. . . shows the geography of the Cleveburgh map.
Or, how the author puts it, "the Greater Youngstown Metropolitan Area. "
Now imagine on the map above interstate 80 running east-west through the map, and quasi-interstate route 11 running north-south.
The City of Youngstown is where all of these axes cross each other.
From a recent Post-Gazette story:
"Northeast Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania are far more interconnected with each other than either region is with other parts of Ohio or Pennsylvania. The day-to-day interaction of local businesses are geared toward regional partners, not Harrisburg or Columbus. Pittsburgh industries are far more linked to markets and suppliers in Youngstown, Akron and Cleveland than with those in Allentown, Scranton or even Philadelphia. In so many ways the state boundaries we think of as important are no more than lines on a map.well said, Mr. Briem.
Annual migration among Cleveburgh communities dwarfs the movement of people to other places across the nation. Daily commuting over state borders is a growing phenomenon. It is not uncommon to see workers from Ohio and West Virginia looking for jobs in Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh residents considering jobs in Weirton or Youngstown or farther reaches of the region.
No one definition of our greater region is right for all circumstances. But we can't be limited by municipal or state boundaries that mean less and less as time goes by.
Roads and rivers, power lines and pollution; all ignore the lines arbitrarily drawn on maps centuries ago. It is our mental map of who we are that will have the most to do with who we become."
