History UsefulNotes / NewYorkState

* '''Hudson Valley:''' The area immediately north of the city. Popular definition holds that "upstate New York" begins somewhere in this area -- exactly where depends on where in the Valley you live. [[note]]It's often said that people in the city think upstate starts at Yonkers, people in Yonkers think it starts at White Plains, people in White Plains think it starts at Stony Point, people in Stony Point think it starts at Newburgh, people in Newburgh think it starts at Poughkeepsie, and people in Poughkeepsie will say that north of them is the Capital District. Basically, wherever you live is NOT upstate, and everything north of you is. Unless "everything north of you" is Canada.[[/note]] When most people talk about the Hudson Valley, they're usually speaking of Westchester and Rockland Counties, the two counties closest to the city, and the most suburbanized. Some notable places in the Hudson Valley include Yonkers (home of Music/LadyGaga and pro wrestling's Wrestling/TommyDreamer), Nyack (home of a lot of rich Jews and a big mall -- seriously, a ''big'' frakking mall), the Tappan Zee Bridge, Sleepy Hollow (of HeadlessHorseman fame) the Palisade cliffs overlooking the Hudson, the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks United States Military Academy]] at West Point, the town of New Paltz (whose Green Party mayor conducted same-sex marriages years before the state legalized them), and [[TheAlcatraz the maximum security Sing Sing Prison]] in Ossining.

-->--'''''[[TheOnion Our Dumb World]]'''''

* '''Hudson Valley:''' The area immediately north of the city. Popular definition holds that "upstate New York" begins somewhere in this area -- exactly where depends on where in the Valley you live. [[note]]It's often said that people in the city think upstate starts at Yonkers, people in Yonkers think it starts at White Plains, people in White Plains think it starts at Stony Point, people in Stony Point think it starts at Newburgh, people in Newburgh think it starts at Poughkeepsie, and people in Poughkeepsie will say that north of them is the Capital District. Basically, wherever you live is NOT upstate, and everything north of you is. Unless "everything north of you" is Canada.[[/note]] When most people talk about the Hudson Valley, they're usually speaking of Westchester and Rockland Counties, the two counties closest to the city, and the most suburbanized. Some notable places in the Hudson Valley include Yonkers (home of LadyGaga), Nyack (home of a lot of rich Jews and a big mall -- seriously, a ''big'' frakking mall), the Tappan Zee Bridge, Sleepy Hollow (of HeadlessHorseman fame) the Palisade cliffs overlooking the Hudson, the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks United States Military Academy]] at West Point, the town of New Paltz (whose Green Party mayor conducted same-sex marriages years before the state legalized them), and [[TheAlcatraz the maximum security Sing Sing Prison]] in Ossining.

* '''Capital District:''' As the name suggests, this area is home to Albany, the capital of the state of New York and a name that is often spoken in angry tones, accompanied by profanity, and likely in the pages of the ''[[AmericanNewspapers Post]]'' or the ''Daily News'' (as in "those f--kers in Albany are wasting my tax dollars"). Nearby Schenectady is the old home of General Electric, the part-owners (and former full owners) of Creator/{{NBC}} and [[{{Universal}} Universal Studios]]; they've since moved their headquarters to Connecticut, but they still have a ton of facilities in Schenectady and along the Hudson River, some of which are the reason why the Hudson has its reputation for being an extension of [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]]. (They're gonna clean it up sometime. We swear.) It's also home to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRGB one of the world's first television stations]] (where TV cooking-show host RachaelRay started her career) and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGY_(AM) America's second commercial radio station]], which should be handy for trivia night.\\

