| 1 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1490449975021597400 |
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| 4 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_ny.png]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:350:Wait...it's ''not'' just [[NewYorkIsOnlyManhattan Manhattan]]?]] |
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| 7 | ->''"From the Empire State Building in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, to the Art/StatueOfLiberty in New York City, to Times Square in New York City, the state of New York is filled with exciting attractions no matter where you look. Tourists arrive by the thousands every day, whether to enjoy a Broadway play in New York's historic New York City, visit the {{Big Apple|sauce}}, or just explore some of the state's quieter wooded areas in Central Park. New York is also home to the nation's financial capital (New York City), news capital (New York City), and fashion capital (New York City). Indeed, New York State is truly [[ComicallyMissingThePoint the greatest city in the world]]."'' |
| 8 | -->-- '''''Literature/OurDumbWorld''''' |
| 9 | |
| 10 | It has five boroughs, eight-and-a-half million people and is the center of the world. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Oh, you were talking about that ''other'' New York? Well, then... |
| 13 | |
| 14 | New York isn't called the Empire ''State'' for nothing. Of the state's estimated 19.5 million people, only 8.5 million live in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, leaving eleven million to be accounted for. The state is well and truly vast, being the fifth-largest by area east of the Mississippi,[[note]]After UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, UsefulNotes/{{Wisconsin}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, and Illinois; if you exclude water area--which we aren't--New York admittedly drops down to seventh (with Alabama and UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina nudging ahead).[[/note]] and the second-largest by area of the original 13 states, behind only the state of UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}.[[note]]Prior to about 1800, New York was larger than Georgia, but smaller than UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}}. Georgia gained a bunch of territory in about 1800 after some legal disputes were tidied up, and Virginia lost a bunch of territory when West Virginia [[RebelliousRebel seceded from Virginia when Virginia seceded from the Union]] during the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Civil War]].[[/note]] Also, New York is notable for its unusually high amount of public land, especially for an eastern state. While less than 0.3% of the state is owned by the federal government, the ''state'' owns more than 36%—the highest percentage of state-owned land in the country, including the West ''and even Alaska''. New York borders the states of UsefulNotes/NewJersey, UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}}, UsefulNotes/{{Vermont}}, UsefulNotes/{{Massachusetts}}, and Connecticut; it also borders the UsefulNotes/{{Canadian Provinces|AndTerritories}} of Ontario and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}. While the NYC suburbs within the state reach well up the Hudson River and nearly all the way down Long Island, the other 90% of the state (often known as "upstate") is culturally and geographically distinct from the city, and often resents the association. There have been several attempts by upstaters to split off into the 51st state, and just as many attempts by downstaters (NYC and its suburbs) to do likewise; such attempts usually flounder on who gets to keep the name "New York". Or even where "upstate" begins; people throughout the Hudson Valley especially tend to place the boundary one Thruway exit north of where they live. The state officially treats the counties from Dutchess southwards as part of the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District; basically upstate begins with the Adirondacks and Catskills. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Just as UsefulNotes/NewJersey is often [[{{Joisey}} stereotyped]] by NYC-based writers, so are the parts of New York State that aren't the BigApplesauce. To them, Long Island (or "[[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents Lawn Guyland]]") is inhabited predominantly by the vapid East Coast cousins of the ValleyGirl, while upstate New York (meaning "everything north of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tappan_Zee_Bridge_(2017-present) Tappan Zee Bridge]]"[[note]]its official name is ''technically'' the "Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge" as of 2017, but nobody actually calls it that[[/note]]), to the extent that it's even acknowledged to exist, might just as well be a colder version of [[DeepSouth Alabama]][[note]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama,_New_York Like so]][[/note]] mixed with every [[DyingTown depressed Rust Belt town]] in existence--unless it's a ski resort or campground. Either that, or it's an extension of LovecraftCountry to the east, filled with [[HeadlessHorseman headless horsemen]] in Sleepy Hollow, {{time travel}} experiments in Montauk, and people in Buffalo and Rochester who talk to spirits. And then they wonder why upstaters want to secede so badly. |
