Sylvania

[Sol]

Made some edits to Gill County!

[Sol]

Magdala County

Magdala County is a large suburban county southwest of Tanagreen. It's similar to Gill County in many respects; it's a large suburban county located in the city's favored western suburbs. However, it's even more affluent (and a good bit whiter) than Gill County, as the Southwest has been the direction where money has traditionally flowed in greater Tanagreen. Consequently, it's been more Republican, only flipping in 2016.

An important concept in understanding Magdala County is "the Golden Belt," a term referring to a small state highway and the radiating favored quarter which runs along it. Areas along the Golden Belt, which here are roughly the city of Magdala, Meridian Park, Country Club, the Strong Lake area, and Sioux Twp. and environs, are going to be much more affluent and desirable, and basically everything within this belt is going to be cartoonishly rich.



Town names:

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a. Lowell Lake
b. Sellers Lake
c. South Navarre
d. Meridian Park
e. Country Club
f. Highland Terrace
g. St. Augustine
h. Huron
i. Skegness
j. Huron Twp.
k. Eastlake
l. Windsor Meadows
m. Strong Lake
n. Butts
o. Turkington
p. Palenee
q. Georgetown
r. Sioux Harbour
s. Northern Lights
t. Little Chapel
u. North Fordstown
v. Val Gris

Magdala has an even worse case of boroughitis than Gill County, and also has two cities which have notably annexed massive chunks, in Magdala and Fordstown. Since state law strictly prohibits non-contiguous municipalities, these annexations forced splits of local government which led to even more little towns.



Northern Magdala

The city of Magdala is one of the most populous suburbs in the Tanagreen metro area due to its annexations, but the traditional downtown of the city is in the north along the lake, which is the area under discussion here. Magdala was founded as the county seat of Magdala County in 1860, but became a town of some size when much of the surrounding township was developed into a large streetcar suburb in the early 20th century by the Windham Land Company. Magdala was designed to cater to the wealthy from the very beginning, and it has stayed that way, as an extremely affluent area. Politically, northern Magdala is traditionally rock-ribbed Republican, but the 21st century has seen erosion, with Obama winning a few precincts in 2008 and Clinton and Biden both narrowly winning this area. However, there are still some Republican pockets, much like the Grosse Pointes.

Northeastern Magdala County

This area, which includes Meridian Park, Country Club, Highland Terrace, St. Augustine, Huron, Skegness, and adjacent areas of Magdala city, is a belt of overwhelmingly white upper-middle class and upper class postwar suburbs. It's the base of the Democratic party in the county, with some of these suburbs having voted Democratic as early as the Clinton administration. Think the parents from Get Out.

Northwestern Magdala County

This area, which includes Lowell, Notts Twp., Butts Twp., Turkington, Palenee, Lowell Lake, Sellers Lake, South Navarre, and Val Gris, plus adjacent areas of Magdala, is more postwar suburbs, albeit of a more recent vintage, i.e. 70s and 80s, but with some newer exurbs built in too, especially in western areas. The area is a little less filthy rich than the places we've seen so far, in that it's middle-class to upper middle class. It's a bit like Southern Gill County, with some lakeside communities less connected to highway networks. It's mostly Republican still.

Strong Lake Area

This area, which includes Eastlake, Windsor Meadows, Strong Lake, and adjacent parts of Magdala and Fordstown, is a newer built up suburban area, verging on exurbs. It's very affluent and very white and it's all in the Golden Belt, but tends to self-select for a more conservative crowd--think the couple from the Queen of Versailles. It remains Republican, though more middle-class Eastlake flipped in 2020.

Fordstown area

This area, which includes most of Fordstown, North Fordstown, and Huron Twp., is a suburban area, mostly built up in the 60s and 70s. It's the second least affluent part of the county, and is resolutely middle class. It's a bit more like Noyon County than other parts of Magdala, with more Catholics. The area is also increasingly attractive to upwardly mobile immigrant communities, with large and growing Filipino, Korean, and Mexican populations. As of the 2020 census, Fordstown is only plurality white. This part of the county has been Democratic since the Bush administration (much like north-central Gill County, which is a similar area), but has seen more tepid swings in the Trump era.

Southern Magdala County

This area, which has Sioux Twp., Georgetown, Sioux Harbor, Rodos Twp., Cail Twp., Little Chapel, Lake Quirit Twp., Wittenburg Twp., Vermont Twp., La Salle, and Northern Lights, is the exurban to rural fringe of Magdala County. The western portion is a bit of an extension of Islandia County and lies along the Golden Belt, so it has a lot of little cabins for city dwelllers to live in and has some mansions along waterways. The eastern bit is more rural. Overall it's quite Republican, though Democrats broke through in 2020 in Georgetown and Sioux Harbor thanks to WFH.

[Sol]

This is outdated, see the updated version below.

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

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Some notes on the Tanagreen Area Railway Authority (TARA). Further notes on commuter rail coming soon!

TARA is the Tanagreen subway system, servicing the city of Tanagreen and its suburbs.

TARA has ninety-seven stations and four lines, with one branch/express line. It uses a mixture of underground, surface level, and elevated lines. It services the city of Tanagreen and suburban communities in Gill, Orange, Johnson, St. Francis, Magdala and Noyon Counties. It’s a space age subway system, similar to BART, the DC Metro, or MARTA. It has a long history of underfunding and poor decision making (which is visibly reflected in some of the lines), but the system has received an injection of funding and reform in recent years which has led to dramatic improvement.

