Suggestion for Regional Boards

[NWI_Irish96]

Midwest - KY, OH, MI, IN, IL, WI.

No one in the Midwest thinks Kentucky is part of it and no one in Kentucky thinks they're in the Midwest. Everyone who lives in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa (at a minimum) says they live in the Midwest.

This isn't worth creating a board, but I believe this is one region, with absolutely no consideration given to state lines:

PA's southwestern quadrant, including Pittsburgh but excluding Harrisburg
The extreme western edge of Maryland
West Virginia excluding the DC-influenced area
Ohio's 6th congressional district using 2010-2020 lines (the part near West Virginia)
Kentucky east of Nashville's longitude, except the Cincinnati and Louisville areas belong across the river
Virginia's extreme southwestern corner (Roanoke is too far east)

Kentucky west of Nashville's longitude belongs in the Midwest.

This isn't quite perfect, e.g. Pittsburgh is split from Youngstown, but I feel it's good enough.

So both Kentucky's Cincinnati suburbs and the Louisville metro are are a mixed bag. You find some very Midwestern parts and some very Southern parts in both (Florence y'alll?). If I had to lump all of each area into one from a cultural standpoint, I'd put the Cincy area in the Midwest and the Louisville area in the South. If I'm looking at how to assign states to regional boards, I'd lump Kentucky with Indiana and Ohio because of the number of Ohio River bridge projects.

[JayhawkCO]

...no one in Kentucky thinks they're in the Midwest.

As I said earlier, you'd be surprised.

Maybe Paducah and surrounds. But does someone in Pikeville feel Midwestern?

[kphoger]

For the purposes of a regional board on this forum, the majority of the state should unquestionably fit into the category.

[Rothman]

...no one in Kentucky thinks they're in the Midwest.

As I said earlier, you'd be surprised.

Maybe Paducah and surrounds. But does someone in Pikeville feel Midwestern?

No.

Like I said, KY is in the South.

Any Kentuckian that claims that they're in the Midwest is trying to be better than they are (as my relatives would say about people who try to lose their accent...).

[JayhawkCO]

5: ND, SD, NE, KS, CO, MT, WY, UT

I appreciate the effort, but Utah and Kansas have zero in common other than voting patterns. 

[kphoger]

5: ND, SD, NE, KS, CO, MT, WY, UT

I appreciate the effort, but Utah and Kansas have zero in common other than voting patterns. 

Oh, wow, totally.  How Kansas and Utah could be considered the same region is beyond me...

[JayhawkCO]

Alright, my attempt at 9 boards.

New England - ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI
Mid-Atlantic - MD, DE, NY, NJ, PA, DC
Mid-South - WV, VA, KY, TN, NC, SC
South - FL, GA, AL, MS, LA
South Central - KS, MO, OK, TX, AR
Mid-East - OH, IN, IL, MI
Upper Midwest - MN, ND, SD, WI, IA, NE
Mountain West - ID, MT, WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ, NV
Pacific - WA, OR, CA, AK, HI

I know no one wants to separate OH and KY, but you have to draw a line somewhere.

[mrsman]

And with the Indiana stuff I have to navigate two different boards to see stuff going on in the state. The "Indiana Notes" is mainly just the northern half whereas the Southern Indiana projects don't have their own dedicated thread, and I don't know if anything happening in that part of the state should be posted to "Indiana Notes" or is someone going to get semantic about that.

I post general southern Ohio (well, mostly Cincinnati stuff) stuff into the "Ohio Notes"  thread in the Midwest board so all the general Ohio discussion can be in one place.

But yea, the Ohio Valley board is the root of my issues with how the regional boards are split here. Could get rid of it, as the only full state it have is Kentucky, but that's a lot of work for the mods to move threads.

I don't think it would be too much work to simply combine the Great Lakes and Ohio Vally boards into one.  No need to parse out the different threads.  Every existing thread would be part of the new Midwest board.

Midwest - KY, OH, MI, IN, IL, WI.

No one in the Midwest thinks Kentucky is part of it and no one in Kentucky thinks they're in the Midwest. Everyone who lives in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa (at a minimum) says they live in the Midwest.

There is truth to the above, but if we are talking of reconstructing the boards with as little work as possible, it would be easier to keep all KY threads in the Midwest (since they are already part of Ohio Valley board) and move out the threads for the partial states like NY, WV, and PA that don't quite fit.  SD, ND, and IA are already within Central States.  MN could go to either Midwest or Central states.

[Scott5114]

And with the Indiana stuff I have to navigate two different boards to see stuff going on in the state. The "Indiana Notes" is mainly just the northern half whereas the Southern Indiana projects don't have their own dedicated thread, and I don't know if anything happening in that part of the state should be posted to "Indiana Notes" or is someone going to get semantic about that.

