What is Upstate??? (New York, Syracuse, Albany: work, suburban, commuter)

[wallkiller728]

I myself live in Ulster County where the Hudson River and the Catskills meet, and I do not consider this upstate. Many of my relatives when visiting refer to it as that, and it drives me nuts! I believe it is Eastern New York State. Does anyone think like me or differently?

[Check123]

Per Wikipedia...

...term "Upstate" sometimes used to refer to the whole of the state besides New York City and Long Island, and by others to refer only to the portion of the state north of Poughkeepsie and west of the Catskill Mountains. Because Westchester County, Putnam County, and Rockland County contain many communities of New York City commuters, they are rarely if ever considered part of Upstate New York. (As a matter of fact they have been considered part of Metro New York City as far back as the 1950's during the period of mass suburban growth.)

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstate_New_York

Originally Posted by wallkiller728

I myself live in Ulster County where the Hudson River and the Catskills meet, and I do not consider this upstate. Many of my relatives when visiting refer to it as that, and it drives me nuts! I believe it is Eastern New York State. Does anyone think like me or differently?

[Viralmd]

I live in Manhattan and while the areas you mention aren't 'really' upstate, yes, they are upstate.

[wallkiller728]

I suppose I should've expected a wide variety of answers. It is a subject that can never be placed into a set category.

[Glen NY]

Wall killer I worked in the City for the past 25 years and we had three categories of people, 1)city 2)Long Island and 3) upstate. Everybody is in one of those categories. There is no stigma to upstate, be proud

[wallkiller728]

I am proud to live in the beautiful valley I live in, but it does NOT deserve to be placed in a broad category. Those who live in the city can consider this upstate all they want, that will not make it so. Nevertheless, I am proud to live here. If NYC and Long Island receive attribution, my region will too.

[bellafinzi]

Originally Posted by Glen NY

Wall killer I worked in the City for the past 25 years and we had three categories of people, 1)city 2)Long Island and 3) upstate. Everybody is in one of those categories. There is no stigma to upstate, be proud

Glen NY, I'm not sure if you have noticed yet, but when people in the Syracuse suburbs say "the city" more often than not they are talking about the city of Syracuse...NOT New York City.

I grew up with people referring to "the City" as the City of Syracuse...saying things like "I'm going down City" or "Where is that located?...in the City" or "the City has bad leaders" or "there was a shooting in the City today" or "how do you get to this place in the City" etc...

The Syracuse suburbs are so far from NYC that we live in totally different worlds.

[ontheroad]

I agree with you completely but I had to laugh, aloud at the question because I worked for a NYS agency and we had an office in NYC and Albany. We regionalized responsibilities and I was the director of "Downstate" and my co-director was responsible for "Upstate" - we drew the line at Westchester County, and I gave him Long Island for years, but he gave it back to me.

Both the Albany and the NYC staff were rigid about this qualification. The only, single advantage it had was a better distribution of funds--in favor of Statewide

Originally Posted by wallkiller728

I am proud to live in the beautiful valley I live in, but it does NOT deserve to be placed in a broad category. Those who live in the city can consider this upstate all they want, that will not make it so. Nevertheless, I am proud to live here. If NYC and Long Island receive attribution, my region will too.

[wallkiller728]

ontheroad that does not make any sense to me what so ever because there is a prison nearby in dutchess county referred to as the "downstate" facililty, so it is not a unified NYS agency system.

[ontheroad]

Nothing about the NYS Government ever made sense to me.

Originally Posted by wallkiller728

ontheroad that does not make any sense to me what so ever because there is a prison nearby in dutchess county referred to as the "downstate" facililty, so it is not a unified NYS agency system.