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I would have to say California for two basic reasons:
1) It identity is more well rounded. Two world class cities as well as others like SD, santa Barbara, Palm Springs, beaches, mountains, Yosemite, deserts, Napa valley, pac coast highway, Big Sur, Monterey Bay, Lake Tahoe, the Redwoods, etc.
On the global level NY is basically NYC and then maybe Niagara Falls and the Hamptons. Now of course, NYS has a ton more to offer beyond those three areas . The river valleys of the Mohawk and Hudson, the mountains of the Catskills, Adirondacks, the waterfronts of the Thousands Islands, Lake Chaimplain and the Great Lakes, the hills, gorges and lakes of the Finger Lakes and WNY Chautauqua Allegany region are all spectacular. But I'm not sure how much of a global identity they have. Buffalo and Rochester aren't on par with SF or SJ.
2) California has more of a common identity: liberal, scenic, laid back, the California dream of heading west to start anew
Although obviously there are lots of regional identities:North vs South, Coast vs Inland these aren't are clearly defined as the upstate vs downstate divide. NYC arguably feels a greater cultural and geography connection to NJ, CT, Philly than Buffalo or Watertown. Similarly Buffalo probably feels closer to Cleveland. People in Roch/Buff are more likely to go to Toronto than NYC when they want the big city experience.
Some people consider the area around Buffalo (western NY), as well many parts of PA as "midwestern" in feel and culture. I definitely get more of a Midwestern vibe in Buffalo than I do an east coast vibe. Of course, it very much so is a member of the "great lakes" region, which is largely in the Midwest, so that might be why.
New York and CA are about equal I'd say. One thing with CA is that they have a lot more well-known cities than NY. Other than NYC, the other main cities are nowhere near as renowned as CA's. For example, Albany, Rochester, Syracuse can't really compare to San Diego, or San Francisco. However, NY is the better state
California as a state is more known than New York as a state. Non-NYC New York is pathetically underrated containing some of best nature and fishing in the region. California’s nature is is fairly ubiquitous to the state as everyone knows about the ocean, Coastal Redwoods, and Sierras. I will say that there are parts of California that are similarly pathetically underrated just like NYS, but nearly as much.
California is in many was more analogous to the North East in general than just NYS. You would have Boston, Philly, Martha's Vineyard, Vermont, Maine coast, Ivy League. It would have something more of a district identity: liberal, machine politics, urbanized, expensive, colonial, immigrant heavy, lots of white ethnics, high tax, regulation, overflow from NYC into Southern NE, Eastern PA, etc. It is hard to come up with an identity that links NYC and Buffalo, but excludes NJ or PA.
Even WNY and Western PA would form a quasi Midwestern rust belt region than is distict from the dominant seaboard. Sort of like CAs central valley.
as a New Yorker who moved to California: California
Almost everything west of the Hudson River, Catskill and adironadack mountains is essentially the midwest.
Many people are unaware that Niagara falls is in New York, or of the amount of agriculture in NYS.
Most don't even know that New York without the City is the state and when they say New York they mean NYC.
I wasn't specifically asking to compare them as states alone but just overall especially since NYC(the image that comes to people's mind when they think of NY) has the same name as the state itself but If i had the put question as "Which is more famous: California or NYC", do you think the poll would have been the same or changed a bit?
As states and nothing else, California. It is a bit difficult because New York state is named after New York, the city which I would guess is the most popular or well know US city. Maybe a little challenge from Washington for the political or news savvy crowd.
But that was the point to see which is famous overall especially since NYC(the reason NY is known across the globe) has the same name as the state.
NYC is likely a little more famous than all of California globally, if you could somehow poll the entire world and see how much each person knows about it. That said, if you include "Hollywood" and its extensions - i.e. anything that references it, I think it would be close to a tie.
I can't imagine there being many adults even in rural China that hasn't at least heard of NYC, nor Hollywood.
The NY state itself is a non-starter in this comparison, there are educated North Americans that aren't aware it exists as a state.
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