Here’s a stylized map of the lines:

And here’s the actual map, showing where the trains are in reality:


Here’s a brief rundown on the system:
- The Red Line is the busiest line, running from Flynndale in the northwest, through downtown and down to Country Club in the southwest. Most of the system is underground, with the exception of the portion west of Lakeview, which is a mixture of surface-level and elevated (NIMBYs in Magdala County insisted it be underground). In Gill County, the line runs down the middle of I-98. The Red Line was the first line opened in 1972. It initially ran between Aurora and Minnewag stations, but has been gradually expanded over the years, with more and more stations being built, especially in Gill County. The Orange Line is a branch line, which links the Red Line to the airport at Grant Avenue and which runs an express service along the northern part of the Red Line during rush hour.
- The Yellow Line is the second busiest service. It’s notable as the only line which doesn’t move through the central transportation tunnel, instead running southeast-northwest from Lake Tanagreen to the central suburbs of St. Francis County. It opened in 1974, running initially between Expo and Oboshing Transportation Center. A major expansion, serving suburbs in St. Francis County, opened in 1996; this segment is interlined with and complements commuter rail serving this area. The portion east of Lakeside-OU is surface level.
- The Green Line is the third busiest line, opening in 1980. Unlike other lines, it has not expanded since opening, in part because it serves a large area, running from Leaping Deer Mall in St. Francis County to Pynchon in Noyon County. East of the Stowe River, the Green Line is elevated, while the rest is underground.
- The Blue Line receives the least traffic by far. Most of it runs on an old freight rail line through an industrial area along the Stowe River, which the city purchased for cheap in the early 90s. The city has attempted to use it as an engine of waterfront revival, which has been very weak; the Blue Line still runs directly along the freight rail lines on one side for much of the way.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Nice work!

[Joseph Cao]

It's ba-a-ack!

[Sol]

Orange and Wanacha Counties

I’m covering these both here because they’re similar in a lot of ways.

As alluded to in earlier posts, both Orange and Wanacha Counties were heavily settled by Dutch Reformed immigrants, who came in through Pinkerton in the mid-1800s and went from Verendrye westward along the railway. Both however are thoroughly suburbanized, though to varying degrees; Orange County is more inner and mid suburbia, while Wanacha is heavier on outer suburbs and exurbs. Both are oriented around the central spine of I-98 and the Dakota-Northlands Commuter Rail line, which both run along the Stowe River (which is the border between the two) in Orange County.



Town names:

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a. Narragansett
b. Bidoty
c. Massette
d. Brushfield
e. Navy Lake
f. Londonderry
g. Red Fields
h. Harlem Park
i. Harlem
j. Forest Ridge
k. Roche Dentaire
l. Taunton City
m. South Bend
n. North Orangeport
o. Hartsock
p. Gates of the River
q. Foggy Lake
r. Knowles
s. Quiatouaong
t. Pershing
u. Mexican Lake

Utica

Utica is the most distinct section of Orange County. To understand why, we have to go back to the 1800s, when Utica, East Aurora, and Aurora were dominated by Little Utica Creek, a small river which drained into Lake Tanagreen and which anchored a substantial wetland. The divide in drainage between the Little Utica swamps and the Stowe River was very low, and in even light flooding the Stowe would overflow its banks, diverting some flow into Lake Tanagreen. Consequently, the swamp was a bit of a barrier to northwesterly development in the early history of Tanagreen.


Little Utica Creek, with the surrounding swamp in green.

Beginning in the late 1880s and into the 1890s, the swamp was drained, levees were built, and the Little Utica Creek was forced to a mostly straight channel which was linked to the Stowe through a carefully regulated canal. The lower lying portions were developed into Aurora and southern East Aurora, but the northern part, which remained especially susceptible to flooding, became mostly low-value industrial, with many rail yards, dumps, etc.

In the postwar era, this vast industrial section of Utica Township and far NW Tanagreen was the nearest large tract of underdeveloped land to the city–which meant that the city’s planners decided to make it the spot for Tanagreen’s airport, which had outgrown its earlier airfield in Annandale. This, combined with the mushrooming postwar suburban boom, transformed what was a rural community into a massive suburb with immediate importance to logistics and business. As a result, the area saw massive growth, with the development of a substantial edge city in southwestern Utica near the airport. Along with the substantial commercial and office development in Bois Brulee, the inner northeastern suburbs of Tanagreen have become almost like a second employment center for the metro.


Utica and surroundings after the canal and airport. Tanagreen Airport is in yellow.

Utica’s residential areas are plurality Asian-American, mostly Chinese, as part of an arc of Chinese-American suburban settlement running along I-298 between Utica and Flynndale. Utica’s Chinese community skews working class; as immigrants have gotten more money they typically move westward.

Harlem area

The towns of former Harlem township (Harlem Park, Harlem, Roche Dentaire, and Forest Ridge) are a bit distinct, so they bear separating out. This area is some of the oldest suburbia in the county, with postwar suburbs mixed in with some interwar developments too. The Harlem area is the wealthiest part of the county (though incomes are pretty high overall), and it looks a bit like Boise, etc. in Gill County, with large numbers of affluent, educated Irish-Americans. However, it has also become an increasing center for Chinese-American immigration, with Harlem and Forest Ridge being majority Asian and Harlem Park being plurality.

The Stowe Valley

The Stowe Valley towns of Orange County (Clift, Orangeport, Rapides, and South Bend) are a belt of upper middle-class postwar suburbs running along I-98. Orangeport used to be a sizable country town but has been mostly suburbanized. This area has been the pivot point for Orange County’s movement leftward; even into the 21st century the Dutch Reformed influence was noticeable on the area’s political patterns, with Bush in 2004 sweeping every single town in the valley. However, #trendz has pushed this particular corner of the metro area towards typical voting patterns, with Biden achieving a sweep of his own in this corner of the world.

Central Orange County

This area is quite sizable but also fairly transitional– affluent newer built outer suburbs which bridge between the west and the more cosmopolitan eastern half of the county. This area is overwhelmingly white and Democratic strength here is very much a Biden 2020 thing; Republicans usually win here.

Western Orange County

This is Orange County’s hefty exurban fringe, and also the heart of the Dutch community in the county.

To put it bluntly, Western Orange County is weird. In most of the county, the Dutch Reformed settlement is history for nerds like us – i.e. useful in explaining some voting patterns, place names, etc. but not a particularly relevant past for most people living in, say, Clift. This is not the case for western Orange County, which is much more in the vein of Ottawa County–i.e. a place which has retained a very strong Dutch,  conservative and religious character and where newcomers tend to assimilate into the local norms. Towns like Noaxia or Narragansett are especially attractive to socon exurbanites.

