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Totally untrue. Long Island is no paradise with the cost of living and the traffic. Upstate is beautiful and sophisticated - you just have to be familiar with the different areas and what they have to offer.
Upstate is beautiful, but not sophisticated aside from a few neighborhoods in the bigger metros and resort/vacation areas. If you're referring to Westchester as Upstate, then yeah, Westchester can be considered quite sophisticated. But I think that's the last word someone would use to describe cities like Utica and the rural areas that could easily be confused for impoverished areas of the Deep South.
Upstate is beautiful, but not sophisticated aside from a few neighborhoods in the bigger metros and resort/vacation areas. If you're referring to Westchester as Upstate, then yeah, Westchester can be considered quite sophisticated. But I think that's the last word someone would use to describe cities like Utica and the rural areas that could easily be confused for impoverished areas of the Deep South.
I wouldn’t go that far about the rural areas. While there is legitimate poverty in some of them, you aren’t going to confuse them rural areas in the South like the Delta regions of MS and AR or McDowell County WV and Owsley County KY.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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Originally Posted by ckhthankgod
I wouldn’t go that far about the rural areas. While there is legitimate poverty in some of them, you aren’t going to confuse them rural areas in the South like the Delta regions of MS and AR or McDowell County WV and Owsley County KY.
There a quite a few small towns in NY state that are very, VERY similar to poor Delta/central Appalachian villages.
Rathbone, Jasper, Almond, Adrian, Irelandville pre-2015, outer Enfield, Truxton, and so forth. In fact, my hometown of Rock Stream was a full on shambles before the area began to recover in the last 8 years.
I know this because I am familiar, in person, with each region.
There a quite a few small towns in NY state that are very, VERY similar to poor Delta/central Appalachian villages.
Rathbone, Jasper, Almond, Adrian, Irelandville pre-2015, outer Enfield, Truxton, and so forth. In fact, my hometown of Rock Stream was a full on shambles before the area began to recover in the last 8 years.
I know this because I am familiar, in person, with each region.
While I'm sure there are people in serious poverty in those communities, I don't think you may realize how bad the poverty is in those other places and to what extent. I'm saying that, because I actually have roots in one of those areas and one side of my family comes from what is now the 4th poorest town in the US for places with at least 1000 people, which is in its state's 2nd poorest county(43.9% poverty rate as of 2010-2014 info). Having been there and seeing it, I think the people in that town would wish they lived in those NY towns/communities.
NY's highest poverty county would be the 17th poorest in that state(MS) and it is an urban county. even when looking at this by zip code, many of the higher ranked rural zip codes tend to not even have 1000 people and are scattered. If they do have over 1000 people, it isn't by much.
Again, this isn't to diminish the rural poverty in NY, but I was making that statement in terms of concentration and/or extent.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ckhthankgod
While I'm sure there are people in serious poverty in those communities, I don't think you may realize how bad the poverty is in those other places and to what extent. I'm saying that, because I actually have roots in one of those areas and one side of my family comes from what is now the 4th poorest town in the US for places with at least 1000 people, which is in its state's 2nd poorest county(43.9% poverty rate as of 2010-2014 info). Having been there and seeing it, I think the people in that town would wish they lived in those NY towns/communities.
NY's highest poverty county would be the 17th poorest in that state(MS) and it is an urban county. even when looking at this by zip code, many of the higher ranked rural zip codes tend to not even have 1000 people and are scattered. If they do have over 1000 people, it isn't by much.
Again, this isn't to diminish the rural poverty in NY, but I was making that statement in terms of concentration and/or extent.
It's like you've never paid any attention to anything I have ever said to you.
I guess my life was nothing but riches because I grew up in NY. Cool. Thanks. Got it.
I remember when I had to go outside in the bitter cold and snow to relieve myself (because we didn't have a working indoor toilet) I just kept thinking, beats Mississippi! All those times I went hungry I was kept alive by the thought that I was just so damned lucky to be in NY, bow howdy.
Because, evidently, living exactly how I did but in another state would have somehow been worse.
Last edited by CookieSkoon; 11-06-2019 at 11:17 AM..
