Slightly change the borders

[Dr. MB]

If you could slightly alter the borders of any U.S. state, what would you do? (No counties, just smaller areas).

I would do a few things:
–Even out the Mississippi and Missouri River states and make the actual river the boundary, getting rid of all the weird spots where part of a state is on the opposite side of the river; transfer the Kentucky Bend to Tennessee
-Move Reagan Airport from Virginia to D.C.
-Move the artificial part of Ellis Island from New Jersey to Virginia
-Give the Northwest Angle and Point Roberts to Canada
-Give Wendover, Utah to Nevada

[Dr. MB]

If you could slightly alter the borders of any U.S. state, what would you do? (No counties, just smaller areas).

I would do a few things:

-Move Reagan Airport from Virginia to D.C.

Maryland's charter defined the southern shore of the Potomac as the boundary between Virginia and Maryland. The reason Maryland wanders off to the west and then abruptly stops, is because that is where the Potomac ends (Virginia used to claim southwestern Pennsylvania including Pittsburgh.

So when the District of Columbia was formed, Maryland ceded the area northeast of the river, and the river itself; while Virginia ceded the area southeast of the river. Congress later ceded the Virginia portion back, forming what was then Alexandria County. The city of Alexandria was incorporated and later became an independent city. Alexandria County was later renamed Arlington County, and Alexandria has annexed into Fairfax County.

There have been two additional cessions to Virginia. There was a shallow bay or marshy area that was filled in, and thus became land within D.C. but south of the river. This was ceded to Virginia.

And as part of an expansion of National Airport, the airport was extended into the river and a bulkhead built. This was also in D.C., but was ceded to Virginia. National has since become Reagan National.

It would make more sense to retrocede D.C. outside the Mall to Maryland.

Neither D.C. or Maryland wants that.

And also, from Google Earth it seems there's a small part south of the runway that includes a parking lot and looks to be part of D.C.

[Dr. MB]

-Cede all of Florida West of the Apalachicola River to Alabama. It looks better on the map, the voters West of the Apalachicola probably have a lot more in common with the people of Alabama than with the people of Central and South Florida, and the move of this very conservative area would shift Florida to the left.

This. Also, give Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Wisconsin.

I support the Michigan one but I'd prefer just to split Florida into North Florida (or some better name) and Florida.

[Dr. MB]

Nevada and California trade some counties.  California takes Clark county (Vegas) and Nevada takes the rural regions of northern California aka the areas that want to become "Jefferson"  Las Vegas has a lot more in common with California than the rest of Nevada and rural N. California has a lot more in common with Nevada than the rest of California. 

No. The Northern Nevada one would have soooo few people, and topographically, that split wouldn't make sense.

the state would probably have a population similar to Idaho or New Mexico.  wouldn't be too under populated.

The bad thing would be that the new states would look bad (unless the Clark County like is extended through Nye County). I'd just prefer splitting Cali into 2 though, and leaving Nevada as it is.

[Dr. MB]

Nevada and California trade some counties.  California takes Clark county (Vegas) and Nevada takes the rural regions of northern California aka the areas that want to become "Jefferson"  Las Vegas has a lot more in common with California than the rest of Nevada and rural N. California has a lot more in common with Nevada than the rest of California. 

No. The Northern Nevada one would have soooo few people, and topographically, that split wouldn't make sense.

the state would probably have a population similar to Idaho or New Mexico.  wouldn't be too under populated.

The bad thing would be that the new states would look bad (unless the Clark County like is extended through Nye County). I'd just prefer splitting Cali into 2 though, and leaving Nevada as it is.

how would you split Cali into 2?  Also, for the CA/NV split, the best would be to give California Clark county and California gives Nevada Del Norte, Siskiyou, Modoc, Trinity, Shasta, Lassen, Tehama, Plumas, Butte, Glenn, Colusa, Sierra, Sutter, Yuba, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Alpine, Mono, Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Mariposa counties.  After the split, California would still have 55 electoral votes but would be slightly more Democratic.  Nevada with its new boundaries would have a population of 2,382,441 and have 5 electoral votes.  In 2016 its percentages would have been 38% Clinton and 54.5% Trump.  These calculations were made by me with the assistance of redrawthestates.com.  Now Nevada would be the "electrum state" because it would be a combo of the silver state and the parts of the golden state that had the gold rush! (geology joke)  I would also contain Yosemite!

I'd split it down the natural county line which divides NorCal and SoCal. I'd also maybe create the State of Jefferson from the far north counties.

[Dr. MB]

Nevada and California trade some counties.  California takes Clark county (Vegas) and Nevada takes the rural regions of northern California aka the areas that want to become "Jefferson"  Las Vegas has a lot more in common with California than the rest of Nevada and rural N. California has a lot more in common with Nevada than the rest of California.  

No. The Northern Nevada one would have soooo few people, and topographically, that split wouldn't make sense.

the state would probably have a population similar to Idaho or New Mexico.  wouldn't be too under populated.

The bad thing would be that the new states would look bad (unless the Clark County like is extended through Nye County). I'd just prefer splitting Cali into 2 though, and leaving Nevada as it is.

how would you split Cali into 2?  Also, for the CA/NV split, the best would be to give California Clark county and California gives Nevada Del Norte, Siskiyou, Modoc, Trinity, Shasta, Lassen, Tehama, Plumas, Butte, Glenn, Colusa, Sierra, Sutter, Yuba, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Alpine, Mono, Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Mariposa counties.  After the split, California would still have 55 electoral votes but would be slightly more Democratic.  Nevada with its new boundaries would have a population of 2,382,441 and have 5 electoral votes.  In 2016 its percentages would have been 38% Clinton and 54.5% Trump.  These calculations were made by me with the assistance of redrawthestates.com.  Now Nevada would be the "electrum state" because it would be a combo of the silver state and the parts of the golden state that had the gold rush! (geology joke)  I would also contain Yosemite!

I'd split it down the natural county line which divides NorCal and SoCal. I'd also maybe create the State of Jefferson from the far north counties.

While the northern edge of SLO/Kern/San Bernardino looks neat on paper, Kern clearly belongs in NorCal with the rest of the San Joaquin Valley. SLO could go either way but looks better on paper with NorCal if Kern is with NorCal.

This. Also, Inyo, Mono, and Alpine belong im Southern California, as does, I think, SLO. Jefferson is way too insignificant to be a state. Also, the poster who suggested putting west of the Sierra counties in with Reno does not understand California.

Jefferson would presumably take southern Oregon with it.

I agree, driving through Southern Oregon it is geographically and culturally much similar to the northern counties of CA than to the Willamette Valley or Eastern OR.