Wanacha County

Wanacha County is similar to Orange County in a lot of ways– both were settled by Dutch immigrants, and both are anchored around I-98. However, while Orange resembles Gill and Magdala Counties (i.e. skewing highly educated and upper middle class), Wanacha is a bit more like Northstar or parts of Johnson County–i.e. middle class, less educated areas. Combined with the more exurban position of the county geographically, Wanacha is much more friendly to contemporary Republicans.

Southern Wanacha is the more left-leaning part of the county, with Democrats winning towns along the river in recent years, like Texel or North Orangeport. Swings have been a little more muted here, since these towns are across the river from their obvious highway connection.

Northern Wanacha is quite exurban, with swiftly growing developments. Wanacha County as a whole was slightly less Dutch than Orange historically, so you’ll notice that these areas are more mutedly Republican than western Orange.

[Sol]

Johnson and North Star County

Much like Orange and Wanacha, I’m examining Johnson and North Star together. The two are very similar in many respects, taking in similar slices of the metro area. Moreover, and rather uniquely, North Star County used to be part of Johnson County, seceding in the early 90s as part of particular developments resulting from white flight in the area. Johnson County directly borders some of the most heavily Black portions of Tanagreen, and so much more so than the counties we’ve discussed so far it has a history of white flight.

Politically, Johnson County is reliably Democratic, clearing 60% in 2020, while North Star County is traditionally Republican but flipped in 2020.

Let’s get into it.

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a. Christopher Park
b. Yaleboro
c. Fort Yale
d. Clearfield
e. Kiacussing
f. Stampede
g. Enterprise
h. Pitkin
i. Canadian Bluff
j. Seminary Lakes
k. Chojuskin
l. Chambers City
m. Tennyson
n. Polk
o. Norfolk
p. Centerdon
q. McKinley – Tracey

Western Johnson County (Le Source, Sark, Christopher Park, Yaleboro, Fort Yale, Clearfield) is largely inner lower-middle class suburbs of Tanagreen). The area began to see large scale development in the 1870s as Fort Yale sat along some upper rapids of the Stowe River, allowing for the development of cheap industry. Fort Yale later became a center for shoe manufacturing, earning it the nickname of “the shoe capital of the upper midwest.” The massive Fort Yale Shoe Company facilities were the de facto downtown. The presence of such major employment opportunities, as well as proximity to similar industrial employment in northern Tanagreen, led to early suburbanization in the 1910s and 1920s, as well as an influx of immigration from Poland and Italy, especially Trapani and Sardinia.

Most of the initial residents in the surrounding suburbs were management at the various plants, but with rising wages among industrial workers after WW2 these towns became increasingly popular places for upwardly mobile lower-middle class workers. As these workers moved out into the suburbs in the 1950s, Fort Yale proper became increasingly Black, thus feeding into dramatic white flight and disinvestment. The area became quite racially polarized, especially after a court order (discussed further below) in 1965 forced Christopher Park to abandon its racially discriminatory housing practices.

The area today is not too different in many ways, with Christopher Park and Fort Yale as heavily Black communities and the rest as predominantly white. However, housing segregation has abated somewhat, with Yaleboro and Sark becoming somewhat more diverse in certain areas. Politically, the entire area is generally Democratic leaning despite everything, as it is quite unionized, Catholic, and not very socially conservative. Democrats won everything but further out Le Source in 2020, and even in 2016 (a low-water mark in recent years) lost only Le Source and Clearfield.

Eddorson is a bit of a special case; it shares a common history with Western Johnson County but has a very different trajectory. The town was an early streetcar suburb like all the rest in the area. However, its history has been strongly marked by the founding in 1895 of Eddorson College, a small college associated with the Lutheran Church, which eventually became recognized as a top-tier liberal arts school. As a result, it became the most desirable and liberal of the suburbs in Western Johnson County.

As the Civil Rights Movement, white flight, and desegregation became increasingly important political issues in the 1960s and 70s, Eddorson took a different tack from most of its neighbors, passing a fair housing ordinance in 1970 designed to promote racial integration while avoiding white flight. As a result, Eddorson is similar to places like Oak Park, IL and Montclair, NJ as a racially integrated, upper income suburban community. However, the city still remains quite exclusive in terms of social class, often in a way which can be quite racially discriminatory.

South-Central Johnson County (Penley Park, Preserve, Kiacussing, Stampede) was mostly built out as early 20th century streetcar suburbia too, though the eastern towns were developed a little later. Like most suburban towns in the Tanagreen area (and most of the U.S.), they had restrictive covenants which excluded Black people from purchasing homes in the area. However, several lawsuits in the early 60s against municipalities in Johnson County, bundled together as Naylor v. Penley Park in 1965, forced Penley Park, Kiacussing, Christopher Park, and Preserve (as well as a few towns in St. Francis County) to abandon their discriminatory housing practices. The result was that all four, aided by blockbusting, underwent drastic white flight. The area is still predominantly Black; only Kiacussing is not majority Black, and that is the result of it becoming home to a growing Mexican-American community due to lower housing costs. Penley Park is a lower-middle class community, while Preserve saw even more dramatic disinvestment, becoming one of the poorest municipalities in the state.

North Central Johnson County (Curtin Park, Olomouc, Hyahissa) is a belt of postwar suburbia oriented along I-33. In many respects these are the northern extension of towns to its south, and have become an attractive destination for Black people who want to move to the suburbs. Northwestern Olomouc and Hyahissa are some of the highest-income Black communities in the country. Olomouc is the current county seat of Johnson County, and downtown Olomouc is a sizable employment center for the northern suburbs. This area is also quite popular for affluent African immigrants; Olomouc has the highest Nigerian-American percentage of any U.S. city.

Eastern Johnson County, commonly called the Badger Valley (after Badger Creek), is quite different from the rest of the county. It’s mostly middle class to lower-middle class postwar suburbia, with a particularly white-flight character–this area, along with North Star and Wanacha Counties, was where most people who left Northern and Northeastern Tanagreen or Western Johnson County went. The area is mostly Catholic, with a lot of the descendants of Eastern and Southern European immigrants. The area is still overwhelmingly white, though East Preserve has seen a bit of Black suburban growth in recent years. Politically, Eastern Johnson County leans firmly Republican, though it’s not unwinnable for Democrats, especially pre-2016. The Republicans do the best in the outer suburban/exurban east and northeast of the area.

