Cities that belong in other states
 

One might argue that culturally speaking,

• Jacksonville belongs in Georgia
• Toledo belongs in Michigan
• El Paso belongs in New Mexico

What else? What cities feel like they're in the wrong state?

This is a good topic though thank god Jacksonville isn't in Georgia. Jacksonville is in the state in which it belongs, which continues to go back in time, while Georgia is moving forward.

The other two seem spot on.

Mobile in LA, Memphis in MS, Charleston in GA.

Kansas City, MO into Kansas.

Michigan City, IN into Michigan.

If for no other reason than to end the confusion surrounding their names.

Buffalo should be somewhere where buffalo roam.

Wherever the hell Darren Bailey is from belongs in Kentucky

Philadelphia belongs in New Jersey.

It's the very reason for the state of Pennsylvania's existence, but an uninformed visitor to Philadelphia would barely know that it's the primate city of a state that stretches 300 miles to the west. Somewhat akin to the relation of NYC to the rest of New York state on a much smaller scale.

And among the very first attributes of Philadelphia that denizens cite about their city is not even integral to the city itself. Very often, the first thing a Philadelphia-area local mentions when talking about his city is its proximity to New York, followed by the Jersey shore.

I happen to think that Philadelphia is a great city on its own... but it always feels like locals want to almost immediately tout that NYC is 2 hours away or the shore is 60 miles away. It's clear that, at least subconsicously, they want to be part of Jersey.

I occasionally feel like Philadelphia would be a better fit for New Jersey, Maryland (especially since it once had a claim on the area), or Delaware. Each state is far more progressive than PA, which is more of a purple state overall. Plus, Trenton and Dover would probably support, prioritize, and recognize Philadelphia as its economic and growth engine more than Harrisburg (I'm not sure about Annapolis since they fail to do the same for Baltimore).

While I'm content with Philly being in PA, one major benefit I'd see from being part of New Jersey is transit funding. NJ actually funds NJ Transit pretty sufficiently, unlike PA with SEPTA. There's also the fact that NJ has always been part of the "North", while DE and MD fall below the Mason-Dixon Line.

I was going to say that NYC would fit in as part of New Jersey. There is far more cultural overlap between NYC and NJ than there is between NYC and upstate NY.

Windsor, Ontario, should be in Michigan
Las Vegas in California
Pittsburgh in West Virginia (to give WV a big city)
Grand Rapids in Wisconsin or Minnesota

This one doesn't seem straightforward to me.

Rationale for why GR would fit better with those states rather than MI?

Yeah, you could make an argument that both NYC and Philly belong more in Jersey.

what fraction of Jersey's population is outside the NYC and PHL CSAs?

Houston should be in its own state.

Not sure what the "official" CSA numbers area. But in reality, none.

GR seems more similar to cities in those states than it does to other cities in Michigan. The other big city centers in Michigan are "rusty" prewar cities with a large Black population. Grand Rapids is more postwar and, other than Lansing, is the only "major" city in Michigan where Black people are not the majority of the population.

More like, El Paso belongs in Chihuahua

None, unless something recently changed.

This is a PA thing with many of our cities and it always makes me laugh. Harrisburg, the capital that has some great attributes, its biggest selling point has always been, "We are close to other stuff." :shrug:

But if Philly was in MD they could have made it a completely independent city which has hurt Baltimore in a lot of ways. We could get into the semantics of it kind of being the same thing now, as Philadelphia is both a city and a county and almost has to function in the same way. But outside of this nuance I do think the neighboring states would have naturally made the city a little more progressive overall, as because of PA's size the regions are very distinct and go out of their way to stay separated and there is an out of sight out of mind mentality.

It looks like only the Cape May area, south of Atlantic City, and the far western part of central Jersey that's close to Allentown are the only areas of the state outside of the NYC and PHL CSAs. Allentown might be a newly created CSA, though.