Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[Umbran]

While its possible to live enough far away from anywhere else for this to be true, I'm not sure the majority of non-urban/suburban/exurban U.S. is any farther away from other places than parts of the Central Valley.

O rly?

Looking it up, it seems California's Central Valley has a population density of 155 people per square mile. It may be empty as compared to LA. But, there are 28 entire states in the US with lower population density than that! Basically, more than half the states are more empty than the Central Valley. There are five states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska) with less than ONE TENTH the population density of the Central Valley.

And, besides that, CA, as a whole, is a cultural and economic powerhouse. The Central Valley is the middle of somewhere, because CA is somewhere, in a way that, say, the middle of North Dakota just isn't.

 

[Thomas Shey]

O rly?

California's Central Valley has a population density of 155 people per square mile. It may be empty as compared to LA. But, there are 28 entire states in the US with lower population density than that! Basically, more than half the states are more empty than the Central Valley. There are five states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska) with less than ONE TENTH the population density of the Central Valley.

And, besides that, CA, as a whole, is a cultural and economic powerhouse. The Central Valley is the middle of somewhere, because CA is somewhere, in a way that, say, the middle of North Dakota just isn't.

it doesn't matter how many people live in the area if they're spread out thinly enough, and that's generically true with all the California rural areas. But I think we're just using "somewhere" vastly differently.

 

[Velderan]

Remember that time--not too long ago--when someone on ENWorld didn't agree with you, and they wrote a huge condescending, insulting post about it, and you changed your mind? And you ended up not only agreeing with them, but also changing your opinion of them for the better?

Yeah, me neither.

Well see that is where you seem to have made a mistake. The trick isn't to just write one lengthy condescending and insulting post, but rather write several over somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20 pages before the mods shut it down. That's how you change people's minds.

 

[Velderan]

O rly?

Looking it up, it seems California's Central Valley has a population density of 155 people per square mile. It may be empty as compared to LA. But, there are 28 entire states in the US with lower population density than that! Basically, more than half the states are more empty than the Central Valley. There are five states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska) with less than ONE TENTH the population density of the Central Valley.

And, besides that, CA, as a whole, is a cultural and economic powerhouse. The Central Valley is the middle of somewhere, because CA is somewhere, in a way that, say, the middle of North Dakota just isn't.

You just offended both of the people who live in North Dakota.

 

[Umbran]

it doesn't matter how many people live in the area if they're spread out thinly enough

Which is why I am using density - people per square mile - as the metric, instead of total population.

 

[TiQuinn]

It gets complicated depending on exactly where you are. Parts of the valley north of the Los Angeles basin range from having a fair number of cities fairly close (as you go up the 99 you're hitting all the urban areas to be found there, even if they're not huge by the standards of Los Angeles or Sacramento) but there's a considerable dead zone as you get closer to the coast in that area--with gaps larger than a rather fair number of states. You can certainly cherry-pick some parts of the midwest (the central part of Nevada is really a whole lot of nothin' once you get away from Highway 376 for example, but that's kind of the point--nobody lives in those areas except occasional isolates anyway; even most people with hermit tendencies can find somewhere more pleasant to live).

It’s been awhile since I’ve been to places like Fresno and Bakersfield so I’m sure they’ve grown as have a lot of other places in CA where people have moved to searching for affordable housing. They just never really made the list of “places you wanted to go” in my book unless you knew people there and were visiting. And of course then there’s the fishing trip I took up in the mountains past Fresno and dang…that was a long ride.

 

[overgeeked]

"I may be a man and you may be a woman. And I might be explaining things to you that you are more knowledgeable about than I am. But I see no reason to say I'm mansplaining things to you. That's just rude."

Same as it ever was.

1. No, this is not about you.
2. If you think it might be about you, you should ask yourself why.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Looking it up, it seems California's Central Valley has a population density of 155 people per square mile.

Laughs in New Jerseyese Fuhgeddaboudit!

 

[Autumnal]

 

[Ryujin]

Laughs in New Jerseyese Fuhgeddaboudit!

In case you were unaware, there's a long running Canadian cartoon series called "Fugget About It." Mob boss Jimmy Falcone is moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, by Witness Protection. I think it's on Hulu these days.