Sylvania

[Sol]

Here's a fictional state I've been working on for a while: Sylvania, a large midwestern state north of Minnesota and Itasca, another small fictional state [1]. I posted it on AAD ages ago, which is why it's written from a pre-2018 perspective, but I figured folks might still find it interesting.

Sylvania's quite populous; the largest city, Tanagreen, is the fourth-largest in the country. The state capitol is the city of Iberia, though it's a pretty tiny Jefferson City-esque place. Other major cities include Ayers, Verendrye, Toomey, Witch Hazel, and Boitnotte. It’s a democratic-leaning state; it voted for Clinton in 2016 by a fairly narrow margin with a big Republican swing, especially in rural areas. It has 18 congressional districts.

Here are the counties, with their names given in the spoiler below.

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1. Sells County (after Cato Sells)
2. Alberts County
3. Washington County
4. Windy Rock County
5. McKinley County
6. Hayes County (after Rutherford B. Hayes)
7. Chekommia County (after the Piankeshaw Chief)
8. Frost Prairie County
9. McCrary County
10. Numuskamisking County (fake native American)
11. Letchinska County (after Marie Lesczinska)
12. Wisner County (after Moses Wisner)
13. Southbend County
14. Cree County
15. Harrison County
16. Armstrong County
17. Argent County
18. McKinnon County
19. Peakes County
20. Endicott County (after William Endicott)
21. Welles County (after Gideon Welles)
22. Lincoln County
23. Dakota County
24. Dylan County
25. Button County (after Sir Thomas Button)
26. Buchanan County
27. Union County
28. Sherman County (after William Tecumseh Sherman)
29. Foudre County (after French for lightning)
30. Ten Broeck County (after Albert Ten Broeck)
31. Ayers County
32. Columbus County (from Christopher Columbus)
33. Wanacha County (after Lakota for Flower)
34. Orange County (after William of Orange)
35. Gill County (after Theodore Nicholas Gill)
36. Magdala County
37. Islandia County (after the islands in Lake Limniola)
38. Bleska County (from Lakota for Lake without reeds)
39. Alamo County
40. Monroe County
41. Ketacko County (fake Native American)
42. North Star County
43. Johnson County (after Andrew Johnson)
44. Tanner County
45. Noyon County (after Jacques de Noyon)
46. Tetes Blues County (from French for Blue Heads)
47. Adjounish County (from the name of the Kappa ruler)
48. Ridgetop County
49. Superior County
50. St. Francis County
51. Kappa County
52. Jackson County (after Andrew Jackson)
53. St. Therese County
54. Scott County (after Winfield Scott)
55. Jerrie County (from French for Jersey, named due to resemblance to Cape May)
56. Ashegan County (from Ojibwe for cliff house)
57. Marecage County (from French for swamp, bog)
58. Jefferson County (after Thomas Jefferson)
59. Seward County (after William Seward)
60. Morgan County
61. Thomas County
62. Longfellow County (after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
63. Varennes County (after Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye)
64. Tierney County
65. Nousfort County (uncertain, possibly French)
66. Chippewa County
67. Sproat County (after Ebenezer Sproat)
68. Rochefort County (after Rochefort, France, or after some boulders in Verendrye Bay)
69. Wooster County (after Worcester County, MA, with simplified spelling)
70. Verendrye County (after Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye)
71. Pinckney County (after Charles Cotesworth Pinckney)
72. Newtucket County (after Nantucket+new)
73. Middlesex County (after Middlesex County, MA)
74. Hiawatha County (after the protagonist of The Song of Hiawatha)
75. Salem County (after Salem, MA)

a. Delisle County
b. Inchbay County (after the Anishabe)
c. Stevens County (after Thaddeus Stevens)
d. Medary County (after Samuel Medary)
e. Le Bluff County (after French for Bluff)
f. Roewena County (after Roewena Tupper)
g. Roosevelt County (after Teddy Roosevelt. Formerly Badenville County)

Obviously that's a lot of information, but what are the real regions of the state? What's the relevant history of the state? What's the state's geography?

Let's start with the latter. Sylvania is mostly flat prairie. There are three large river valleys: The Stowe River, which runs into Lake Superior and in the center of the state, the Verendrye, which is in the east of the state, and the Windy Rock River, which is in the West and is a tributary of the Red River. There's a low mountain range in the South-Central portion of the state, known as the Blue Hills.



Now, settlement patterns. Prior to European colonization, the largest groups in the region were the Sioux in the West(particularly the Lakota and Nakota), the Kappa in the Stow Valley, and the Ojibwe in the East. French colonizers started coming into the region in the 1700s, harvesting furs. After the Revolutionary War, Sylvania became part of the Northwest Territory. During the War of 1812, certain indigenous groups (namely the Kappa) sided with the U.S. government, and gained some substantial territories. The Kappa Ruler Adiunish was uniquely favorable to American settlement due to concerns about Ojibwe and Siouan rivals. Settlers, especially from New England and Upstate New York, poured into the Verendrye valley and the lower Stowe basin. By the 1830s, relations with the Kappa had seriously soured, and the Kappa war of 1838-39 resulted in the violent removal onto marginal reservation land, mainly in Jefferson and Ashegan counties. The result was that intensive white settlement in Sylvania preceded similar areas, like Minnesota, by a few years, resulting in earlier development of major cities.

The city of Tanagreen was founded as Tanner's Green in 1823 (the name was shortened in 1830). It grew rapidly as a U.S.-controlled fort during the Kappa war. The city lies in what is known as Verendrye's Gap, or the flat land between the Blue Hills and the Canadian border. It also lies north of the junction of the Stowe and the Minnewag River, along Lake Tanagreen. All of these features gave it a favorable location for shipping and railway construction. By 1880, it had passed St. Louis as the second largest city in the Midwest, and it soon became the country's 3rd largest city.

Like most of the Upper Midwest, Sylvania experienced heavy immigration from Europe, and these immigrants were a mix of Scandinavians and Germans. The map below indicates the provenance of the county's immigrants. Blue indicates (non-Finnish) Scandinavians, Yellow is German Protestants, Red is German Catholics, Orange is Dutch, and Forest Green is Finns. Purple indicates that the settlers here included large numbers of New Englanders as well.



