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Roughly a line connecting Albion, Batavia, Warsaw, Cuba, Bolivar represent the eastern edge of WNY. They even teach that in Buffalo schools, apparently.
The hamlet of Pratt's Hollow in Madison County is considered the geographic center of New York State. So from a purely technical standpoint, anything west of that would be considered WNY, and anything east ENY. Culturally, there's Central New York in between, which includes the eastern region of the Finger Lakes (Skaneateles, Ithaca), Syracuse, and Rome-Utica. The start of Eastern New York I would consider to be around Herkimer. Canajoharie, Amsterdam, and Gloversville are definitely part of the Capital Region.
I think it depends if you acknowledge the Finger Lakes as a distinct region. To the extent that this topic gets discussed at all, most people tend to distinguish only between WNY and CNY, and given that, most people would I think put Rochester in WNY rather than CNY. But I've always felt like Rochester gets mentioned very little in Buffalo for a city that's as close as it is. This is probably at least partially due to the fact that it's not much of a destination, and not all that many people from Buffalo commute to Rochester for work. Also, for what it's worth, the map shows 7 counties as composing WNY, whereas I've been conditioned by local news weather forecasts to think of it being 8 counties--Allegheny is included as well. Obviously though it makes sense to include it in the Southern Tier region, although Chautauqua and Cattaraugus could also be so included
That's always ground my gears when Buffalo Television would say "8 counties of WNY". Back in the 70s and 80s, WGRZ, WIVB, and WKBW could be picked up over the air as far east as the Central Finger Lakes (Geneva, Penn Yan, Naples) and as far southeast as Bath, Hammondsport, and Jasper/Troupsburg. With cable and satellite television systems, and the analog/digital conversion, I know the eastern edge of Buffalo's TV market has moved further west, though I stayed at a B&B near Kingston Ontario a few years back and the local US stations were the Buffalo locals.
That's always ground my gears when Buffalo Television would say "8 counties of WNY". Back in the 70s and 80s, WGRZ, WIVB, and WKBW could be picked up over the air as far east as the Central Finger Lakes (Geneva, Penn Yan, Naples) and as far southeast as Bath, Hammondsport, and Jasper/Troupsburg. With cable and satellite television systems, and the analog/digital conversion, I know the eastern edge of Buffalo's TV market has moved further west, though I stayed at a B&B near Kingston Ontario a few years back and the local US stations were the Buffalo locals.
That is interesting in regards to Kingston ON, as I think they get Watertown and Syracuse TV stations as well. I’m sure that is the case in terms of over the Air TVs anyway. There used to be a time when CKWS 11 from Kingston used to be available as an over the Air station as recent as a couple of decades ago. It and Ottawa TV stations are available in the Watertown area on cable. I believe Oswego gets CKWS on cable as well.
Also, WUTV used to be on Syracuse cable systems in the 1970’s/early 1980’s. I remember when they showed Buffalo Stallions soccer back then.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 02-12-2018 at 10:54 AM..
The part of Upstate New York where people call it "pop" instead of "soda".
Really, I've heard it in two different contexts:
* The Rochester definition: Buffalo and Rochester metropolitan areas, plus Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegheny, and Steuben counties.
* The Buffalo definition: Buffalo metropolitan area (Erie and Niagara counties), plus Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegheny, Genesee, Orleans, and Wyoming counties. Basically, same as the "Niagara Frontier" area.
Tompkins is the one county that is representative of like four regions. I agree it can be included in Central New York (it shares a community college with Cortland too). It's obviously Finger Lakes, I think it counts as Southern Tier, and because of aforementioned cultural connections, I think it can count as Western New York, too. To be clear I see the "line" that spans the eastern borders of Wayne, Seneca, Schuyler, and Chemung as the WNY/CNY divider, with Tompkins being somewhat of an outlier. I guess if one has to give Tompkins to just one region, I can see erring on the side of CNY, and on the flipside, it would have to be considered the westernmost CNY county...
In my opinion, Tompkins County is in the Finger Lakes region. Still, it's an area of overlapping regional and cultural identities.
* Accents: either "accentless" General American, mild Buffalo/Rochester Northern Cities Vowel Shift, or mild Appalachian English.
* Sports fan loyalty: Bills and Sabres in Tompkins County, Jets in Cortland County.
* Pop/soda: just barely on the "soda" side.
* Nearest "big city": Syracuse. We really don't think much about Elmira and Binghamton.
* Nearest "big cities" for weekend trips, concerts, etc: Buffalo and NYC. The Adirondacks are also a popular destination.
* Broadcast media:
- TV: Syracuse (on cable). Spectrum News defaults to the Syracuse feed, with the Binghamton feed on one of the higher channels. There's no OTA TV reception in Ithaca.
- Radio: Ithaca. WSKG in Binghamton serves as Ithaca's NPR affiliate. WITH is a partner station with WXXI in Rochester. WRVO from Syracuse has a translator in Ithaca. No Buffalo radio. Reception of FM stations outside the Ithaca area is very weak.
- Print: Ithaca. You can easily buy daily papers from Syracuse, Binghamton, Elmira, and NYC, but not the Buffalo News or Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.
* Airports: Ithaca -- the number and frequency of flights to/from ITA is remarkable for a small city. Syracuse for more convenient flights, Buffalo for cheaper fares and more non-stop destinations.
* Tompkins County is technically part of Appalachia. It's really evident south and southeast of Ithaca, where the landscape, accents, and lifestyles start getting West Virginia-like. Cortland County is far more "country" and blue collar than Tompkins.
* Most popular local beer: Ithaca Flower Power. NOT Labatt Blue.
Ithaca is a nice city, my buddy works for the college there.
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