Merge Southwest and Rocky Mountains?

[usends]

I'd suggest grouping Idaho with OR/WA, because there are four areas of significant interstate commerce between ID and WA/OR:

• Boise's "Treasure Valley" extends into the Ontario OR area.
• Lewiston ID / Clarkston WA is a single statistical area.
• Moscow ID / Pullman WA.
• Coeur d'Alene ID / Spokane WA.

Contrast that with Idaho's connections to other mountain states:

• the Cache Valley straddles the ID/UT border.
• Victor/Driggs ID / Jackson WY.

Other than those (which aren't that significant anyway), there's really nothing else of note.

While it's true that there are "natural" divisions within some individual states, most non-locals are unaware of the distinction and/or unfamiliar with where the boundary lies.  So if we split a state into multiple boards, we'll probably have more instances of people posting to the wrong board.

[formulanone]

While it's true that there are "natural" divisions within some individual states, most non-locals are unaware of the distinction and/or unfamiliar with where the boundary lies.  So if we split a state into multiple boards, we'll probably have more instances of people posting to the wrong board.

Fully agreed with your points. If this was a board about geology or topography, I would support dividing up parts of states. And I'm not 100% sure what constitutes which region or another, and resolving personal and/or regional identification is not within the scope of AARoads, either.

As much of the conversation on these boards deals with "state roads", keeping entire states together in the same sub-forum makes a lot more sense to me, and I would imagine, to those outside our membership that are searching for information on the web.

Visibly and geographically, it would seem to make sense to put Idaho in with the Northwest, and merge as necessary. So, I support the staff's choice of forum restructuring.

[agentsteel53]

I'm not 100% sure what constitutes which region or another

agreed.  I'm usually pretty good with the geography, but where does "Southwest PA" begin?  Is Pittsburgh included, or no?  etc etc.

I say we just have the districts consist solely of entire states.

[Grzrd]

splitting Louisiana into SE Louisiana on the Southeast board and Western Louisiana on the Mid-South board can be justified to me

I say we just have the districts consist solely of entire states.

After reconsidering the above previous comment I posted about Louisiana, agreed as to having "entire states".  With that in mind, I think Idaho should follow Texas as the second "re-unified" state in the Forum and should be placed in Northwest, basically to try and even up posting traffic among boards.

[texaskdog]

Hard to said. Skyscraperpage organized the threads by the following http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/forumdisplay.php?f=22
Midwest
Moutain West
Northeast
Pacific West
Southeast
Southwest
Texas & Southcentral

They classifield Texas in a separate section.  As for West and East Texas, in my mind, the natural border, would be I-35 or the Balcones Escarpment.

Or as we call them "West Austin" and "East Austin".  Don't live east of 35 if you want to live in a safe place  ha ha.

[xonhulu]

Let me add my voice to the chorus of "each state on only one board."  Much less confusing.

[J N Winkler]

Idaho was one of the three states in Bushlandia, so it just simply takes me aback how many of the comments in this thread are in favor of putting it in with the Northwest.

[agentsteel53]

Idaho was one of the three states in Bushlandia, so it just simply takes me aback how many of the comments in this thread are in favor of putting it in with the Northwest.

there's more to the northwest than Portland, OR.  I don't know what the county-by-county breakdown was of "Bushlandia", but I get the idea that a lot of eastern OR and WA counties would've qualified* for the label.

(*I believe the criterion is "more than 50% approval rate when GWB's national approval rate was at its lowest".)

[corco]

Idaho was one of the three states in Bushlandia, so it just simply takes me aback how many of the comments in this thread are in favor of putting it in with the Northwest.

I think you're mixing up Pacific Northwest with Northwest. Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon are pretty hardcore republican, pockets of Spokane excepted.

Honestly, outside of the urban areas western Washington/Oregon are pretty conservative too, but Seattle/Portland/Eugene dominate so much of the population.

[Scott5114]

As voting winds up, looks like consensus heavily favors merging Rocky Mountains and Southwest, while moving Idaho to the Northwest forum.

If you'd like to suggest any other changes, feel free to start a new thread in this section. Thanks for your input!