Western North Star County (Chojuskin, Leach Lake, Chambers City, Ruston, Shultz Farm, Tennyson, Cade, and John Adams) is the more built up section of Johnson County, with outer postwar suburbia and exurbia. Historically, it was an upper middle class white area – where the monied folks from western Johnson county went during white flight – and those people drove the separation of North Star from Johnson County, noticing the increasing diversity of nearby suburbs like Olomouc and Hyahissa in the late 80s. This attempt didn’t work, and now this section of North Star county is increasingly diverse, with large Black, Mexican, and Hmong communities. Shultz Farm was plurality-Black in 2020 for the first time. Politically, this has been reflected, with the area becoming increasingly Democratic in the 21st century.

Eastern North Star County (everything else) is more exurban, with some of the most northeasterly townships being quasi-rural. It votes as you might expect, with two exceptions: the town of Norfolk, which is a small town and county seat predating suburbanization and a local center for arts and crafts, and Newbury, which is home to a USY satellite campus, including several major labs, pushing it leftward.

[Sol]

Before we discuss the eastern and southern suburbs of Tanagreen, we need to discuss an important infrastructure project which has shaped the history of the area: the Varennes and Badenville Canals.

The canals link Tanagreen to Lake Superior, allowing for easy shipping between the Atlantic Ocean and the interior of Sylvania.


Major rivers before the construction of the canals.

The canals were a classic late 19th century planning project, along the lines of the reversal of the Chicago River, sponsored by the Sylvania state government and by private industry. The first canal built was the Varennes canal, linking the headwaters of the Eshpatina River in Toomey Lake to the Ouatapa River, and thence to Lake Superior. The project involved major dredging and the construction of locks, making the relatively narrow upper reaches of the Ouatapa and Eshpatina accessible for ships. Additionally, the project involved dredging and building bypasses around the rapids on the Stowe and Noyon rivers, allowing ships to run easily from Pynchon in Noyon County to the canal. The Varennes Canal opened in 1885, immediately leading to a dramatic increase in commerce and industry in the entire Tanagreen area, especially in the east and Noyon County. The cities of Okoboji and Varennes Falls saw rapid growth as a result of the canal; they had already been notably towns as a result of their position at the junction of the Varennes and Ouatapa rivers but boomed in earnest. The city of Toomey, which sat in the middle of the canal, also saw sizable growth. Meanwhile, Pynchon in Noyon County and Rumford in Tanagreen became home to the Port of Tanagreen, a huge shipping center.

However, the long course of the Varennes Canal led to increasing interest in constructing a second canal, linking the Nousfort River to the East Fork–a prospect had been initially rejected due to hillier terrain in between. The canal finally began construction in the late 1890s and opened in 1906. The Badenville Canal (named after the town of Badenville, later Roosevelt) led to even more development, particularly in Toomey, which became a massive industrial center as a chokepoint for multiple major canals.


Rivers after the canals. Dark blue is dredged and occasionally locked rivers, while navy blue is full canals.

Since the initial construction, certain parts of the canal system have seen expansion and then contraction. Under FDR, the Noyon river was made fully accessible for shipping, allowing ships to travel from Lake Superior to Lake Tanagreen. More recently, issues with increasing ship sizes have led to the disuse of the Badenville Canal, as the requisite upgrades were more expensive than just updating the canals along the wider and deeper Varennes River.

[Sol]

Is there a particular area which folks would like to see next?

[Sol]

Seeing none, here's Noyon County.

Most of Noyon County is a lot like places I talked about here:

There's a pattern of a certain kind of suburban area which swung to Trump by quite a bit in 2016--the general tendency is a historically white, often quite Catholic, middle class type area, though some of these places are a bit richer (see Long Island) and some a bit poorer (the Illinois side of St. Louis). These places are usually outside of the city's favored quarters in any case, and tend to be much less college-educated. Nevertheless, they've been somewhat winnable for Democrats because of region (this is a Northeast and Midwest phenomenon), historic ties to union labor (even if people have moved up in income brackets) and lack of social conservatism/ties to evangelical Protestantism (though this varies a LOT).

It's worth noting that these voters are pretty radically different from the archetypal "WWC" voter--a white suburban family in Tonawanda making $55,000 a year is in a very different socioeconomic position than a poor family in McDowell County. Describing both as WWC stretches the term to the limits of usefulness.

In the specifics of Noyon County, this sorts out to being a narrowly Republican county in the Trump era.



Town names:

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a. North Pynchon
b. Pynchon
c. Florington
d. Pleasant Ridge
e. Ridgetop
f. South Tanagreen
g. Noyon Falls
h. Samuelsson
i. East Fordstown
j. The Highlands
k. Shaw
l. McGreevy Lake
m. McGreevy
n. Turin
o. Kappa Springs
p. Governors Lake Twp.
q. South Governors Lake
r. Governors Lake
s. East Governors Lake
t. Irish Point
u. Olifee Twp.

North Pynchon is very similar to towns like St. Augustine and Country Club, in that it’s an affluent suburb along the SW favored quarter. These days it’s the most Democratic part of the county, excepting Pynchon, but it’s a moneyed social liberalism that’s pretty at odds with the rest of the county.

Pynchon is essentially an extension of southern Tanagreen which happens to fall outside of the county lines (and thus also the city as it’s illegal for cities to cross county lines). Pynchon was and to a lesser extent is a highly industrial city, home to a large proportion of the port facilities of the area as well as a historically vibrant automobile industry (currently the economy is focused more on logistics and shipping). The city demographically is about 80% white but is infamously polarized, by both race and also historically by European ancestry.

Pynchon was heavily Irish as it was built up, starting in the 1890s and 1900s, but unlike Tanagreen, where the Irish community had an infamously toxic relationship with the Republican establishment, the Pynchon Irish had a good relationship with the local Republican party. In the 1910s and beyond, Pynchon saw a huge influx of Finnish and Eastern European immigrants, spurred by the Finnish civil war and by the development of the Badenville canal, and these formed a left-wing core which often fought with Pynchon’s Republican Irish machine in the 20s and into the 50s, when the pressures of the New Deal coalition finally lead to the collapse of Irish Republicanism in the city proper. The usual phenomena of urban neglect and white flight led to many of the city’s residents moving to the suburbs, though Pynchon remains a fairly white city. The city’s home to a large Arab-American community these days on the north side, especially from Yemen and Oman, who historically worked in the auto industry.

