There is more going on upstate than meets the eye. I am from the Rochester area, but have lived downstate for close to 40 years. However, numerous nieces and nephews from that area are well employed young adults forming happy families there. Most went to SUNY schools, as I did, and have the advantage of smaller college loans. Quite a few small companies have formed from offshoots of big long term regional industries like Kodak, Corning, Xerox, Gleason Works, etc, over the last decade or so, and are now combined with larger national or global operations. At the same time, it seems a lot of large business have relocated back office operations in insurance, banking, payroll, etc to the region.
It is not a coincidence that there is a huge amount of activity in the Rust belt. From upstate NY it is an easy shot to cities in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana which have been reinventing themselves and which have close proximity to the big growth and economic activity in Toronto, just across the Great Lakes.
Couldn't agree more with you. I follow this urban blog which I think is one of the best in the country:
buffalorising.com
In Buffalo, there are some big things happening like the expansion of the medical center and the development of activity around DT's water front, but most of its very grass roots.......rehabbing one bldg at a time over and over again. Things aren't booming but Buffalo is doing much better than it did in the 90s.
Cuomo is fighting the battle all NY governors have between the big money, big media, big attitude downstate region and the rest of the state. For those from other areas, downstate is basically Westchester county, NYC and the 2 Long Island counties, with everything North and West of White Plains considered "upstate." Oddly enough, that divide persists even after years of NYC and Long Island folks moving further up and out into areas of "upstate." The folks who have moved further away, but still have economic ties to NYC often go out of their way to try to identify with their new local neighbors and to differentiate themselves from "the city.
NY is fortunate that it does have NYC which has been the economic engine for the state for the past 20 years. Imagine how much worse off NYS would be if it weren't for NYC. |