Buffalo is notorious for getting blizzards that are gigantic even by the tough standards of upstate New York, while Rochester was once a major hub of both the abolitionist and women's rights movements. In the early 19th century, the area was called the "burned-over district" due to all the religious revivals in the area -- it was so heavily evangelized that there was no "fuel" (people) left to "burn" (convert). Among the religious movements that emerged here were [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} the Mormons]], the Millerites, the Shakers, the Oneida Society,[[note]]Who were originally a free-love Christian commune--basically Jesus Freaks ''avant le lettre''--who eventually turned to making silverware as a means to support the community. The community fizzled by 1880, but the silverware company remains--and is still based in Upstate NY--and is one of the biggest in the business (if you live in North America, you probably have Oneida flatware and tableware in your house.[[/note]] and the spiritualist movement, making it something of a 19th century version of UsefulNotes/{{California}} in terms of being a hub for new religious groups. Fun fact: Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse are each fully separate media markets despite there being larger cities in New York state and along the Canadian side of Lake Ontario that aren't due to their proximity to NewYorkCity and UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}.

Buffalo is notorious for getting blizzards that are gigantic even by the tough standards of upstate New York, while Rochester was once a major hub of both the abolitionist and women's rights movements. In the early 19th century, the area was called the "burned-over district" due to all the religious revivals in the area -- it was so heavily evangelized that there was no "fuel" (people) left to "burn" (convert). Among the religious movements that emerged here were [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} the Mormons]], the Millerites, the Shakers, the Oneida Society,[[note]]Who were originally a free-love Christian commune--basically Jesus Freaks ''avant le lettre''--who eventually turned to making silverware as a means to support the community. The community fizzled by 1880, but the silverware company remains and is one of the biggest in the business (if you live in North America, you probably have Oneida flatware and tableware in your house.[[/note]] and the spiritualist movement, making it something of a 19th century version of UsefulNotes/{{California}} in terms of being a hub for new religious groups. Fun fact: Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse are each fully separate media markets despite there being larger cities in New York state and along the Canadian side of Lake Ontario that aren't due to their proximity to NewYorkCity and UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}.

Buffalo is notorious for getting blizzards that are gigantic even by the tough standards of upstate New York, while Rochester was once a major hub of both the abolitionist and women's rights movements. In the early 19th century, the area was called the "burned-over district" due to all the religious revivals in the area -- it was so heavily evangelized that there was no "fuel" (people) left to "burn" (convert). Among the religious movements that emerged here were [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} the Mormons]], the Millerites, the Shakers, the Oneida Society, and the spiritualist movement, making it something of a 19th century version of UsefulNotes/{{California}} in terms of being a hub for new religious groups. Fun fact: Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse are each fully separate media markets despite there being larger cities in New York state and along the Canadian side of Lake Ontario that aren't due to their proximity to NewYorkCity and UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}.

* On ''MadMen'', Betty's stultifying suburban life is set in [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic Ossining]].

* '''Finger Lakes:''' South of Rochester and west of Syracuse, the Finger Lakes are a chain of long, narrow, finger-like lakes in the west-central part of the state. It's the site of New York's wine country, and a major summertime tourist destination. One of the largest cities is Ithaca, site of two major colleges (Ithaca College and [[IvyLeague Cornell University]]) and the North American seat of the Dalai Lama, and one of the few places in upstate New York that still has a healthy economy. The town of Seneca Falls is notable for having been the birthplace of the women's rights movement.

Politically, the non-NYC parts of New York State, outside of the urban areas (where labor issues are at the forefront), have trended more conservative than the city, although Long Island has recently become more of a Democratic safe zone. New York's conservatism, however, has often been of the more libertarian, "Rockefeller Republican"[[note]]So named for Nelson Rockefeller, who was governor of the state for nearly a decade and a half (1959-73) before he became Vice President under GeraldFord, and was famous for being one of the most high-profile moderate voices in the Republican Party.[[/note]] variety (aka "''[[AmericanNewspapers Wall Street Journal]]'' Republicans); attempts by the Republican Party to use the same religious rhetoric that worked so well in the Bible Belt are typically met with ridicule by upstaters.[[note]]We're looking at ''you'', Mr. Carl Paladino.[[/note]] In 1970, it was an upstate legislator who cast the deciding vote to legalize abortion in the state of New York, and in 2011, same-sex marriage was legalized on the votes of four upstate Republicans breaking with the party line to vote in favor of the bill.

