ivyology | (no subject)

Oswego, NY, my almost-hometown, got to be a story on Talk of the Nation today due to its recent weather. 45 inches of snow isn't actually all that newsworthy, honestly, but I think the fact that it's so cold too is a rarer event; if I recall correctly, lake effect snow usually wasn't associated with super-frigid temperatures.

But if I were less lazy I'd write them an email and gripe about them describing Oswego as being "way, way upstate"; Oswego is in CENTRAL NEW YORK, idiots! Our PBS station's call letters are W-CNY! I know to all non-New Yorkers, everything north of Westchester County is just a hazy expanse called "upstate," but really, the rest of the state does in fact have several different distinct regions, and if you want to retain a reputation for credibility and accuracy, you would be well advised to get this straight.

I have a history of being picky about this. I don't like referring to New York City as "New York," either, as though that over-populated and self-absorbed wasteland defines the entire state.

I recognize that the intent isn't malicious so much as, often, a need to distinguish New York City and its environs from the rest of the state; however, there has to be a better (and more accurate) term.

/rant

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lol. I was just telling someone the other day about how angry you would get when someone would leave the "City" off of NYC, and about what "upstate" actually means. Awww...I miss you.

It's always interesting to see our little corner of the world featured on national news broadcasts because of our weather. My friend Kristen, the one with the sick son, moved here just over a year ago from New Jersey. For the past couple of weeks she has been obsessed with the weather forecast. Every time I talk to her she asks me what I've heard about the the upcoming weather. I keep telling her that quetions like that will immediately reveal her status as a non-native. Those of us who have lived here forever don't pay attention to forecasts. It's February in Oswego County. It will snow, in varying amounts, just about every day from now till April. That's just how it is. Spending hours studying weather maps won't do a damn thing to change that.

Oh, and you are correct about not normally getting such frigid temps with lake effect. We can thank the good ol' Alberta Clipper for that.

I'm glad you said something about this; I've wondered what people who are from there think about all of that. A friend of mine named Stephanie moved to Rochester last year, and I'd seen where that was on a map and was therefore extremely confused when another friend of mine referred to Stephanie's location as "upstate."

On the other hand, I have another friend from New Jersey, and she and her friends always referred to NYC simply as "The City." Apparently they don't have cities in NJ... ;)

The problem is, that people unfamiliar with the state have no appreciation for the vastness of the land area between NYC, and say Buffalo or Plattsburgh. To them, there is NYC, and you drive for a few miles through "Upstate" and next thng you know, you're in Niagara Falls. If you used the term "Central New York" with such people, they would probably interpret that to mean Midtown Manhattan.

I like to think of New York State in three sections:

1. "True Upstate": The combined area of the regions called Western NY, Central NY, Northern NY, the Southern Tier and the Central Leatherstocking area. Those are all distinct regions, but there is enough cultural, linguistic and geographic consistency to lump it all together into a meaningful entity.

2. "Downstate": NYC, Long Island and anything south of I-84 (Putnam, Westchester, orange & Rockland Counties). Some of the people in that last area think they live Upstate, but my rule is if you can commute to NYC and a significant number of the people in your area talk like Fran Drescher, you are in Downstate NY.

3. "Pseudo-Upstate": The Hudson Valley, and basically anything else that's not "Downstate, but lies south of Albany and east of Binghamton. This is a transitional area. Most of it is rural like True Upstate, but there's a certain cultural affinity for and economic reliance upon NYC a.k.a. "THE City", that True Upstaters don't have. This area has grown more and more like Downstate over the years as refugees from the closer suburbs of downstate have migrated north and west in search of cheaper real estate. Ironically enough, this is the area that most Downstaters think of when they talk about the far reaches of "Upstate New York."