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Upstate New York is the region of New York State north of the core of the New York metropolitan area. It has a population of 7,121,911 out of New York State's total 18,976,457. Were it an independent state, it would be ranked 13th by population.

Definition

There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York, but the term "Upstate" is sometimes used to refer to the whole of the state besides New York City, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley (Rockland County & Westchester County).

Another common perception of the Upstate/Downstate boundary locates it at the point at which New York's suburbs segue into its exurbs. This line would place most, but not all, of Westchester and Rockland counties south of the boundary, putting the northwestern edge of Rockland as well as the northernmost quarter of Westchester (such as Peekskill) in Upstate New York. This definition of Upstate New York corresponds to the orange, yellow, and green areas on the map above.

A more nuanced view would suggest the boundary lies further north. Because most New York City bedroom communities in Dutchess and Orange counties are situated in the southern part of those counties and the city's suburban public transportation system extends some distance north, the Upstate/Downstate boundary can be defined roughly by a border extended from Wassaic (where Metro-North's Harlem Line ends) across to Poughkeepsie down to Newburgh and then across to Middletown and Port Jervis. This definition of Upstate New York corresponds to the yellow and green areas on the map above and roughly corresponds with the area north of Interstate 84. This imaginary line also demarcates the northernmost reach of high housing prices associated with the Downstate region in contrast to the relatively low housing costs found further Upstate.

One factor complicating this issue is the fact that many communities clearly beyond the New York City commuter orbit are part of the City's media market, which includes Dutchess, Ulster and Sullivan counties, and thus do not get local television (via cable) from Albany or Binghamton TV stations.

For some, the term Upstate evokes sentiments of rural lifestyles and traditional values contrary to those of New York City. In the New York metropolitan area, usage of the term "Upstate New York" typically implies unfamiliarity with (and often condescension towards) the area that the speaker is denoting as such. It denotes areas that are both somewhat north of and considerably more rural than the home location of the speaker. Usage of the term is often taken to be an insulting manifestation of the famous New Yorker magazine's view of the world.

New York City is dependent on upstate for a variety of services; it is the source of the city's water supply via the Delaware Aqueduct and the Catskill Aqueduct; much of the city's electric power supply comes from state owned hydroelectric plants at Niagara Falls and the St. Lawrence River such as the Robert Moses power station; and most of the state's prisons are upstate; hence the popular term "being sent up the river" (however, the term originally referred to Sing Sing, which is "up the Hudson River" from New York City, but being in Ossining in Westchester County is still in the "downstate" region). Conversely, the operation of state facilities providing these services is an important part of the upstate economy.

Culture

The region is culturally and economically distinct from the New York City area, though the Hudson Valley counties of Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, and even Albany are increasingly peripheral sections of the New York City metro area. The northern upstate area consists of a handful of small and medium-sized cities, with surrounding suburbs, amidst vast rural areas.

Western New York has many cultural and economic ties to the other Great Lakes states as well as Southern Ontario, while the Capital District, the Hudson Valley and the Plattsburgh area have ties to New England. Some literary and cinematic depictions of upstate present a sense of small town, Midwestern lifetyles, such as It's a Wonderful Life, set in a small upstate town in the 1940s.

During the 1990s and the 2000s this area has suffered slow job growth [2] and a rapid loss of young adults. [3] It has been argued, however, that Upstate doesn't suffer from "brain drain" as much as it suffers from lack of "brain gain" (i.e. other areas of the country attract more educated persons than does Upstate.)

A common misconception is that the predominant ethnic group in upstate are WASPs. Actually residents of English ancestry are dominant in only a handful of rural counties. The Hudson Valley, the Capital District and the Syracuse region are heavily Irish American, while the North Country is heavily French Canadian. Italian Americans are the largest ethnic group in Oneida County, Broome County and Schenectady, while German ancestry is most common across western New York. Persons of Polish ancestry are predominant in Buffalo and its close suburbs. There is also a significant presence of indigenous Iroquois Native Americans in the area.

The only two major league professional sports teams in Upstate New York are the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL) and the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL). As a result, the collegiate sports program at Syracuse University (Syracuse Orange) attracts significant regional attention, as do minor league baseball and hockey teams. Professional sports teams from New York City, northern New Jersey, and Boston all have followings in the Capital District, while some Western New York sports fans follow teams from Toronto.