Politically, the non-NYC parts of New York State, outside of the urban areas (where labor issues are at the forefront), have trended more conservative than the city, although Long Island has recently become more of a Democratic safe zone. New York's conservatism, however, has often been of the more libertarian, "Rockefeller Republican"[[note]]So named for Nelson Rockefeller, who was governor of the state for nearly a decade and a half (1959-73) before he became Vice President under GeraldFord, and was famous for being one of the most high-profile moderate voices in the Republican Party.[[/note]] variety (aka "''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers Wall Street Journal]]'' Republicans); attempts by the Republican Party to use the same religious rhetoric that worked so well in the Bible Belt are typically met with ridicule by upstaters.[[note]]We're looking at ''you'', Mr. Carl Paladino.[[/note]] In 1970, it was an upstate legislator who cast the deciding vote to legalize abortion in the state of New York, and in 2011, same-sex marriage was legalized on the votes of four upstate Republicans breaking with the party line to vote in favor of the bill.

Politically, the non-NYC parts of New York State, outside of the urban areas (where labor issues are at the forefront), have trended more conservative than the city, although Long Island has recently become more of a Democratic safe zone. New York's conservatism, however, has often been of the more libertarian, "Rockefeller Republican"[[note]]So named for Nelson Rockefeller, who was governor of the state for nearly a decade and a half (1959-73) before he became Vice President under GeraldFord, and was famous for being one of the most high-profile moderate voices in the Republican Party.[[/note]] variety; attempts by the Republican Party to use the same religious rhetoric that worked so well in the Bible Belt are typically met with ridicule by upstaters.[[note]]We're looking at ''you'', Mr. Carl Paladino.[[/note]] In 1970, it was an upstate legislator who cast the deciding vote to legalize abortion in the state of New York, and in 2011, same-sex marriage was legalized on the votes of four upstate Republicans breaking with the party line to vote in favor of the bill.

* '''Hudson Valley:''' The area immediately north of the city. Popular definition holds that "upstate New York" begins somewhere in this area -- exactly where depends on where in the Valley you live. [[note]]It's often said that people in the city think upstate starts at Yonkers, people in Yonkers think it starts at White Plains, people in White Plains think it starts at Stony Point, people in Stony Point think it starts at Newburgh, people in Newburgh think it starts at Poughkeepsie, and people in Poughkeepsie will say that north of them is the Capital District. Basically, wherever you live is NOT upstate, and everything north of you is. Unless "everything north of you" is Canada.[[/note]] When most people talk about the Hudson Valley, they're usually speaking of Westchester and Rockland Counties, the two counties closest to the city, and the most suburbanized. Some notable places in the Hudson Valley include Yonkers (home of LadyGaga), Nyack (home of a lot of rich Jews and a big mall -- seriously, a ''big'' frakking mall), the Tappan Zee Bridge, Sleepy Hollow (of HeadlessHorseman fame) the Palisade cliffs overlooking the Hudson, the town of New Paltz (whose Green Party mayor conducted same-sex marriages years before the state legalized them), and [[TheAlcatraz the maximum security Sing Sing Prison]] in Ossining.
* '''Catskill Mountains:''' The area that New York City gets its water from. Most of the area is kept as a forest preserve/state park, which serves the dual purpose of protecting the city's water supply[[note]]Contrary to popular belief, New York's water is some of the cleanest in the nation. It's only the Hudson River that's toxic.[[/note]] and providing New Yorkers with easily accessible nature. Consequently, the area is home to some of the closest ski resorts, hiking trails and campgrounds to the city -- and unlike [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]], our campgrounds aren't stalked by [[Franchise/FridayThe13th masked, machete-wielding slashers]]. In the mid-20th century, before {{civil rights|Movement}} and the rise of cheap air travel, this area was home to the BorschtBelt, a collection of summer resorts and campgrounds that welcomed New York's Jews when most other resorts discriminated against them. The stand-up comics who performed here soon became famous for their trademark "Jewish humor".

