Nah. I grew up in Fargo and, like everyone in Fargo, spent most of my time aspiring to spend more time in Minnesota and Minneapolis. Both Fargo and Grand Forks — on the border of the state, on the Red — share a ton culturally with Minnesota. If anything, I'd probably split North Dakota in half: east and west, which is growing into more of a divide lately anyway given the Bakken.
It could be that Minnesota doesn't want North Dakota, of course, but tbh Fargo's getting fairly cosmopolitan, surprisingly enough, and is closer to the Cities culturally than most anything else in a few hundred mile radius.
Anyway, this discussion is probably completely irrelevant to about a billion percent of normal Hacker News readers. Gotta represent your people, though. :)
Minnesota and North Dakota are separated by a large number of issues. Minnesota tends to be more in your business such as their restrictive alcohol laws (until 8pm off sale, no sales on Sunday) and politics. Taxes are a world of difference, and the shared culture is not that true. They had very different immigration trends from Europe much less the vast difference from Middle East and Asia.
The Bakkens does change things but the east west probably only exists as a I-29 to I-94 link and giving voting difference isn't even a majority.
Yes, Fargo and Grand Forks tend to look more towards MN (specifically the Twin Cities not MN in general), but they also have a large student population with a large percentage not from ND due to tuition and quality of education (e.g. aviation).
> Anyway, this discussion is probably completely irrelevant to about a billion percent of normal Hacker News readers. Gotta represent your people, though. :)
From the down votes, you are probably right, but judging economic impact via population is really, really dumb as the only metric (you didn't - others did).
I'm sure it's a low percentage who care, but non-zero. I always smile when I see comments by user 'eastdakota' (and wonder why he chose that name): https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=eastdakota
Lastly, why do residents of Fargo seem to pay no attention to Winnipeg? I've never heard anyone from the area talk much about driving North for a bit of culture, despite it being a little closer than the Twin Cities.
> Lastly, why do residents of Fargo seem to pay no attention to Winnipeg? I've never heard anyone from the area talk much about driving North for a bit of culture, despite it being a little closer than the Twin Cities.
Its easier to drive to the Twin Cities than Winnipeg (heck its easier to drive to the Twin Cities from Grand Forks) than to cross the border and use different currency. That border crossing is a pain in the rear. I did the crossing before 9/11 and it was a pain then.
It could be that Minnesota doesn't want North Dakota, of course, but tbh Fargo's getting fairly cosmopolitan, surprisingly enough, and is closer to the Cities culturally than most anything else in a few hundred mile radius.
Anyway, this discussion is probably completely irrelevant to about a billion percent of normal Hacker News readers. Gotta represent your people, though. :)