Hawaii - The Opposite Land

By this point on the blog, you've probably got a good idea of what New York City and the area that encompasses it is like - a Megalopolis with a strong manufacturing industry, diversity within cultures and social issues, tightly-knit landscapes and waterways that help with trade and transportation ease. Well, we've reached our final destination on this blog regarding the geographical U.S., and it's a set of islands that are quite a bit on the opposite side of the U.S.: Hawaii.

These islands are known for their tropical climates, explosive volcanos, and pineapple production. An escapable getaway for most, Hawaii contains islands with considerable living situations such as the island of Oahu, and private islands owned by specific individuals. There is a lot of ethnic diversity in Hawaii, with no one ethnic group reaching about 31%.

The majority of difference between the two areas lies within it's topography and climate. Access to these places is another impact, as each island must be flown over or shipped out to reach, unlike New York City's famous connecting bridges and shipping harbors. Otherwise, it's economy is well-off as a great tourist destination, much like New York City for different reasons of attractiveness. It's weird to note that, considering these are vacation destinations, how physically different they are in appearance.

vs.

North Pacific Coast's Attributes Matter

New York City is at 40 degrees North, the same latitude as Eureka, California, perhaps the southernmost city located within the North Pacific Coast region. Even though they are of the same latitude, Eureka and the rest of this coastal region are mountainous, rugged terrain with high precipitation and wet, wet winters.

Thomas Griffith said in his article of "The Pacific Northwest" that this place is where many people want to live and whom seem relatively satisfied, but it is not the home of a booming economy. This is a region whose companying states such as Washington has an unemployment rate as high as 9.3%, in comparison to New York City's 8.0%. The weather is not nearly as attractive, with high pressure winds from over the mountains from the Pacific to bring long periods of precipitation. It's an overall "outdoorsy" kind of place, unlike New York City's towering skyscrapers and manufactured upbringing. Topography greatly affects the climates, and it shows that it might be a fine place to live once you are satisfied with your living arrangements, but as a place of economic startup and frequent social commerce, New York City is a much more viable option.

California's Similarities, Mainly Los Angeles

California is known for it's sunny beaches, beautiful landscapes, and movie stars, but the state doesn't entirely share a lot in common with New York. If we're talking about New York City, then the city of Los Angeles is more in common. As the nation's second largest city, Los Angeles thrives with its diverse population and structural development, even if all of it feels a little far between. Location-wise, this city should not even make much logical sense, considering that heavy resources are virtually nonexistent, but the implementation of heavy government spending on roadways and irrigation, as well as local climate, has helped Los Angeles grow into a very populous destination to live in.

Los Angeles isn't exactly the center of the city, though. Many industries and agricultural sites exist well-knit within the valley, making it hard to define a real center of the Metropolis. New York City commits to a big part of the region's manufacturing and trade industry, whereas Los Angeles is more loosely assigned to what it deals with. Even with that knowledge, though, Los Angeles grows with a climate as moderately viable as Rome in Italy, and allows for society to thrive amidst a much more spread out area.

The Southwest Border and Plural Society

New York City is a melting pot of individuals from every ethnicity and culture that you can possibly imagine. The entry of immigration into the city is what made this melting pot possible, and this is what makes New York City a very modern place to live in. It's many Art Deco-styled buildings and continued construction projects help to bring about a modern change to house these individuals, and the city continues to grow amid controlling issues.

The Southwest Border, which is comprised of New Mexico and Arizona, mostly keeps with their Native American and Hispanic cultures. That isn't to say it's not a melting pot, but in places like Santa Fe, with it's many old adobe villages, poverty-stricken agriculture, and public signs in Spanish, it's easy to see that this region contains a much more traditional atmosphere. Native American and Hispanic cultures dominate this region as their settling founders had done, bringing an impact that remains strong and distinguished it from other regions throughout the U.S.

Pueblo Architecture As Seen Throughout The Region

For reference, New York City's Hispanic population in 2008 was around 27.5%, the second greatest ethnic group in the entire city, compared to the 44.0% of Hispanics that live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Empty vs. The Full

If it's one thing that New York City isn't, it's being empty. People from around the world come and go in one of the busiest cities in the world, and the surrounding cities within the state, such as Buffalo and Albany, share similar assets that make the state of New York a land of close, tightly-knit communities.

The Empty Interior region in the Western part of North America is a spread out land of mountain ranges and plateaus, with dry and arid climates that make living palpable if a city is close to water irrigation. You would think that this spatial situation would mean that this region would not be able to properly hold a diverse and social medium, considering New York is filled with newcomers every single day. However, the religion known as the Mormon Church actually expands beyond the region and makes the region distinguishable.

The Great Plains Are In Contrast

Completely engulfed by land lies The Great Plains, a region that vertically spreads from the northern prairies of Alberta to the grasslands of Central Texas. These are states that consist of great and varied topography, lots of wheat growth due to the more fertile soils and grasslands, and widespread landscapes that allow for farming. Based on these regional trends and the history of the region's settlement, it can be assumed that these states produce agricultural products and are more reliant on producing food for themselves rather than relying on outside sources.

New York City, in contrast, is right next to waterways that help in the business of trading. It is a prime location for traders to enter the city directly from the neighboring harbors, providing the city with many agricultural products as well as manufacturing products like textiles. It's one of the reasons why New York City is one of the most populated areas in the world, and why the Great Plains, whose vast land provides a lot of growing space, has actually decreased farm sizes and lowered population. It really makes one think about how much living in New York City is in stark contrast to The Great Plains.

Interior Still Remains An Eastern Placeholder

New York City is classified under the Koppen climate classification system as Cfa, which means it's a humid subtropical climate, with more precipitation that makes the air warm during the summer. This is a similar application to the eastern part of the Interior Plains, a region that encompasses the states of Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio. The interior's eastern plain contains more rain fall and humidity in comparison to the western portion's dry and arid climate. The more rainfall in the east helps produce more crops during the growing season and therefore produces a bigger carrying capacity. Although the interior plains is more made of smaller, rural towns than a megalopolis like New York City, the similarities it has with the Agricultural Core cannot be sidelined, and it's interesting to note since New York City is a part of the Manufacturing Core.

From Clinton County, NY

Hazards of the Southern Coastlands

In a subtropical environment, humidity, mild winters and hot summers grace the land to provide a rather moderate climate for standard living conditions. However, there lies certain threats to agriculture and commonwealth with winter freezes and summer hurricanes. This is usually the part of the season where most growers should not grow vegetables or be out and about because of the sudden, fierce conditions. The low pressure system build-up from its location near the Gulf of Mexico has caused some of the world's worst natural disasters in the area.

According to the Koppen climate classification system, New York City is the northernmost city that has a subtropical environment, with more warmer summers than mild winters. The hazards of the Southern Coastlands do not directly reflect with New York City's, but the area is within the hurricane range, with incidences of hurricanes occurring somewhere between 75-89 mph over the last 100 years. The occurrences of blizzards during winter also negative effects on New York's region, resulting in a halt of growing crops.