* ''HowToSurviveAHorrorMovie'' makes fun of most people's ignorance of upstate New York, when it tells you that going north is a great way to escape from a horror movie.

Just as [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]] is often stereotyped by New York-based TV and movie writers, so are the parts of New York that aren't the BigApplesauce. To them, Long Island (or "[[AmericanAccents Lawn Guyland]]") is a place inhabited predominantly by the vapid East Coast cousins of the ValleyGirl, while upstate New York (meaning "everything north of the Tappan Zee Bridge") doesn't exist. And if it does, it may as well be a colder version of [[DeepSouth Alabama]] mixed with every [[DyingTown depressed Rust Belt town]] in existence -- unless it's a ski resort or campground. That, or it's an extension of LovecraftCountry to the east, filled with [[HeadlessHorsemen headless horsemen]] in Sleepy Hollow, {{time travel}} experiments in Long Island, and people in Buffalo and Rochester who talk to spirits. And then they wonder why upstaters want to secede so badly.

Just as [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]] is often stereotyped by New York-based TV and movie writers, so are the parts of New York that aren't the BigApplesauce. To them, Long Island (or "[[AmericanAccents Lawn Guyland]]") is a place inhabited predominantly by the vapid East Coast cousins of the ValleyGirl, while upstate New York (meaning "everything north of the Tappan Zee Bridge") doesn't exist. And if it does, it may as well be a colder version of [[DeepSouth Alabama]] mixed with every [[DyingTown depressed Rust Belt town]] in existence -- unless it's a ski resort or campground. And then they wonder why upstaters want to secede so badly.

Buffalo is notorious for getting blizzards that are gigantic even by the tough standards of upstate New York, while Rochester was once a major hub of both the abolitionist and women's rights movements. In the early 19th century, the area was called the "burned-over district" due to all the religious revivals in the area -- it was so heavily evangelized that there was no "fuel" (people) left to "burn" (convert). Among the religious movements that emerged here were [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} the Mormons]], the Millerites and the Shakers, making it something of a 19th century version of UsefulNotes/{{California}} in terms of being a hub for new religious groups. Fun fact: Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse are each fully separate media markets despite there being larger cities in New York state and along the Canadian side of Lake Ontario that aren't due to their proximity to NewYorkCity and UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}.

* [[{{X-Men}} Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Children]] is located in Salem Center, Westchester County. Interestingly, besides Xavier, the only X-Man from the area is the linguist Cypher.

* '''Southern Tier:''' Yeah, as you can gather, we're really not all that creative naming parts of upstate New York. (That's because all the creative types in the city don't care about upstate New York.) This area is located along the border between New York and Pennsylvania west of the Catskills. It is very rural and sparsely populated, with the only sizable cities being Binghamton and Elmira. Binghamton is the site of a large state university that often gets name-dropped in New York-based media, and the city recently entered the news after a guy went on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binghamton_shootings a shooting spree]] at an immigration center. As one can guess, it's a rather depressing place. The western part of the region also contains Allegheny State Park.\\

Lately, the region's been in the news due to the fact that it sits atop the Marcellus Shale Formation, which contains large amounts of natural gas that can only be accessed through the controversial drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking".[[note]]Stop laughing, ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' fans.[[/note]] Currently, the state has placed a moratorium on fracking due to its environmental and health impacts (particularly water pollution), which has caused a mixed reaction in the region -- some locals support ending the moratorium so that they can rent their land out for drilling, boosting the local economy and reducing the cost of natural gas in the dreaded upstate winter, while others wish to keep it in place, having ''seen'' what happened to water supplies in neighboring Pennsylvania when [[GoneHorriblyWrong things went horribly, horribly wrong]] (being able to light your water on fire being the ''least'' of the problems), thank-you-very-much. Downstaters, meanwhile, have had largely one reaction to the idea of fracking so close to the source of their water supply -- [[{{Pun}} "frack you!"]][[note]]And [[ClusterFBomb knowing New Yorkers]], they probably didn't use the UnusualEuphemism.[[/note]]

