cultural insight: west michigan is what west michiganders call themselves to distance themselves from Detroit.
Bingo. I'm originally from Northern Michigan - technically Northern Lower Michigan, to distance ourselves from the crazy backwoods folk in the UP, and from the run-down big city craziness of Detroit and Lansing.
...and yoopers call us trolls because we live "under the bridge."
To be fair, other Michiganders call it West Michigan to distance themselves from West Michigan as well.
Hey, you have a problem with the VanDerVosses?
i don't think that distance is the right word there, more like differentiate. michigan is a big diverse state. i think it is more so geographic shorthand