Modest, Surprising, or Otherwise Indistinguishable Borders

[cpzilliacus]

I find it difficult to believe any reasonable border agent would make an incident out of it.

I'm not sure if the phrases "reasonable" and "border agent" belong in the same sentence together.
https://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20030216/news/302169975

A new president needs to sharply order the U.S. Border Patrol to cut wasteful crap like the above out.

[1995hoo]

I find it difficult to believe any reasonable border agent would make an incident out of it.

I'm not sure if the phrases "reasonable" and "border agent" belong in the same sentence together.
https://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20030216/news/302169975

A new president needs to sharply order the U.S. Border Patrol to cut wasteful crap like the above out.

You're Biden your time waiting for the next election?

[briantroutman]

I much preferred border crossings in Europe. When we took a train from Stockholm to Oslo a couple of years ago, our entry into Norway consisted of nothing more than the conductor announcing "Welcome to Norway".

Europe hasn't always been like that.

[cpzilliacus]

I find it difficult to believe any reasonable border agent would make an incident out of it.

I'm not sure if the phrases "reasonable" and "border agent" belong in the same sentence together.
https://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20030216/news/302169975

A new president needs to sharply order the U.S. Border Patrol to cut wasteful crap like the above out.

You're Biden your time waiting for the next election?

Waiting for any mature adult. 

[kphoger]

Waiting for any mature adult. 

In the race for President?  You might have to wait quite a while.

[hbelkins]

I find it difficult to believe any reasonable border agent would make an incident out of it.

I'm not sure if the phrases "reasonable" and "border agent" belong in the same sentence together.
https://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20030216/news/302169975

A new president needs to sharply order the U.S. Border Patrol to cut wasteful crap like the above out.

After reading down into the story, I looked back up at the date. This is an ancient story; surely things in that location aren't as goofed up as they were then.

[cpzilliacus]

I find it difficult to believe any reasonable border agent would make an incident out of it.

I'm not sure if the phrases "reasonable" and "border agent" belong in the same sentence together.
https://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20030216/news/302169975

A new president needs to sharply order the U.S. Border Patrol to cut wasteful crap like the above out.

After reading down into the story, I looked back up at the date. This is an ancient story; surely things in that location aren't as goofed up as they were then.

Atlas Obscura ran an article in 2016 about Estcourt Station, seems things had not changed much there: The Incredible Complications of Living Atop the U.S.-Canada Border

[ErmineNotyours]

I find it difficult to believe any reasonable border agent would make an incident out of it.

I'm not sure if the phrases "reasonable" and "border agent" belong in the same sentence together.
https://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20030216/news/302169975

A new president needs to sharply order the U.S. Border Patrol to cut wasteful crap like the above out.

After reading down into the story, I looked back up at the date. This is an ancient story; surely things in that location aren't as goofed up as they were then.

Google shows that gas station as "permanently closed".

[vdeane]

Figures.  It's not legally possible to use it outside of the hours the border station is open, which is no doubt not good for profits, and with non-essential travel across the border banned, it was probably enough to push it under.  Customs probably said "good riddance".

[mrose]

I lived in Janesville, WI for many years and occasionally went to Beloit for various things. I always thought it was odd how Beloit (Wis) just kinda morphed into South Beloit (Illinois) without much fanfare.

I imaging the state border running through Kansas City is a bit weird like that too, based on google maps images I've seen.

[mgk920]

I lived in Janesville, WI for many years and occasionally went to Beloit for various things. I always thought it was odd how Beloit (Wis) just kinda morphed into South Beloit (Illinois) without much fanfare.

I imaging the state border running through Kansas City is a bit weird like that too, based on google maps images I've seen.

In the downtown Beloit area, the McD's is in Beloit, WI while the grocery store that is next door to the south is in South Beloit, IL.  The line is not marked and runs through the grocery store's parking lot.