I post general southern Ohio (well, mostly Cincinnati stuff) stuff into the "Ohio Notes"  thread in the Midwest board so all the general Ohio discussion can be in one place.

But yea, the Ohio Valley board is the root of my issues with how the regional boards are split here. Could get rid of it, as the only full state it have is Kentucky, but that's a lot of work for the mods to move threads.

On the other hand, it would give us the most bang for the buck in terms of eliminating split states. I think all we'd have to do is relocate the KY and PA threads, then it shouldn't be hard to mass-merge everything that's left to Midwest-Great Lakes.

I'm looking into this and will get back with y'all when I have more info.

[JoePCool14]

Alright, my attempt at 9 boards.

New England - ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI
Mid-Atlantic - MD, DE, NY, NJ, PA, DC
Mid-South - WV, VA, KY, TN, NC, SC
South - FL, GA, AL, MS, LA
South Central - KS, MO, OK, TX, AR
Mid-East - OH, IN, IL, MI
Upper Midwest - MN, ND, SD, WI, IA, NE
Mountain West - ID, MT, WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ, NV
Pacific - WA, OR, CA, AK, HI

I know no one wants to separate OH and KY, but you have to draw a line somewhere.

Ah yes, as an Illinoisan I love living in the Midwest Middle East. (Sometimes it feels like it, not gonna lie)

[Alps]

Alright, my attempt at 9 boards.

New England - ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI
Mid-Atlantic - MD, DE, NY, NJ, PA, DC
Mid-South - WV, VA, KY, TN, NC, SC
South - FL, GA, AL, MS, LA
South Central - KS, MO, OK, TX, AR
Mid-East - OH, IN, IL, MI
Upper Midwest - MN, ND, SD, WI, IA, NE
Mountain West - ID, MT, WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ, NV
Pacific - WA, OR, CA, AK, HI

I know no one wants to separate OH and KY, but you have to draw a line somewhere.

Cincinnati. Why I favor splitting states.

[JayhawkCO]

Alright, my attempt at 9 boards.

New England - ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI
Mid-Atlantic - MD, DE, NY, NJ, PA, DC
Mid-South - WV, VA, KY, TN, NC, SC
South - FL, GA, AL, MS, LA
South Central - KS, MO, OK, TX, AR
Mid-East - OH, IN, IL, MI
Upper Midwest - MN, ND, SD, WI, IA, NE
Mountain West - ID, MT, WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ, NV
Pacific - WA, OR, CA, AK, HI

I know no one wants to separate OH and KY, but you have to draw a line somewhere.

Cincinnati. Why I favor splitting states.

I mean, I get it. But there are large cities on the borders of many states. St. Louis means IL and MO can't be separate? Memphis means TN, AR, and MS all need to be together? Hell, NYC means NY, NJ, and CT have to be together?

[CoreySamson]

The only thing I would change outside of the changes mentioned in the last couple posts is that I would put all Louisiana posts into Mid-South and  all Mississippi and Tennessee posts into Southeast.

[hbelkins]

Give me one good reason why posts about Philadelphia, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Allentown, or even Harrisburg should be in an Ohio Valley board.

As for some of the debates about whether Kentucky is southern or midwestern, I don't classify myself as either. I consider myself an Appalachian. I have more in common with people in Binghamton, Pittsburgh, Charleston, Roanoke, and Asheville; than I do with people in Indianapolis, St. Louis, Des Moines, or Kansas City; or Jacksonville, Nashville, Birmingham, or Atlanta.

But having said that, I'd rather split Kentucky and Ohio than Kentucky and Tennessee.

[mrsman]

And with the Indiana stuff I have to navigate two different boards to see stuff going on in the state. The "Indiana Notes" is mainly just the northern half whereas the Southern Indiana projects don't have their own dedicated thread, and I don't know if anything happening in that part of the state should be posted to "Indiana Notes" or is someone going to get semantic about that.

I post general southern Ohio (well, mostly Cincinnati stuff) stuff into the "Ohio Notes"  thread in the Midwest board so all the general Ohio discussion can be in one place.

But yea, the Ohio Valley board is the root of my issues with how the regional boards are split here. Could get rid of it, as the only full state it have is Kentucky, but that's a lot of work for the mods to move threads.

On the other hand, it would give us the most bang for the buck in terms of eliminating split states. I think all we'd have to do is relocate the KY and PA threads, then it shouldn't be hard to mass-merge everything that's left to Midwest-Great Lakes.

I'm looking into this and will get back with y'all when I have more info.

Absolutely.

Merge Great Lakes and Ohio Valley into one board.

When that is done only the following states will still be split:

NY, PA, WV, MN, MS, TN, LA.

Even if nothing else is done, this one step of merging Ohio Valley and Great Lakes would be most helpful to clean up a lot of threads involving IL, IN, OH and to an extent WV and PA as well.  Of course, if the moderators have time to do a deeper dive to address the other split-states with further realignment, I believe that would be welcomed by many on the forum.

