Some of the most charmingly pointless controversies on this blog have been about just what region is denoted by ‘Midwest’. (For prior installments, see “here”:http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/tar/Archives/001580.html, “here”:http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/tar/Archives/001568.html and “here”:http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/tar/Archives/002519.html.) I think those are fun, but we seem to have run out of things to say on that word. So it’s time for something new. Just which parts of New York State are denoted by ‘upstate’?
This became topical because “some”:http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=4508550§ion=news “news”:http://www.beliefnet.com/story/141/story_14164_1.html “articles”:http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1861&dept_id=152366&newsid=11076095&PAG=461&rfi=9 have described New Paltz, where Mayor Jason West has been solemnizing gay marriages, as being upstate. This seems like a mistake to me. (And as someone who once lived in Syracuse and soon will live in Ithaca, I should know.)
Here’s where the border between upstate and not upstate is. It might be helpful if you have a map of the relevant area, like “this one”:http://mq-mapgend.websys.aol.com:80/mqmapgend?MQMapGenRequest=FDR2dmwjDE%3byt29%26FDJnci4Jkqj%2cMMCJ%3aHOEvq%3bw2aqz8%3a%29zr25za%3a%26%40%24%3a%26%40b%3aqyb%3al4b%3aTD%15JFE%3aHOHQJ%3bw2aqz8%3a%29zr25za%3a%26%40%24%3a%26%40%24×9%40. Draw a line connecting up the Massachusetts/Connecticut border with the northern edge of the New York/Pennsylvania border. North of that line is upstate, south of it is not. This is not to say that south of it is downstate or anything else in particular, it’s just not upstate.
As you can see on “the map”:http://mq-mapgend.websys.aol.com:80/mqmapgend?MQMapGenRequest=FDR2dmwjDE%3byt29%26FDJnci4Jkqj%2cMMCJ%3aHOEvq%3bw2aqz8%3a%29zr25za%3a%26%40%24%3a%26%40b%3aqyb%3al4b%3aTD%15JFE%3aHOHQJ%3bw2aqz8%3a%29zr25za%3a%26%40%24%3a%26%40%24×9%40, New Paltz (which is starred) is south of the line, so it shouldn’t be regarded as upstate. If I didn’t approve of what was going on in New Paltz, I’d start lobbying to stop these spurious connections being drawn between New Paltz and the wonderful upstate region.