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Having grown up in Texas and gone to private boarding school outside of Boston as a kid, I always had to deal with many misconceptions of what "southern" is to many Yankees. First of all I have never considered Texas to be a part of the South, even though we were a part of the confederacy, had slavery, and produce much of the countries cotton. While I may not agree with the whole "South" and "Deep South" discussion where Fl and Tx are included in the South part and not the Deep South, that to me is just making geographic vs cultural differences.
To me being 'southern' isn't about geography, slavery or the civil war but more of a unique culture with its own customs, music styles, foods, and so on. To many in the North the only culture that they see is ultraconservative Christian cross burning KKK type culture. It is the same manor of using horrible stereotype of painting a whole culture that idiots use to label all Muslims as terrorist. And it has also bothered me that many of the negative stereotypes that Yankees have painted the south with are actually much more common now days in areas of the north such as the rural rust belt or even up in New England in rural central Mass than they are in the south. Those in the North have always to me had a different view on what the Southern culture is than those who live in the South. Perhaps the best option would be to ask someone from London or Paris. =)
To the point of the OP, and my opinion on his question... The question is unclear. Is he asking culturally, physicality, or what? He only states "Simple question."
To me...
Culturally, no the DC area is and has always been more culturally Southern than Yankee.
Physically, no look at a map it is pretty obvious.
As for Miami it is not "Southern" to me. Yes it is in the South but it isn't even a small part "Southern." Miami has its own culture. It is what it is, and does that well.
For Texas, we are not "Southern" to me. There are parts of East Texas where you find some of those same Southern qualities you would in say Mississippi, but as a State we have grown into our own. Much of Texas was initially settle and founded by those from the south, who fought for our independence from Mexico. But soon after our independence and later when we joined the US we have done things differently and outside of our obvious Mexican influence Texas had a much larger immigration from Eastern Europe than was common in the rest of the country and certainly in the South. And then the very simple fact that us Texans are entirely to stubborn and proud of ourselves to consider ourselves part of any sort of culture outside Texan. =P But if forced to most would say South Western.
Both cities have a large, white and liberal affluent class. Virtually zero working class whites.
Both cities have smatterings of other racial minorities.
I still don't see it though from my experiences with both actual cities themselves. The feel and culture is different and the built environment is different. Again, are there elements of the South in DC? yes but fading and fading pretty fast. But today, I would say DC is starting to become more like it's peers to the Northeast than to their South and Southwest.
That's exactly my feeling. Whenever you drive up to the Washington, D.C. area from places far away south, you feel like you've entered a different, highly populated zone. And once you enter the city limits of D.C., there's this gritty and densely urban vibe that is unmistakenly northern. IMO.
The megalopolis is located near the coast. Try the rural northeast, in places like Maine, Vermont, upstate New York, or much of Pennsylvania. It definitely doesn't fit your "northern" stereotype, and these areas are much more pronounced than the populated megalopolis throughout the northeast.
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Another thing is that people who move to the D.C. area from southern cities often express how it feels like a busy "northern" city. It's very common to hear that. I know that's not a very scientific observation, but perceptions are what they are.
Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, and Houston, in my opinion, all look and feel bigger than DC. All except for Miami are more spread-out, and even it is huge north-south, containing a built-up area nearly one hundred miles long, but admittedly small east-west (10-15 miles) due to the Everglades.
All of the above are as fast-paced as DC, granted DC has better and more choices for public transportation.
I'd argue that parts of Orlando along the I-4 corridor feels as fast-paced as DC.
Why does everyone attribute "fast-pace" to northern cities, ommitting the obvious large southern giants, while at the same time acting as though the small, "slow-paced" northeastern cities do not exist? I mean, how about every time the issue of pace of life rears its head, all southerners say, "are you kidding me? The northeast is slow-paced. I was in Bangor, or Erie, or Albany, or Scranton, and it's slow. It has nothing on Atlanta or Dallas.". That's how utterly preposterous northeasterners sound with their "slow-pace of life" talk that they attribute to the South. The South, after all, is the most populated region by a fairly substantial margin.
Having grown up in Texas and gone to private boarding school outside of Boston as a kid, I always had to deal with many misconceptions of what "southern" is to many Yankees. First of all I have never considered Texas to be a part of the South, even though we were a part of the confederacy, had slavery, and produce much of the countries cotton. While I may not agree with the whole "South" and "Deep South" discussion where Fl and Tx are included in the South part and not the Deep South, that to me is just making geographic vs cultural differences.
To me being 'southern' isn't about geography, slavery or the civil war but more of a unique culture with its own customs, music styles, foods, and so on. To many in the North the only culture that they see is ultraconservative Christian cross burning KKK type culture. It is the same manor of using horrible stereotype of painting a whole culture that idiots use to label all Muslims as terrorist. And it has also bothered me that many of the negative stereotypes that Yankees have painted the south with are actually much more common now days in areas of the north such as the rural rust belt or even up in New England in rural central Mass than they are in the south. Those in the North have always to me had a different view on what the Southern culture is than those who live in the South. Perhaps the best option would be to ask someone from London or Paris. =)
To the point of the OP, and my opinion on his question... The question is unclear. Is he asking culturally, physicality, or what? He only states "Simple question."
