Random thoughts that have nothing to do with one another:
1. Regarding Census Bureau definitions. . .Putting Delaware in the South seems strange. If I had to choose, I might consider moving KY and WV into the Mid-West, and moving DE, MD, DC, and VA into the Northeast. Three reasons:
a. The South is overpopulated with respect to the other regions, so this would even out the
populations.
b. For some reason, I like having a straight-line northern boundary for the South at 36°30'.
(37° at Oklahoma.)
c. A number of major metropolitan areas lie along the Ohio River. It seems weird to split the
metros of Evansville, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Wheeling between two different regions.
2. In the mid-90's, Michael Barone proposed dividing the country politically into 6 regions, and his regions have stuck with me. Two decades later, they seem to hold up fairly well.
a. In NY and PA, he thought that NYC and Philadelphia belonged in the Northeast, but the
rest of those two states belonged in the upper Midwest. Since metro NYC makes up a
majority of New York, but Philadelphia makes up a minority of Pennsylvania, they're
allocated as shown in the map above.
b. In the Mississippi Valley, he thought the dividing line between north and south should be
I-70, which runs through the middle of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.
c. Total EV's are Northeast = 92; Southeast = 82; Upper Midwest = 111;
Lower Miss Valley = 63; Interior West = 112; and Pacific Coast = 78.
3. I also saw a map online about a month ago that I thought was worth sharing. The author divides North America into 11 historic cultures, which he attempts to describe. (The cultures are Yankeedom, New Netherland, The Midlands, Tidewater, Greater Appalachia, Deep South, El Norte, The Left Coast, The Far West, New France, and First Nation). He also provides a county-level map. For some reason, south Florida is not part of any of these regions.
The article is seen through the prism of communitarianism-versus-self-reliance and the prevalence of violence, and he spends much of the article discussing gun control and the death penalty.
http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2013/features/up-in-arms.html
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