Notable here is the heavy Dutch presence. Sylvania has the largest Dutch-American population of any state. The first Dutch settlements were in Pinckney County, particularly around the city of Pinkerton [2]. The Pinckney County Dutch Colony then became a transitional point for major Dutch settlement in other parts of the state, especially on the Upper Windy Rock river. The Dutch in Sylvania, as elsewhere, became a strongly conservative group, closely tied to the Reform church.

Now for the cities. Below are the major metropolitan areas of Sylvania. The darkest shades indicate counties with metro centers; dark shades indicate other major counties of the MSA, lighter shades are peripheral counties to the MSA, and the lightest shades are other Metro areas which are included in the CSA. Dark grey is single-county Metros, while light grey are micropolitan areas. The stars indicate approximate location of the central city; there are a few multinodal areas too, indicated with several stars.



Green is the Tanagreen-Chippewa-Orangeport metropolitan and statistical area. Despite its name, Tanagreen is by far the largest city. Chippewa (in Thomas County) and Orangeport (in Orange County) are large suburban cities in the vein of a Joliet or Arlington. The Tanagreen MSA is the 4th largest in the country. It has a profile much like many other Rust Belt cities: deindustrialization and serious economic decline and loss of population. Nevertheless, like Chicago, its size means that it has been able to avoid the worst pitfalls, and some areas (i.e. Southwest Tanagreen or Thomas County) have seen growth. At the fringes are a few peripheral cities, which are the Trentons and South Bends to Tanagreen's New York or Chicago. In Dakota County is the old industrial town of Dakota City, which is now on the edge of suburbia but with something of its own vibe. Islandia County is its own Metropolitan Area ("Red Bay Township Metropolitan Area") but it has a lot of commuters to the Western employment centers, especially Magdala. Islandia County is also home to Lake Limniola, and a lot of wealthy suburbanites have second Lake houses. Tetes Blues and Kappa Counties are peripheral areas; their big towns (Hillsboro and Ohavesper respectively) don't have too many commuters but their northernmost townships have a few. Varennes County is mostly outside of the metro, but the city of Toomey, on its northern edge, is similar to Dakota City. Nousfort County is a bit of a mix; the western half is Tanagreen suburbs, but the center is the city of Nousfort, which is a small city of its own, not unlike Toomey or Dakota City. However, Nousfort is much more economically vibrant, relying low-wage but stable industries like construction and meatpacking.

Red is the Ayers-Witch Hazel MSA. Unlike Tanagreen, this is a more multinodal area; Ayers (the southern one) is a little bit bigger but not by much. The Ayers-Witch Hazel region is about the size of Indianapolis. It's a similarly declining industrial area--it was once a major center of auto manufacturing--though here the decline has been less severe than Tanagreen, due to strong healthcare and education sectors--Witch Hazel is home to Sylvania State, and the prestigious Van Buren College is in Union County.

Blue is the city of Verendrye. Verendrye's the oldest city of the bunch, having exploded population wise in the 1830s with immigration from New England, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands. It's about the size of Grand Rapids. Economically, Verendrye historically was home to heavy industry, particularly steel and to a lesser extent copper wiring. However, Verendrye has succesfully rebranded as a 'knowledge economy' center, with a large tech industry. Known as the "Boston of the Midwest," it's home to many colleges, including the very prestigious Louaji University, Eastern Sylvania State, Le Sueur College, and Haan-Merriwether College

Teal is the Boitnotte Metropolitan area. Boitnotte is a much smaller city than the above; comparable to Mankato or La Crosse. It's a somewhat declined manufacturing (automobiles) and shipping center. Presently it relies on tourism to the Blue Hills and the agricultural sector.

Orange is the Nokomis-Lhut Passage Area. These twin cities, lying on the South and North side (respectively) of the Lhut strait, are an utter economic disaster. They both lie along the Monroe outcropping, a geologically anomalous outcropping of hills, bisected by the strait, which is rich in copper. As a result, the Sister Ports, as they're called, exploded in population around the turn of the century. By midcentury, however, copper was increasingly depleted. The cities are a shell of their former selves, and they continue to bottom out in population.

Purple is the Beaver-Saukford-Reed Lake metropolitan area, commonly known as the Clare Lakes region. These towns only had light industry, and rely primarily on agriculture and moderate tourism. Think Wausau or Marquette.

Finally, Yellow is the city of Iberia. Iberia was never much of anything; it used to be the territorial capital, before becoming a minor population center and port.

Then, before I go, here's one more map: the county results of the 2016 election. From here on out I'll be analyzing the results of the 2016 election, as well as the 2018 midterm possibilities.

Note that I use a different scale than Dave. Blue=Democrats, Red=Republicans. The lightest shade is less than 50%, moderately light shad is 50%-60%, darker shade is 60-70%, the darkest is 70%+.

[1] It mostly exists to explain away Sylvania's straight lower border.

[2] Pinkerton was originally Pincknerton--not too surprising that it, like Tanagreeen, was shortened.

[Sol]

Eastern Sylvania is a region I'll discuss. The Verendrye Metropolitan Area is, as discussed above, a fairly distinct region; it has been growing economically, it was heavily setlled by New Englanders and Scandinavians, and it has a strong tech sector. All in all, it resembles cities like Raleigh or Madison more than Tanagreen or Ayers.

Here's a map of Wooster, Verendrye, Roewena, Pinckney, and Newtucket Counties. I've labeled the largest towns of note below.


Green is the city of Verendrye.

Pink is Portland, a large inner suburb of Verendrye.

Light Blue is Birchbark Falls, another large suburb.

Orange is White Gore, a Verendrye suburb.

Roewena, a small port city, is in dark blue.

Red is Lafayette, a big ex-industrial town in Wooster County

Grey is Marion, an ex-industrial town and Verendrye exurb.

Brown is the suburb of Diana.

Yellow is the city of Pinkerton.

And here is the 2016 result.


I'll go through this county by county.