Two of the most important rock festivals of the 20th century were held in Upstate New York. In 1969 the Woodstock Festival was held in Bethel, New York, while in 1973 another multiday festival was held at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.

Linguistically, from Western New York to as far east as Utica is part of the Inland North region of American English dialectology, a region which includes Midwestern cities as far west as Chicago and Milwaukee. The Hudson Valley has more in common dialectologically with western New England and New York City.[5] The boundary between the use of the words pop and soda to refer to soft drinks, however, falls further west than the edge of the Inland North: Buffalo uses pop, like the rest of the Inland North to the west, whereas Syracuse uses soda, like New England and New York City.

Politics

Often attributed to the region's semi-rural character, there is more conservatism in culture and politics than found in the more urban downstate area, and is the power base of the state's Republican Party, especially now that Long Island, a former Republican stronghold, has developed strong Democratic leans.

There are several exceptions to this rule, including Erie County (Buffalo), Monroe County (Rochester), Onondaga County (Syracuse), Oneida and Herkimer Counties (Utica area), Tompkins County (Ithaca), Albany County (Albany), Broome County (Binghamton), Clinton (Plattsburgh), Franklin, and St. Lawrence counties (influence of Canada). Ulster County, while having no urban centers, is the home of SUNY New Paltz. The large student population has consistently voted Democratic in presidential elections.

As a whole, Upstate New York is roughly equally divided in Federal elections between Democrats and Republicans. In 2004, George W. Bush defeated John Kerry by less than 1,000 votes (1,552,910 votes to 1,552,307) in the Upstate Region.

The conservatism of the upstate region more closely resembles the libertarian, socially liberal "Live and let live" conservatism of Vermont, New Hampshire and many of the western states instead of the social conservatism of the southern states and the Religious Right. Some of the Religious Right's harshest critics within the Republican Party, in fact, have been upstate New York Republicans such as Amo Houghton and Jack Quinn. Although religious fundamentalism exists in the upstate region, it generally is not an organized political force in local elections. The misunderstanding of the regional differences in upstate's conservative nature has led to significant political difficulties by both major political parties in the area. Since 2001, the Republican Party's efforts to reach out to the area using the religious rhetoric that had been so successful in the South has been met with rejection and ridicule, and was one of the leading causes of the Party's considerable loss of support in upstate since that time.

Upstate politicians have, in fact, sometimes taken the leading role in the moves that give the state its liberal reputation. It was George Michael, an assemblyman from the Finger Lakes, who in 1970 stunned not only the state but the nation by asking that his vote of "no" on the bill to legalize abortion in New York be changed to "yes," causing the bill to pass by one vote. (He lost his seat at the next primary election, as he had anticipated, but never regretted changing his vote).

Nearly three decades later, voters in Plattsburgh elected the state's first openly gay mayor - a Republican, to boot. Another upstate mayor, Jason West of New Paltz, drew national attention in early 2004 when he officiated at the state's first gay weddings.

Proponents of a possible 2008 presidential run by Sen. Hillary Clinton have pointed to her relative success upstate (she lost the region by less than 10 percent of the vote in 2000) as an argument that she could succeed as a candidate in red states. Skeptics of such a bid have responded that upstate is, in fact, not as conservative as widely believed, at least not conservative in the manner of what is now the leadership of the Republican Party. [6].

Most of New York State's most successful Republican politicians, however, such as Rockefeller, George Pataki, Thomas Dewey, Fiorello LaGuardia, Jacob Javits and Alfonse D'Amato, came from the downstate region, (although some definitions of the boundary would have Pataki being from upstate). Most upstate Republicans are politically unacceptable to even downstate Republican voters, and the party's financial backers are mostly based downstate (the corollary, of course, being that incumbent New York City politicians rarely win statewide elections, either). Democratic politicians upstate often tend to be (or at least run) more moderate than their downstate compatriots, and sometimes seek the endorsement of the state's Conservative Party to inoculate them against perceptions of extreme liberalism.

