What parts of DC, Baltimore, and Loudan county did you live in?
Culture isn’t easy to find objective measurements but politically things are objectively similar between Baltimore and DC with extremely strong Democratic leanings. 2020 DC voted 5.40% Trump, 92.15% Biden vs Baltimore City 10.69% Trump, 87.28% Biden vs Fauquier County 57% Trump, 40% Biden.
Poor parts of every county or city are going to have more similarities to other poor parts of every other city or county than compared to the rich areas that may be nearby.
That is one aspect of the multi-dimensional fractal nature of culture that I mentioned. Poor/rich is just one dimension to be considered. So are political leanings.
However, when you consider all the other dimensions, you will find that DC and the surrounding suburbs have more similarities to each other than they do with the corresponding areas in and around Baltimore.
Making them up to be the same CSA is just the way that the federal government gets away with paying cheaper wages in the DC area, because they can now lump Baltimore in there, and obviously by that new federal standard, federal wages in the DC area are not out of line with the overall CSA.
It’s just a lie that the federal government is telling you. And that they told me, when I lived there.
Culture isn’t easy to find objective measurements but politically things are objectively similar between Baltimore and DC with extremely strong Democratic leanings. 2020 DC voted 5.40% Trump, 92.15% Biden vs Baltimore City 10.69% Trump, 87.28% Biden vs Fauquier County 57% Trump, 40% Biden.
DC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidentia...
VA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidentia...
MD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidentia...
Poor parts of DC are much closer to poor parts of Baltimore than the rich areas of Loudan county etc.