Verendrye County
Verendrye County is the heart of eastern Sylvania. It's home to Verendrye, as well as the large suburb of Birchbark Falls. It's also home to the Innovation Turnpike, a major nexus for tech companies which dominates the southern part of the county.

Verendrye proper is a firmly democratic town. It's mostly white (74%), with large African-American (15%) and Asian-American (9%) populations. Traditionally, the main divide in the city has been between the wealthy South side, and the more working class North and West Sides, with the college-dominated East Side as a swingier area. There was a streak of posh Republicanism which occasionally did well enough to carry the city in the old days, but now even the richest parts of Southwest Verendrye voted for Hillary Clinton by massive margins. There was a decline in turnout in some predominantly black neighborhoods on the NW side though.

The two towns to the south of Verendrye, Stone Park and Farragut, are the core of the Innovation Turnpike. These towns are both exceedingly wealthy and have been mushrooming in growth, exploding between 2000 and 2010. No suprise that HRC did well here, and got a big swing.

Diana is a less tech-dominated middle class area. Southern Diana is adjacent to Louaji University and ESYU, and it has a lot of professors and other educated professionals. The north side is more lower-middle class suburbia, with a growing black population. Again, this is a firmly Democratic area.

Birchbark Falls is, again, not super different from other Verendrye suburbs. It's rather similar to northern Diana if anything, although there's a certain white flight element to some of the towns up here.

The rural north and west of the county are really not especially suburban. Verendrye is a fairly dense city, due to new urbanist planning practices (a la Portland) so there is not too much suburban development in these areas per se. However, many of these townships are more democratic then you might expect, as there are a lot of rural hippie farming communes, retreat centers, etc. in these areas, as well as a lot of working class folks who commute to the city and are more similar to their urban counterparts. Nevertheless, these townships had a huge swing to Trump from 2012.

Newtucket County

Newtucket County is a big suburban county. The western half of the Innovation Turnpike is here, and consequently it has an upscale vibe. There's also a lot of tourism in the areas scenic beaches. It voted under 50% for Clinton but the Republican vote here plummeted hugely; there were third party defectors on both sides.

Portland is by far the largest city. It's the biggest Verendrye suburb, and Portland Plaza is a major edge city. It is a big center for the tech industry, and is an upper middle class place with strong growth.

Newtucket County's voting patterns are more easily explained with reference to highway patterns. The line of darker blue municipalities follow along US HWY 143, and these areas are more populated with affluent professionals.

The southern half of the county is more rural. It's similar to Eastern Verendrye County in that it's rural areas in an urban sphere of influence, but the profile of Southern Newtucket county is posher and less granola, with a lot of wealthy types living in beach houses and farming homes. The dark precinct, DeKlotz township, is an extension of the Pinckney County Dutch Reformed Colony.

Pinckney County

We might as well get to it. Pinckney County is very distinctive in this region, in that it is home to a large Dutch Reformed population, much like Sioux County Iowa or Ottawa County, Michigan. As a result, it is extremely Republican, although it is increasingly in Verendrye's sphere of influence.

Pinkerton is the largest city in the county, and the second largest in Eastern Sylvania. It's a port town, sitting at the mouth of the Verendrye River. Despite this, its reputation is as a center for conservatism and religiosity. Known as "The Dutch Rome," Pinkerton is the headquarters of several Reformed sects and has a reputation as a SoCon center. It is also home to Sylvania Military College, a state military university (like the Citadel or VMI) as well as a small naval base. Despite these factors, it has trended strongly leftwards in recent years. The city is home to a growing Latinx population on the West side, as well as a small but stable African-American population, including quite a few Ethiopian refugees. 2016 is the closest Pinkerton has ever come to flipping to Democrats.

White Gore is the second largest city. Lying along the Innovation Turnpike, White Gore has a lot of highly educated professionals, and is home to the bulk of the metro area's Indian-American population. Nevertheless, the Dutch Reformed factor has made the city more conservative than the other Verendrye suburbs. Since 2008, it has voted for the Democratic candidate for POTUS, and Clinton's 54% is the best ever performance here by a Democratic presidential candidate.

Rural Pinckney county is overwhelmingly conservative, with some of the most Republican precincts in the state. There is some suburban development around these parts, but it is somewhat self-selecting, with many of the newer residents being as Republican as the locals.

Roewena County

Roewena County is a small, working class county, dominated by the small city of the same name.

Roewena has over half of the county's population. It's a traditional port city. As a result, it is around 15% black due to the Great Migration. It's also home to Le Sueur College, an extremely left wing liberal arts college with a reputation for activism. Unsurprisingly, it's a highly Democratic city. There was a slight Republican swing, but it certainly wasn't anything powerful.

The southern shoreline towns are Roewena suburbs, such as there are any. Ethnically they're overwhelmingly white, but they are mostly "ethnic whites," particularly Italians and Poles. They are fairly republican leaning, although Obama did well there in his 2nd run. They snapped back to Trump.

The Eastern half of the county is a funny area, half Roewena suburbs and half Verendrye suburbs. It votes about how you would expect.

Wooster County

Wooster County is a fairly rural, ex-industrial area, formerly dependent on logging and paper mills, as well as agriculture. It's fairly peripheral to the Verendrye metropolitan area, yet there is some influence, particularly on the eastern side of the county due to highway shapes.

Lafayette is the second largest town. Like most of the county, it has been declining for a while. Once a union stronghold, it is now a shadow of its former self, and voted from Trump by a miniscule margin.

Marion is the largest town. It has a very similar profile to Lafayette, but unlike Lafayette it sits on Highway 143. Verendrye has seen a massive increase in cost of living, especially housing prices. Marion is near parts of North Verendrye which have seen substantial gentrification, and as a result many of the displaced residents have moved to Marion, which has a lot of cheap housing stock. As a result it's still growing, although it remains a poor and isolated town.

Rural Wooster County is quite agricultural and remote, by and large. Medges Township, which is southwest of Marion, has some exurban development, and is not too different from Northern Verendrye County. The city of Fireworks Station (formerly Elba) is the only other Clinton municipality in the county, with a similar ex-industrial profile.

[Sol]

Very cool! Where would this actually be on the world map?