Mike

[RobbieL2415]

Take a look at the SE border of RI and MA

[NWI_Irish96]

I lived in Janesville, WI for many years and occasionally went to Beloit for various things. I always thought it was odd how Beloit (Wis) just kinda morphed into South Beloit (Illinois) without much fanfare.

I imaging the state border running through Kansas City is a bit weird like that too, based on google maps images I've seen.

In the downtown Beloit area, the McD's is in Beloit, WI while the grocery store that is next door to the south is in South Beloit, IL.  The line is not marked and runs through the grocery store's parking lot.

Mike

The hospital where my wife works has most of the parking lot in a different state.

[CtrlAltDel]

I know the OP said to not to look at Europe, but I do think that this monstrosity of borders, enclaves, and enclaves within enclaves between Belgium and the Netherlands is nonetheless worthy of mention.



Getting back to the US, none of the borders in the area near the Downstream Casino in Oklahoma/ Kansas/Missouri are particularly well marked.

[mgk920]

Good thing that those two countries are *at peace*!



Anyways, the Nevada-Utah state line at Wendover, UT/West Wendover, NV is right tight to two casino resort buildings that are on either side of old US 40, just off of I-80, less than one meter inside of Nevada.  Their concourses, entrance canopies and main parking facilities are in Utah.

There was a serious proposal a few years ago to redraw the state line there to transfer the Wendover, UT area to Nevada and the Utah state legislature was on board with the idea.  Wendover is a very isolated and economically depressed part of the state and Congress would almost certainly have followed suit (see: Constitution of the United States of America, Article. IV., Section. 3. for the details of this process).  HOWEVER, the Nevada state legislature was opposed.  The casino industry throws a LOT of lobbying weight around in Carson City and the operators of those two resorts were in no mood to see the possibility of more resorts being developed between them and the Salt Lake City metro area.

Mike

[GaryV]

How about borders between tribal and non-tribal lands?  In St. Ignace MI, the border was so indistinguishable that they built the casino on the wrong side of the line.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/14927042/ns/us_news-weird_news/t/casino-has-everything-except-gambling/#.Xr6MLmhKiUk

[Flint1979]

How about borders between tribal and non-tribal lands?  In St. Ignace MI, the border was so indistinguishable that they built the casino on the wrong side of the line.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/14927042/ns/us_news-weird_news/t/casino-has-everything-except-gambling/#.Xr6MLmhKiUk

I remember that. Not far from Castle Rock.

[1995hoo]

Figures.  It's not legally possible to use it outside of the hours the border station is open, which is no doubt not good for profits, and with non-essential travel across the border banned, it was probably enough to push it under.  Customs probably said "good riddance".

If you look at the article cpzilliacus linked, a Canadian customs agent said the Americans living in Estcourt Station are required to get home by a certain time on Friday and then are not permitted to leave home again until Monday because they're not allowed to go out and cross the border during the hours when the Customs station is closed. That's ridiculous. It makes you wonder why they can't do something practical like have a videophone system comparable to the one used for the Northeast Angle in Minnesota.

[oscar]

The hospital where my wife works has most of the parking lot in a different state.

The hospital for Bristol VA/TN once was on the state line, with an 80-bed wing in Virginia and the 337 beds in the rest of the hospital in Tennessee. It later moved to a new facility entirely in Tennessee, with only the Tennessee-licensed beds, surrendering its license for the 80 beds that had been in Virginia. Probably not the dominant reason for the move (the new facility is newer and has better Interstate access), but it was a PITA for the hospital to comply with two states' regulations.

At one point, Bristol also had a nursing home bisected by the state line. I don't know if it's still there.

[zzcarp]

Figures.  It's not legally possible to use it outside of the hours the border station is open, which is no doubt not good for profits, and with non-essential travel across the border banned, it was probably enough to push it under.  Customs probably said "good riddance".

