Fun:New York



New York, dubbed the "Empire State," extends from the Atlantic coast of the United States at the mouth of the Hudson River an infinite distance to the west and north.

New York is perhaps the bluest of the blue states, in spite of the Adirondack Mountains, the Allegheny Mountains, Central New York, parts of Hudson Valley and Staten Island being as red as Alaska.

Living in an upstate world
The Bills are fucking terrible, and their terrible-ness is supposedly exacerbated by life IN Buffalo, which has all the warmth and prosperity of an Antarctic whaling outpost.

Upstate is a very, very strange place. Culturally, it's a combination of New England, Appalachia, and Canada. So… Vermont, which Upstate wishes it had joined when it had the chance. The Erie Canal is also here, and while it's the entire reason Detroit and Chicago exist, nobody seems to give a crap. It has guns an Ivy League school in Ithaca (Cornell), which is technically in Appalachia. Also, that means New York is the only state with two Ivy League schools; up yours, massholes!

Buffalo is the home of the "Buffalo Dialect", which is the "Standard" accent for the US. The "New York accent" is a mite harder to find; the closest you might get are Brooklynites (most of them of Italian descent) who still say "youse", "cawffee",and "fuggedit". However, there are strong accents on Long Island and north Jersey, because there's more consistency of culture, interacting exclusively with one another, and in a sense 'isolated' from the boroughs in suburban areas surrounding NYC.

The second largest city in the state is Buffalo, which is apparently the source of all wings in the US. There’s no hope for Buffalo in its current manifestation. (It burned down once already.) Have you seen the infrastructure on Google Maps? It’s Dark City. The American side (the part no one ever visits) of Niagara Falls is located here, though the waterfall gets turned off (and turned into electricity) when the tourists leave; this has the odd effect of discouraging extra baseload powerplants in the area, but since tourist season happens to also be when everyone has their air conditioning cranked up to max, summer electric prices tend to be a tad high. Interesting tidbit, that power plant at Niagara Falls actually has some historical significance; the first commercial AC power plant was built at the falls, transporting electricity 26 miles away (something DC couldn't do at the time), forever enshrining AC into American homes. Oh, and it was renewable energy too.

Everything south of Syracuse is just called "upstate" New York; everyone there refers to NYC/Long Island as "downstate". The northern third is called the 'North Country' by locals, but nobody that doesn't live there knows it exists, anyways, so no one gets confused by it. The "Southern Tier" of NY is actually north of anywhere within commuting distance of NYC, which does confuse people. Contained in the "Southern Tier" is Elmira, which during the Civil War had the worst death camp the US has ever seen absolutely nothing happened there. At the center of the Southern Tier is Binghamton, the home of Rod Serling, which makes the writing on The Twilight Zone much less impressive when you realize the show was a documentary. Also IBM was there for some reason, before they had to go pick up some milk from the store.

Upstate New York has a lot of guns farms, with plenty of sunshine and the occasional goat to chase, which make it a perfect place for your parents to leave your old pets. No you can't visit, maybe next summer.

Also, Appalachia is where all Trump voters are spawned. They spring from the mining shafts fully formed, like the Uruk-hai.

NYC
Of course, the real reason you came here. New York is home to the eponymous (and largest city in the USA) New Amsterdam York City, whereof it is said "if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." We suggest you read I Rose Like A Rocket which covers the pre-presidential political career of Theodore Roosevelt. What you discover is that NY has been a temple of corruption since forever. For any given thing it is reasonable to assume that the legislature is at fault and corrupt and that the governor is at fault and corrupt. And likely NYC is involved and at fault/corrupt. Granted, state corruption was way worse in the days of TR. It's no, but state and local legislatures are still often plagued by scandal, corruption, and dubious practices.

Albany
Albany, which lies up the aforementioned Hudson River (with a paddle, it must be noted!), is named after Scotland. It is an abyss from which no tax dollars can escape. The massive amounts of corruption in Albany are practically a source of pride in the region.


