Talk:Central Michigan

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Contents 1 Lansing in "Southern Michigan"? 2 Lansing 3 A "Probability" Definition/Map In Order? 4 Need additional highway references and descriptions

[edit] Lansing in "Southern Michigan"?

I have proposed moving Lansing from "Southern Michigan" to "Central Michigan". This move would be performed virtually within Wikipedia, of course. Please see the discussion at Talk:Southern Michigan. --TRosenbaum 12:56, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Strictly geographically, "southern" makes more sense. What reasons do you suggest for the change? -- dcclark (talk) 15:03, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, Lansing certainly is in the "Center" (East-West-wise) of Michigan, so geographically speaking it qualifies as in "Central Michigan" also. The main reason is that in Lansing, everyone refers to Lansing as being part of "Mid-Michigan", not "Southern Michigan". Please refer to the discussion at Talk:Southern Michigan for a more complete list of reasons. --TRosenbaum 05:45, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lansing

As a resident of Lansing, I can report that everyone around here uses "Mid-Michigan" to refer to the Lansing metro area. For instance, I am a member of the Mid-Michigan Freecycle Network, which covers only Lansing and its outlying areas. There is also a large local physicians' group called Mid-Michigan Physicians, and all of their offices are in the Lansing area. (Check out their web site at http://www.mmpweb.com/ and click on "office locations" if you want to check.) These are just two of myriad examples. Although residents of the thumb may well also use the term mid-michigan, it is certainly not limited to them and in fact I think most people around here would be surprised to learn that mid-Michigan includes that area. 141.209.180.104 16:59, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

• "Mid-Michigan" is almost always used to refer to the tri-cities and thumb, or more liberally, usually Saginaw County to Arenac County, and as west as Clare. A simple Google search supports this. We could, however, always construct a disambiguation page, as I'm sure it has more meanings than just our two. --75.21.241.167 04:27, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
  • This seems perhaps like the opinion of someone who lives in the region "tri-cities and thumb". Please refer to the the discussion at Talk:Southern Michigan for some evidence that Lansing is in "Mid-Michigan". If you disagree, please provide more concrete evidence in support of your claim ("simple Google search" isn't evidence -- what do I search for and how do I interpret the results?). --TRosenbaum 16:05, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
    • It is true that both Metro Lansing and Saginaw-Bay City-Midland refer to themselves as "Mid-Michigan", but geographically, only Metro Lansing is "Mid-Michigan", if even its in the southern part of Mid-Michigan. I've always found it odd that Saginaw-Bay City-Midland referred to themselves as Mid-Michigan. --Criticalthinker 03:36, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
      • If that's the way people from those cities refer to themselves (and they do), then they should be called "Mid Michigan" in this article. Frequently geography and tradition don't really match. -- dcclark (talk) 03:41, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
        • Why is it that the article still refers to the Saginaw Valley, Dow Chemicals, ect...all in the Thumb of Michigan? This needs to reflect the changes made. Midland and the like are in the Thumb. --Criticalthinker 06:13, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
          • Sorry... Midland is most certainly not in the thumb. For example, Channel 5 (WNEM) serves Mid-Michigan: "Saginaw, Bay City, Midland". Take a look at the geography as well. In addition, I see that you removed references to the Saginaw Valley, which includes (among other areas) Gratiot County, which contains the geographical center of the lower peninsula. Why? -- dcclark (talk) 12:26, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
            • Thumb or not, it doesn't belong in the Mid/Central Michigan page, and fortunately, someone created a Tri-Cities region page, so that it still doesn't belong, here. --Criticalthinker 04:41, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A "Probability" Definition/Map In Order?

I don't think agreement on absolute regional boundaries is possible without a strict definition of "region". The concept of region is ambiguous -- it means different things to different people. Have a look at how the ambiguous regional boundary issue was resolved for the "Northwest Ohio" region. The text lists counties that "are or may be" classified as part of the region. The map uses different colors showing counties that are included in the region "always", "most of the time", and "least". The Northwest Ohio region article even says "Just like any other region, there is no universally agreed-upon line for northwestern Ohio, as the entire area is defined differently by the opinions of multiple people." If we did something similar here, then we could argue about which category or degree each city belongs in instead of whether or not a city belongs at all :) TRosenbaum 05:14, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good. That is much like what happened with the Midwest article as well. As my user page points out, I'm probably spending too much time here as it is, so if you can put together such a map/list I won't argue it too hard. :) -- dcclark (talk) 11:44, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Need additional highway references and descriptions

I put in a section on Highways. Somebody needs to supplement the list of freeways, U.S. routes, and Michigan routes. If you just put in a list of numbers, I can come back and put in the signs and links, although if you follow the pattern that is already there, it isn't that hard to do. We could also use a description of what these roads do. See Northern Michigan for example. The sources on that information are available from the links for each road 7&6=thirteen (talk) 15:13, 5 January 2008 (UTC)Stan