “downstaters”.
For consideration: 100 miles north of the glitz and glamor of Vegas puts you in the middle of just about nowhere. You’ll be lucky to find anything. Culture? Well, there is “EddieWorld” in Beatty, if that counts…
That is a very big cultural divide within Louisiana but the distance between them is over 300 miles. I have lived in or near both of them and I did get culture shock moving between them.
dangermom and athelas have explained it pretty well. I’d like to add that that generally, the CA coast is culturally very diverse, more cosmopolitan, more liberal. The inland is more… insular. I grew up on the coast (incidentally, the SF Bay Area, where you said you want to end up), and I’ve never found a lack of cultural offerings, entertainment, food, education, etc. People from all over the map, three huge Japanese markets ten minutes from where I live, a lot of Indian markets, lots of Vietnamese restaurants and bakeries, many cultural festivals taking place throughout the year, Chinese/Japanese/Korean schools, etc. In schools and in the workplace, you will find people from all over the map; sometimes, you can’t even pick out a majority group :D. There is also a large gay scene going on in West Hollywood on the southern California coast and San Francisco on the Northern California coast. Can’t say the same going inland. You run smack dab into white America of the more provincial variety.
There’s a lot more to demographics than politics, but it’s interesting to look at the purple America presidential election maps where the shade of color indicates how the vote was divided. It looks to me like one of the sharpest contrasts between neighboring jurisdictions is between the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota (Democratic) and Sheridan County, Nebraska (Republican).
“Illinois is two states: Chicago and Illinois. Do not confuse them.” However, districts all over the state are represented by Democrats, and Republicans hold only a third (6/19) of them.
Actually, I’d disagree with that. There’s a huge amount of Mexican/Latino culture going on all over the Central Valley (though not so much north of Sacramento). Lots of black people in many places. There are Hmong communities, Punjabi communities, all sorts of things. It isn’t as mixed as many places on the coast–few places in the world are–but it isn’t “provincial white America” either.
Also, they grow all your food, so don’t complain.
That’s nothing. The REAL divide is St. Louis-Kansas City (and Columbia) vs. everyone else in the state. In Missouri, we aren’t talking driving 100 miles to find a cultural divide. More like 30.
For me, as a native of that fine state, it breaks down to those who say “Missouree” and those who say “Missouruh”. (Well, not exactly, but close enough.)
Which also happens to be pretty much St. Louis-Kansas City vs. everyone else.
It would take a while to explain all of the stereotypes based on different states and, even then, they are just stereotypes. Alabama (and Mississippi) often get picked as the poster children of everything that was ever wrong with the South. However, Alabama also hosts some of the top scientists in the world to work on the U.S. space program and much of the space shuttle was designed there. Alabama also has a gorgeous Gulf Coast if you know where to look and I will take those beaches any day over anything California offers.
That isn’t to say anything bad about California. It is almost a country in its own right. The U.S. is very state based by design so there is always rivalry and poking fun at other states going on.
Most large (and many smaller) American cities now have an enclave of recent immigrants from some primitive, pre-industrial part of the world. You have people settled alongside typically American communities who believe in witchcraft, animal sacrifice, the inherent superiority of men over women, the “evil spirit” theory of disease (as opposed to germs), child brides, polygamy, you name it. Any place that exists, the cultural divide far exceeds the difference between a Hollywood liberal and his Mexican cleaning lady.
Yes, I am aware that some fringe groups of Americans believe in polygamy and other stuff, but they are, after all, fringe groups.
Yes, the inland covers a large area, and there are probably pockets of diverse communities. I should probably specify that it is my own personal experience with a startling, cultural divide. Going from the SF Bay Area to a specific city several miles inland that looked very much the picture of white America. Having to endure the unabashed stares of people who acted as if they’ve never seen an Asian before (was with my gay friend, and people around him acted as if they were looking at an alien instead of a semi-flamboyantly gay person). Change of pace indeed. No complaining, just found it very very startling.
Fifty miles WNW of Philly puts you squarely into Amish country!
Heck, I live 30 miles outside of New Orleans and it is a culture shock to visit the city.
I have visited Shreveport but never lived there. It has a small-town grown up feel.