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| 18 | 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, business-oriented "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 UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, and was famous for being one of the most high-profile moderate voices in the Republican Party.[[/note]] or "''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers Wall Street Journal]]'' Republican" variety; while the region is not entirely immune to culture-war appeals, 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. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Also of note, the state is pretty much controlled in terms of telecom services by Charter/Spectrum, which recently inherited [[Creator/WarnerBros Time Warner]] Cable's system when they acquired them in 2016. TWC/Spectrum has systems in pretty much every major area of the state, including the city; the only exception is Long Island, where Cablevision/Optimum[[note]]which used to be in a lot more places before slimming down to the NYC metro region around 2000; they also similarly divested various cable networks over the years, including Creator/{{AMC}}, Creator/{{Bravo}} {prior to their NetworkDecay}, many of the Creator/{{Fox}} Sports regional networks and several others. They'd also been involved in various non-cable ventures, including owning NYC-area cineplexes and electronic stores {the famous ''Nobody Beats the Wiz''} and owned the famous Madison Square Garden, including its' teams, the associated MSG networks and operation of Radio City Music Hall; the MSG stuff is still owned by Cablevision's founding Dolan family[[/note]] (soon to be rebranded under the name of current parent, French telecom firm Altice) is dominant, and the two fight over portions of the city (except Manhattan, where Optimum is absent) and New Jersey (with Comcast taking the rest of NJ that isn't served by either of them). As a result, they run a system of 24-hour news channels (dubbed ''Spectrum News'') that essentially cover every area of the state, with [=NY1=] being a separate operation. There are some smaller providers (as well as Verizon's [=FiOS=] service), but they're few and far between. |
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| 22 | UsefulNotes/{{Brazil}}ians, compare the relationship between the city of UsefulNotes/SaoPaulo and the surrounding state of the same name. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | A brief rundown: |
| 25 | |
| 26 | * '''Long Island:''' The eastern {{suburb|ia}}s, home to happy, friendly, middle-class white (mostly Italian, Jewish, or Irish) families who commute to The City by the UsefulNotes/LongIslandRailRoad. And we do mean white; [[http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/05/nyregion/study-calls-li-most-segregated-suburb.html?pagewanted=1 a study]] (from back in 2002, admittedly) found it to be the most ''de facto'' segregated suburban area in the US. 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 North Shore of Long Island is rather hilly, while the South Shore has long barrier islands with sandy beaches. The western third of Long Island is actually occupied by the New York City Boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, but you will never get denizens of either of those boroughs to call themselves Long Islanders (except for Long Island City, the Queens neighborhood where the LIRR originally terminated). When we talk about Long Island, we talk about Nassau and Suffolk Counties east of the boroughs.\ |
| 27 | \ |
| 28 | 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. Well-known speed trap.[[/note]] The first planned suburb in the United States, Levittown,[[note]]Alongside the town in UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}} with the same name, just northeast of Philadelphia[[/note]] is in southeast Nassau County. Generally, the further east you go, the more rural and spread out the towns get, with the North Fork home to many orchards, wineries, and through most of the 20th century, duck farms.[[labelnote:Yes, duck farms.]] Around 2010, a combination of EPA regulations regarding environmental contamination and chronic problems with disease resulted in the closure of most of the farms on Long Island; by 2014, only one major duck farm remained in operation. At its height, the Long Island duck industry had produced 65% of the duck consumed in the US.[[/labelnote]] The western, more urbanized part of the North Shore has historically been known as the "Gold Coast" due to the massive amount of both [[BlueBlood old money]] and [[TheGildedAge Gilded Age]] wealth that existed (and still exists) in the area, with names like Vanderbilt, Roosevelt, Pratt, Whitney, Astor, Morgan, and Hearst owning massive estates in the region; ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'' was set in an expy of bougie towns like Manhasset, Port Washington, and Great Neck for a reason. Located on the South Fork facing the Atlantic are the Hamptons, a collection of super-rich resort towns that you may have seen in TV shows and movies. The far eastern tip (which is closer in geography in a straight line to UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} than Manhattan[[note]]due to its proximity to Block Island, the New York-Rhode Island state line is one of three state lines to be entirely within the states' water area, the other two being Michigan-Illinois and Michigan-Minnesota[[/note]]) is occupied by Montauk, a small town that wouldn't look out of place in [[HollywoodNewEngland New England]] -- and judging by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montauk_Project tales]] that [[GovernmentConspiracy the government once conducted freaky experiments there]], wouldn't be out of place in LovecraftCountry either. |
