The purpose of this diary is provide a sense of scale for Canadian ridings by showing some maps of areas of the US divided into similarly-sized districts. I used 100k people as the "average size" of a Canadian riding. This accords both with the naive calculation of dividing Canada's population by the number of ridings (which results in about 110k per riding) and with eyeballing the list of ridings by population on Wikipedia. (Note, however, that the range of populations is fairly large – from 25k up to 170k.)
I was inspired to map out riding-sized districts in the US by our last open thread over on SSP, which featured both straight-laced and whimsical attempts to name US Congressional districts in the manner of Canadian ridings. To me, it seemed as though the size of American districts made them more difficult to name (well) than their Canadian counterparts. I also thought it would be interesting just from a comparative politics standpoint.
I meant to get this up before the Canadian elections, but I didn't have time. I hope you all will find it interesting nonetheless. Feel free to post your own maps of areas that interest you (or to challenge any of my riding names) in the comments.
There are nine maps below: Detroit and Northern Virginia, out of personal interest; Manhattan, out of presumed general interest; and the six single-representatives states available in Dave's App (aka not Alaska), because we don't generally see maps of them. The population variance for these districts is +/- 10%.
Detroit
Blue = Grosse Pointe
Green = Detroit Airport
Purple = Detroit Downtown
Red = Detroit Springwells
Yellow = Detroit-Hamtrack-Highland Park
Teal = Detroit Fairgrounds
Slate Blue = Detroit Littlefield
Gray = Detroit Brightmoor
Lime = Redford–Dearborn Heights
Khaki = Dearborn
Cyan = North Downriver
Pink = Taylor–Southgate
Other Yellow = South Downriver
YellowGreen = Dundee–Lower Huron Valley
Pink (mostly offscreen) = Monroe
DarkOrange = Romulus–Inkster
Olive = Westland-Garden City
DarkSalmon = Canton
Chartreuse = Livonia
Cornflower = Plymouth-Northville
DarkOrchid = Ypsilanti
Orange = Ann Arbor
DodgerBlue = Dexter-Saline
Northern Virginia
Blue = Arlington Orange
Green = Arlington Blue
Purple = Alexandria
Yellow = Huntington-Mount Vernon
Teal = Clifton-Lorton
Gray = Franconia-Springfield
SlateBlue = Burke
Cyan = Annandale
Chartreuse = Tyson's Corner-Falls Church-Vienna
DarkSalmon=Fairfax-Oakton
Pink=McLean-Great Falls
Maroon = Sterling
Olive = Chantilly-Dulles
LightPink = Haymarket-Gainesville
Orange = Centreville
Cornflower = Reston-Herndon
YellowGreen = Manassas
OtherYellow = Nokesville-Lake Ridge
Khaki = Dale City
Lime = Woodbridge-Quantico
Manhattan
Brown = Inwood (mostly offscreen at the top)
Red = Washington Heights
Indigo = Harlem-Manhattanville
PaleViolet = Harlem-Marcus Garvey
Black = Morningside Heights
SpringGreen = Harlem-Randalls-Wards
Cyan = Upper West Side-Central Park
MediumViolet = Upper East Side-Yorkville
Yellow = Turtle Bay-Roosevelt Island
Khaki = Midtown-Columbus Circle
Blue = Murray Hill
OrangeRed = Chelsea-Union Square
Green = East Village-Gramercy
Orange = Battery Park City-Greenwich Village
Purple = Manhattan-Chinatown
Delaware
Blue = Wilmington-Claymont
Red = Wilmington Manor
Green = Twelve-Mile Circle
Purple = Newark-North Star
Yellow = Delaware Canal
Gray = Smyrna-Middletown
Teal = Dover
Slate Blue = Cape Henlopen
Cyan = Indian River Bay
Montana
Pink = Fort Peck
Cyan = Yellowstone-Bighorn
Slate Blue = Billings
Red = Bozeman
Gray = Beaverhead
Purple = Missoula
Blue = Flathead
Green = Glacier Park
Teal = Helena
Yellow = Great Falls
North Dakota
Blue = Fargo
Green = Sheyenne
Purple = Grand Forks
Red = Devil's Lake
Yellow = Bismarck
Gray = Minot
Teal = Theodore Roosevelt
South Dakota
Blue = Yankton-Vermillion
Green = Sioux Falls
Purple = Sioux Falls North
Red = Brookings-Watertown
Yellow = Aberdeen-Pierre
Teal = Mitchell-White River
Gray = Rapid City
Slate Blue = Black Hills-Grand River
Vermont
Blue = Burlington
Green = Champlain-St. Albans
Yellow = Middlebury-Rutland
Teal = Brattleboro-Rockingham
Red = Montpelier-Barre
Purple = Mansfield-Kingdom
Wyoming
Teal = Yellowstone-Teton
Purple = Bighorn Forest
Yellow = Casper
Green = Laramie-Black Hills
Blue = Cheyenne
Red = Rock Springs-Bridger