These days, Pynchon remains fairly Democratic, but has seen Republican victories in the Trump era in some of the more Irish and suburban areas on the west end of the city, not unlike Trump’s gains in similar areas in other major cities. Pynchon and northern Noyon County in general is also pretty cop-heavy; a lot of Tanagreen cops live in the area, which is relatively affordable on a police salary while being in a more suburban area (Tanagreen has no residency requirement).

Northwestern Noyon County (Florington, Pleasant Ridge, Ridgetop, Escarpment, East Fordstown) is kind of an extension of these areas – very white, lower middle-class, deeply Irish Catholic, police-heavy, and not as educated. Consequently, it votes fairly Republican (and yes, it’s quite a stark dividing line with Magdala County).

The Southern and Eastern inner suburbs of Pynchon (South Tanagreen, Noyon Falls, Samuelsson) are quite similar, but with a slightly different demographic makeup, with fewer cops and more Finns and Eastern Europeans, who were traditionally the basis of the area's Democratic machine (Noyon Falls is about as Finnish as the enclaves in the Upper Peninsula). As a result, these areas are a bit more Democratic, though not perfectly safe; Trump in 2016 won over Noyon Falls and Samuelsson narrowly and Clinton’s win in South Tanagreen was quite small.

These suburbs blend fairly seamlessly into southwestern Noyon County towns (Kiel, The Highlands, Shaw, McGreevey Lake, McGreevey, Turin, Schoharie Twp., Jayne, Longwood), which are fairly similar but a bit wealthier and outer suburban/exurban. The whole area is oriented around I-33, so Democrats tend to do better in areas closer to the highway and in older town centers. This section of Noyon County has a lot of votes and tends to be fairly close; if Democrats can tie things up here they’re certain to win Noyon County. Obama in 2008 and 2012 did very well here. On the flipside, Trump won everything in 2016; Biden’s performance here is a weak rebound and is at the core of why he didn’t win the county in 2020.

Southeast Noyon County (Hialoga Twp., Kappa Springs, Port Howe, Oakland Twp., Governors Lake Twp., South Governors Lake, Governors Lake, East Governors Lake, Irish Point, Olifee Twp.) is the more exurban fringe of Noyon County, with rural areas in places and several state parks. This area is unsurprisingly vociferously Republican. The only unusual area are the small Governors Lake towns, which were and are a popular summer retreat destination for elites looking to get out of the city. They are traditionally also quite Republican, but flipped in 2020 as was typical of such places.

[Sol]

St. Francis County

St. Francis County took a while because it's incredibly diverse and populous, and I had developed it less so I had to do some thinking and research. Overall it's a bit of a unique place, a bit like the Northern suburbs of Chicago.



Town names:

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a. Pontypridd
b. Burnstine Twp.
c. Ponce
d. Sail Prairie
e. West Brevard
f. West Princeton
g. East Princeton
h. Chelsea
i. Thibodaux
j. Ariel Park
k. Hayti
l. Hessian
m. LeBlanc
n. James Park
o. Normandy
p. St. James
q. Launceston
r. West Chapultepec
s. Chapultepec
t. Lytton
u. West Guyona
v. Sabreton
w. Guyon Heights
x. Crump
y. Salt Lick Village
z. Lanndale
1. St. Francis
2. King’s Nahant
3. Leaping Deer
4. Vast Forest
5. Laurelsboro
6. Beyer

Pontypridd and Ponce are two midsized inner suburbs, quite white and lower-middle class. Pontypridd is quite Irish, while Ponce is largely Italian, Polish, and Finnish. The two are famous for their intense high school football rivalry, which has boiled over into outright violence and vandalism in the past. Both were fairly Democratic until the Trump era, where both flipped. Pontypridd narrowly flipped back in 2020.

The rest of southern St. Francis county (including Burnstine Twp., South Park, Lockport, Sail Prairie, Hall Twp., West Brevard, West Princeton, East Princeton, Chelsea, and southern Heckwelder) is fairly industrial, with much of the land being used for port facilities, warehouses, railyards, etc. West Princeton is fairly Italian and (modern) Orthodox Jewish, with some spillover from Oboshing, while Sail Prairie and East Princeton historically underwent heavy white flight and became predominantly Black. The rest of the area is lightly populated (Burnstine has a population in the single digits!), quite working class, and mostly white, though with a growing Latino community. Racial polarization gave Republicans a leg up here even before the Trump era, and similar trends to Noyon County have given them much of this region.

Southeastern St. Francis County (northern Heckwelder, Ariel, Thibodaux, Kern Hills, Ariel Park, Hayti) is a transitional area between Southern St. Francis County and wealthier areas to the north. It’s very white and middle class, with some areas skewing more lower middle class, especially in Heckwelder, Southern Ariel, and Hayti). It's much more densely populated than South County. As is typical of this area in the metro, there’s a very large Jewish community in the area, and Thibodaux is one of the most heavily Hasidic cities in the country. Aside from hard-R Thibodaux, this area is Democratic, but Dems don’t win by a huge margin.

The Main Line (Normandy, James Park, LeBlanc, St. James, Launceston, West Chapultepec, Chapultepec, and Lytton) is to the north. The area was the first suburban zone of development in the county in the late 1800s and early 1900s, oriented around the Tanagreen, Okoboji, and Lhut Passage Rail Line, which was the predecessor to the modern Green Line for TARA and START’s Okoboji Line. The area was ambitiously named The Main Line after the area in Philly; this isn’t a perfect sociological fit, as the closest points of comparison are in Gill and Magdala County, but it is a dense network of streetcar suburbs in a line so it fits. The Main Line is quite white, very upper-middle class, and quite Jewish, with a community which skews strongly Reform and secular. Hessian is very similar culturally, but is of a slightly later era of development as it is not along the rail line, as well as a bit more diverse. This entire region votes extremely D.