It's like you've never paid any attention to anything I have ever said to you.
I guess my life was nothing but riches because I grew up in NY. Cool. Thanks. Got it.
I've heard it loud and clear.
My other post(#82) was in regards to a post from another poster and in terms of context, not the diminishing of any personal experience or rural poverty.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ckhthankgod
I've heard it loud and clear.
My other post was in regards to a post from another poster and in terms of context, not the diminishing of any personal experience or rural poverty.
But you responded to me. Problem here is, you're stuck on the overall, I am talking about the individual experience. At the end of the day, what things are like for a person has little/near nothing to do with the overall.
Elsewise, you'd have to discount all the poverty in America just because we're the among the wealthiest countries in the world.
This is a very sore topic for me. I'm tired of hearing people tell me my past didn't matter because NY. As if I needed anymore reason to be embittered with this try-hard yuppie hellhole.
But you responded to me. Problem here is, you're stuck on the overall, I am talking about the individual experience. At the end of the day, what things are like for a person has little/near nothing to do with the overall.
Elsewise, you'd have to discount all the poverty in America just because we're the among the wealthiest countries in the world.
This is a very sore topic for me. I'm tired of hearing people tell me my past didn't matter because NY. As if I needed anymore reason to be embittered with this try-hard yuppie hellhole.
No, I responded to another poster, then put what I said in general context in relation to your post response to that post. Meaning, you responded to that post and I just cleared up what I was talking about. It wasn't anything personal at all.
But you responded to me. Problem here is, you're stuck on the overall, I am talking about the individual experience. At the end of the day, what things are like for a person has little/near nothing to do with the overall.
Elsewise, you'd have to discount all the poverty in America just because we're the among the wealthiest countries in the world.
This is a very sore topic for me. I'm tired of hearing people tell me my past didn't matter because NY. As if I needed anymore reason to be embittered with this try-hard yuppie hellhole.
I'm not referring to ckhthankgod, but in general, if someone doesn't understand that rural poverty is rural poverty regardless of what state, that's just ignorance on them. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. The Westside. Far away from anything remotely considered rural poverty. But I've educated myself on the matter. I got slight experiences with my family being from Upstate NY originally. They weren't from a rural poverty region, but I was aware of it and saw the effects of Rust Belt poverty where my family lived. I lived in Louisville for three years. There, I wasn't living amidst the rural poverty, but I became very aware of it through working in the legal system. I had plenty of firsthand experience with even the different types of rural poverty. In KY, there are the small town farming rural poverty types south and west of Louisville, and then there are the coal mining union rural poverty types of Appalachia.
Now, living in NJ, I travel around the state for work and I've seen rural poverty even in NJ, the most urbanized and dense state in the country. Sussex and Warren counties in the northwest part of the state are full of rural poverty from what I can see when driving through for work.
If anyone is delegitimizing your experience from rural poverty just because your state was New York, that's ignorance on them. They've never taken the time to understand, experience, or reflect on how one's state doesn't indicate their level of poverty. Rural poverty is rural poverty regardless of state. Too many people think NY State can't be poor just because NYC is within the state and there is a lot of money there.
So please don't think that nobody in NY understands your poverty and it's all yuppies who don't believe your stories. I try really hard to understand everyone's story, regardless of where they're from.
Interesting debate on what's upstate vs downstate. Kind of reminds me of debates on the NJ forum about what's North Jersey vs South Jersey.
But really, aren't "upstate" and "downstate" relative terms? Kind of like "uptown" and "downtown" are in Manhattan? Uptown and downtown aren't discrete places. They're directions. If you're at 42nd Street and want to go to 14th Street, you head downtown. If you're at Houston Street and want to go to 14th, you head uptown.
I go to Orange County sometimes, and I say I'm "going upstate." I don't mean I'm going to a zone called UPSTATE. Instead, I'm heading north, up the state, upstate. I feel like someone in the Bronx could go upstate to get to Tarrytown, while someone from Poughkeepsie heads downstate to get there.
Based on the conversation so far, I could be alone on this.
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