Upstate/downstate

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:46 PM -0500 3/3/04, Alice Faber wrote:
>Duane Campbell said:
>>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.
>
>And I can tell you with equal conviction that New Paltz is most
>definitely upstate. Of course, I grew up in Westchester County. But
>my parents lived in Columbia County for 30 years, which, even if it's
>south of Albany, is still upstate to me.
>
And for some native New Yorkers [= native-NYCers], Yonkers is
upstate.  I don't think it works like Chicagoans w.r.t. Rockford,
though--Long Island is never "upstate", it's just the tertium datur:
the City, Upstate, the Island.  Then there's the finer-grained
definition, whereby the City = Manhattan, leaving the outer boroughs
unclassified.

Larry Horn
(grade school in the City, high school on the Island, college Upstate)