Wedged in between Minnesota/North Dakota and Ontario/Manitoba--with one more US state below it to fill in the leftover space between Minnesota's Northern border and Sylvania's Southern border.

[Sol]

This is fantastic!

What is the state’s voting history? Was it a New Deal Dem bastion like Minnesota, or more swingy like the rest of the Midwest throughout the second half of the 20th Century?

I haven't fully sketched it out, but there are a few tendencies:

-Pre-1932 the base of the Republican party was in the Verendrye valley (due to a strong Yankee political tradition) and the Upper Windy Rock Valley (due to a strong tie between the state GOP and the Dutch community). The rest of the state was fairly competitive, with the strongest base for the Democrats in the city of Tanagreen, except in the small Black community and the wealthy Southwest side.
-In the New Deal era, the state swung to the left. The SW/Central portion of the state (i.e. Superior, Jerrie, Ashegan, etc.) swung hard Dem and stayed that way, as did the Nokomis-Lhut Passage area--in both cases due to mining (see the Iron Range). In the 1940s the rural west swung hard R and stayed that way (much like the rest of the Great Plains).
-In the 50s and 60s the mushrooming suburbs in midcentury made the Tanagreen collar counties a bedrock GOP area (especially Gill and Magdala counties, which were more WASP and also had been settled by Dutch folks). Meanwhile, the decline of GOP machines in some industrial areas, particularly the cities of Verendrye and Toomey lead to more Dem strength (see a lot of cities in Michigan).
-In the 1980s, much of rural Central and Eastern Sylvania flipped to Democrats due to the Farm Crisis, creating a Democratic base which was resolute until Trump (like the Driftless Area). Meanwhile white flight in Johnson County and increasing Democratic strength with white professionals in SW Tanagreen, and St. Francis (which had always been more Dem due to to a large Jewish community and a big Catholic demo in the SW) pushed the state into likely D territory. Democrats also gained some in the Ayers area, beginning to win in Ayers and Ten Broeck counties on the federal level.
-In the 21st century, the Republican party has seen major losses of support in the Tanagreen suburbs. First Gill, then Magdala, and most recently Orange and North Star (2020) have flipped to Democrats. Although they haven't yet flipped, Thomas and Tierney have also seen steady D growth. The one exception to this tendency is lower-middle class and "white ethnic" Noyon County, which is the Macomb County of Sylvania and flipped for Trump. The Democrats have also seen big growth in the Verendrye Valley for similar reasons. Meanwhile, since 2016, there has been a decent collapse in the D vote in many rural areas, excepting some counties in the SE which have a decent vacation community and higher union density.

[Sol]

There are 13 core counties in the Tanagreen area. I'll start discussing them, each in their turn.

Tanagreen County

Tanagreen is meant to be highly realistic; as a result it has some nasty elements of real-life cities which resemble it. It's certainly in no way meant to be an ideal. Rather, one of the points of this exercise is to hopefully understand better the fundamental racial and class inequities in major American cities.
The fundamental divide in Tanagreen's geography, at least in the urban core west of the Stowe river, is between the South and North sides, with downtown Tanagreen lying in the middle. Downtown is often said to end at Toledo [1] Street to north, while the South Side begins at Tanner Street. The area east of the Stowe river is called the East side.



Note that the areas identified with numbers, Union Park and Keller, are separate municipalities.

The North Side is traditionally working-class. During the 1800s, it became a major industrial center due to its proximity to rapids on the Stowe river, and the Northwest side became a major destination for Dutch and Irish immigrants. After the turn of the century, migration shifted, primarily to Eastern Europeans, Italians, and African-Americans. African-Americans were immensely segregated, primarily to the Union Hills and Dutchtown neighborhoods, via redlining, restrictive covenants, and prejudicial practices by landlords. Much like the rest of the country, the 1960s brought an end to some of these practices (in inner cities at least) and the emergence of white flight. As a result, much of the North side became mostly black, and racist urban renewal and disinvestment lead to great impoverishment, particularly in the innermost neighborhoods. These changes didn't stop immigration though, as South Dutchtown and Stowesville became home to a large Indian and Chinese community, respectively. There has also been serious gentrification, particularly along Lake Tanagreen and near the University of Sylvania, which is immediately north of downtown. Many of the communities along the lake are upper-class or middle-class black areas, like Lakeview.

The South Side is traditionally more white-collar, although the socioeconomic geography is pretty complex. The wealthiest area of the city is the Southwest side along Lake Tanagreen--an area which forms the "favored quarter" of the city. The southwest side was desirable from the first founding, as it lies upwind of the eastern factories and along the scenic lake. Historically, the southwest side has been the preserve of the old Anglo and Dutch-American aristocracy, including the powerful Rynesburger political dynasty which held the mayoralty in the early 20th century. This area of favor extends into the suburbs as Magdala and Southern Gill Counties are the wealthiest areas in the state. The Southwest Side is one of the whitest areas of the city and the area has a history of racial exclusion.
The southeast side is more varied; along the Stowe river was historically quite industrial. The Southeast side was the heart of the city's Irish community, which historically had a vicious rivalry with the Republican Dutch political establishment. The city of Keller, which is enclaved within the Southeast side, remained independent due to the area's strong Irish identity. Presently the southeast side is a patchwork of ethnic groups and incomes, including Hmongs, Bosniaks, African-Americans, Senegalese, and Armenians--though the area is still majority white. There has also been a lot of gentrification; amusingly Keller is mostly yuppies now. The "white ethnic" character of the southwest side translates to Noyon County and parts of southern St. Francis county too, as these areas were settled from communities in the Southeast side.

Finally, the East side is a bit of a similar area. It's less densely populated than the areas on the other bank of the river and tends to be overlooked--not unlike Queens. The east side emerged as more industrial areas along the Stowe. Traditionally, the Eastern East Side was upper class streetcar suburbia, but the history of the east side is one of gradual movement of the upper class further and further east along the east-west arterials, until they reached St. Francis County. Northpoint and Hiawatha Park experienced big-scale White flight concurrently with the adjacent north side, as did Lincolnton, and these areas are now mostly Black. The central east side, on the other hand, as well as the independent city of Union Park, are mostly Latino[2]. The East Side was also historically the heart of the Tanagreen Jewish community, which is now mostly in St. Francis County--though Oboshing as a whole is still pretty Jewish. The east side is dotted with small lakes and the neighborhoods around those lakes retain an upper-class white character (Florence, East Oboshing, western Lake Forest).