Buffalo is notorious for getting blizzards that are gigantic even by the tough standards of upstate New York, while Rochester was once a major hub of both the abolitionist and women's rights movements. In the early 19th century, the area was called the "burned-over district" due to all the religious revivals in the area -- it was so heavily evangelized that there was no "fuel" (people) left to "burn" (convert). Among the religious movements that emerged here were [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} the Mormons]], the Millerites and the Shakers, making it something of a 19th century version of {{California}} in terms of being a hub for new religious groups. Fun fact: Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse are each fully separate media markets despite there being larger cities in New York state and along the Canadian side of Lake Ontario that aren't due to their proximity to NewYorkCity and UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}.

* '''Western New York:''' This area is the site of the cities of Buffalo and Rochester, and acts as the western end of the Erie Canal -- which means it got screwed economically when the Canadians dredged the St. Lawrence. This is the part of upstate that most people have heard of. Culturally, the area is more Midwestern than East Coast, which shows in the accent and a few expressions ("pop"). NiagaraFalls is located out here, but everybody knows that the view is better on the Canadian side of the river, which means that the New York side hasn't really benefited all that much from tourism. [[note]]The Canadian side, however, has benefited from favorable exchange rates and a heavy push towards tourism to basically become the Canadian [[{{Joisey}} Atlantic City]]. Which drains even more tourists from the American side of the falls.[[/note]]\\

* '''Hudson Valley:''' The area immediately north of the city. Popular definition holds that "upstate New York" begins somewhere in this area -- exactly where depends on where in the Valley you live. [[note]]It's often said that people in the city think upstate starts at Yonkers, people in Yonkers think it starts at White Plains, people in White Plains think it starts at Stony Point, people in Stony Point think it starts at Newburgh, people in Newburgh think it starts at Poughkeepsie, and people in Poughkeepsie will say that north of them is the Capital District. Basically, wherever you live is NOT upstate, and everything north of you is. Unless "everything north of you" is Canada.[[/note]] When most people talk about the Hudson Valley, they're usually speaking of Westchester and Rockland Counties, the two counties closest to the city, and the most suburbanized. Some notable places in the Hudson Valley include Yonkers (home of LadyGaga), Nyack (home of a lot of rich Jews and a big mall -- seriously, a ''big'' frakking mall), the Tappan Zee Bridge, the Palisade cliffs overlooking the Hudson, the town of New Paltz (whose Green Party mayor conducted same-sex marriages years before the state legalized them), and [[TheAlcatraz the maximum security Sing Sing Prison]] in Ossining.

* '''Long Island:''' The eastern {{suburb|ia}}s. Affectionately known as "Lawn Guyland" after the local pronunciation, or "Strong Island". Shaped like a fish with the "tails" called the North Fork and South Fork. The main road going through here is the Long Island Expressway, or [[FunWithAcronyms the L.I.E.]] -- and yes, the jokes have already been made.[[note]]There's also a road called the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway aka the S.O.B. It's a well-known speed trap.[[/note]] The western third of Long Island is actually composed of two New York City Boroughs (Queens and Brooklyn), but you will never get a denizen of those boroughs to call themselves Long Islanders. When we talk about Long Island, we talk about Nassau and Suffolk Counties east of the boroughs.\\

* The Nazis in ''Film/IronSky'' make their first landing on Earth in a marijuana farm in the middle of the wilderness of upstate New York... just miles from the Manhattan skyline.

[[image-caption-right:320:Y'see? It's an actual state, too.]]

* '''Adirondack Mountains:''' New York's other mountain range. Larger and more remote than the Catskills, the Adirondacks aren't actually a part of the Appalachian Range, but rather, an extension of the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec. Culturally, they're more an extension of [[HollywoodNewEngland northern New England]] than anything else, sharing a media market with most of Vermont -- and with nearby UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}}, which dwarfs both areas in population. (Stations in the area often carry advertising for Canadian businesses.) The old Fort Ticonderoga is located along Lake Champlain at the edge of the mountains, as are a large collection of ski resorts (the most famous being Lake Placid). North of the Adirondacks is the North Country, a vast, sparsely-populated area along the Quebec border consisting of Adirondack foothills, Plattsburgh, and the western shores of Lake Champlain. The proximity to Quebec means that a lot of the signage in the Adirondacks is bilingual, written in both English and French -- which makes the state of New York better at accommodating French-Canadians than Alberta despite not being bound by Canadian language laws. Weird, eh?

