4 ms·

Every single year we have severe wikdfire smoke in Montana (and much of the mountain west) from August to September and sometimes into October. Never mentioned

Every single year we have severe wikdfire smoke in Montana (and much of the mountain west) from August to September and sometimes into October. Never mentioned in national media. But when the same thing happens in NYC we have screaming headlines about how terrible the air quality is.

KidComputer 3y ago
Probably because the entire population of Montana makes up just one neighborhood of NYC
- crazygringo 3y ago
  I thought you were joking and then I got curious. Montana has a million people and NYC has almost 9 million people. There are 4 NYC neighborhoods with over 200,000 people [1]. So we can say Montana makes up five NYC neighborhoods (out of 55 neighborhoods total). Close enough! [1] https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/cancer/registry/appendix/neighborhoodpop.htm https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/cancer/registry/appendi...
jes 3y ago
Yep, fully agree. I live in Washington State, and I refer to that time of year as "headache season."
DoughnutHole 3y ago
Maybe it’s because this being unheard of in NYC is literally what makes it happening newsworthy? California has wildfires literally every year but they still make the news when they’re particularly damaging and record breaking. Fires have never impacted NYC to this extent in living memory - it’s deeply unusual for the region and inherently newsworthy.
- rconti 3y ago
  California wildfires being common is a pretty new thing.
rr808 3y ago
Of course the population is different but mostly news reports talk about things that are unusual. If there are fires every year it isn't really news.
dredmorbius 3y ago
News is driven by newsworthiness: <https://www.axiapr.com/blog/elements-of-news https://www.axiapr.com/blog/elements-of-news> NYC is the largest city and metro region in the US, and quite arguably one of the two most prominent cities in the world (with London, per GaWC: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization_and_World_Cities_Research_Network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization_and_World_Cities...>). It's also the media centre of the United States (and, again, arguably the world). The Mid-Atlantic states (NY NJ PA DE MD DC VA WV) is home to 60 million people. Events there affect 20% of the population of the United States. Montana is a beautiful state. But just 1.1 million people live there. The largest city, Billings, ranks 243 in the US (between Lakeland, FL, and Ann Arbor, MI and just ahead of Fairfield and Berkeley in California). The smallest borough of New York City is Staten Island with a population of 495,747, or nearly 5 times that of Billings, MT. The total population of the City of New York is 8.8 million, and of the New York Metropolitan Statistical Area is 20.1 million. That's more the entire states of Wyoming, Alaska, North & South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah combined (19.6 million). <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...> There are billions of people worldwide who are directly connected to New York City and New York State through personal links and association. New York also dominates both state and city mentions in Hacker News stories reaching the front page, though much of that is by mentions of the New York Times. (I've been doing analysis of HN front page story characteristics.)

KidComputer 3y ago

Probably because the entire population of Montana makes up just one neighborhood of NYC

crazygringo 3y ago
I thought you were joking and then I got curious. Montana has a million people and NYC has almost 9 million people. There are 4 NYC neighborhoods with over 200,000 people [1]. So we can say Montana makes up five NYC neighborhoods (out of 55 neighborhoods total). Close enough! [1] https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/cancer/registry/appendix/neighborhoodpop.htm https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/cancer/registry/appendi...

jes 3y ago

Yep, fully agree. I live in Washington State, and I refer to that time of year as "headache season."

DoughnutHole 3y ago

Maybe it’s because this being unheard of in NYC is literally what makes it happening newsworthy? California has wildfires literally every year but they still make the news when they’re particularly damaging and record breaking. Fires have never impacted NYC to this extent in living memory - it’s deeply unusual for the region and inherently newsworthy.

rconti 3y ago
California wildfires being common is a pretty new thing.

rr808 3y ago

Of course the population is different but mostly news reports talk about things that are unusual. If there are fires every year it isn't really news.

dredmorbius 3y ago

News is driven by newsworthiness: <https://www.axiapr.com/blog/elements-of-news https://www.axiapr.com/blog/elements-of-news> NYC is the largest city and metro region in the US, and quite arguably one of the two most prominent cities in the world (with London, per GaWC: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization_and_World_Cities_Research_Network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization_and_World_Cities...>). It's also the media centre of the United States (and, again, arguably the world). The Mid-Atlantic states (NY NJ PA DE MD DC VA WV) is home to 60 million people. Events there affect 20% of the population of the United States. Montana is a beautiful state. But just 1.1 million people live there. The largest city, Billings, ranks 243 in the US (between Lakeland, FL, and Ann Arbor, MI and just ahead of Fairfield and Berkeley in California). The smallest borough of New York City is Staten Island with a population of 495,747, or nearly 5 times that of Billings, MT. The total population of the City of New York is 8.8 million, and of the New York Metropolitan Statistical Area is 20.1 million. That's more the entire states of Wyoming, Alaska, North & South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah combined (19.6 million). <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...> There are billions of people worldwide who are directly connected to New York City and New York State through personal links and association. New York also dominates both state and city mentions in Hacker News stories reaching the front page, though much of that is by mentions of the New York Times. (I've been doing analysis of HN front page story characteristics.)