Upstate NY Forum launch - what the heck is Upstate?

[Mark Updegraff]

Thanks y'all for jumping into the UpState Forum!  Lot's of people use the term UpState, and since I've got my BP alerts set up... it isn't solely used by New York Upstaters... apparently lots of different states like to throw around 'upstate'  Anyway, I digress.  

SOOO, all you Upstate NY peeps.  How do we define ourselves geographically?  I know a lot of people interpreting "upstate NY" think of areas north of NYC....  In fact I had a friend in college (RIT) that came to Rochester (upstate) thinking he would be close to NYC.... WOW!!  He should have looked at a map first.... 

Upstate is a huge and somewhat ambiguous term for areas in NY.

How are we going to effectively use this forum?

Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany...  I don't necessarily want to talk to all these groups if I'm digging into my local markets.