| 29 | * '''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, people in Poughkeepsie think it starts at Kingston, and people in Kingston think it starts at Albany. Basically, unless you're sitting just south of Canada, wherever you live is ''not'' upstate, and everything north of you is.[[/note]] When most people talk about the Hudson Valley, they're usually speaking of Westchester and Rockland Counties (and sometimes Putnam County), the three counties closest to the city, and the most suburbanized, home to happy, friendly, middle-class white families who commute to The City by Metro-North Railroad.[[note]]For reference, the other happy, friendly, middle class families in the area are in New Jersey, and commute to The City by UsefulNotes/NewJerseyTransit. [[/note]]\ |
| 30 | \ |
| 31 | Some notable places in the Hudson Valley include... |
| 32 | ** '''Yonkers:''' The fourth-largest city in the state. Known for Music/LadyGaga, pro wrestling's Wrestling/TommyDreamer and Wrestling/EddieKingston, Theatre/HelloDolly, and a long and sordid history of racial tensions that lasted well into TheNineties (they even made a racially-tinged fight over affordable housing in Yonkers into a Creator/DavidSimon-helmed Creator/{{HBO}} miniseries, ''Series/ShowMeAHero''). It followed the trend of many old industrial cities, though it never fell apart like they did. In addition to the usual Irish/Italian mix of the New York City area, it also has large Arab Christian and Eastern European communities. |
| 33 | ** '''The Palisades:''' A long line of scenic cliffs on the west bank of the Hudson River, running from Bergen County, UsefulNotes/NewJersey in the south to Rockland County in the north. The Tappan Zee Bridge (the only Hudson River crossing between The City and Bear Mountain) has its western terminus at Nyack, a town known for being home to a) a lot of rich Jews, and b) the Palisades Center, the eighth-largest shopping mall in America.[[labelnote:Note]]Eighth by total square footage. It's the sixth largest by total leasable space.[[/labelnote]] (The fact that it's not the largest, or even second largest, ''in the state of New York''[[note]]Number one is Destiny USA in Syracuse, and number two is Roosevelt Field in Garden City on Long Island. The Palisades Center is number three in the state.[[/note]] probably says something, but we don't know what.) |
| 34 | ** '''Sleepy Hollow:''' The town made famous by Creator/WashingtonIrving in ''Literature/TheLegendOfSleepyHollow''. It was actually known as North Tarrytown until 1996, when they finally changed the name to what everybody was already calling the place by that point. Just like Salem, Massachusetts, the town is a popular tourist destination around the [[UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve Halloween]] season, with several events celebrating both the holiday and Irving's story. |
| 35 | ** '''Hudson Highlands:''' A small chain of mountains that are part of the greater New York-New Jersey Highlands. It marks one of the most agreed-upon borders between upstate and downstate, or at least between the Upper and Lower Hudson Valleys, in terms of both geography (nothing like a big wall of mountains to do that) and culture (the suburban sprawl of Westchester and Rockland Counties halts almost entirely). Lots of state parks here, such as Harriman, Bear Mountain, and Clarence Fahnestock, as well as the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks United States Military Academy]] (and the [[UsefulNotes/GroupOfFiveConferences Black Knights]] of the Hudson) at West Point. |
| 36 | ** '''New Paltz:''' A small college town in Ulster County that would've otherwise escaped notice if it hadn't [[FifteenMinutesOfFame briefly entered the news]] in 2004, when its mayor (representing the Green Party) conducted same-sex marriages years before the state legalized them. |
| 37 | ** '''Ossining:''' Actually a fairly nice place by most accounts, but you'd never guess that going by what it's most famous for -- [[TheAlcatraz the maximum-security Sing Sing Correctional Facility]]. This is the prison that "sent up the river" originally referred to. The aforementioned Hudson Line splits the prison in two, so yes, the nice suburban commuter station at Ossining is literally in between two halves of a major penitentiary. |
| 38 | ** '''Poughkeepsie''' (pronounced "puh-KIP-see"): Home to Vassar College, which was the United States' most prestigious women's college (at least outside of Massachusetts) for over a century before it went co-ed in 1969. The state Department of Transportation considers it to be the furthest edge of "downstate", along with Orange County west of the Hudson, due to it being the northern terminus of the Hudson Line. |
| 39 | * '''Catskill Mountains:''' The source of the Delaware River, from which New York City gets its water.[[note]]Also UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}, which is actually ''on'' the freakin' Delaware, but consistently loses to NYC over water rights (it's not a huge deal, since Philly's on the Lower Delaware where there's more water, but the Northeastern PA cities that get their water from near the state line always have Philly's support).[[/note]] 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 summer camps to the city -- and unlike [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]], our campgrounds aren't stalked by [[Franchise/FridayThe13th masked, machete-wielding slashers]]. Located on the eastern edge of the region, the town of Woodstock, the namesake (but not the site) of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Woodstock}} rock festival]], has a reputation as a center for art and music stretching back for more than a century. In the mid-20th century, before UsefulNotes/{{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". |