Buffalo is notorious for getting blizzards that are gigantic even by the tough standards of upstate New York, while Rochester was once a major hub of both the abolitionist and women's rights movements. In the early 19th century, the area was called the "burned-over district" due to all the religious revivals in the area -- it was so heavily evangelized that there was no "fuel" (people) left to "burn" (convert). Among the religious movements that emerged here were [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} the Mormons]], the Millerites and the Shakers, making it something of a 19th century version of {{California}} in terms of being a hub for new religious groups. Fun fact: Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse are each fully separate media markets despite there being larger cities in NewYorkState and along the Canadian side of Lake Ontario that aren't due to their proximity to NewYorkCity and {{Toronto}}.

* '''Long Island:''' The eastern {{suburb|ia}}s. Affectionately known as "Lawn Guyland" after the local pronunciation, or "Strong Island". Shaped like a fish with the "tails" called the North Fork and South Fork. The main road going through here is the Long Island Expressway, or [[FunWithAcronyms the L.I.E.]] -- and yes, the jokes have already been made.[[hottip:*:There's also a road called the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway aka the S.O.B. Well known speed trap.]] The western third of Long Island is actually composed of two New York City Boroughs (Queens and Brooklyn), but you will never get a denizen of those boroughs to call themselves Long Islanders. When we talk about Long Island, we talk about Nassau and Suffolk Counties east of the boroughs.\\

* '''Hudson Valley:''' The area immediately north of the city. Popular definition holds that "upstate New York" begins somewhere in this area -- exactly where depends on where in the Valley you live. [[hottip:*:It's often said that people in the city think upstate starts at Yonkers, people in Yonkers think it starts at White Plains, people in White Plains think it starts at Stony Point, people in Stony Point think it starts at Newburgh, people in Newburgh think it starts at Poughkeepsie, and people in Poughkeepsie will say that north of them is the Capital District. Basically, wherever you live is NOT upstate, and everything north of you is. Unless "everything north of you" is Canada.]] When most people talk about the Hudson Valley, they're usually speaking of Westchester and Rockland Counties, the two counties closest to the city, and the most suburbanized. Some notable places in the Hudson Valley include Yonkers (home of LadyGaga), Nyack (home of a lot of rich Jews and a big mall -- seriously, a ''big'' frakking mall), the Tappan Zee Bridge, the Palisade cliffs overlooking the Hudson, the town of New Paltz (whose Green Party mayor conducted same-sex marriages years before the state legalized them), and [[TheAlcatraz the maximum security Sing Sing Prison]] in Ossining.

Lately, the region's been in the news due to the fact that it sits atop the Marcellus Shale Formation, which contains large amounts of natural gas that can only be accessed through the controversial drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking".[[hottip:*:Stop laughing, ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' fans.]] Currently, the state has placed a moratorium on fracking due to its environmental and health impacts (particularly water pollution), which has caused a mixed reaction in the region -- some locals support ending the moratorium so that they can rent their land out for drilling, boosting the local economy and reducing the cost of natural gas in the dreaded upstate winter, while others wish to keep it in place, having ''seen'' what happened to water supplies in neighboring Pennsylvania when [[GoneHorriblyWrong things went horribly, horribly wrong]] (being able to light your water on fire being the ''least'' of the problems), thank-you-very-much. Downstaters, meanwhile, have had largely one reaction to the idea of fracking so close to the source of their water supply -- [[{{Pun}} "frack you!"]][[note]]And [[ClusterFBomb knowing New Yorkers]], they probably didn't use the UnusualEuphemism.[[/note]]