Upstate New York v. Pennsylvania (betwixt Philly and Pittsburgh)

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for urban and urbane New Yorkers and Philadelphians, the rest of their state is the Great Unknown. listening to them, you'd think that the minute they get past Westchester or the Main Line that they were stepping into Burkina Faso or something! and the dislike is reciprocal -- just ask someone from, say, Watervliet or Mechanicsburg what they think of their counterparts from the Big City!

but which is cooler or scarier?

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 2 August 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

upstate NY: the Adirondacks and the Catskills. the Finger Lakes (we already have a thread!) prisons are the growth industry. Buffalo is colder than a motherfucker. Woodstock.

the rest of Pennsylvania: the Poconos. the Amish. the annual rattlesnake round-up in Noxen. abandoned coal mines and steel mills. scrapple. plus i once saw a bear running across the PA Turnpike when driving from Pittsburgh.

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

um, there's also a town called State College in mid-PA which includes Penn State University and ME. Ass.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

how could i have forgotten you, mr. miccio?

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

not to mention PSU, ya know. It's got a rep too.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:10 (twenty-two years ago)

SUNY v. Penn State FITE!

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

btw anthony i'm not mocking central PA -- my sister lives in Hanover, and i've got family in and around Pittsburgh.

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, MOCK central PA. Feel free. I just wanted PSU to be acknoweldged as part of it.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I do plan to get out of here in a year, ya know.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)

no you won't YOU WILL SPEND AN ETERNITY TRAPPED IN STATE COLLEGE PENNSYLVANIA HAW HAW HAW!!

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Um hello? PA has Hershey and I took the chocolate factory tour and bought a fake-silver Kiss there - PA wins!

Plus we have Gettysburg which if u hate fun and love war history etc is cooler than

― Vic (Vic), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

oops i posted for vic he wasnt done -chaki

― Vic (Vic), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

..cooler than woodstock ha

― Vic (Vic), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

oh man, I forgot about Hershey and Gettysburg. Yeah, PA kicks NY's ass small-city wise. Big city NY wins. Like duh.

I AM getting out. I am, I am.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, the SUNY's certainly have Penn State outnumbered. But PSU may be able to crush some of the smaller ones under its feet, Brontosaurus-style.

Rhinebeck, NY is a very cute little town, only about an hour from the city by train.

― Prude (Prude), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:32 (twenty-two years ago)

cool PA small an/or private colleges: Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore, Villanova, Dickinson, Carnegie-Mellon, Gettysburg, Lehigh, Muhlenberg, Lafayette, Franklin-Marshall

cool NY small and/or private colleges: Colgate, Ithaca, Hamilton, Sarah Lawrence

looks like PA wins that one, too.

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

and punxatawney phil/groundhog is in PA

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Anthony i didn't know you're at penn state?? u should come to da Burgh if i'm ever home i'll show u the mckeesport cmpus or something and you'll feel better 'bout your happy valley!!!

are u a native pennsylvanian?

― Vic (Vic), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:40 (twenty-two years ago)

there are a bunch of satellite PSU campuses around the state. none are as big/prestigious as State College, but they do exist. there's another PSU campus in Hazleton, if i'm not mistaken.

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:42 (twenty-two years ago)

they are everywhere!

― Vic (Vic), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm actually a PSU graduate, but I still live in State College (and still will until next summer). I moved to PA freshman year of high school, so while I'm not a native pennsylvanian, I'm a lot more of a townie than most of the people in State College.

Yes, there's a bunch of PSU branch campuses. In fact, since I'm at work here in the library (I work on campus), I can read off a few: Abington, Altoona, Beaver, Behrend, Berks, Delaware, Dubois, Fayette, Great Valley, Harrisburg, Hazleton, Hershey, Lehigh Valley, McKeesport, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schulykill, Shenango (I always say that like Sean Connery referring to a lost city of gold "shee-NON-GO!"), Wilkes-Barre, Worthington, York!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm always kinda scared by central PA as I have to drive diagonally across it on the trip from Maryland up to New England (up 81 from Hagerstown and then across to New Jersey on 83) - tons of homemade signs on people's farm property by the side of the highway saying things like "REPENT SINNERS" and they're always around other signs for seedy truck stops and road houses.

In high school a friend & I got completely lost on the back roads of central PA once at about 3 in the morning, on a drive from State College to western MD. I don't know where the hell we were. It was fun til my friend took a corner too fast and spun the car out - luckily staying on the road & not getting hit by anyone. phew!