If you look at the article cpzilliacus linked, a Canadian customs agent said the Americans living in Estcourt Station are required to get home by a certain time on Friday and then are not permitted to leave home again until Monday because they're not allowed to go out and cross the border during the hours when the Customs station is closed. That's ridiculous. It makes you wonder why they can't do something practical like have a videophone system comparable to the one used for the Northeast Angle in Minnesota.

We have exactly zero logic when dealing with the Canadian border. US Customs and Border Patrol have to justify their existence and overreact. Our policy should be to have a Schengen-style agreement to allow noncommercial traffic and people to traverse between the two countries unmolested. Unfortunately, our political will (of both parties, and now during COVID19 even Canada) seems to be moving to tighter controls, not looser.

[lstone19]

Figures.  It's not legally possible to use it outside of the hours the border station is open, which is no doubt not good for profits, and with non-essential travel across the border banned, it was probably enough to push it under.  Customs probably said "good riddance".

If you look at the article cpzilliacus linked, a Canadian customs agent said the Americans living in Estcourt Station are required to get home by a certain time on Friday and then are not permitted to leave home again until Monday because they're not allowed to go out and cross the border during the hours when the Customs station is closed. That's ridiculous. It makes you wonder why they can't do something practical like have a videophone system comparable to the one used for the Northeast Angle in Minnesota.

We have exactly zero logic when dealing with the Canadian border. US Customs and Border Patrol have to justify their existence and overreact. Our policy should be to have a Schengen-style agreement to allow noncommercial traffic and people to traverse between the two countries unmolested. Unfortunately, our political will (of both parties, and now during COVID19 even Canada) seems to be moving to tighter controls, not looser.

I agree although if there can't be a Schengen-type agreement for all in Canada and the U.S., there should be at least some special agreements for these border areas where communities span the border which allows them to go back and forth without checking in provided they don't leave a defined area around the community. Maybe that way, people living on Canusa St. could talk to their neighbors across the street without breaking the law.

In the case of Estcourt, as I see it on Google Earth, the U.S. border station is 1/2 mile away from that gas station. So to go that station, someone would need to check in with US CBP, then return to Canada (and check in with CBSA?), go the gas station, and then return to Canada again (and check in with CBSA a 2nd time?).

It's not as if they don't already do similar. Having worked for an airline, I am aware that our customer service employees routinely "cross the border" to greet an international arrival without they themselves having to formally re-enter the U.S.. And at airports with exit controls (true in the Schengen area as well as others), they work the departure without being considered to have left even though they're working with passengers who have officially left the country (and as part of my job, I made some foreign station visits where as part of observing operations, would be in the non-Schengen area of the airport without having officially left and then re-entering the Schengen area).

But for some reason, the idea of treating these split communities as one community with free passage goes nowhere in the U.S. and Canada (probably because so few people relative to the entire population are affected it's not worth it to a politician).

[Hwy 61 Revisited]

This is not about highways.

[Brandon]

This is not about highways.

And your problem with this is....

[Hwy 61 Revisited]

This is not about highways.

And your problem with this is....

Doesn't belong in General Highway Talk. And even if it were about highways in the beginning, it has since strayed into international politics.

[vdeane]

Another area where this is an issue is the Akwesasne Reservation, which is bisected by the border.  There's a peninsula and a pseudo-peninsula in Québec where the border is freely open due to not having access to the rest of Canada, but the same is not true of Cornwall Island in Ontario.  Additionally, due to a dispute between the residents and CBSA, the Canadian customs was moved to the mainland, but people still have to report (even though a treaty is supposed to guarantee their right to travel freely).  This means that someone driving from the New York side to Cornwall Island has to go all the way to the mainland, pay the $3 bridge toll, clear Canadian customs, turn around, pay the $3 bridge toll again, and then finally go to their destination.

I know the OP said to not to look at Europe, but I do think that this monstrosity of borders, enclaves, and enclaves within enclaves between Belgium and the Netherlands is nonetheless worthy of mention.

I can only imagine how bad that would be if those countries took a US-style approach to border security.  It really only works because they have no border controls between each other.