Outlier regions in your state that are the least similar to most of the state

[GaryV]

I'd say that for New York, rural Western New York west of Buffalo is it. More Midwest Influences there, they say pop and such. Really Buffalo is not at all like NYC and even different from Albany.

No, NYC/LI is the only correct answer for NY state. 

But that's most of the states population...

But it's not "most" of the state's land area.

So...Staten Island is the real outlier.

Staten Island is part of NYC.

Mike

Staten Island is an outlier within an outlier.

[Rothman]

I'd say that for New York, rural Western New York west of Buffalo is it. More Midwest Influences there, they say pop and such. Really Buffalo is not at all like NYC and even different from Albany.

No, NYC/LI is the only correct answer for NY state. 

But that's most of the states population...

But it's not "most" of the state's land area.

So...Staten Island is the real outlier.

Staten Island is part of NYC.

Mike

Staten Island is an outlier within an outlier.

Glad someone caught onto that.

[bing101]

Take your pick in California:

-  State of Jefferson region (shared with southern Oregon).
-  The western Sierra Nevada foothills.
-  The eastern Sierra Nevada basins in Mono County and Owens Valley.
-  The Ag Belt in San Joaquin Valley.

All are dissimilar from the big metropolitan areas in terms of economics and political leanings.

The Jefferson one most notably because they don't consider themselves as Northern California given that whenever that's mentioned it's either Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose areas that get mentioned as Northern California than Redding or Chico.

[bing101]

Take your pick in California:

-  State of Jefferson region (shared with southern Oregon).
-  The western Sierra Nevada foothills.
-  The eastern Sierra Nevada basins in Mono County and Owens Valley.
-  The Ag Belt in San Joaquin Valley.

All are dissimilar from the big metropolitan areas in terms of economics and political leanings.

Ah, but what about which hockey teams they root for?

Every now and then I hear about the Fresno Monsters.  None of them have much of a sports following aside from football and maybe baseball.

With San Joaquin the favored NFL team by far is the Rams.  There seems to be some sort of perception that the Rams are a blue collar fanbase whereas the 49ers are not.

The only NorCal Rivalry in sports left is in the NBA where Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors are the teams representing the region and yes it leans more on Warriors given their history in the past decade and both teams have new stadiums made in the past 10 years. A's and Raiders left Oakland for Las Vegas (Note A's are currently at Rivercats stadium while their Stadium at Tropicana is under construction). Not sure who Jefferson or San Joaquin Valley supports in the NBA, or MLB given how things are changing in recent years over 

[Dough4872]

Pennsylvania has a lot of diversity across the state, but western Pennsylvania is much different than the eastern part of the state. Pittsburgh feels like a whole different state from Philadelphia

[MikieTimT]

Northwest Arkansas, which is obvious to most.

Since the majority of folks here aren't from Arkansas.  Unlike me.

[roadman65]

California I'm sure is mentioned as its obvious.  Northern California is very dissimilar to Souther Cal. 

I find in Florida the Panhandle dont seem the same as the Peninsula.  It has its own way of life. Small courthouses and more open land plus different lingo in speech. The Peninsula is more diverse and has more commercial beach cities and is more to the stereotype of what Florida is rumored to be as tropical tourist areas, retirement communities,  lakes and streams for fishing, and many subdivisions.   

Sure the Panhandle has rivers, lakes, and streams, but not seen the way the Peninsula ones are.  Going up to the Panhandle is like Southern Alabama and SW Georgia in character.

[kphoger]

Northwest Arkansas, which is obvious to most.

Since the majority of folks here aren't from Arkansas.  Unlike me.

It's the only part of Arkansas I've been to.  So, to me, that's what Arkansas is like.

[gonealookin]

Regarding Nevada:

We have 16 counties plus one independent city.

In 2024, 14 of the 17 voted for Trump/Vance over Harris/Walz by at least a 2:1 margin.  Several were on the order of 4:1 or 5:1, and Eureka County was almost 9:1.

Those 14 counties constitute approximately 87% of the total land area of the state (95,725/110,122 square miles).

So by that measure, Clark County, Washoe County and Carson City are the outliers.

I was thinking about this today, reading a story about a new county government facility (courts, sheriff's office, some other services) that's under construction in Dayton, east of Carson City in Lyon County.  The new facility has officially been named the "Charles J. Kirk Lyon County Government Complex".  The main Lyon County courthouse in Yerington, the county seat, is the "Donald J. Trump Justice Complex".  I don't know how many other of those 14 counties have done renamings along those lines, but there are probably a few.

[SSOWorld]

Superior, WI identifies as Minnesota.

[Rothman]

Superior, WI identifies as Minnesota.

Having lived there, absolutely not.  The Packer-Vikings divide is only one of the major differences between the Twin Ports.

