States where people have a high affinity or pride for the counties they live in

[Roadgeekteen]

After the standoff in Watauga County in which left two deputies dead, a lot of locals could be spotted with "#WataugaStrong" stickers and other merchandise on their cars. Still see quite a bit of it to this day. Plenty of locals sport stickers for the only high school in the county as well. I guess in a county that is so chock-full of different types of outsiders, locals have to find some way to stand out amongst the crowd.

I'm guessing that Watauga has a unique culture compared to the surrounding counties, being a college town and a light blue county in a sea of dark red.

[index]

After the standoff in Watauga County in which left two deputies dead, a lot of locals could be spotted with "#WataugaStrong" stickers and other merchandise on their cars. Still see quite a bit of it to this day. Plenty of locals sport stickers for the only high school in the county as well. I guess in a county that is so chock-full of different types of outsiders, locals have to find some way to stand out amongst the crowd.

I'm guessing that Watauga has a unique culture compared to the surrounding counties, being a college town and a light blue county in a sea of dark red.

The culture of Watauga's locals is quite red and rural outside of the locals that run the towns/resorts/university. They are essentially two separate worlds. Without the college, it would probably be something like 35-40% D. Many of the locals are pretty fierce NIMBYs and oppose the development and reputation that academia and tourism brings to what was once a "quiet mountain town". I think that perception is probably just warped by nostalgia the locals have for how things used to be when they grew up. Appalachian State and tourism have been a thing for essentially as long as Boone has been a thing. Some of the anger towards growth and housing issues is misguided, a lot of people blame the university for accepting so many students when in reality it's the UNC system in Raleigh pushing for the growth, without really understanding the needs and capacity of a town so far away.

A good example that highlights this stuff is the construction of the locally infamous apartment building, The Standard. It is a generic five-over-one that sticks out like a sore thumb and is a microcosm of the notorious housing challenges in the region, with student housing being ridiculously overpriced and housing for non-traditional students, locals, and professionals only being an afterthought or being snapped up by vacationers from Florida and AirBnBs. It clashes with the character of the town and feels like something you might see in Raleigh or Charlotte. It was a catalyst for the town's controversial Boone 2030 plan being repealed and I believe a few people lost their town council seats over the building.

[Rothman]

In Florida we do have regards to counties.

In my former state of NJ we didn't have as municipalities prevailed. Even on highway signs County lines were not marked, though municipal boundaries are.

I know a guy from NJ that pointed out that the Garden State Parkway toll plazas are by county and his family navigated through NJ using them.  Not county pride, I suppose, but thought that was interesting.

[webny99]

By my estimation, there's not a ton of county pride in Upstate NY, as we normally talk and associate more in terms of cities/suburbs and towns, not counties.

However, in the Rochester area at least, Monroe County is somewhat synonymous with "Rochester metro area", so the suburbs in Ontario County (especially Victor, and more recently Farmington) are seen as distinct and usually very desirable; they're more exurban in nature, they're set in the rolling hills on the fringes of the Finger Lakes, they've got lower property taxes and good schools, basically a small step down from Pittsford where anyone with kids and money to spend goes to raise their family.

Wayne County, on the other hand, isn't seen so desirably. The county line serves as the imaginary boundary between the upscale suburbs on the Monroe County side and the flat farmland and hicksvilles of rednecks on the Wayne County side. It's not quite that stark in reality, but the perception is definitely there.

The other three counties in the MSA - Genesee, Livingston, and Yates - are really too distant from the core urbanized area to have a strong association with Monroe County one way or another, although Yates County is known regionally as "Amish Country" thanks to the heavy Amish/Mennonite presence in and around Penn Yan.

[Scott5114]

I'm not sure there's a lot of "county pride" in Nevada but there's definitely antipathy for one.  I often see bumper stickers reading "Clark County is NOT the Real Nevada".  That's a mix of the glitzy Las Vegas ambience and politics (Clark County votes heavily Democratic, Washoe is about even and every other county is heavily Republican).

I might make my own bumper sticker if I ever move there:

Clark County It's the Whole Point of Nevada

(and then I'd probably get my car keyed if I ever went to Reno)
(or maybe in Clark County if someone who hates puns runs across it)