Nevertheless, Republican attempts upstate to court votes by openly appealing to suspicion of the city have often backfired. In 1998 incumbent Republican Senator Al D'Amato's Senate campaign ran television ads in some upstate markets attempting to link his opponent, Charles Schumer, to a flock of hungry sharks released from the city to fleece upstate. Schumer went on to win the election and did surprisingly well upstate for a Democrat with deep roots in the city. In turn, he has probably lobbied for "upstate" interests both in and out of government more than any past "downstate" Democratic senator (for example, he lobbied for JetBlue to provide flights to Buffalo and Syracuse, producing more competition and lower fares at those airports).

Downstate candidates seeking statewide office have often sealed their fate by displaying profound ignorance of upstate geography. One candidate at a forum in Buffalo once referred to "your airport in Albany" ... a city more than 200 miles (320 km) away. In the 2000 Senate race, Rudolph Giuliani confused the Orange County village of Monroe with Monroe County, and the ultimate Republican nominee, Rick Lazio, later released an itinerary confusing Owego and Oswego, two communities a considerable distance from each other. Hillary Clinton won the race, doing much better upstate than expected. Like Charles Schumer, she too has "given back" and lobbied for "upstate" interests more than most past "downstate" Democratic senators (for example, unsuccessfully lobbying for larger Homeland Security funding for the Buffalo area than its size would normally warrant on the basis of it being on the Canadian border, the finding of a putative sleeper cell in the nearby city of Lackawanna in 2002, and the presence of the Eastern United States' most vital electrical power generation facilities, the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant and the Lewiston Pump Generating Plant).

But while politicians based upstate rarely win elections for governor or U.S. Senator, some have been elected to other lesser statewide offices, such as lieutenant governor (Stan Lundine, Maryanne Krupsak and Mary Donohue, for instance), comptroller (Edward Regan) and attorney general (Dennis Vacco). The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan officially lived on a farm in Delaware County while serving in the Senate, but he grew up in New York City and spent much of his career there, making him a familiar face to downstate voters.

The sharp differences in ideology have historically fueled many political struggles by upstate conservatives with largely downstate-based Democrats in the New York Legislature; however the feuds quite often tend to be more on regional lines than on party lines. The most recent major examples were the failed attempt by Syracuse-area assemblyman Michael Bragman, the majority leader of that body to seize control of the downstate-dominated state Democratic party in 2000, which was immediately followed by a strong retaliatory backlash against all upstate politicians in state government and the attempt by both Republicans and Democrats to cater to upstate voters by promising to disband the New York State Thruway, whose toll portions are entirely upstate. Both candidates in the 2006 gubernatorial election (Democrat Eliot Spitzer and Republican John Faso) pledged to eliminate the tolls however at the present time only an eight mile stretch of I-190 in downtown Buffalo, which had been collecting tolls to be used to keep I-84 downstate a free highway, has been made toll-free. Critics upstate feel that it is unlikely that either party would genuinely be willing to give up such a significant source of revenue, despite promises to the contrary, particularly one that does not draw its funding from the population core downstate.

While Republicans have traditionally controlled the State Senate by virtue of holding most seats upstate, the leadership has often been split between senators from Long Island such as Ralph Marino and upstaters such as the present leader, Joe Bruno.

In the midterm elections of 2006, many upstate Congressional seats historically held by Republicans came under serious challenge by Democratic contenders, and some (such as the 20th and 24th districts) were lost to Democrats. Slow population growth in the 1990s led legislators to eliminate two upstate House districts in the 2002 reapportionment and leave all downstate districts alone, hence, the influence of upstate in Congress has faded from the days in which Jack Kemp; Barber Conable, and Sam Stratton were prominent House leaders.

Movements to split the state of New York into two states exist both upstate and downstate.

Geography

The headwaters of the Delaware, Susquehanna, Hudson, and Allegheny rivers are located in the region. The region is characterized by the major mountain ranges and large lakes.

The Allegheny Plateau extends into west and central New York from the south. The Catskill Mountains lie in the southeastern part of the state, closer to New York City. The Catskills and the Allegheny Plateau are both part of the Appalachian Mountains. The northernmost part of the state contains the Adirondack Mountains, which are sometimes considered part of the Appalachians but are geologically separate.

In the more mountainous eastern part of Upstate New York, the valleys of the Hudson River and the Mohawk River were historically important travel corridors and remain so today. However in the different area of Buffalo, New York the area is very flat, as it use to be a glacial lake. The only "hills" in Niagara County, New York are the Niagara Escarpment, which formed the Falls.

