Upstate New York: State Profile

Never trust a map that leaves the 'h' off of Plattsburgh.

Just a few points: In Syracuse, Columbus Circle has little of interest for visitors. There are three churches, the county court house & law library. Armory Square was never an industrial area but this district along with Hanover Square contain many of the clubs, bars & eateries. Malls & mail order have been responsible for much of the neighborhood decline in these cities. Onondaga County (Syracuse) is littered with dead & dying malls with very little street retail to take their place. The downtown was vibrant & fun when I was a kid but now I'm reluctant to walk around down there even in daylight. Most of the upstate towns suffer from similar problems. Core separation & strangulation by highways, neighborhoods segregated by all levels of government & realty investors for decades, high tax rates leading to major employers closing or moving away. It's sad because Upstate is truly beautiful & scenic. Hopefully, someday leaders will emerge who will help to reshape the policies which have crippled the urban centers along the I-90 corridor.

Catskills?

You could update your description of the amount of snow in upstate. Most recent years since the 1970s has shown that upstate NY has received much, much less snow than talked about.

Your pronunciation of Irondiquoit was spot on. My spelling is somewhat different, though.

I could argue syracuse has had way more of a turn around than rochester and buffalo i think most places around syracuse are alright just a select few places like the valley south are really the only concerning places. but as many other said outside the cities in the countryside its paradise summer or winter

People from the Rotten Apple tend to think of Upstate as everything North of them, it's not. Buffalo is Western New York.

I grew up in Syracuse and upstate NY is beautiful and the economy took a hit in the 80's but its coming back I still consider it home.

I remeber the bubble guy from 30 years ago. I can't believe he's still doing it.

Oh, and you missed the many famous small villages and towns-- Cooperstown, Woodstock, Saratoga Springs, Sleepy Hollow, West Point, Watkins Glen, Seneca Falls (never mind the women; it's the model for "It's a Wonderful Life"). Well, you did get Lake Placid and Corning...

It's not "the" upstate! That "the" is a South Carolina thing-- and even there, it was changed from "the Upcountry". Also, Adirondack is larger than any national park outside Alaska, and even the latter's only took over relatively recently.

NYC is highest sales tax in the country.

Oswego gets more snow than Syracuse and Rochester combined.

I absolutely love UPSTATE. I went for the first time back in 2015 to meet a girl my age (20) through mutual friends. It didn’t work out. Did the same thing in 2020….. that didn’t work out either.
What did work out though is my love and adventure for that state. I’m from Iowa, and I look forward to returning in 2024. Absolutely spot on from everything I’ve experienced 😊

Very well done.. maybe my favorite of all your vids.. Thank you..

What happened to Thousand Islands in this video?

Buffalo's " bubble man" passed away this summer. He will be missed.

I’m one of those from the Capital Region who fled south. I wish I hadn’t had to, but I’d been frostbitten as a child and, moving back in 2002, I found that the destroyed blood vessels in my fingers and toes made me unable to go outside when the temperature is 20 degrees or below. If you have poor circulation (unrecognized in children in the early 1960s), don’t move to any snow belt cities unless you plan to snowbird. I consider the Capital Region one of the (if not THE) cultural capital of the U.S. in the summer. North, south, east, west - within a 90-minute driving radius is world-class music and theatre, plus great museums.

Rochester 😢

You forgot to mention the Potato Chip is from Saratoga Springs and Thousand Island Dressing is from New York’s Thousand Island region (McDonald’s “secret” sauce is a variation of this dressing & In-N-Out Burger also uses a variation of it too). Certainly potato chips are more popular than Buffalo Wings!

New York has more than one wine regions

New York state is a wonderful and beautiful state. Such a shame it is being ruined by Democrats in Albany.

Okay first my kvetch Ulster County is upstate I don't care what your research says. We don't have the MTA so we're not part of the Metropolitan area. And Google Nelson Rockefeller to answer why Albany is the way it is. Check out "The Egg" if you want to see something unusual.

The only real negative about new york is the crazy person property taxes

Welcome to New York, the original trade route to the west✊🏼

Syracuse, born n raised. I lived in Virginia for 9 years while in the navy but I’m glad I came back I love the climate here.

I like it that upstate NY is obscured by NYC. I live here in splendid obscurity!