― daria g (daria g), Saturday, 2 August 2003 19:09 (twenty-two years ago)

hey! if you get lost in the Boonies its your own fault! In PA the turnpike is like the oldest hi-way in the country, or something. it's great! it's not monotonous like mid-west roads, it's got hills and valleys and tunnels and all. There are TWO Sbarros across from each other at one point! I would drive on this every few months when i went to visit my brother in philly when i was a youngster; it's prolly the hi-way i've driven on the most in my life, i've memorized parts of it. there is a roy rogers on it! i saw a woman carrying a mongoose there when i was 8 - i think we took pictures of this

>campus in Hazleton, if i'm not mistaken.

hazeton is interesting! we got stopped by a cop there when i was four since i wasn't wearing a seatbelt, but he let us go since we played the ignorant-immigrant card! PA people aren't bigots, seee?

the real issue here: TS: cornell vs carnegie mellon...which has the higher suicide rate?!

― Vic (Vic), Saturday, 2 August 2003 20:37 (twenty-two years ago)

anthony - what did u study at psu? i got in there but since over half of my high school was enrolled, i couldn't do it, so i chose california (but not univ of california, pa; Tad forgot this one!)

― Vic (Vic), Saturday, 2 August 2003 20:39 (twenty-two years ago)

binghamton repazent! (or not... it's a depressing shithole.)

northern pennsylvania and the southern tier of new york have some pretty hardcore americana kitsch, esp. around scranton... it's possibly the most midwest-like region of the east coast. the catskills is (are?) pretty backwards too.

― Asymmetric Cocktails (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 2 August 2003 21:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I was a film student. It was the major I found the least annoying.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 2 August 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

all of "appalachia," wherever it extends to, is v interesting. i think its northern frontier is pa? define "backwards" !

if i wound up ar psu, i would have done the same considering i did it here, but there's a much more embedded local religion back home known as "footballism" that would have interfered w/ my studies. i'm glad i escaped

― Vic (Vic), Saturday, 2 August 2003 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

i like upstate ny, but that gets enough love here, so i will put in my love for Jim Thorpe, pa. i want to live there and weave baskets

― gareth (gareth), Saturday, 2 August 2003 23:37 (twenty-two years ago)

The only 3 things I miss about PA 1.Yuengling 2.Primanti Bros. 3. Jerry's Records

― brg30 (brg30), Sunday, 3 August 2003 20:42 (twenty-two years ago)

The 3 things I miss about PA...

― Carey (Carey), Sunday, 3 August 2003 20:48 (twenty-two years ago)

we moved all over as i was growing up, and pittsburgh was the only constant (lotsa family there). so i'm rather attached to that city. west homestead reprazent. or something. i always loved approaching that town at night, because there's this huge hill and so there's all the lights of the town rising straight up...

when i was looking at schools, i toured carnegie-mellon and they have pizza delivery on their student meal plan. so naturally, i considered going...but they weren't really liberal-artsy enough for me in the end.

i like ny too though...i'm going to be visiting buffalo lots, so i'm sure i'll get to experience alll that snow.

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Sunday, 3 August 2003 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

northern pennsylvania and the southern tier of new york have some pretty hardcore americana kitsch, esp. around scranton... it's possibly the most midwest-like region of the east coast.

i dunno so much about upstate NY, but a good friend of mine from l-school is from michigan. when he described life in michigan, i kept saying "that sounds a lot like PA." between the hunting mythos (see the deer hunter), the old abandoned steel mills and factories, the still large white-ethnic communities, the conservative attitudes outside of philly/pittsburgh/detroit -- PA is prob. at heart the most "heartland" of any eastern seabord state.

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 9 August 2003 21:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Somehow I missed this thread. Saratoga Springs, oh yeah. And the Adirondacks are so goddamn beautiful in summer and fall that frankly if they're ignored by folks from 'down south' then more peace for those who are there. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 9 August 2003 21:37 (twenty-two years ago)

it's kinda funny that both the catskills and the poconos still retain some "backwards" features, considering how overrun they are by folks from nearby big cities and suburbs. i always tend to think of the poconos as being "cheesier" than the catskills -- based on the type of hotels there -- but that just might be because i'm a little more familiar with the poconos than the catskills.

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 9 August 2003 21:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Upstate New York has Cooperstown, the Camelot of baseball. That's enough for me. (It can be cheesy, yeah, but there's a nice town there beneath the cheese, too.)