| 40 | * '''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 ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers Post]]'' or the ''Daily News'' (as in "those f--kers in Albany are wasting my tax dollars"). Nearby Schenectady (which some may know from ''Film/SynecdocheNewYork'') is the old home of General Electric, the part-owners (and former full owners) of Creator/{{NBC}} and [[Creator/{{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 Creator/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. Less than an hour to the north at the foothills of the Adirondacks is Saratoga Springs, site of the Battles of Saratoga, a major turning point in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. It was once a prosperous resort town famed for its mineral springs (one of its restaurants is held by popular tradition to be the original home of the potato chip), and while it's since transitioned to high-tech manufacturing, it still has its famous racetrack, the third-oldest extant racetrack in the US (Freehold Raceway in New Jersey and Pleasanton Fairgrounds in UsefulNotes/{{California}} are older).\ |
| 41 | \ |
| 42 | The area sits at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, and is the eastern point on the Erie Canal. This allowed it to grow into a major industrial center in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and it also allowed many New Yorkers and New Englanders to settle in the Great Lakes region. Michigan, eastern Wisconsin, and northern UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}, Indiana, and Illinois were historically known as being more traditionally Northeastern/"Yankee" than the actual Northeast for this very reason; a disproportionate number of settlements in these states, and particularly Michigan, are named after Upstate New York cities.[[note]]Seriously. They named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lansing,_Michigan their capital]] after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lansing,_New_York a tiny town in Tompkins County]].[[/note]] The rise of the more convenient St. Lawrence Seaway through Canada greatly reduced the old canal's relevance, and was a huge blow to the region's prospects (and those of upstate New York in general -- rest assured that this won't be the last time the Erie Canal is mentioned), but it is still the wealthiest part of upstate, home to over 1.1 million people. It has managed to weather the recession better than most places, thanks partly to its large sea of high-tech manufacturing jobs and companies (including the aforementioned GE) -- the "Tech Valley" would likely be considered the East Coast's Silicon Valley if it weren't for UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} being a rival for that title. |
| 43 | * '''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, are an extension of the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, which are themselves part of the Canadian Shield, geologically some of the oldest land in the world. 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. The Adirondack region boasts a large collection of lakes, summer camps, and ski resorts (the most famous being two-time winter Olympic host Lake Placid). This is the Upstate New York that New Yorkers not from the City mean when they say Upstate New York. 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? |
| 44 | * '''North Country:''' North of the Adirondacks lies this vast rural area, lying between the Adirondack foothills, the St. Lawrence River, the 45th parallel border with Quebec and the northwestern shores of Lake Champlain, where Plattsburgh, the region's only city, is located. The area is very sparsely populated, with Plattsburgh being a very small city indeed, and the region is in the orbit of Montreal as much as anything else (the most notable industry in the area is a factory that makes railcars and other railroad equipment for the Montreal-based transportation firm Bombardier). |
| 45 | * '''Central New York:''' Like many of upstate New York's urban centers, this area lived and died on the Erie Canal. Today, as one might guess, it is an economically depressed area, with cities like Syracuse, Oswego, Utica, and Rome all symbolizing the declining Rust Belt. Syracuse has a college (Syracuse University) which, due to its good journalism program and (arguably) better basketball program (who play in the [[UsefulNotes/PowerFiveConferences Atlantic Coast Conference]]), often gets name-dropped in the news far more often than it probably deserves, and is also known for the Destiny USA mall. The eastern part of the region, formerly known as the Leatherstocking Country, is carved by the Mohawk and Susquehanna Rivers, and used to be the heart of the Iroquois Confederacy. It was of major strategic importance during the French and Indian War, as it was one of the main routes into the North American interior (which is why the Erie Canal is there) -- the British and French could easily attack the hearts of the other side's respective colonial empires through the Mohawk Valley. Syracuse also has the distinction of being the largest city in America to get the most snow, due in part to the lake effect off of Lake Ontario, and in part due to the Nor'easters that come up the coast. Cooperstown, best known for the National UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} Hall of Fame and Museum,[[note]]It's located there since a [[BlatantLies made-up legend]] says UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar general Abner Doubleday invented the sport there in 1839.[[/note]] is in the hilly country in between the rivers. |
