Is Upstate New York The Most Confusing Geographic Region?

Talking to anyone outside of New York can get really confusing, really fast. They always assume you're from New York City because how could you possibly be from anywhere else? It can be just as frustrating talking to people from New York when mentioning Upstate New York. This debate about who is in Upstate and where it all begins has been going on for so long now that it will probably never end. Why the confusion?
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What is Upstate New York?

The definition of that will always be contested by people who are sure that they know the answer. According to Google, Upstate New York is a geographic region with no actual boundary that is north of the New York City Metro area. It also says that Upstate contains multiple other regions. I think this also leads to the confusion. They claim that Upstate NY encompasses:

• The Capital Region
• North Country
• Mohawk Valley
• Central New York
• The Finger Lakes
• Southern Tier
• Western New York

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I don't disagree with this. If we're simply going by direction all of those places are "up." Therefore that would put them Upstate. I truly believe that Upstate New York begins after Poughkeepsie. Once you get outside of that area, you have entered the greater Upstate area.

Where does Downstate New York begin?

If we're going by this information, downstate New York would begun at the Hudson Valley and go all the way to Long Island. I would also assume that anyone from NYC or Long Island would never classify themselves as "downstate" but instead they'd proudly say where they are from.

Maybe the issue isn't location. Maybe Upstate is too broad a term for some people to wrap their heads around. I know plenty of people from Long Island that say anything above them is Upstate. So that would put the entire rest of the state in that category. I know that folks from Western New York don't really want that Upstate label either. They're proud Western New Yorkers.

I think moving forward we simply have to call each region by name, instead of placing it in this much broader category. Because if that is the case New York really would only have four "regions."

• NYC Metro
• Long Island
• Upstate NY
• Downstate NY

We're much too big of a state to be broken down into something so small. Each region has a certain amount of pride in being from that particular area. Let's just embrace that pride and stop arguing about silly things.