The east coast. When I lived in New York, I thought we could do better on our own. Now that I’m near Boston, I know New England could. But you know what? We really have a lot in common all the way down to DC, and the DC suburbs of Virginia.

Acela is not just a transportation system connecting us all, but a result of our shared values, wanting a better connection. We’re a huge percentage of the population and the economy. We’re mostly “donor” states instead of “takers” so our economy would be solid. We’re mostly “blue” except New Hampshire and Pennsyltucky, seeing the value of good education, caring about our citizens quality of life. And yes we’re mostly the parts of the country built out long ago so have in common many traditional town centers and relatively fewer car centered hellscapes. Many parts of the east coast have been derided as “European”: let’s embrace that