To me...
Culturally, no the DC area is and has always been more culturally Southern than Yankee.
Physically, no look at a map it is pretty obvious.
As for Miami it is not "Southern" to me. Yes it is in the South but it isn't even a small part "Southern." Miami has its own culture. It is what it is, and does that well.
For Texas, we are not "Southern" to me. There are parts of East Texas where you find some of those same Southern qualities you would in say Mississippi, but as a State we have grown into our own. Much of Texas was initially settle and founded by those from the south, who fought for our independence from Mexico. But soon after our independence and later when we joined the US we have done things differently and outside of our obvious Mexican influence Texas had a much larger immigration from Eastern Europe than was common in the rest of the country and certainly in the South. And then the very simple fact that us Texans are entirely to stubborn and proud of ourselves to consider ourselves part of any sort of culture outside Texan. =P But if forced to most would say South Western.
All this cultural compassion and understanding, and yet you keep calling us yankees. Please don't be offended as I call you hillbilly or rootin' tootin' cowboy lol.
Jokes aside, I agree that Texas can count as it's own region, but at the same time I think it's definitely Southern too. It can be both, alotta people don't ignore Texas' Southerness or it's Texasness. maybe that's how we should be looking at D.C. then. Everyone keeps bringing up D.C.'s more Southern past, but you can't just ignore it's Northerness today. People keep trying to completely ignore all aspects.
I still don't see it though from my experiences with both actual cities themselves. The feel and culture is different and the built environment is different. Again, are there elements of the South in DC? yes but fading and fading pretty fast. But today, I would say DC is starting to become more like it's peers to the Northeast than to their South and Southwest.
The architecture is different, yes. But the people are very southern. When you say "Yuuung" and "Jive Like" and "Dey Be Fakin," you are southern. Period. Could you imagine Memphis Bleek or Beanie Sigel saying, "Mayne, these bammas up in hur be jive fakin like they want it, slim, we bout to curry it and go hard fo real, Yung. Believe that, Lova Looova." Who talks like that? I mean, they really talk like this. They don't say "carry," they say "curry." That's southern, man.
You need to explore far SE and NE DC and P.G. County. They're not as different from Atlanta as they think.
The megalopolis is located near the coast. Try the rural northeast, in places like Maine, Vermont, upstate New York, or much of Pennsylvania. It definitely doesn't fit your "northern" stereotype, and these areas are much more pronounced than the populated megalopolis throughout the northeast.
Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, and Houston, in my opinion, all look and feel bigger than DC. All except for Miami are more spread-out, and even it is huge north-south, containing a built-up area nearly one hundred miles long, but admittedly small east-west (10-15 miles) due to the Everglades.
All of the above are as fast-paced as DC, granted DC has better and more choices for public transportation.
I'd argue that parts of Orlando along the I-4 corridor feels as fast-paced as DC.
Why does everyone attribute "fast-pace" to northern cities, ommitting the obvious large southern giants, while at the same time acting as though the small, "slow-paced" northeastern cities do not exist? I mean, how about every time the issue of pace of life rears its head, all southerners say, "are you kidding me? The northeast is slow-paced. I was in Bangor, or Erie, or Albany, or Scranton, and it's slow. It has nothing on Atlanta or Dallas.". That's how utterly preposterous northeasterners sound with their "slow-pace of life" talk that they attribute to the South. The South, after all, is the most populated region by a fairly substantial margin.
What do you mean exactly? Most of the population is concentrated on the coast, so what do you mean when you say it's more pronounced?
Southern Pols like Jim Demint and John Cornyn would be blown out of the water in DC/MD. The region regualry elect NE liberals that are identical to pols from MA and CT.
I think there is a lot to this argument. You can argue over the mason-dixon line, the census regions, the fast population growth, the lack of any traditional industry and accompanying ethnic immigrants.
But at the end of the day, DC and MD vote for the same economic and cultural policies that liberal North Easterners in the Philly (135 miles), NYC (226 miles away), and even Boston (440 miles aways) do.
The MD electorate is far closer to MA and NJ than NC or GA.
The architecture is different, yes. But the people are very southern. When you say "Yuuung" and "Jive Like" and "Dey Be Fakin," you are southern. Period. Could you imagine Memphis Bleek or Beanie Sigel saying, "Mayne, these bammas up in hur be jive fakin like they want it, slim, we bout to curry it and go hard fo real, Yung. Believe that, Lova Looova." Who talks like that? I mean, they really talk like this. They don't say "carry," they say "curry." That's southern, man.
You need to explore far SE and NE DC and P.G. County. They're not as different from Atlanta as they think.
It sounds like you're describing blacks in the region, who undoubtedly are southern in speech. The same thing could be said of virtually all blacks in the United States, outside of New England and other regions in which they are a very small minority, and of which black migration during the middle of last century did not occur.
With whites, its more varied, and even though I believe the region truly sits at a crossroads between the northeast and South, not truly being a part of either, I'll admit that northeastern speech is very common amongst many of the whites in the region, just as southern speech is common in many of the whites in the region.
What do you mean exactly? Most of the population is concentrated on the coast, so what do you mean when you say it's more pronounced?
The rural northeast takes up a larger square mileage of northeastern land than populated areas and the megalopolis.
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