Mid-county (West Guyona, Sabreton, Guyon Heights, Crump, Salt Lick Village, Guyona, Lanndale, Higgins, and St. Francis) is a bit of a different area. On the western side, the area is separated from the Main Line by Guyon Creek, which forms a boundary. Because the Main Line is at a higher elevation, it was less prone to flooding, and so became more desirable, a fact reinforced by the area’s early development. As a result, the Western suburbs in this region (West Guyona, Guyon Heights, Crump, and Salt Lick Village) were developed in the early 20th century to cater to lower middle class whites working in factories in the Eastside. The area became heavily Catholic and Jewish, with many immigrants. Beginning in the 1980s, the growing Mexican population on the Eastside began moving into these suburbs, resulting in heavy white flight. Demographically, the western part of this area is predominantly Mexican, with the community in West Guyona, Crump, and Guyon Heights being more working class, while Guyona and Salt Lick Village are home to a growing Mexican middle class. The eastern suburbs, like Higgins, are postwar suburbia and remain fairly white and upper-middle class, with a large Jewish and Indian community. Many of the residents of these suburbs are the wealthier descendants of the folks who used to live in places like Crump or Guyon Heights. Despite the history of white flight, this entire area is firmly Democratic, and has seen hefty improvements for the party in the Trump era.

The Audobonville area (Audobonville, King’s Nahant, Leaping Deer) is actually fairly similar, with the west of the city being working class mostly Latino streetcar suburbia and the rest being upper-middle class white postwar suburbia, with a rapidly growing Indian community, though the Jewish community here is much smaller. Leaping Deer and the surrounding area in Audobonville are a massive edge city and employment center for the Eastern suburbs, one of the largest in the metro. Republicans used to do decently well in Eastern Audobonville but that has evaporated with the growth of the Indian community in the area as well as Donald Trump; otherwise they are a negligible presence.

North County (Vast Forest, Laurelsboro, Beyer, Wabun-Annung, Badger Creek) is a transitional area in a lot of ways between Northeast Tanagreen, St. Francis County, and Johnson County. The areas along the border are larger streetcar suburbs with a similar historical and sociological profile to the areas we’ve already discussed, but unlike their counterparts Vast Forest and Laurelsboro underwent desegregation and white flight earlier, as they were affected by Naylor v. Penley Park (see more in the Johnson County section). As a result, these communities are predominantly Black, while Beyer has become mostly Latino. The rest of the area is fairly lower middle class and quite white – there’s still quite a bit of racial exclusion, and the area in general is quite polarized, with similar dynamics to eastern Johnson County. As a result of their racism, white voters have tended to be more Republican, especially in Badger Creek, though all of the municipalities in North County voted for Biden in 2020.

[Sol]

Thomas County

Thomas County is a particularly interesting area. It’s arguably the most diverse large suburban county, including old industrial centers, streetcar suburbs, postwar suburbia, massive edge cities, endless exurbs, and even some countryside. It’s also the traditional heart of the Republican party in the Tanagreen region, and though it’s moved rapidly to the left in the 21st it remains dominated by the GOP on the presidential level.



Town Names:

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a. Towering Heights
b. West Gardentown
c. Gardentown
d. DesJarlais
e. Creussen
f. Garden Park
g. Aitkinville
h. Far Lock
i. Iceland
j. Brownsville
k. West Hossburg Twp.
l. Hossburg
m. South Hossburg Twp.
n. Brevard
o. South Brevard
p. Braintree Twp.
q. Agee Twp.
r. New Franconia
s. Snow Lake
t. Creekland Gore Twp.
u. Isle de Sel
v. Eshpatina
w. Dometree
x. Kitzengen
y. Ortie
z. Ortie Twp.

It’s also worth discussing Chippewa at the beginning; because of its extremely aggressive annexation policies much of the county is included within this city. Just know that the city is quite diverse internally; for example, even though it voted for Trump in 2020, it nevertheless has a massive amount of Biden +20% precincts in the northern third.

Northern Thomas County (Towering Highlands, West Gardentown, Gardentown, DesJarlais, Creussen, Garden Park, Aitkinville, Iceland) is the densest, most diverse, and oldest-built part of Thomas County. The region is largely postwar suburbia of a similar age to areas across the river in St. Francis County, though it’s quite demographically and politically heterogenous, often in a dramatic way when crossing municipal lines.

West Gardentown and Garden Park are right across the river from the Main Line and are fairly similar culturally, though much less Jewish. Aitkinville, Iceland, and the adjacent bits of Chippewa are quite middle-class, affluent areas; they used to be quite Republican and only voted for Clinton and Biden by tepid numbers. Creussen is a bit more lower-middle class and traditionally very Polish; it’s stayed quite steady politically. Gardentown was a historic railway junction and was resultantly a small industrial center; as is a common pattern in similar places in suburban Tanagreen, it underwent heavy white flight in the late 20th century. There’s a surrounding ring of interwar suburbia in close-to Gardentown portions of West Gardentown, Creussen, and DesJarlais. DesJarlais and Gardentown have become hubs for logistics and a center for refugee resettlement, especially from Cuba, El Salvador, and most recently Bhutan. Unsurprisingly, these towns are highly Democratic and the traditional base of the party in the county. Towering Heights, as fits its name, is a shamefully rich area, with one of the highest MHI stats in the country; the area became a center for the highly affluent due its extremely beautiful Hudson River School-esque position as  the “Towering Heights” over the convergence of the St. Francis and Eshpatina rivers. This is the sort of place where Kochs or Uihleins live and it votes like it.

Northern Chippewa is similar to Aitkinville and Iceland in its residential areas, but deeper into the city there lurks a behemoth – Heart of America. A massive edge city built around a mall of the same name, Heart of America makes Bois Brulee look like a small town. The area is interesting as the result of somewhat intentional government planning; Thomas County, the U.S. Army, USY, and SYSU developed a research park – Staked Plains Research Center (focused on theoretical physics and agronomy), in the then-rural area. When the Tanagreen Outer Loop was built through the area in the late 60s, the research center was joined by Heart of America mall, which enticed the previously small town of Chippewa to annex. Since then, the area has seen explosive growth, particularly in technology companies. The area consequently is firmly Democratic these days, though not as hugely as you might expect, since it’s not particularly residential (though it’s seen some high-end condo construction in the last decade).