| 46 | * '''Western New York:''' This area is the site of the cities of Buffalo and UsefulNotes/{{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"). UsefulNotes/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]] Most of the Lake Ontario shore is sparsely populated.\ |
| 47 | |
| 48 | ** '''Buffalo''' is notorious for getting blizzards that are gigantic even by the tough standards of upstate New York (though still not as large as the ones in Syracuse). The city made headlines in 2015 when a pile of plowed and shoveled snow from a massive blizzard the previous November was still there in ''July''. Dirt and debris had gathered on top, which not only insulated it from the summer heat, but even allowed ''grass'' to grow on it. The only reason it didn't last into August was because [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/07/31/humorless-buffalo-destroys-its-famous-snow-pile/ the city had it bulldozed]]. The city is also home to two sports teams: the Buffalo Bills in the UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague (who are also the only NFL team to play ''in'' the state of New York) and the Buffalo Sabres in the UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague. However, neither team has ever [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut won a championship]] and lost a combined ''seven'' throughout their histories. Buffalo is also home to SUNY[[note]]State University of New York[[/note]] Buffalo (AKA the University ''[[InsistentTerminology at]]'' Buffalo), whose athletic team competes in the [[UsefulNotes/GroupOfFiveConferences Mid-American Conference]].\ |
| 49 | |
| 50 | ** '''UsefulNotes/{{Rochester}}''', meanwhile, was once a major hub of both the abolitionist and women's rights movements. In the early 19th century, the area, together with Central New York, 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,[[note]]from which the Seventh-Day Adventists trace their roots[[/note]] the Shakers, the Oneida Community,[[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 -- it's now known as Oneida Limited, it's one of the largest cutlery and tableware companies in the world, and it's still based in upstate New York. 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. In more recent times, they were home to the Eastman Kodak Company -- yes, ''that'' Kodak. Once [[TechnologyMarchesOn digital cameras and cell phone cameras decimated Kodak's business]], that left a lot of their employees in the lurch when they began downsizing (with other companies based in the area, like Xerox and Bausch & Lomb, following suit). All these technically-inclined unemployed people led to an influx of tech startups, so the city's economy has recovered from Kodak's faltering. Rochester is also home base of the regionally-beloved Wegmans, a chain of grocery stores with a significant following thanks to their sheer size/scope (though many of the ones in this area are their older, not as absurdly huge stores), commitment to quality product, and legendary customer service; you can find them as far south as Virginia these days. |
| 51 | * '''Finger Lakes:''' South of UsefulNotes/{{Rochester}} and southwest of Syracuse, the Finger Lakes are a series of long, narrow, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin finger-like lakes]] in the west-central part of the state. All these lakes drain north towards the Erie Canal. The region is New York's wine country, and a major summertime tourist destination. At the southern end of Cayuga Lake, one of the two largest, is Ithaca, site of two major colleges (Ithaca College and [[UsefulNotes/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. The region is also the seat of three of the Six Nations of the Iroquois peoples (Cayuga, Seneca, and Onondaga). |
| 52 | * '''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 UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}} west of the Catskills. Most of the area is hilly and sparsely populated, though there are a few pockets of industrial development in the river valleys (which include the upper reaches of the Susquehanna and Allegheny rivers). Binghamton, Elmira and Jamestown are the only sizable cities. 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[[note]]And then in 2022 an 18 year old man from nearby Conklin killed 10 people in a mass shooting in a Buffalo supermarket. The FBI is considering it a racially motivated terrorist attack. He pled guilty to all state charges and was sentenced to 10 concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole in February 2023, federal charges are still pending[[/note]]. Not far from Binghamton is Apalachin, a small town that became very notorious for hosting a CriminalConvention of the [[UsefulNotes/TheMafia American Mafia's]] higher-ups in late 1957. As one can guess, it's a rather depressing place. The western part of the region also contains Allegheny State Park and Lake Chautauqua. Sits opposite the border from Pennsylvania's Northern Tier, with the combined [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Tiers Twin Tiers]] area being more of an item in local identity than which state you're in. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | ---- |
| 55 | !!'''In fiction:''' |
| 56 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 57 | |
