The Map With Only 38 States

[tannybogus]

If George Etzel Pearcy had his way, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s famous song would have been called “Sweet Home Talladego.” In 1973, the California State University geography professor suggested that the U.S. should redraw its antiquated state boundaries and narrow the overall number of states to a mere thirty-eight.

Pearcy’s proposed state lines were drawn in less-populated areas, isolating large cities and reducing their number within each state. He argued that if there were fewer cities vying for a state’s tax dollars, more money would be available for projects that would benefit all citizens.
Because the current states were being chopped up beyond recognition, part of his plan included renaming the new states by referencing natural geologic features or the region’s cultural history.
While he did have a rather staunch support network—economists, geographers, and even a few politicians argued that Pearcy’s plan might be crazy enough to work—the proposal was defeated in Washington, D.C. Imagine all the work that would have to be done to enact Pearcy’s plan: re-surveying the land, setting up new voter districts, new taxation infrastructure—basically starting the whole country over. It’s easy to see why the government balked.
The map above was published in 1973. Oddly, it doesn’t show any city locations to help illustrate Pearcy’s argument. At this point, I should tell you that I make maps for a living. So I did my best to replicate Pearcy’s map using population data from the 2000 census to show current high population cities and where they would fall within the new states. Here’s what I came up with:



As you can see, many of the new states contain a small number of major metropolitan areas, and the problem of dual-state cities has been solved. While Pearcy’s proposal might have been a logistical nightmare to make a reality, that doesn’t necessarily mean it was a bad idea.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/17550

Works for me!!
:popcorn:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. It would be even better if it were 38 counties. But, I'll settle for the state of Cascadia.

[cliffordu]

2. If these can be different COUNTRIES I'm right there with ya.

I live in Cascade. We want bike routes EVERYWHERE!!!

NO IMMIGRATION, unless you are a liberallefty...heh.

[RB TexLa]

4. If you are going to do countries, go back to the way it should be

[cliffordu]

9. I like THAT even better!!

[Greyhound]

6. LOL!

That's funny to me because that is exactly what we were, and still should be. That's why this country doesn't have a name, it's the United (independent) States of America (the continent). The federal government was designed as a subordinate central clearing house to simply facilitate cooperation between the separate and independent little countries.

Had the founders named our country, it would almost certainly have been the nation of Columbia (she's that lady you see everywhere, on top of United States Capitol, the statue of "lady Justice", etc.) as she was a Goddess created by them, for us, the Goddess of Liberty.
:patriot::kick::patriot:

[hfojvt]

8. countries would be stupid

with national borders and different currencies and armies and perhaps North Dakota would be one of the few nuclear powers. Way back when, perhaps even in my lifetime, states used to be more autonomous and diverse, but they have now become more homogenized.

[Drunken Irishman]

3. You should do metro population instead of city.

Like Salt Lake City is a far bigger city than Great Falls, Boise and Spokane, yet on the map, they look fairly equal. And this map has Albuquerque appearing to be bigger, too. Yes, each city's population is closer, however, the Salt Lake metro is more comparable to Las Vegas than it is Bismark. :D

[Warpy]

7. The greater metro area of Albuquerque is

getting close to a million. The suburbs and exurbs, often their own cities, add a lot. In addition, the state is developing an urban corridor along the Rio Grande from Belen to Santa Fe.

The legend had Albuquerque smaller than it is. It was over 500,000 when I moved here 18 years ago.

[Drunken Irishman]

13. Yes, I understand that.

Many of these regions are smaller than they are when you include metro or CSA instead. Salt Lake City's metro is about 1.1 million, its CSA is 1.6 million.

If you do metro, it works better. Instead of including Salt Lake City with Boise and Bismark, it would be included with its more natural population partners: Las Vegas, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Columbus and Indianapolis, to name a few.

[hfojvt]

5. What problem of dual state cities?

You mean cities that are in two states, like Kansas City and the Quad cities? I thought Pearcy was saying that there were too many cities in a state, in which case we'd wanna have more states, not fewer. He puts Sioux Falls, SD; Sioux City, Iowa; Omaha, Ne; and KC in the same state, and also divides Alaska for some obscure reason, creating a state called Seward with probably 60,000 people in it. :wtf:

It probably would be economical to combine the Dakotas, but politically they would go from 4 Senators and 2 Reps to two Senators and one Rep, so there is no way they'd agree to it.

[dysfunctional press]

10. "alamo" would be too big, population-wise...dfw should go to shawnee

btw- also regarding "alamo"...why would we want to name a state after an idiotic battle that was fought mainly to preserve slavery? :shrug:

[CrispyQ]

11. "...setting up new voter districts, ..."

I'm surprised the repubs don't go for this. They could re-district the entire continent in one fell swoop!

[JVS]

12. Oh no way. It would make my state suck!

[Initech]

14. I'll be deep in the cold cold ground before I recognize Missourah!!

http://bp1.blogger.com/_nVkz0fDKz2s/Rp81wj5uqWI/AAAAAAAAAFg/fipMwq3aPCI/s320/grandpa+simpson.jpg

[Quantess]

15. I want us to have a cool native American name, too, like Walla Walla.

But it's sort of funny that Idaho = Bitterroot.

[Generic Brad]

16. Packers & Vikings in the same state?

I don't think so. There's no way I'm wearing a block of cheese on my head.

[SmokingJacket]

17. I like the names!

I'd live in the state of Mohawk, totally cool. And we'd be separate from NYC, which is good and bad: the bad is that we'd turn Republican; the good is that our property taxes would drop.

I also think "Alamo" would be too big -- split it up!

One think I don't like-- all the state are blobby. How about making them more distinctively shaped??