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 9 August 2003 22:35 (twenty-two years ago)

i've paid my dues in Harrisburg/Hershey:

i sleptwalk across the major (two-lane) interstate that cuts through here
great horse racing/jockey controversy at penn national
it was here many moons ago i developed my taste for the fine yuengling lager of pottstown at $5 a pitcher (!!!!!!!!)
i had great indian food in downtown harrisburg (passage to india)
there's hershey park (amusement park and concert arena) and the hershey chocolate tour mentioned above
the hotel hershey is one of the nicest hotels i've been to on the east coast:
http://www.preferredhotels.com/hotel_images/MDTHH.jpg
the bar in the aforementioned hotel hershey is very plush and posh

― gygax! (gygax!), Sunday, 10 August 2003 01:02 (twenty-two years ago)

ha! i forgot to say a very good (once-)underground skateboard scene here as well

― gygax! (gygax!), Sunday, 10 August 2003 01:02 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

it seems jim thorpe has already been mentioned

― charltonlido (gareth), Monday, 20 October 2003 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I cannot believe that you waited until TWO WEEKS after I was sacked from my former job to start this thread.

Duh! Upstate NY by a landslide, obviously. (THough I probably wouldn't have said that while living there.)

― kate (kate), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 08:44 (twenty-two years ago)

jim thorpe is dope as f. Pittsburgh is cooler than everyone who doesnt live there thinks it is but maybe not as cool as the people who actually live there think it is. i like it.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm from Pittsburgh, and you're wrong, it's worse

― Vic (Vic), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 03:09 (twenty-two years ago)

i didnt know you had been to jim thorpe aaron, i like it a lot there

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 05:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Hard to compare to regions that are geographically, ethnically, socially, visually, and icky, the exact same. A=A. Upstate NY and Western PA = same thing.

― Skottie, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 05:14 (twenty-two years ago)

yes i have been there a few times (JT). its nice, almost like europe in that (at least when i saw it) it was very self-contained, well placed in its settings, with a lack of too many bad new buildings, and serviced by a small train station straight out of a novel almost.

vic the last time i was in pitssburgh i got a selective tour of thhe nicer areas so maybe i didnt see enough of it, but i did go into a deli and they were playing drum and bass music over the system while making me an excellent meatball sub, which is more than i can say for most of the cities i have been to.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

all cities everywhere should be judged by whether or not you can get a good meatball sub, with drum and bass playing over the system!

― Little Big Macher (llamasfur), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

exactly.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Thursday, 23 October 2003 02:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Syracuse yo. Lived there all my life until a few years ago. Went to school in Utica and delivered pizza to crackhouses for a few years. Syracuse has the least interesting culture of any city that size I've ever been to. It's like a mall surrounded by dirt poor ghetto and cookie cutter suburbs, it's a place people only want to be temporarily or if they're too old and tired to care about life. Started as a way station on the Erie canal and stayed that way forever. I guess S.U.'s interesting if you're a student and wealthy. Utica's a little more interesting. Not nicer- dirtier and more depressed but it has lots of cool trashy old buildings and factories, and more ethnic variety because poor people from New York City go there for cheap cost of living or to hide. I have only driven through PA but from the looks of all the boonies I would say upstate NY is better just for being on the thruway closer to cooler places.

― sucka (sucka), Thursday, 23 October 2003 04:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Utica, arson capital of the U.S., another reason I like driving through there, it's kind of post-apocalyptic.

― sucka (sucka), Thursday, 23 October 2003 04:04 (twenty-two years ago)

nine years pass...

Where is least fun to stay? Buffalo or Erie?

― J'ackHughes (admrl), Wednesday, 19 June 2013 00:48 (twelve years ago)

Metropolitan population of 1.13M vs metro population of 281K. Besides, I think Buffalo is genuinely a really fun city: cheap as hell, lots of good pubs and restaurants, an amazing art gallery, a solid symphony with a nice space, interesting bands playing all the time in several venue, a couple major pro sports teams if you're into that. I've only passed through Erie but I'd be amazed if you could say the same things (other than that it's probably cheap).

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, 19 June 2013 01:14 (twelve years ago)

"venues"

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, 19 June 2013 01:14 (twelve years ago)

I am super offended by this question

― horseshoe, Wednesday, 19 June 2013 14:16 (twelve years ago)

I get to make fun of Buffalo, but of course it's better than Erie

― horseshoe, Wednesday, 19 June 2013 14:17 (twelve years ago)

don't be offended! I was more intending to make fun of my own ignorance

― J'ackHughes (admrl), Wednesday, 19 June 2013 17:40 (twelve years ago)

actually buffalo hotels look to be pricey so i may have to stay in erie

― J'ackHughes (admrl), Wednesday, 19 June 2013 17:41 (twelve years ago)

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