| 58 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 59 | * [[ComicBook/XMen 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. |
| 60 | [[/folder]] |
| 61 | |
| 62 | [[folder:Film]] |
| 63 | * ''Film/TheAlphabetKiller'' takes place in UsefulNotes/{{Rochester}}, and is loosely based on a actual serial murderer that plagued the city in the early '70s. |
| 64 | * ''Film/TheBookOfHenry'' is set in the Hudson Valley. |
| 65 | * ''Film/BruceAlmighty'' is set in Buffalo. |
| 66 | * ''Film/Buffalo66'' is set in -- well, Buffalo. |
| 67 | * ''Film/CanadianBacon'' is set partially in Niagara Falls, and is about a sheriff from the town. |
| 68 | * ''Film/DirtyDancing'' is set at a resort in the Catskills. |
| 69 | * An especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} example: the [[StupidJetpackHitler moon Nazis]] in ''Film/IronSky'' make their first landing on Earth in a marijuana farm in the middle of the wilderness of upstate New York... with the Manhattan skyline in clear view. (The closest one can see Midtown that clearly at night is from [[http://myyonkers.org/2011/05/25/the-best-view-of-new-york-city-in-yonkers/ Yonkers]], which is pretty far from the ''actual'' wilderness.) |
| 70 | * ''Film/HellHouseLLC'' and its sequels take place in the fictional town of Abaddon, which is said to be in Rockland County. |
| 71 | * Despite its name, ''Film/LakePlacid'' is '''not''' set in the Adirondack town; it's actually set in Maine. |
| 72 | * ''Film/TheManhattanProject'' is set in Ithaca. It was largely filmed not in Ithaca, but in Rockland County. |
| 73 | * ''Film/{{Miracle}}'', set during the Miracle on Ice at the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics]]. |
| 74 | * In ''Film/PaperMan'' a struggling writer moves to a Long Island seaside town and develops a friendship with troubled high school student over the course of a winter. |
| 75 | * The ''Film/SleepawayCamp'' franchise takes place upstate. While some characters have New York City accents, most notably Ronnie, it's very common for downstaters to go upstate for camp, both as campers and counsellors. |
| 76 | * ''Film/SnowDay'' takes place in Syracuse, and for good reason--the city is routinely in the top ten for highest US snowfall. |
| 77 | * Bedford Falls, the fictional setting of ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', is located somewhere in upstate New York. [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed It's mostly a fictionalized version of Seneca Falls.]] |
| 78 | [[/folder]] |
| 79 | |
| 80 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 81 | * Yonkers features prominently in ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', where it's the site of one of America's main defeats in the war against the ZombieApocalypse. Long Island also appears as the site of the celebrities' fortress. |
| 82 | * ''Literature/TheClique'' novels are set in the rich suburbs of Westchester County. |
| 83 | * James Fenimore Cooper's ''Literature/TheLeatherstockingTales'' were set in central New York, and helped to give part of the region the nickname of "Leatherstocking Country." |
| 84 | * ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'' takes place in the rich, fashionable neighborhoods of [[TheRoaringTwenties Prohibition-era]] Long Island. |
| 85 | * ''Literature/OurDumbWorld''[='=]s entry on New York makes fun of upstate's lack of recognition, providing the page quote in the process. |
| 86 | * ''Literature/NoSafetyInNumbers'' takes place at [[TheMall a mall]] in Westchester County that is quarantined due to a bioterrorist attack. |
| 87 | * ''Literature/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. |
| 88 | -->"If you're on [[Film/{{Signs}} an alien-infested Pennsylvania farm]], you'll be in Upstate New York -- where few horror movies take place, since everyone forgets it's there." |
| 89 | * Washington Irving's short story ''Literature/TheLegendOfSleepyHollow'' takes place in, of course, Sleepy Hollow, providing more proof that upstate New York is an extension of [[LovecraftCountry rural New England]]. The other of Irving's two most famous stories, "RipVanWinkle," takes place in the Catskills back when they were mostly populated by Dutch immigrants. |
| 90 | * While Literature/NeroWolfe lives in New York City, and despite his avowed disinclination to leave his home for any reason, many of the stories are set or at least partially take place in other parts of New York state: Archie (and occasionally Nero) have to go to White Plains to talk to a client or suspect quite often; the same holds true for locations in Westchester County and on Long Island; in ''Immune To Murder'', the setting is a fishing lodge in the Adirondacks; and in the novelette ''Too Many Detectives'' he and Archie have been summoned to Albany for a licensing board hearing concerning wiretapping. |
| 91 | * ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' has a camp/training ground/sanctuary for Greek Demigods located in Montauk. It gets similar attention, if not as much, as New York City in the series. |
| 92 | [[/folder]] |
| 93 | |
| 94 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 95 | * ''Series/{{Billions}}'' is mostly set in New York City, but certain parts upstate get some limelight in subplots involving Chuck Rhoades and his aspirations for statewide political office. |
| 96 | * ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' is set in the Nassau County town of Lynbrook, and is an eerily accurate representation of the less rich, more middle class Long Island suburbs. |
| 97 | * On ''Series/MadMen'': |