[1] Pronounced like the Spanish City, not like the Ohio town.
[2] The Latino community in Tanagreen is mostly Mexican.

[Sol]

Gill County
Gill County is on the far side of Lake Tanagreen. Its location next to the lake, as well as to the West of the city, means that it's a fairly rich area in general.

This is the town map:



Here are the town names for the lettered localities:

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

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a. Crawford City
b. Pembina Junction
c. Gill Marsh Village
d. Marshfield
e. Southwest Shores
f. Clempson
g. Clempson Heights
h. Waynesboro
i. West Clempson
j. Gill Center
k. Winslow Park
l. Kautawaubet
m. Lakesboro
n. Boise Park
o. West Aurora
p. Boise
q. Wapeetee
r. Crawford
s. Horton

As you can see, the lake is filled with rotten boroughs.

Here are the 2020 results:


Now, the writeup.

Aurora and Lakesboro
Aurora is the second-largest city in Gill County, and until this century was the largest. It's a big streetcar suburb of Tanagreen. It was first developed in the late 19th century alongside the Little Utica Canal (details forthcoming in the Orange County writeup) and grew rapidly, becoming an affluent town. In the 1950s, it was subject to a lawsuit (along with some sections of southwest Johnson County) regarding its highly restrictive ordinances regarding who could live there, which excluded African-Americans, Jews, and most Southern Europeans. As was the case in many areas which desegregated early, it underwent really dramatic White Flight and became a overwhelmingly Black community by the late 70s. It also became very poor, standing out dramatically relative to very affluent Gill County. Beginning in the mid 2000s, Aurora begun to gentrify, due to its convenient location on the Red Line, mostly intact Victorian housing stock, as well as concerted efforts from the city government. Presently, Aurora remains a working-class, Black majority suburban community with a growing white hipster presence in downtown. Unsurprisingly it's monolithically Democratic.

Lakesboro is a somewhat transitional area, with some streetcar suburbia and a lot of interwar suburbs too. Lakesboro is extremely racially polarized--the north is heavily Black and lower middle class while the south is overwhelmingly white, and they're separated by a creek and the city's small downtown. Both communities are fairly Democratic.

The Lake Cities

The Lake Cities (Kautawaubet, Winslow Park, Waynesboro, West Clempson, Clempson Heights, Clempson, Southwest Shores, Nanterre, and Chester) are a major region of Gill County. All of these communities are extremely affluent--some of the richest places in the country-- and white. Unlike areas to the north of Gill County, these areas were built later, mostly postwar excepting Kautawaubet, and are pretty low density, filled with subdivisions, mansions, and marinas. They're also less well connected via highway, which has allowed them to maintain a very homogeneous character. The Lake Cities used to be monolithically Republican and still lean R when taken as a whole, but the northern cities (Kautawaubet, Winslow Park, Waynesboro), which are denser and more populous, lean Democratic and have voted accordingly since 2008 or so (though Waynesboro voted for Romney). More recently, Chester and West Clempson flipped in 2016, with Clempson Heights flipping in 2020.

Northern Gill County

Northern Gill County (West Aurora, Boise Park, Boise, Bois Brulee, Flynndale, Horton, Wapeetee, Central Township, Gantt Township, and Gill Center) is the most populous area of Gill County. The area is the best connected section of suburban Gill County to the central city, and it's consequently been a major node of growth. Bois Brulee Mall is one of the main edge cities of Tanagreen, and the region is in close proximity to Tanagreen Airport. Voting-wise, the area is one of the most Democratic sections of Gill County, though it used to be swingier pre-Obama.

The towns near Aurora (West Aurora, Boise Park, and Boise), is the oldest part of this area, largely dense middle income interwar suburbs. They're fairly white middle class suburbs. Lots of middle-class liberal Irish Americans. Historically there was a fair amount of racial tension as these towns were quite exclusionary of Black people from Aurora; infamously Boise Park turned a lot of its roads which crossed into Aurora into dead ends in the 80s. The area however has a growing Black and Chinese middle class. Electorally, it's highly Democratic, and has been since the late 20th century.

Further west, North-Central Gill County (Bois Brulee, Flynndale, Horton, Wapeetee, Gantt Twp.) holds the plurality of the county's population. It's populous, highly sprawling postwar suburbia radiating along I-98. This area is highly diverse; barely white majority but extremely heavily Asian in parts, with a large number of evangelical Christians but also ground zero for suburban swings against the GOP. The last Republican to do reasonably well here was Bush in 2004, who won Flynndale, Wapeetee, Horton, Gantt Twp., and made a respectable run in Bois Brulee. Everything since has been escalating collapses for Republicans, though 2020 was especially brutal, with Biden managing even a draw in deeply exurban Gantt and clearing 60% in plurality-Chinese Wapeetee. The area is quite upper-middle class and although it's entirely Democratic now it tends to elect fairly conservative Democrats.

Central Gill County (Central Twp., Gill Center) is a transitional area between this and Western Gill County.

Western and Southern Gill County

Western and Southern Gill County (Gantt Township, Crawford Township, Crawford City, Maccasang, Pembina Junction, Gill Marsh Township, Gill Marsh, and Marshfield) is the most outlying section of Gill County. These two areas are actually fairly different.

Western Gill County (Gantt Township, Crawford Township, Crawford City, Maccasang, Pembina Junction) is quite exurban; it's McMansion territory, and some of the fastest growing areas of the metro are in this section. It remains quite Republican, barring Pembina Junction, which has an existence preceding suburbia as a railway junction and is consequently 50-50. It's firmly white and middle-class.

Southern Gill County (Gill Marsh Township, Gill Marsh, and Marshfield) is very similar to the Lake Cities--very wealthy boat people (in this case along the Gill Marshes, a cluster of postglacial lakes). They are very rich and still remain fairly GOP, since this is a more exurbanish area.

