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I am interested in visiting the southern tier counties in NY. I would like a little background before I visit. What are the primary economic issues facing these counties? Do these areas have more of an Appalachian culture or Northeast culture? Is this part of NY state suffering due to over-regulatory influences of NYC? What would you say the majority of the people are like? Friendly?
Economic issues? Oh, where to start... There is little industry in most of the southern tier, but then that is an issue much of the entire country is facing. Cheap overseas labor and 'liberalization' of trade and deregulation of global capital movement are to thank for that. Other parts of the country adapted by shifting over to the 'high-tech' and financial services industries, which has worked for a while, but those sectors are beginning to suffer. The southern tier never made that shift, though the educational infrastructure did exist. There is some primarily niche-market farming serving the trendy NYC market going on in the area, and that is expanding somewhat, and most towns/cities of reasonable size have at least one remnant manufacturing entity still holding on. There is some forestry product industry, though that is pretty small-scale, and the south-western edge of the area is more-or-less a 'commuter' area for NYC (its a long commute, but a lot of people do it). The biggest current economic news for the area is the Marcellus shale gas play- look through the postings here for more info on that.
Appalachin or Northeast? Hmmm, you'd have to define those terms for an accurate answer, but I'll say somewhere in between but more toward Northeast. Though many in the southern tier love their big pickups, hunting, snowmobiling, etc., it's not really 'hillbilly' and the area, while depressed, is nowhere near as poor as the heart of Appalachia. People are generally very friendly, though they aren't going to be your new best friend after a 5-minute chat. Neither as dry as classic down-east Yankees nor as 'chipper' as midwesterners- something in between.
While the area may be suffering somewhat due to being part of the same political/economic and social system as NYC, I don't think it is over-regulatory influence. More a matter of extremely divergent and diverse issues and attitudes that have to be dealt with under a single regime, and the money and power is concentrated in NYC.
Economic issues? Oh, where to start... There is little industry in most of the southern tier, but then that is an issue much of the entire country is facing. Cheap overseas labor and 'liberalization' of trade and deregulation of global capital movement are to thank for that. Other parts of the country adapted by shifting over to the 'high-tech' and financial services industries, which has worked for a while, but those sectors are beginning to suffer. The southern tier never made that shift, though the educational infrastructure did exist. There is some primarily niche-market farming serving the trendy NYC market going on in the area, and that is expanding somewhat, and most towns/cities of reasonable size have at least one remnant manufacturing entity still holding on. There is some forestry product industry, though that is pretty small-scale, and the south-western edge of the area is more-or-less a 'commuter' area for NYC (its a long commute, but a lot of people do it). The biggest current economic news for the area is the Marcellus shale gas play- look through the postings here for more info on that.
Appalachin or Northeast? Hmmm, you'd have to define those terms for an accurate answer, but I'll say somewhere in between but more toward Northeast. Though many in the southern tier love their big pickups, hunting, snowmobiling, etc., it's not really 'hillbilly' and the area, while depressed, is nowhere near as poor as the heart of Appalachia. People are generally very friendly, though they aren't going to be your new best friend after a 5-minute chat. Neither as dry as classic down-east Yankees nor as 'chipper' as midwesterners- something in between.
While the area may be suffering somewhat due to being part of the same political/economic and social system as NYC, I don't think it is over-regulatory influence. More a matter of extremely divergent and diverse issues and attitudes that have to be dealt with under a single regime, and the money and power is concentrated in NYC.
Thanks for the detailed reply.
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Southern tier
