Upstate/downstate

[Duane Campbell]

With New Paltz in the news, New York based broadcasters keep referring to
this "upstate town." Having lived for several years in New York's
Southerntier -- which is north of "upstate" -- I can tell you with
conviction that New Paltz is downstate.

This is not simply north/south perspective. People from Rochester don't
consider Elmira to be downstate. Even though it is south of Rochester, it
is still upstate New York.

New York has its greatest land mass north of Pennsylvania, an area that
the inhabitants consider upstate. There is a southern panhandle, and
upstaters call anything in that panhandle, i.e., anything south of the
Catskills, to be downstate. Metropolitan New Yorkers seem to consider
anything north of the Tappan Zee Bridge to be upstate. (As anything
beyond New Jersey is "the West.")

I wonder whether the citizens of New Paltz consider themselves upstate or
downstate.

D

I am Duane Campbell and I approve this message