Where do you live?

As a geographer (by education), I am interested in where people ‘feel’ they live as opposed to their mailing address. I am a Midwesterner but it is sometimes amusing how far east I can go and still find people who call themselves fellow Midwesterners. Geographers have conducted some studies but there is rarely an opportunity for everyone to take a stand on where they think they live. The CommonCensus Map Project gives you that opportunity.

The map given there shows the major city that people identify with. It is interesting to see how Oklahoma City is carved out of Dallas and how islands of Dallas appear within Oklahoma City. Likewise, San Jose is carved out of San Francisco. Also note how Reno and Boise maintain more territory than cities many times their size, even compared to the near-by Seattle. Currently, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Montana have no local ‘big city’ identity at all. It’s time for Billings, MT to stand up and be counted. This is a participation project - everyone put your foot down and declare where you are!

The mapping is currently for the continental United States. I hope that it can be extended internationally. A map of the Middle East might be quite instructive.

[Craig E. Pepmiller]

[tags]geography,commoncensus,map project,united states,society[/tags]