As someone who spent most of my life in Western New York (though not originally from there), I understand why you used "Upstate New York" as a blanket term. But there are some very provincial people who would point out to you that it's not all the same.
1: Buffalo & Rochester are the two major cities of 'Western New York'. Some might dispute Rochester's inclusion because of its proximity to the Finger Lakes, but anyone I've ever known from or who grew up in Rochester have referred to it as Western New York.
2: Syracuse is 'Central New York', along with Utica.
3: Binghampton, despite being almost directly south of Syracuse, is 'The Southern Tier', which would also include cities such as Elmira, Owego, Olean, and Jamestown. As a point of clarification though cities such as Jamestown or Olean are also a part of Western New York, but they tend to see themselves as Southern Tier first.
4: 'The Finger Lakes' is comprised of those communities that surround, well, the Finger Lakes. Penn Yan, Canandaigua, Auburn, Ithaca, Watkins Glen, and Skaneateles are some of the major communities. Fun trivia fact is the fictional town of Bedford Falls in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" is based on the Finger Lakes community of Seneca Falls.
5: Watertown and that area are known as either 'The North Country', 'The St. Lawrence Region', or 'The Thousand Islands Region'. I had a college roomate from that area of the state and he would use those rather interchangeably.
6: 'The Adirondacks' is basically Hamilton, Essex, Franklin, Clinton, and Warren Counties. The best known of the communities here, but nowhere near the largest, is Lake Placid which hosted the 1932 and 1980 Olympics and was the location of "The Miracle on Ice".
7: Then I would say the last "Upstate New York" region is 'The Capital Region' or 'The Catskills', which would be Albany (of course), but also Delhi, and Hudson.

Furthermore, each of these regions tend to have a specialty food (or two) that we celebrate. The minor league baseball teams in Buffalo and Rochester (The Bisons and The Red Wings respectively) will temporarily change their names to "The Wings" (Buffalo) and "The Plates" (Rochester) as proof. But while those may be the most nationally known foods, in places like Binghampton there's what's known as a "Spiedie" (pronounced 'speedy'), which is cubes of marinated chicken, pork, beef, or lamb that are skewered and grilled and served on a hoagie roll. It's rather simple but the people there are quite proud of it.

im going to move and live in Kingston....

Anyone from Salem New York

I’m from a suburb of Rochester and after living in Columbus, Ohio (Westerville) for twenty years, we just moved back to Rochester. Although, we’re is a suburb called Spencerport, not the city. It is sad that the city is struggling, but I think things will get better, since the the city is offering a bonus to remote workers who move here and (despite the snow) the weather is fabulous for three seasons and as the rest of the country bakes they might not mind the winters.😀

Always amazed when St Lawrence River 1000 islands is skipped.

Property taxes NY are outrageously high.

Not all of Ulster County is downs state. The Northern part of the county is upstate by every measurable factor. End of Algonquin territory, start of Iroquois territory, It's the Catskills & the end of the Allegheny plateau, it where the Catskills meet the river & Berkshires come furthest West. It's Above 42*N (Dutch reference) above Penn & West of Mass & the Berkshires, (East of Canada & West of Russia), it was founded by settlers of Fort Orange (Albany), it was defended by Fort Orange, Rensselaer, Schenectedy etc. Too cold for most of the lizards (yes NYS has lizards).

From down state been everywhere and then some live up here for 16 years upstaters are the most unfreindly too face uneducated low iq not openminded and most never been anywhere but it is afordable than most areas a nd has good social services

I think the NYS Park system is one of the best in the nation.

I can tell you this about Albany: it has more character and architectural significance than the Sun Belt cities.

Binghamton Spiedies and the Catskills should be on this list!!

As a native of the Adirondack/Lake Champlain region, I have several comments. Adding to Albany's appeal is its relative proximity (no more than a half day's drive) to three major metro areas: NYC (about 150 miles to the south), Boston (about 170 miles to the east) and Montreal (about 225 miles to the north). It's also only about 30 miles south of Saratoga, which is an appealing summer vacation area. Albany also is within relatively easy driving distance from ski resorts in southern Vermont (e.g., Killington and Stratton) and about 2.5 hours from Whiteface Mountain (near Lake Placid) in NY. Next, a little known fact: Hamilton County, in the heart of the Adirondacks, has the lowest population density of any county east of the Mississippi. It has all of about 5,100 residents in an area almost as large as the state of Delaware. The comment about Utica "struggling a little economically" is an understatement. An industrial center from the days of the Erie Canal, it has been reeling from the closure of many factories (silverware and cutlery principal among them). Couple that with the closure of the Griffiss Air Force Base in nearby Rome several years ago and it's been one depressed (and depressing) area. Finally, I am pleased that Buffalo is making a comeback. As property values in other areas of the country become increasingly unaffordable, I suspect more people will consider the Buffalo area as a place to live.

they are not white hot dogs they are cooneys.

I lived in Broome County most of my life and I am SAD that you didn't mention speedies.

As a retired bus driver, I used to take people to Saratoga springs New York the lake George area. So beautiful and peaceful during the spring and Summer.

pretty trashy video. Your voice sync is off and sound is terrible. Just really hard to watch. Also I grew up in N.Y. state too.

Upstate is gorgeous, there are so many amazing state parks.

I think the only thing missing here is a mention of Saratoga.

The tomato pie reminds me of focaccia bread in itally. One of the ways to buy it is with a light tomato sauce and ligt cheese. It was like 1000lire
$.75 back then.

Cool beans.

It all sucks.

You forgot to mention the Baseball Hall of Fame as a tourist attraction.