[Sol]

I can only imagine the massive amount of work you are putting on this.
What a beautiful project! I love fictional regions and maps. I don't think I ever tried to undertake anything remotely close to the staggering scope of this project, though.

That's incredibly kind!

I have to say, it isn't much work--my fictional states are the thing I think about when I go for walks, or take showers, or ride the bus. The challenge is translating what I have in my mind to posts.

[Sol]

What are the politics of Itasca? Is it like one of the Dakotas?

Where would you live in Sylvania?

(I also wonder where I would live in Sylvania, although I doubt you could answer that)

Itasca is not super fleshed out, but I think it's pretty similar to the Upper Peninsula.

Personal, I'd probably want to live in an inner neighborhood of Tanagreen (perhaps Transylvania?) or in Verendye. I basically live in place similar to Verendrye now, though I'd prefer to live in the former.

What sort of place would you want to live in?

[Sol]

To take a break from detailed demographic analysis, here are some difficult to pronounce place names in Sylvania and their pronunciations.

Cinque Terre (Tanagreen Suburb in Tierney county): sank tuh-RAY [sæŋk tə'ɹeɪ]

Delisle (County): duh-LEEL [də.'lil], sometimes DUH-lee ['də.li]

Havre Gele (city in Superior County): HAV-ree GEE-lee ['hæv.ɹi 'gi.li]

New Akron (city in Superior County): new uh-CRAW [nju ə.kɹɑ]

Oboshing (neighborhood of Tanagreen): oh-BOH-shing [oʊ.'boʊ.ʃɪŋ]

Ohavesper (city in Kappa County): o-a-vuh-SPER [oʊ.æ.və.'spɝ]

Pontypridd (Tanagreen suburb in St. Francis County): paw-nee-prid [pɔ.ni.'prɪd]

Stowe (River): stoe [stoʊ]

Tetes Blues (County) tet blues [tɛt bluz]

Toledo Street (major Tanagreen Street): tuh-LAY-do [tə.'leɪ. doʊ]

Varennes (County): var-NEEZ [vɑːɹ.'niz]

Varennes (Street and Neighborhood in Verendrye): vair-uh-NESS [vɛ.ɹəˈnɛs]

Varennes (Street in Tanagreen): VAR-in ['vɑɹ.ɪn]

Any pronunciations you're curious about?

[Sol]

Sorry for not updating in ages!

Dakota County is a particularly interesting area, with a dramatic and wildly shifting history. (The usual caveat of “this is intended to be realistic, so it’s rather horrible,” applies). Also, sorry again for the bad images.

Unlike much of Verendrye’s Gap, which is ideal for farming, Dakota County has poor quality soils and is a bit hilly, sitting at the transition between farming areas in the east and ranching areas to the west. As a result, it became home to a Dakota Reservation (on the far Northern and Eastern periphery of most of the state’s traditional Dakota population) as of the Treaty of Argentville of 1865. The Treaty resolved the Windy Rock War, a conflict between white colonizers and the Dakota people of Southwest Sylvania, and it strongly disfavored them, many who were forced to migrate to new reservations in Sells, McCrary, Washington, Windy Rock, McKinley, Wisner, Dylan, and Dakota Counties. As per this treaty, all of Dakota County as well as Dylan County (which was part of Dakota County at the time) would be part of the Doree River Indian Reservation.

However, this status quo did not last. Tanagreen was initially linked to the west coast by connections with the Northern Pacific Railway, the nearest transcontinental railway, which was completed in the early 1880s. However, the city’s leaders knew that for Tanagreen to continue its record of growth, it would have to have its own strong link to the Pacific. As a result, even before the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway, a consortium of affluent Tanagreenites (known as the Northlands Company), including tycoons Charles Napier and Bigby Visser III, commissioned the construction of the Ft. Hitchcock and Kellsburg Railway, which linked the Pacific port of Kellsburg with Fort Hitchcock, a city in the Kootenay Territory[1]. Fort Hitchcock was already linked to Tanagreen via the Ft. Hitchcock and Verendrye railway, which went just north of the city–but it also intersected with the St. Paul and Tanagreen railway, at a junction point in the eastern part of the Doree River Reservation.



Napier and Visser saw an opportunity in this area, and they lobbied hard to the federal government to remove the newly valuable eastern portion of the Doree River Reservation from Native control. They succeeded in 1887. Bigby Visser died the next year, but Napier, who was still quite young and idealistic, bought up the land rights and set about constructing a large city to profit off of the vital railway traffic.

Napier was an odd sort. Born in 1850 to the already prominent Napier business family, Napier used his family’s fortune to rapidly diversify, particularly into railroads, meatpacking, logging, and steel. But despite his robber baron actions and attitudes, Napier was personally an extremely devout Calvinist, as well as a prominent temperance advocate and Republican. In constructing his city of Napier (what later became Dakota City), Charles Napier intended to build a kind of industrial City on a Hill–a sort of massive theological company town. His idiosyncratic and highly particular vision gave Napier City a rather distinctive profile–it was filled with Olmsted parks, had a religious university (Pax College) and had a large central commons, known as “Covenant Green.” Despite these ornamental flourishes, Napier City was no artificial Brasilia or Chandigarh–the city grew quickly and soon spiraled away from Charles’s visions. Ground was broken for the city in 1888, and by 1900 it was already sitting at around 15,000 people, nearly all of whom were employed in either meatpacking or, increasingly, steel.

The founding of Napier City came at an interesting time in the history of American immigration, as migration from Germany and Northern Europe began to give way to migration from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. The migrants to Napier City certainly reflected this trend, as they were overwhelmingly from these areas. The city was a melting pot of Hungarians (an especially large demographic), Moravians, Rusyns, Poles, Croats, Italians (nearly all from Sardinia or Trapani), Serbs, Lebanese, Greeks, Ukrainians, and Finns. There was virtually no constituency for Napier’s Protestant utopia. As Napier himself lamented in a 1911 letter to a friend: “My city has virtually no Christians at all..it is merely a place where the Catholic Church’s only threat is from the Patriarch of Constantinople.”

