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oh, I wasn't suggesting that it wasn't accurate hon, I know it is, just saying that depending on where you live, different people call it different things not necessarily the correct ones!
I'm right on the PA border in the central part of the state .
Pioneer8, I am from Long Island, just outside of NYC. Down here we call any part of New York that is not NYC or Long Island "upstate" as do almost all New Yorkers. However "upstate" is huge. There are many NYC suburbs that are "upstate". Upstate is divided into many areas and several metropolis'. For instance the state capitol, Albany is due north of NYC. Syracuse is about 2hrs west of that. Rochester is further west and a bit north while Buffalo is all the way west. The area between the triangle formed by Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse is the Finger lake region. It is beautiful by the way. That region is anywhere from 4-7 hours from NYC. Finally the Adirondacks make up the North eastern part of the state and is mostly small towns and rural. Either way you slice it, if it is not Long Island or NYC it is "upstate"
LOL...that's true. For Long Islanders anything above NYC would be upstate.
Yes, upstate is huge. I've encounter some really nice folks in norht or north west of albany, and each region or country have slightly different country accent. I hope people up here don't try to be like downstate area and lose that sincere and hospitality.
Being from Illinois, the whole 'upstate/downstate' dynamic is familiar to me, but it's the other way around. Much like in Illinois with the Chicago-rim cities like Aurora...
People in NYC consider almost everything outside of the five boroughs to be 'upstate'. (People in Manhattan don't even count the other boroughs as being 'real' New York City, as far as I can tell.) For people further upstate, the entire area from about Poughkeepsie inward is considered downstate, and some people might include the Hudson Valley area, because so many people there work in the City. (This commute must be utter madness.)
As for the 'Southern Tier', this technically means the southern row of counties bordering on Pennsylvania, the ones where the border runs dead straight east to west. However, I don't think most people count the Buffalo area as being part of the Southern Tier, most people mean Elmira-Corning and Binghamton areas when they say it.
In Pennsylvania, the northern row of counties is called the Northern Tier, and together, the region is considered the 'Twin Tiers', but I rarely hear references to this, probably because (no offense meant to anybody) there's not really much in the Northern Tier that would cause anybody to think about it.
Wowee! How will I ever keep all this straight. I feel like I am cramming for an exam! O.K. I'll be fine. -Just gotta study a bit is all! Thank you... again.
It's really OK, a lot of people who've lived here all their lives are still confused. LOL.
The main thing you need to know is that Broome and Tioga Counties are in the Southern Tier, and everything north of that is not. (Normally, the area north of here, IE... Ithaca to Syracuse, is what I hear described as "Finger Lakes" region, and they make some quite decent wines up there.)
Inside Broome County, Endicott, Johnson City, and Binghamton together are considered "The Triple Cities" or the Tri-Cities Area.
Rochester is often lumped in with the label Western NY, but many of the eastern suburbs of Rochester could be on the fringe of the Finger Lakes Region, too.
You could even find debate about how many Finger Lakes are actually "Finger Lakes". Most say 6 - some count a few more. I grew up near Keuka Lake, IMHO the prettiest lake of them all (its the one with a fork in it - between Bath and Penn Yan). I'm not the only one ... British Airways named route 54A along Keuka Lake as one of the Top 15 Scenic Drives in the World! That's pretty impressive, and I lived there most of my life until after college.
Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, Cayuga, Owasco, & Skaneateles (listed west to east) are most commonly referred to as the Finger Lakes, although there are a bunch of smaller lakes in the area that some count as well. Regardless, the lakes help to make the area very condusive for growing first-class wine grapes and, in fact, NY State is the second only to California in wine production in the US.
My only complaint is that those lakes are so deep, that they stay pretty cold until late into the summer months. The southern lakes in the US I have been exposed to - like Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, Lake Norman & Wylie in the Charlotte, NC area - are much more shallow and much more murkey than any of the Finger Lakes. If they had lakes like these deep, glacier-formed lakes in a hotter climate - they would be impossible for anyone that wasn't a millionare to live on. As it is, even in the cooler climate of upstate NY - buying a property on one of these pristine God-made lakes is enormous. Fortunately, there are good public access spots and a lot of good restaurants around the lakes as well.
Born and rasied in the Finger Lakes,Moved too Rochester in 1971 lived their till 1975 and moved too Florida. Poor choice should have stayed in the area.
No big industry in the Finger Lakes when I left.Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse had the industry.Bed and Breakfast and wine tasting is the big thing I here from friends.Beautiful in the fall and spring summers hot and humid winter "cold"!!
Tinman if you are even slightly considering moving back to the fingerlakes area.... it would be best to do it soon. A lot of people from Napa and other extremeley expensive major wine growing areas are coming to the finger lakes in droves for the dirt cheap land, and driving up the prices. It's good for many of the communities, but it is eventrually going to make it more expensive to live in that area. Buffalo and Rocheter are still too of the most affordable metros to live in though.
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Southern Tier
No, YOU guys have the funny accents......