Western Thomas County (West Hossburg Twp., Hossburg, South Hossburg Twp., Erie Twp., and adjacent bits of Chippewa) is fairly similar to Southeast St. Francis County, except with differences reflective of being further out; it’s largely middle-class, very white, postwar suburbs. As a result, the area is fairly Republican; some of the Hossburgs have flipped in recent years, as well as the northernmost Chippewa salient, but further out areas to the south remain quite R, reinforced by racially polarized voting patterns from the Brevard area (discussed later).

Central Chippewa, with which I’m grouping New Franconia and Snow Lake, has the political “balance of power” in the county, and since it votes Republican, Thomas County does too, albeit by a rather narrow margin as a whole. There’s a bit of a gradient, with the northern and western bits voting D, as well as Chippewa and New Franconia’s tiny historic downtowns, which are rather near to each other. It gradually fades into 55-65% Trump 2020 exurbia. Think an even more populous version of Scott or Carver County in Minnesota.

Southwest Thomas County (Brevard, South Brevard, and Braintree Twp.) is very distinct, as Brevard is by far the oldest town in the county, and one of the oldest in the state, an early rival of Tanagreen for primacy in the region. Brevard obviously lost that contest, and became a minor industrial center instead, reliant on shipping due to poor positioning on rail lines. It remains a center for light industry. The city is fairly diverse; around 40% Latino (predominantly Mexican Americans), 40% white (largely Irish and Finnish, and very concentrated on the eastside due to white flight) and 20% Black. Politically, Democrats win the west and south sides of Brevard by large margins, while eastside Brevard is more or less “lean D” and the town of South Brevard is swingy. Braintree Township, being more suburban-exurban, votes firmly R. Outside of politics, the area is infamous for the “Brevard Mall Murders,” a series of unsolved serial killings in the 1980s which have inspired intense true crime interest.

Eastern Thomas County (Brownsville, Isle de Sel, Eshpatina, Dometree, Kitzingen, and that one salient of Chippewa) is an area which transitions between Tanagreen suburbs to the Toomey area, a large satellite city a la Dakota City. A full discussion of Toomey will have to wait until Varennes County, but the long and short of it is, sadly, a similar history to Brevard or some of the suburbs in Johnson County, a story of heavy industry, racism, and even more extreme white flight. The eastern bit of this region is the innermost suburbs of Toomey in Thomas County, while the areas further to the west are not particularly oriented towards Toomey. But they all share a common industrial history – the downtowns of all of these places were oriented towards shipping and railroads along the canals – and these days they all are sort of lower-middle class suburbia, similar to Noyon County. The closer in suburbs to Toomey have a campus of Metropolitan State in Kitzingen so they vote to the left of what you’d expect.

Far Lock is ill fitting in any classification; it has a similar history to these old canal towns, but it’s also close to the Heart of America and as a result is home to a lot of housing for recent immigrants working in tech, as well as service workers who keep the edge city running.

Southwest Thomas County (Southern Chippewa, Agee Twp., Creekland Gore Twp., Haines Twp., Dry Wells Twp., Ortie Twp., Ortie, Sarris Twp., Lowsa Twp.) is the outer limits of metro Tanagreen, and as a result it’s ruralish, with rapidly mushrooming exurbia, some of the fastest growing areas in the state. The closer in areas are the sort of place where you see farms mixed in with massive developments filled with McMansions. Unsurprisingly, it’s very hard R, with something of a white flight element in the areas closer to Brevard or Toomey.

[wnwnwn]

If you are doing world building like this, you should try to write a novel on it.

[Sol]

If you are doing world building like this, you should try to write a novel on it.

I don't know if it would be particularly interesting to read a novel about the demography of a fictional suburb!

[Sol]

Here's a short discussion of Sylvania's license plates!

License plates in Sylvania are issued by the Sylvania Bureau of Motor Vehicles, a subdepartment of the state DoT. Sylvania began to require license plates in 1905; the state began to issue them in 1915. Sylvania requires all cars to display a front and back license plate.

Sylvanian license plates follow the format A12-34BC, where ABC indicate any letter and 1234 indicate any number. The date of the last inspection and serial number is marked on the upper right.



Vehicles owned by state or municipal government take the form GV1-23BC, GV indicating “government.”



Additionally, vehicle owners can purchase vanity license plates, albeit for a hefty $120 fee. As a result, vanity plates are fairly rare. They must be 7 characters and cannot have any lewd or offensive meanings.



They can also purchase custom designs, for a similar fee.

In addition to the license plate number, Sylvania license plates also include the name of the issuing jurisdiction. This is nearly always the county, though the three Tanagreen County municipalities (Tanagreen, Union Park, and Keller) are marked in lieu of the county name. This is a relic of Tanagreen County issuing license plates before the state required it; as a result they're administratively separated and have never been combined.



The standard design has an artist's rendering of Bill Hall State Park in Ridgetop and Medary counties, and this has been the default since 2012. This design was a bit unpopular when it was first rolled out, because a depiction of mountains is a bit out of sync with the flat terrain of much of the state, getting heavily roasted on social media. As a result, the state continues to offer the previous design for free, which includes the state motto "Beati Quorum Via Integra Est" meaning "blessed are they whose way is upright." It's used by about 1/5th of motorists.



Sylvania's license plates have been traditionally built by forced convict labor in prisons, as is the case for most states. However, a recent bill (SB510) was passed into law and signed by Governor Nathan earlier this year which requires the state BMV to source license plates from non-convict labor; this law has not yet been implemented however.

[Sol]

Here's the state flag.

[Sol]

Amtrak Routes in the State of Sylvania.


Colored dots indicate stations, black dots indicate a station which is serviced by multiple routes. This map is pretty approximate.


The Paul Bunyan
A long distance train, in the vein of the Empire Builder or California Zephyr, running daily from the west coast to Chicago. It runs on the old Northlands Rail Line and the historic St. Paul and Tanagreen Railway, both discussed here. It's a much beloved scenic route through the Rocky Mountains in states to the west of Sylvania, but not as useful for everyday trips. The old Northlands line gets super heavy traffic and it's owned by BNSF, so delays are to be expected.

