Left Behinds: Upstate NY is Like Appalachia?

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Upstate NY is Like Appalachia?

Ten days ago, Eliot Spitzer said that "You drive from Schenectady over to Niagara Falls, you see an upstate economy that is devastated. It looks like Appalachia. This is not the New York we dream of."

As someone who's descended from West Virginians, I am deeply, deeply insulted by the comparison. Upstate New York? Ick.

I was, however, amused by Pataki's lame response:

"Appalachia doesn't have Empire Zones, it doesn't have Centers of Excellence."

Ha, I'm sure West Virginians are really jealous of the decidedly un-excellent Centers of Excellence. How Orwellian.

5 Comments:

At 10:36 AM, Stroll said…

Completely off topic, but check out the back-in-the-day product placement happening in that Hillbilly's picture.
At 1:20 PM, Solomon Grundy said…

Ha, I was thinking that when I found the picture. I guess product placement is a return to the earliest days of advertising, when Joan Crawford would gush about her favorite plastic hanger manufacturer on the Ed Sullivan show or whatever.
At 1:34 PM, Antid Oto said…

The analogy doesn't really hold, though. Upstate New York doesn't look anything like Appalachia. It looks like Flint, Michigan.

I expect to see a really meta article soon about how insulted Appalachians are that New York Republicans think a comparison to them constitutes an insult.
At 1:38 PM, Solomon Grundy said…

Wait, that's what I was trying to say. My joke was, to an Appalachian, upstate is the insult.
At 1:39 PM, Solomon Grundy said…

Maybe I'll change that to make it more clear.

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Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Upstate NY is Like Appalachia?

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