[achilles765]

For my home state of Louisiana, I think of North LA—pretty much everything north of LA 10 as being the black sheep of the state. It's culturally and historically much more like southern Arkansas than what most people think of as Louisiana.

[bugo]

The main Lyon County courthouse in Yerington, the county seat, is the "Donald J. Trump Justice Complex". 

And they say it isn't a cult.

[Scott5114]

The main Lyon County courthouse in Yerington, the county seat, is the "Donald J. Trump Justice Complex".

And they say it isn't a cult.

Yerington is weird. If you can ignore the mountains on the horizon it looks like someone cut out a slice of western Kansas and dumped it in the middle of the desert.

[Road Hog]

Northwest Arkansas, which is obvious to most.

Since the majority of folks here aren't from Arkansas.  Unlike me.

NWA for decades and decades was isolated from the rest of the state because of the Boston Mountains, and thus grew an identity that was more aligned with the Midwest. It wasn't until 1999 that it got connected to the south by a freeway with a tunnel.

NWA's politics were always more Midwestern Republican when the rest of the state was yellow-dog Democrat. The only reason the university was put in Fayetteville was to get it out of the malaria-infested rest of the state in 1871.

It's just a different critter, and to me refreshingly so, although massive growth has created problems (and some power struggles with Little Rock).

[Flint1979]

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a lot like the Nothern Lower Peninsula just with a lot less population. The difference with the Nothern L.P. and Southern L.P. is that the Southern L.P. is a lot more populated. About half the state is a forest and you don't even have to go Up North to go the lake, there are about 400 lakes in Oakland County alone. But in answering the question I'd say the Upper Peninsula is the answer.

Probably not quite as controversial of a topic as "How do you define Upstate NY," but I've often wondered what marks the dividing line for "Up North" in Michigan.

It really depends on who you ask. I have heard people from the Detroit area claim that the Zilwaukee Bridge is the start of Up North which I disagree with because I don't consider Saginaw or Bay City to be Up North. If you ask me though I would say the dividing line is M-55, there is a row of county lines that go straight across the peninsula just south of M-55 and I would say that is about the line. Then I have also heard people say that only the U.P. is Up North which of course I disagree with as well. Up North in Michigan is more of a place than a direction.

[kphoger]

Apparently, "NWA" is more narrowly defined than I thought.  I've only been to Eureka Springs, and that town was definitely not Midwestern or Conservative.  I thought that counted as northwest Arkansas...

[Rothman]

Apparently, "NWA" is more narrowly defined than I thought.  I've only been to Eureka Springs, and that town was definitely not Midwestern or Conservative.  I thought that counted as northwest Arkansas...

Eureka Springs...not...conservative?

[kphoger]

Eureka Springs...not...conservative?

Correct.  It's well known in the area for being LGBT-friendly, and more than twice as many people in the precinct voted for Biden as for Trump in 2020.

[Rothman]

Eureka Springs...not...conservative?

Correct.  It's well known in the area for being LGBT-friendly, and more than twice as many people in the precinct voted for Biden as for Trump in 2020.

Kind of sad when being LGBT-friendly is treated as an extraordinary characteristic.

[kphoger]

Eureka Springs...not...conservative?

Correct.  It's well known in the area for being LGBT-friendly, and more than twice as many people in the precinct voted for Biden as for Trump in 2020.

Kind of sad when being LGBT-friendly is treated as an extraordinary characteristic.

Well, I was actually saying that Eureka Springs was unlike how people had characterized northwest Arkansas—after it had already been established that northwest Arkansas is the outlier region in the state.  Taking this to its logical conclusion, then, I must assume that the whole rest of Arkansas is a bastion of leftist liberalism.

Wait, I think that reasoning went sideways somewhere along the way...

[Scott5114]

Kind of sad when being LGBT-friendly is treated as an extraordinary characteristic.

It kind of is an extraordinary characteristic for towns of less than 10,000, isn't it?

[Rothman]

Kind of sad when being LGBT-friendly is treated as an extraordinary characteristic.

It kind of is an extraordinary characteristic for towns of less than 10,000, isn't it?

*shrug*

Not sure.

[kphoger]

You think Rothman ever spends any time in towns of less than 10,000 inhabitants?  He only eats at places that have received Michelin stars.  So, maybe Washington VA, and that's it?  He never condescends to spend time with the riffraff, so he wouldn't know.

[hotdogPi]

You think Rothman ever spends any time in towns of less than 10,000 inhabitants?  He only eats at places that have received Michelin stars.  So, maybe Washington VA, and that's it?  He never condescends to spend time with the riffraff, so he wouldn't know.

New England (especially the western portion) is full of towns of under 10,000 that vote blue.