| 98 | ** Betty's stultifying suburban life is set in [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic Ossining]]. When she [[spoiler:marries Henry Francis]], she moves to Rye. |
| 99 | ** Several characters, particularly the ultra-WASP ones (i.e. Roger and Pete) mention going to the Hamptons for vacation. |
| 100 | * ''Series/GeneralHospital'' takes place in the fictitious Port Charles, which is on a body of water usually taken to be Lake Ontario. Shots of UsefulNotes/{{Rochester}}'s skyline have been used on the show, and some location scenes were shot there in TheNineties, which might place it as a FictionalCounterpart to Rochester, except, Rochester has been mentioned on the show, so fans often view Port Charles as a nearby sister city for Rochester. |
| 101 | * The PrimeTimeSoap ''Series/{{Revenge}}'' is set in the Hamptons. |
| 102 | * ''Series/{{Suburgatory}}'' takes place on Long Island. |
| 103 | * ''Series/RoyalPains'' takes place in the Hamptons and is filmed there. |
| 104 | * In ''Series/ILoveLucy'', Lucy Ricardo remembers growing up in Celoron, a town on Lake Chautauqua which also happens to be where Creator/LucilleBall grew up. |
| 105 | * On ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Rachel, Ross and Monica are from Long Island. Chandler grew up in Westchester County [[spoiler:and eventually he and Monica buy a house there and move in with their twin babies.]] Phoebe originally lived upstate before she moved to the city at age fourteen after her mother's suicide. |
| 106 | * ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'' takes place in a women's penitentiary in Litchfeld, New York. Litchfield is a real town, but it does not have a penitentiary in real life. |
| 107 | * ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E22BornAgain "Born Again"]] took place in Buffalo. The writers didn't seem to get that the city wasn't the Sixth Borough; the Buffalo cops in the episode had inexplicable Noo Yawk accents that, in the real Buffalo, would only be heard among tourists headed to Niagara Falls. |
| 108 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' creator Rod Serling hailed from Binghamton, and references to Upstate cities and towns were not uncommon. "Mirror Image" is explicitly set in Ithaca, and the park in "Walking Distance" is based on Binghamton's Recreation Park. |
| 109 | * ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'': This 2004 one-season series was set on the American side of Niagara Falls. (The series was actually filmed on the Canadian side, though.) Jaye, the main character, works as a clerk in a souvenir/gift shop. |
| 110 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'' was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally supposed to have been]] titled ''Montauk'' and set in the town, as the Duffer Brothers were inspired by both the Montauk Project and the "coastal-town Amity feel" of ''Film/{{Jaws}}''. It wound up being set in the fictional town of [[EverytownAmerica Hawkins, Indiana]] instead, largely because they didn't have the budget to film in a coastal area that could [[CaliforniaDoubling double for Montauk]], while the UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} area could easily double for the Midwest. (The decision to set it in Indiana rather than rural Georgia appears in part to be more "middle America" and in part because the South has [[SouthernGothic other horror tropes]] that don't play well with the government-conspiracy and parallel-universe tropes they had in mind.) |
| 111 | * ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Season 3 of the show used Windham to represent [[Creator/DeborahAnnWoll Karen Page]]'s hometown of Fagan Corners, Vermont. |
| 112 | * ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': The house where Dr. Karl Malus lives with [[spoiler:Jessica's mother]] is a beach house way out in Nassau County. |
| 113 | * ''Series/SilverSpoons'' takes place on Long Island. |
| 114 | * ''Series/GhostsUS'' takes place in Ulster County. |
| 115 | * ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'' had a story arc set in a BorschtBelt resort in the Catskills. |
| 116 | * ''Series/RutherfordFalls'' takes place in a fictional town in the Capital Region. |
| 117 | * ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': Capt. Jonathan Archer was born in Upstate New York before moving to UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco with his father. |
| 118 | [[/folder]] |
| 119 | |
| 120 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 121 | * The first Film/{{Woodstock}} music festival was held in the town of Bethel, along the southern edge of the Catskills. Woodstock '94 was held in Saugerties, on the border of the Hudson Valley and the Catskills (and neighboring the actual town of Woodstock). Woodstock '99 was much farther away in Central New York (Rome, to be exact). While not connected to Woodstock, the 1973 Summer Jam festival at Watkins Glen in the Finger Lakes (a triple-bill show with Music/TheGratefulDead, Music/TheBand and Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand) was conceived in a similar spirit and reportedly outdrew the original Woodstock, with some crowd estimates at 600,000 people. |
| 122 | * Natalie Merchant and the other members of Music/TenThousandManiacs are from Jamestown. |
| 123 | * Several founding members of Music/BlueOysterCult are from various locations around upstate New York: the band only formed in the city. |
| 124 | * Music/HuskerDu leader Bob Mould was born and partly raised in Malone, north of the Adirondacks. |