KY is not split.  It is currently in Ohio Valley and with a merged board, it would become part of Midwest.  There are some pros and cons to whether KY should be placed in Midwest or in Southeast.  It would seem leaving it in Midwest would mean the least amount of work to move threads, plus it keeps all of the Louisville and Cincinnatti metros within the same board.  On the other hand, most people do view KY as being more Southeast than Midwest, so perhaps it would be a better fit.

[I am actually agnostic regarding where to put KY, so long as the entire state is in one board and not split.]

Now let's consider the other split-states.

NY: Western NY would be part of Midwest and most of the rest of the state would be in Northeast.  IMO, it would be better to migrate any NY related threads to Northeast and keep the state together.

PA: Southwestern PA and Northwestern PA would be part of Midwest and most of the rest of the state would be in Northeast.  IMO, it would be better to migrate any PA related threads to Northeast and keep the state together.

WV:  Western WV would be part of Midwest and eastern WV would be in Mid-Atlantic.  IMO, it would be better to migrate any WV related threads to Mid-Atlantic and keep the state together.

MN: Western MN would be part of Central States and eastern MN would be in Midwest.  IMO, it would be better to migrate any MN related threads to Midwest and keep the state together. [On a map, it is probably a cleaner break to put MN in with the states that are directly south of it like IA and MO, but I have a feeling that most of the existing posts dealing with MN are probably already in Great Lakes because that's where the Twin Cities are, so fewer threads would need to be moved, if western MN threads were moved to Midwest.]

With regard to LA, MS, and TN, I agree with CoreySamson:

The only thing I would change outside of the changes mentioned in the last couple posts is that I would put all Louisiana posts into Mid-South and  all Mississippi and Tennessee posts into Southeast.

The only downside to this is spltting the Memphis metro area, but I don't consider that a big downside.  St. Louis is already split anyway, even in the current division of the boards, and it doesn't seem to be as big of a deal to split metro-areas as splitting states.  Areas of interest for the whole metro area can be posted in the board where the main city is located (Central states for St Louis and Southeastern states [if the above changes are made] for Memphis.  The only true border topics for each area deal with bridges over the Mississippi River, and those can be put into the boards where the main city is located.

[Scott5114]

Public comment is now open on the proposal to merge the Ohio Valley board here: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=32114.0

[on_wisconsin]

Any possibility of moving/ uniting western Minnesota with the eastern portion in the Midwest forum? Given that most western MN discussion tends to take place in the Midwest area anyways. Also, the last time there was an active thread that had a sole MN focus in Central was in early '21.

[mrsman]

Any possibility of moving/ uniting western Minnesota with the eastern portion in the Midwest forum? Given that most western MN discussion tends to take place in the Midwest area anyways. Also, the last time there was an active thread that had a sole MN focus in Central was in early '21.

It's definitely a good idea, and I'm sure the subject can be broached once the polling for merging Ohio Valley is completed.

As a de facto matter, you are correct that since there are so few posts about MN in Central States, MN is effectively within Great Lakes at the moment.  Whether something more official comes about remains to be seen.

[Roadgeekteen]

Any possibility of moving/ uniting western Minnesota with the eastern portion in the Midwest forum? Given that most western MN discussion tends to take place in the Midwest area anyways. Also, the last time there was an active thread that had a sole MN focus in Central was in early '21.

What is the line between eastern and western Minnesota anyway?

[Rothman]

Any possibility of moving/ uniting western Minnesota with the eastern portion in the Midwest forum? Given that most western MN discussion tends to take place in the Midwest area anyways. Also, the last time there was an active thread that had a sole MN focus in Central was in early '21.

What is the line between eastern and western Minnesota anyway?

Lake Wobegon

[froggie]

As a native, I would argue that there isn't really a western vs eastern MN distinction.  The main distinction is Metro vs Outstate.

I, for one, would be in favor of MN not being a split state.

[Rothman]

Split all the states.

[kphoger]

Let's just do them alphabetically:

1:  Alabama — California
2:  Colorado — Hawaii
3:  Idaho — Kansas
4:  Kentucky — Michigan
5:  Minnesota — Nevada
6:  New Hampshire — North Carolina
7:  North Dakota — Rhode Island
8:  South Carolina — Utah
9:  Vermont — Wyoming

DC goes in #4, because it's part of Maryland.

[Scott5114]

Ohio Valley Board (2009-2022)

...Anyway, if you all see any threads that I botched transferring, like if I put a Kentucky thread in Pacific Southwest or something stupid like that, let me know!

[LilianaUwU]

Ohio Valley Board (2009-2022)

...Anyway, if you all see any threads that I botched transferring, like if I put a Kentucky thread in Pacific Southwest or something stupid like that, let me know!

You're telling me Kentucky isn't next to California?!