CLEVELAND, Ohio - Imagine a new Ohio. A smaller state carved out around Lake Erie, where we could keep our tax money nearby, empower cities to enact their own laws and elect a legislature closely matched between Democrats and Republicans. We could focus on solving urban problems.

Sure, it's a daydream.

But we in Cleveland feel stuck. We're a Democratic metropolis governed by Republicans who see the state very differently than we do. Fights erupt time and time again, over fracking and gun regulation and minimum wage. The state legislature overrules, takes our tax money and disperses it to rural areas.

This post is part of cleveland.com's series, "Western Reserve: the 51st state?" For more stories, click here.

Life could be better, if we were properly represented in a new state of Western Reserve.

To be clear, cleveland.com is not actually suggesting secession from Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and the mostly rural rest of the state. We're simply mulling the idea as a vehicle to show how little clout and control Northeast Ohio has over its destiny.

Think about it.

When Ohio was granted statehood in 1803, a party called the Democratic-Republicans set the boundaries. (The opposing Federalists wanted to make the Scioto River in Columbus the western end of the state.) And you had to be a tax-paying white man in order to vote.

The big state then encompassed both the Connecticut settlers of the Western Reserve in Northeast Ohio and the Cincinnati entrepreneurs selling goods to pioneers traveling down the Ohio River.

Now, Ohio includes all sorts of demographics and people: farmers and factory workers, Fortune 500 company executives, suburbanites in inner-rings and exurbs. Tiny Vinton County is getting its first grocery store; reinvigorated rustbelt Akron may get its first downtown grocery store.

We're very different. So hear us out.

We could return to our origins of the Western Reserve, which encompassed 14 of the 26 counties we've banded together in our new little state.

The demographics would make us pretty evenly split politically, Democrat and Republican, creating robust debates in our statehouse. The geography would mean we'd all care about the health of Lake Erie. And it would make Cleveland the largest, most influential city in the state.

Cleveland's issues would matter to all Western Reserve residents, unlike rural Republicans' dismissal of Cleveland's problems now.

The rural/urban, city/state friction is felt around the country.

"I do think we are seeing a rise in state local conflicts in a number of policies and an increasing willingness of state legislatures to exercise whatever power they have to rein cities in," said Fordham University law Professor Nestor Davidson, who focuses on local government. "I think it's an interesting thought experiment."

The National League of Cities wrote about the issue of preemption, when a state fights cities' rights to make their own laws.

"When decision-making is divorced from the core wants and needs of community members, it creates a perilous environment," the league writes in a February report. "Recent preemption has pitted rural- and suburban-dominated state legislatures against cities with large populations of low wage earners and ethnic minorities."

Davidson would rather see cities and states work together, rather than secede.

Achieving statehood is tough, for one thing. (Just ask Washington D.C. or Puerto Rico.) And it's not like Clevelanders are clamoring for independence.

But for fun and introspection, we're drawing up our own map of the new state, Western Reserve. (Don't worry, we'll give you choices of names and boundaries, if you don't like our version.)

Western Reserve would have 5.1 million people (slightly less than half of the current population of Ohio) who care about the issues of northern Ohio.

Our rhetorical construct will let us - and you -- explore all sorts of wonky stuff that affects us all, from gerrymandering to home rule. As the nation sees more and more conflicts between state and local governments, it makes sense to study the issues.

Take a look at what we'll cover in our two-week project:

Chili spaghetti vs. pierogi (for real)

Where the federal money goes. And where our local tax dollars go, too

How exactly you can form a new state. Who's tried - and failed.

How a new state would have changed presidential elections

Fracking, minimum wage and other issues where the state has overruled cities

What we'd put in our own perfect state constitution

What you'd choose for our state flag, song and flower

We want you to weigh in, in the comments or our Talk it Out post Wednesday. What do you think about a new state of Western Reserve?

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