Napier publicly denounced his city in the 1910s, referring to it harshly in the press, particularly during a major strike in 1916 at the Northlands Steel Mill. The entirely Democratic and Catholic machine running the city shrugged his insults off, but when Napier publicly demanded that they remove his name from the city in 1923 they obliged, renaming it to Dakota City.

Dakota City remained a thriving and fast growing industrial community until mid-century, even as European immigration dwindled due to the 1924 anti-immigration act. Beginning in the 1960s and 70s, the city began to receive a trickle of Mexican immigration, as it had become increasingly difficult to find workers for the meatpacking plants. The descendants of the European immigrants increasingly moved to the surrounding belt of suburban communities around the city, even more so as the steel industry collapsed and Mexican immigration picked up steam in the 80s and 90s. Today, Dakota City is a somewhat hollowed out place–it sits at around 100,000 people, well below its historic peak of 140,000–but it has avoided the total hollowing out experienced by other cities, like Toomey or Gary, IN, in part due to the growing Latino community. Pax College is also a growing presence, though its unique status as a far-right Christian University puts it out of sync with the city. Dakota City is majority Latino but not overwhelmingly so–it’s around 60% Latino, with the heart of the city’s Mexican community in the East and West side. There’s still a large Hungarian community too, especially in the far South side, while the very industrial North side has seen growth in Central American communities, as well as a non-negligible number of African and Southeast Asian refugees who work in the meatpacking plants and in the area’s still large shipping sector.

Here’s a map of the current municipalities for reference:



Letter correspondences in the spoiler:

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A. Browerton
B. West Napier
C. Hazelton
D. New Pittsburg
E. Dakota City
F. Corix
G. Napier Park
H. River City
I. Wanyecha
J. Visser

The general patterns of voting in Dakota County are fairly different from Orange or Wanacha counties, as Dakota County was opened up too late to white colonization for it to be an extension of the Dutch colonies nearby. Instead, the ring of suburbs around Dakota City are very Catholic, lower middle class, pretty white (with the exception of New Pittsburg, which is increasingly Latino) and consequently a bit swingier than nearby areas. Trump did quite well here in 2016, winning the county for the first time in years–though much of that was also due to a collapse among Native voters, who are still around 10% of the county population [2]. The county flipped back in 2020 thanks to Biden winning over the suburbs and the rez, though he lost a bit of ground in Dakota City proper [3].

A fun piece of trivia: Dakota City has one of the most Republican precincts in the state (DC-11) which is home to the Pax College campus and which usually votes around 90% R, with some right wing third parties getting a non-negligible bit of the rest.

[1] These are all fictional locations in the northern tier of states west of Sylvania.
[2] Most of the Dakota community in Dakota County lives on Doree River, but there’s a non-negligible urban Indian community on the east side of Dakota City, as well as in Corix (around 5-10% in both)
[3] Less than is typical of most heavily Latino areas though.

Any questions? A lot of this stuff has lived in my brain for ages, so apologies if it's unclear or contradictory.

[Sol]

Very fascinating story of Dakota City! On a topic that hits me close for obvious reasons, any particular reason why you made all the Italian diaspora there originary of Sardinia or Trapani?

Haha I kind of wanted to get at some of the ways in which chain migration can be a little odd. IIRC, most Sardinian emigration went to South America, but frequently industrial cities in the U.S. had significant diaspora communities which are a little unusual (i.e. Slovenes in Pueblo or Ruthenians in Pittsburgh) so I figured that it fit with Dakota City.

There are a lot more Sicilian-Americans, of course, but I wanted to get at the way chain migration can end up pulling from very specific places.

[Sol]

Replaced the broken image link for Tanagreen.

[Sol]

I thought I would write up a post about Sylvania's state universities. I thought it would surely be easy, something to knock out in between effortposts...I was wrong.

Part 1: The University of Sylvania System
The University of Sylvania system is the smaller of the two main state university systems. It’s governed by an 8 member Board of Regents, elected statewide for four-year terms in midterm election years, and a chair, who is appointed by the Governor and serves for 10 years. Currently, the makeup of the Board of Regents is 8D-1R, with the lone Republican appointee being the chair.

The University of Sylvania (USY) is the flagship university of the University of Sylvania system, and one of the most prestigious public universities in the country. The central campus is located in central Tanagreen in the western part of the appropriately named “College Hill” neighborhood, just north of Toledo Street. The University is a major leader in scholarship and research, including particular strengths in history, archeology, critical theory, and especially physics. USY, as it’s commonly known as, has an enrollment of 39,800 undergraduates and 14,000 postgrads. It’s particularly known for its football team, the Polar Bears, and its colors are navy blue and white.

USY is unusual among state university flagships due its highly central location in an older urban area. The University was first chartered in 1839 as the Sylvania Territorial University, eventually getting renamed after statehood. The area which the University owned was sufficient for much of its early history, with some moderate expansion, particularly to the east. However, after WW2, the university’s enrollment swelled, particularly due to the GI Bill. As a result, USY administration looked to significantly expand the campus to build new dorms. Much of the land nearby was fairly expensive — the inevitable consequence of being located in a major CBD — but it was much cheaper in the predominantly Black and very poor northeastern section of College Hill. Under the auspices of urban renewal and slum clearance, USY and Tanagreen city officials bulldozed most of northeast College Hill and a small portion of southeast Dutchtown in 1957-58 to build the new Herkimer North Campus, with little compensation or notice to the residents.

USY became a major center for campus radicalism in the ‘60s and ‘70s, with student groups occupying Jefferson Hall, the center of university administration, as a protest against ROTC’s presence on campus and against tuition increases.

In recent years, USY has expanded geographically even further, buying up mostly land in eastern NoTo and in the areas between Central Campus and Herkimer North Campus, though thankfully this has been accomplished without the same destructive impacts, as much of the former was industrial and the latter has been very piecemeal. USY has also bought up old industrial land in Germantown and the West End, for the creation of stadiums.

However, gentrification is a major issue, and there has been significant displacement of the area’s Black community. In 1990, College Hill was 60% Black, but in 2020 it was only 35% Black. There’s also been major concerns around the USY police department, which has a very poor relationship with the non-university population.