Upstate has a long shared border with Canadian province of Ontario divided by water; including the Lake Erie, Niagara River, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. It shares a land border with the province of Quebec in the northernmost part of the state.

The sizes of upstate counties and towns are generally larger in area and smaller in population, compared with the downstate region, although there are exceptions. The state's smallest county in population (Hamilton County) and largest county in area (St. Lawrence County on the state's northern border) are both in upstate New York, while the largest in population (Kings County) and smallest in area (New York County) are both part of New York City.

Upstate New York is well known for its cold winters, particularly in comparison to the more temperate climate of downstate New York. This is especially true for the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Oswego and Syracuse, and is largely due to lake-effect snow from Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

Many of the features of the upstate landscape, such as the Finger Lakes and the drumlins that dot the region, are the result of glaciers during the Ice Age.

History

Before the arrival of European settlement, the area was inhabited by a mixture of Iroquois-speaking people (mainly west of the Hudson) and Algonquian-speaking people (mainly east of the Hudson). The conflict between the two peoples was an important historical force in the days of the early European colonization. The Iroquois confederacy of the Five (later Six) Nations was a powerful force in its home territory that extended from the Mohawk River Valley to the western part of the state, and the Iroquois controlled large swaths of territory at various times throughout the northeastern U.S. from this home base.

The region was important beginning in the very early days of both the French Colonization and Dutch colonization, where much of the fur trade of the New Netherland colony was located in the upper Hudson Valley. The area was the scene of much of the fighting in the French and Indian War, events which were depicted in the work of James Fenimore Cooper.

The region was strategically important in the American Revolution, and was the scene of several important battles, including the Battle of Saratoga, which is considered to have been a significant turning point in the war. While New York City remained in the hands of the British during most of the war, the upstate region was firmly in the hands of the Colonial forces. In 1779, the Sullivan Expedition, a military campaign ordered by Gen. George Washington, drove thousands of Iroquois from their lands in the region.

Following the American Revolution, the United States signed a federal treaty, the Treaty of Canandaigua, with the Six Nations of the Iroquois, affirming their land rights in the region. Nevertheless, extinguishing of Indian title to these lands via non-Federally-sanctioned treaties continued through the early 19th century. The lands were then settled by Revolutionary War veterans and others from New England states. Prior to this time, the French and later the English were among the first settlers to this region coming up the river from Quebec.

Battles with British were also fought during the war of 1812 (1812-1815), on land, in the Great Lakes (Ontario and Erie) and St. Lawrence shorlines, including the Battle of Sacket's Harbour.

By 1825, the Erie Canal opened, allowing the area to become an important component of the 19th century industrial expansion in the United States. This also promoted trade with British North America and settlement of newer states in western territories. Later in the century the New York Central Railroad followed the "water-level route" from New York City to the Great Lakes, contributing to the industrialization of cities along its route.

In the pre-Civil War era, upstate New York became a major center of radical abolitionist activity and was an important nexus of the Underground Railroad. Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act was particularly heated in the region. The American women's rights movement was also born in upstate New York at this time; the first women's rights convention was held at Seneca Falls in 1848.

Through the mid and late 19th century, Upstate New York became a hotbed of religious revivialism with myriads of sects establishing themselves during that time, such as the Oneida Community. Because of the comparative isolation of the region, many of the sects were non-conformist and had numerous difficulties with other local population as well as government authority because of their non-traditional tenets. This led to evangelist Charles Grandison Finney to coin the term the burned-over district for the region. The Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists and Spiritualists are the only 21st century survivors of the hundreds of sects created during this time.

During the era immediately following World War II Upstate reached what was probably its peak influence in the national economy. Major local corporations such as IBM, General Electric, Kodak, Xerox and Carrier produced cutting edge products for business, government and consumers. The opening of the New York State Thruway in the mid 1950s gave the region superior access to other eastern markets. This regional advantage faded as many local firms relocated operations to other states, or downsized in the face of foreign competition, similar to other areas in the American Rust Belt.

In recent decades, with the decline of manufacturing, the area has generally suffered a net population loss. Five of the six Iroquois nations have filed land claims against New York State (or have sought settlement of pending claims), based on late 18th-century treaties with the United States.