| 125 | * The long list of big music names who lived in and around Woodstock, especially toward the end of TheSixties, includes Music/BobDylan, Music/JimiHendrix, Music/JanisJoplin, Music/VanMorrison (who did a song called "Old Old Woodstock"), Music/TheBand (''Music from Big Pink'' is named for their shared house east of town in West Saugerties) and Music/ToddRundgren (''Hermit of Mink Hollow'' is named after the area west of town where he lived at the time). Later on, Music/SteelyDan's Donald Fagen lived in Dylan's old house for a while. Several of the above artists recorded albums at Bearsville Sound Studio in neighboring Bearsville (built by Dylan's manager Albert Grossman), and it also became a hot location for alt-rock in TheNineties, with Music/TheB52s, Music/{{REM}}, Music/DaveMatthewsBand, Music/TheyMightBeGiants and Music/{{Phish}} all recording albums there. |
| 126 | * Music/BruceSpringsteen recorded his first two albums (and some of ''Music/BornToRun'') at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt (Rockland County). |
| 127 | * Music/TheFreeDesign was from Delevan (southeast of Buffalo). |
| 128 | * John Flansburgh and John Linnell of the above-mentioned Music/TheyMightBeGiants both have vacation houses in the Catskills, and upstate towns get mentioned in the song titles "Canajoharie" and "The Darlings of Lumberland". |
| 129 | [[/folder]] |
| 130 | |
| 131 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 132 | * The musical version of ''Theatre/TheFullMonty'' moves the story to Buffalo. |
| 133 | * Long Island mansions were such a popular setting in the 1920s for Broadway comedies and musicals (e.g. ''Oh, Kay!'', ''Theatre/AnimalCrackers'') that the OpeningChorus of the 1929 musical ''Spring is Here'' insisted the show was set anywhere but Long Island. |
| 134 | * Aside from Dolly herself, all of the main cast members of ''Theatre/HelloDolly'' live in Yonkers. |
| 135 | [[/folder]] |
| 136 | |
| 137 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 138 | * ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' |
| 139 | ** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'' ends with Desmond [[spoiler:waking from his coma]] as he and his companions arrive at a field in New York state. |
| 140 | ** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' takes place, in part in the Mohawk Valley. |
| 141 | ** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue'' has you exploring the Appalachian River Valley in New York. |
| 142 | ** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedValhalla'' has Eivor go to Vinland/Saint Brendan's Island and come across [[spoiler:the entrance to the Grand Temple in ''III'']] that the Order of the Ancients is attempting to excavate. |
| 143 | * [[WhatCouldHaveBeen The original plan]] for ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' would have featured areas based on upstate New York and Long Island. It was cut early on in order to focus on the city, though references to an area called "[[ShoutOut the]] [[Literature/TheGreatGatsby Carraways]]" (presumably based on the Hamptons) still exist in the finished product and in the [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned expansion]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony packs]]. |
| 144 | [[/folder]] |
| 145 | |
| 146 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 147 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Principal Skinner claims ([[FawltyTowersPlot as part of an elaborate scheme]]) that his family calls hamburgers "steamed hams" because they're from upstate New York. His boss Superintendant Chalmers explains that he's from Utica and he's never heard the phrase "steamed hams", but Skinner then clarifies it's an Albany expression. |
| 148 | ** In the episode "D'oh Canada" Homer sings a song about the region to the tune of "New York, New York." |
| 149 | [[/folder]] |
| 150 | |
| 151 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 152 | * A RunningGag on Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom is that non-Americans have never heard of this New York ''state'' and refuse to believe there is such a place as upstate New York -- or else think it's a frozen-in-time place still inhabited chiefly by the Iroquois Confederation. |
| 153 | * In the AlternateHistory ''Literature/DecadesOfDarkness'' (published on the above site), New York gets split into three states within the greater Republic of New England -- Long Island, comprising UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, Westchester and Rockland Counties, and, well, Long Island; Hudson, made up of the eastern half of upstate New York; and Niagara, which makes up the western half of upstate. |
| 154 | * WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick's [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/team-nchick/nostalgia-chick/37037-sleepy-hollow review]] of ''Film/SleepyHollow1999'' had her, Nella, and Elisa visiting the actual town of Sleepy Hollow, New York, and being generally disappointed that it wasn't as creepy as advertised. |
| 155 | * [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ridiculous-myths-you-probably-believe-about-midwest/ This article]] on ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' by Adam Tod Brown, while chiefly about [[FlyoverCountry debunking myths about the Midwest]], uses upstate New York as an example in the third point, noting that, if you take the BigApplesauce out of the equation, the rest of the state of New York is more rural than UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}. |
| 156 | [[/folder]] |
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