The University of Sylvania-Reed Lake(USYR) is one of the University of Sylvania system’s two regional campuses, designed to serve students in different parts of the state. It’s located in Reed Lake, a small city in northeastern Morgan county.

The University of Sylvania-Armstrong Center (USYA) is the other regional university, located in the town of Armstrong Center, the seat of Armstrong County. It’s the smallest state-run university in Sylvania.

[1] Ironically, the creation of Herkimer North Campus (named after then President James L. Herkimer) was also unpopular among whites, particularly affluent suburban parents who were concerned about crime and about “crime”.

[Sol]

Good work on this!

I can only imagine the massive amount of work you are putting on this.
What a beautiful project! I love fictional regions and maps. I don't think I ever tried to undertake anything remotely close to the staggering scope of this project, though.

That's incredibly kind!

I have to say, it isn't much work--my fictional states are the thing I think about when I go for walks, or take showers, or ride the bus. The challenge is translating what I have in my mind to posts.

I have to say, the exact same is true for me. I frequently imagine fake states and then start daydreaming about their state legislatures and congressional districts and sometimes counties and what not. Usually the product is a Google Doc that's taken up an hour or so of my time and which will soon be forgotten    I also sometimes come up with fake politicians who I then write fictional biographies of. I wonder if this is something anyone else does as well? (Always thought I was the only person who would do something like that.)

Not sure if this is normal but you're certainly not the only person to do stuff like this! Thanks for the kind words!

Sorry for the slow response, didn't notice your reply.

[Sol]

Here's some info on the Sylvania State system, as well as the independent SYMU system:

The Sylvania State System is the larger of the two systems. It’s also governed by an 8 member Board of Regents, elected statewide for four-year terms in presidential election years, as well as by a chair who is appointed to a 10 year term. The Sylvania State System is currently entirely controlled by Democrats. The Sylvania State System also runs all community colleges.

Sylvania State University (SYSU) is the flagship, located in Witch Hazel’s westside University City neighborhood in Ten Broeck County. SYSU, as it’s commonly called, was founded in compliance with the Morrill Act, as a state-run university with a focus on agriculture, and later STEM. Particular academic strengths include biology, chemistry, pharmacy, and medicine, with the SYSU School of  Medicine being highly rated. SYSU is a major college football school, with a famous rivalry with USY, and its team is called the Aggies, with its’ mascot being “Joe the Farmer.” The campus is massive, with 52,000 undergrads and 20,000 postgrads.

University City is a fairly suburban area which has grown up in large part around the University, so it doesn’t have some of the same issues of gentrification and displacement. Although the Westside is fairly suburban, there is a main shopping corridor along Ketacko Boulevard, and the area is increasingly urbanizing, with dense mixed-use apartments everywhere. More detail will come when I eventually give more detailed info on the Ayers metro.

Politically, SYSU and the University community has had a reputation of being more conservative traditionally, relative to the more left-leaning student base at USY. However, this is at least 20 years out of date–SYSU is quite Democratic these days and Sanders performed significantly better here than at USY in 2016.

Aside from SYSU, there are six regional universities.

Western Sylvania State University (WSSU) is located in the twin towns of Hidatsa and Henderson, in southwest Union County. It’s the third largest university in the state and is planned to be massively expanded in the coming years. It’s also conventionally seen as the third most prestigious school in the state and is the most common school for students from the western third of the state. Politically, its student body is left-leaning to be sure, but less engaged and slightly more right-wing than USY or SYSU students, which reinforces Union’s purplish tendencies. It has a close relationship with elite private university Van Buren College.

Northern Sylvania State University (NSSU) is located in Rochefort, in Rochefort County. It was historically the Rochefort Conservatory and Teacher’s College before the state took it over in the Great Depression, and it consequently has a particularly artsy focus. The student body here is famously left-wing–it was once memorably called by a Board of Regents member “Oberlin for dumb people.” It’s the second smallest state university.

Eastern Sylvania State University (ESSU) is located in Verendrye, on the East Side. It’s a fairly generic regional university, with an especially strong nursing program.

Southern Sylvania State University (SSSU) is located in Boitnotte, in the suburban Okemoose neighborhood. Much like Eastern, SSSU is a fairly typical regional college, with a strong business school and a famously dominant Quidditch team.

Metropolitan Sylvania University (MSU) is located in three locations due to mergers–there’s the MetroCenter Campus in South Green, the MetroSouth-Technology Campus in Pynchon (in Noyon County) and the MetroEast Campus in Kitzengen (in Northeastern Thomas County). MetroCenter Campus has its roots as the University of Tanagreen, a municipally run university which was turned over to the state in 1960. As a result of this, residents of Tanagreen County can attend MSU tuition-free. MSU is exceptionally diverse, and as a result of this and its close association with the city of Tanagreen has meant that it has often gone underfunded by state governments catering to racist white suburbanites.

Finally, Oboshing State University (OBSU) was historically a self-governing university outside of the SYSU system but was merged into it following a reshuffling in 2011. It’s the fourth-largest university in the state, located in northern Oboshing on the line between east and west. It’s a common ‘safety’ school for suburban kids who get rejected from USY but who want to transfer in after their freshman year.

Finally, Sylvania Military University (SYMU) is independent from any university system. It’s a state-run military college, similar to the Citadel or VMI, located in Pinkerton. It’s governed by a 4 member Board of Regents, elected statewide in presidential election years, as well as by a chair who serves for 10 years. The current partisan breakdown is 3D-2R, the first time that Democrats have controlled the SYMU Board of Regents in half a century.  

SYMU is moderately prestigious and quite selective but is particularly well-known for its intense, masculine, and conservative atmosphere. It has especially robust history, foreign language, religious studies programs, as well as, surprisingly, women’s and gender studies, thanks to the presence of prominent Third Wave feminist theorist Adele Buckley. SYMU however has courted controversy due to its widespread undergraduate hazing culture, which has been described as the worst in the country.

[Sol]

Finally made a basemap of the municipalities in the Tanagreen metro area (plus Roosevelt County)! Should make it much easier to complete these writeups.

[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.

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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.

[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.

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

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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.