Stations on the Route (NW-S)

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Kellsburg Napier Station (on the Pacific coast in another unposted fictional state)
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(various stations in other fictional states)
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Newfield (a town on the reservation in Sells County)
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Catacomb Hills (a town in western Harrison County. The least used station in the state.)
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Dakota City
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Tanagreen Union Station
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Hillsboro
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Alamo-Eaton (the station is in Alamo, a town in northern Alamo County and the county seat. It also serves the town of Eaton across the county line in Bleska County, which has a high proportion of the ridership due to having a college.)
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Witch Hazel
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Ayers
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Boundary Creek (a heavily Dutch tourist oriented town a la Frankenmuth in western Columbus County)
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Bemidji (MN)
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Intersects with the Empire Builder at Staples and continues on the same route to Chicago

The North Star
The big work horse of Sylvania’s rail system. Runs from Verendrye on the old Verendrye-Fort Hitchcock line, to Tanagreen, where it runs on the same route as the Paul Bunyan until Ayers. It’s a state supported line. The state has invested a lot in improving it in the last few years, buying up most of the line between Tanagreen and Ayers and extending the southwest terminus of the line to Henderson. It runs 5 times per day.

There have been early plans of building an infill station in Skegness (a cartoonishly affluent suburb of Ayers in eastern Sherman County) but these haven’t yet come to fruition. There are also somewhat persistent discussions about building an extension to Thunder Bay, which almost certainly will never happen.

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Verendrye
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Roewena
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Rochefort
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Lhut Passage (actually in somewhat ruralish area north of the city, like Maricopa station)
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Toomey
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Tanagreen Union Station
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Pynchon (note that Pynchon is not served by the Paul Bunyan)
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Alamo-Eaton
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Witch Hazel
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Ayers
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Methil (The county seat of Sherman county and located along the Windy Rock River in the southwest. Affluent exurb, though probably the poorest place in astonishingly rich Sherman County)
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Henderson

The Superior
The other state-supported route in Sylvania. Serves several small cities in the southeast of the state, and forks in two branches. Lowest ridership of all three, though the state has also continued improving service in several bits, especially the part between Saukford and Boitnotte, which is now totally state-owned. It runs twice a day.

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Tanagreen Union Station
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Toomey
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Okoboji
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Reed Lake
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Saukford
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Boitnotte/Iberia

[Sol]

TARA is the Tanagreen subway system, servicing the city of Tanagreen and its suburbs.

TARA has ninety-seven stations and five lines, with one branch line/shuttle. It uses a mixture of underground, surface level, and elevated lines. It services the city of Tanagreen and suburban communities in Gill, Orange, Johnson, St. Francis, Magdala and Noyon Counties. It’s a space age subway system, similar to BART, the DC Metro, or MARTA; being built in the modern era means that all stations meet ADA standards, with a tiny number of exceptions. It has a long history of underfunding and poor decision making (which is visibly reflected in some of the lines), but the system has received an injection of funding and reform in recent years which has led to dramatic improvement.

Here’s a stylized map of the lines:

Here’s a brief rundown on the system:
- The Red Line is the busiest line, running from Flynndale in the northwest, through downtown and down to Country Club in the southwest. Most of the system is underground, with the exception of the portion west of Lakeview, which is a mixture of surface-level and elevated (NIMBYs in Magdala County insisted it be underground). In Gill County, the line runs down the middle of I-98. The Red Line was the first line opened in 1972. It initially ran between Aurora and Minnewag stations, but has been gradually expanded over the years, with more and more stations being built, especially in Gill County.
- The Yellow Line is the second busiest service. It’s notable as the only line which doesn’t move through the central transportation tunnel, instead running southeast-northwest from Lake Tanagreen to the central suburbs of St. Francis County. It opened in 1974, running initially between Expo and Oboshing Transportation Center. A major expansion, serving suburbs in St. Francis County, opened in 1996; this segment is interlined with and complements commuter rail serving this area. Normandy, James Park, and Chapultepec are the only stations on the system which aren't ADA accessible, as they use stations from this older commuter rail system. The portion east of Lakeside-OU is surface level.
- The Green Line is the third busiest line, opening in 1980. Unlike other lines, it has not expanded since opening, in part because it serves a large area, running from Leaping Deer Mall in St. Francis County to Pynchon in Noyon County. East of the Stowe River, the Green Line is elevated, while the rest is underground.
-The Purple Line is the fourth busiest line, opening initially in phases in the late 1990s through the late 2000s. It's currently a branch of the Green Line, though the city is in the early going of deinterlining the two with Infrastructure Bill money. It's the shortest line, going only to Far Green in eastern Vaudreuil; there were early plans to extend it to northern Guyona, but this was shelved during the Great Recession. It's entirely underground.
- The Blue Line receives the least traffic by far, excluding the Orange Line Shuttle Most of it runs on an old freight rail line through an industrial area along the Stowe River, which the city purchased for cheap in the early 90s. The city has attempted to use it as an engine of waterfront revival, which has been very weak; the Blue Line still runs directly along the freight rail lines on one side for much of the way.
-The Orange Line Shuttle is a branch of the Red Line linking Concord Avenue Station to the airport. [1]

Trips can be purchased with an app called Tile, as well as via single-use paper cards. The city uses a zonal fare system, like London. You can see the delineation of zones on this (ugly) map.



The number of times one crosses the grey lines determines the fare, which you can see below:

• Intrazone Trip: $2.00
• Two Zones: $2.30
• Three Zones: $2.50
  
• Four Zones: $2.75
• Five Zones: $3.10
• Airport Travel: $2.00 added to the base rate

There are student, youth, and senior discounts. Additionally, travel between South Campus and Herkimer Campus Stations is free, to make travel across campus easy for USY students. The City of Keller also subsidizes fares; residents have a special status in Tile which cuts down fares for all trips for residents to the lowest bracket.

[1] It also used to be used to denote an rush hour express service which ran from the downtown fare zone to the suburban fare zone, going up the track to the airport as well. This was effectively a subsidy for commuters and airport travelers, as riders paid the fare for crossing between two zones instead of through 3 or 4. This was discontinued in November of 2023.