Japan is giving the United States 250 new cherry trees to help replace the hundreds that are being ripped out this summer as construction crews work to repair the crumbling seawall around the capital’s Tidal Basin.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made the announcement as President Joe Biden welcomed him to the White House on Wednesday for an official visit and state dinner. Biden said the gift is meant to mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S. in 2026, adding, “Like our friendship, these trees are timeless, inspiring and thriving.”
In 1912, first lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador to the United States, planted two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River’s Tidal Basin. They were part of the 3,000 such trees Japan gave the U.S. in a symbol of the two countries’ friendship.
The vast majority of Americans still live on the east coast. Something like 80% of our population is east of the Mississippi River still. People didn’t “go west” as much as school had us believe.
I remember seeing a project around a decade ago that tried to pinpoint a geographic population center, and I think it had barely moved to Eastern Ohio, much less farther west. And in recent years there’s been a huge amount of people relocating from West back East, mainly North Carolina.
People move, populations change. What is a “center” now will change.
The mean and median center of population for the US are in southern Illinois and Southern Missouri. So, yeah, anywhere in that area is a hell of a lot closer than DC.
That 80% number you just quoted is total bullshit.