Important features

Political figures

• Grover Cleveland
• Roscoe Conkling
• Frederick Douglass
• Millard Fillmore
• Charles Evans Hughes
• John G. Roberts
• Franklin Roosevelt
• Elihu Root
• James Schoolcraft Sherman
• William Seward
• Gerrit Smith
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Martin Van Buren
• B. Thomas Golisano

The region is considered to be the cradle of Mormonism, as well as the Women's Suffrage movement. It was important historically in the Shaker movement.

Subregions

• Adirondack Mountains
• Capital District (Albany and the surrounding area)
• Catskill Mountains
• Central Leatherstocking Region (Includes Binghamton and Cooperstown)
• Central New York (Syracuse and the surrounding area)
• Finger Lakes (between Rochester and Syracuse)
• The Holland Purchase
• Hudson Valley (except Rockland County and Westchester County, though in general increasingly part of the New York metro area culturally)
• Mohawk Valley (includes Utica and Schenectady)
• North Country (extreme Northern frontier of New York, north of the Adirondacks)
• Shawangunk Ridge
• Southern Tier (just north of Pennsylvania, excluding the Catskills; includes Binghamton, Corning and Elmira)
• Western New York (the westernmost tip; includes Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Jamestown, and sometimes Rochester)

Major highways

• Interstate 81
• Interstate 86
• Interstate 87 (Adirondack Northway)
• Interstate 88
• Interstate 90

Major cities

• Albany (the state capital)
• Auburn
• Binghamton
• Buffalo (the most populous city in Upstate New York)
• Cortland
• Elmira
• Glens Falls
• Ithaca
• Jamestown
• Kingston
• Newburgh
• Niagara Falls
• Plattsburgh
• Poughkeepsie
• Rochester (The second most populous city in Upstate New York)
• Rome
• Saratoga Springs
• Schenectady
• Syracuse
• Troy
• Utica
• Watertown

Major universities and colleges

• Public
• State University of New York (SUNY)
• SUNY Alfred
• SUNY Albany
• SUNY Binghamton
• SUNY Brockport
• SUNY Buffalo
• SUNY Cobleskill
• SUNY Cortland
• Empire State College
• SUNY ESF
• SUNY Fredonia
• SUNY Geneseo
• SUNY Institute of Technology in Utica/Rome
• SUNY Maritime
• SUNY New Paltz
• SUNY Oneonta
• SUNY Oswego
• SUNY Plattsburgh
• SUNY Potsdam
• United States Military Academy at West Point
• Private
• Alfred University
• Canisius College
• Clarkson University
• The College of Saint Rose
• Colgate University
• Cornell University
• Elmira College
• Hamilton College
• Hartwick College
• Hobart and William Smith Colleges
• Houghton College
• Ithaca College
• Keuka College
• Le Moyne College
• Marist College
• Nazareth College
• Niagara University
• Paul Smith's College
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Roberts Wesleyan College
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• Russell Sage College
• University of Rochester
• St. Bonaventure University
• St John Fisher College
• St. Lawrence University
• Skidmore College
• Syracuse University
• Siena College
• Union College
• Utica College
• Vassar College
• Wells College

Major tourist attractions and destinations

• Adirondack Mountains
• Baseball Hall of Fame (in Cooperstown)
• Black River (in Watertown)
• Catskill Mountains
• Corning Museum of Glass
• Darien Lake
• Erie Canal
• Finger Lakes
• Fort Niagara
• Fort Ontario
• Fort Ticonderoga
• Fort Stanwix
• The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom
• International Boxing Hall of Fame (in Canastota)
• Lake Champlain
• Lake George
• Lake Placid, NY
• Letchworth State Park
• Niagara Falls
• Saratoga Race Course
• Seabreeze Amusement Park
• Soccer Hall of Fame (in Oneonta)
• Sylvan Beach
• Thousand Islands
• Turning Stone Resort & Casino (in Verona)

See also

• Upstate New York's Statehood Movement

External links

• A York State of Mind An essay by an Upstate site discussing the many conflicting definitions of the region.
• Jefferson County History with pictures and links Much info on the upstate NY Jefferson County and surrounding area.
• Old Abandoned Buildings of Northern NY The urban decay of upstate NY, in pictures from the area.
• Everything Upstate Living Everything you need to know and what to do while living in upstate NY.

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