 * There are about 5 competing garbage companies for some reason. At least the streets are clean.
 * The Museum of Political Corruption is located there. The building extends halfway into the Adirondacks.
 * The largest local drunk tank university had half of its dorms built in a neighboring city specifically to rig the electorate with Democratic voters, which might've worked if young people actually voted. (Speaking of the university, Harvey Milk went there, so his face is plastered everywhere.)
 * was from Albany, well really the neighboring city of Troy, but nobody cares about Troy.
 * For those not in the know, New York's "Independent Democrats" are literally just Republicans in the state house who run as Dems in order to take advantage of the machine. Their constituents include Popeye cosplayers in the Finger Lakes, Bronx insurance agents who pay kids to burn down buildings, Hasidic supremacists, weepy policemen, and your grandmother from LI who wants to know if you really want to settle for state college.
 * If you have time on your hands - and are from the State of New York, because you would be most likely to care - do feel free to spend time looking through the audit records of the State Comptroller's Office. Some local governments forget to use town/city/village computer servers, some local governments forget a technical step along the way to developmental projects, and other municipalities have budget lines that "mysteriously" contain money over budgeted amounts for extended periods of time. Oh yeah, some local governments do things correctly/legally sometimes.

Independent Democratic Conference
Traditionally the Senate in NY has been controlled by a more upstate, right-wing majority. The Assembly was controlled by a more left-wing, Manhattan-centered majority. People were quite content as long as much of upstate NY, and NYC's suburbs, were pretty Republican. In recent times, however, New York has gone increasingly deep blue as local politics are becoming more 'nationalized'. In 2008, the Democrats won a majority of the Senate for the first time, but at the first session of this allegedly Democratic Senate, four "Democrats" split off from the main caucus. Through various machinations, these Democrats with the GOP to control the senate, making the Republicans (technically) the majority party, even though they hold a minority of the seats. This was a sore point for years.

Governor Cuomo's role in this has been to quietly enjoy it. After all, Cuomo is essentially a moderate conservative, and he's very hesitant to mess with Wall Street or the property players in New York. The reality of a Republican majority in the Senate means that any progressive bills, such as Bernie Sanders' tuition plan, or universal health coverage, are basically no-hopers that he doesn't need to kill, because the Republican senate will do it for him. The Black Hand IDC will largely do his bidding, so he'll keep them within the party's fold, and call in his favors. He is, essentially, not only Governor but also the power broker in the state Senate.

Cuomo, however, had a tough time getting re-elected last time, so he cut a deal with left-wing groups like the Working Families Party. Crucial to the deal was that Cuomo would whip those independents into shape, meaning that the Democrats would have full control over the state. Cuomo then promptly broke his promise and played a crucial role in ensuring that the Republicans retained control of the Senate. At the time it seemed like a safe bet for him, but with the looming threat of Preet Bahara's investigations into corruption, the insurgency within the Democratic Party, and the fact that Clinton lost the election, it's left him exposed: a centrist Democrat in an increasingly left-wing state, who betrayed the left in the last election. Then, during COVID, it turned out that sending sick patients to the nursing homes wasn't as good for the health of the elderly as it was for reducing the number of them; who knew? Ultimately, what ended up doing him in was a sexual harassment scandal, forcing him to resign.

New York in stuff

 * New York Cheesecake
 * New York pizza, in many ways the polar opposite of Chicago pizza
 * New York Mets, although that's the city, not the state
 * New York (again, the city) was the site of two out of four of the "9/11", a/k/a "11/9" terrorist jetliner crashes.
 * The New York Giants are going to beat the Beantown boys! Twice! People the world over still don't care.
 * New York City Subway System, one of the largest and busiest in the world.
 * And live from New York, it's Saturday Night Live!

New Yorkers in stuff

 * was governor of New York, before becoming the first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.
 * was governor of New York, later president and a pretty swell dude.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt was also governor, before becoming President for life!.
 * As was his uncle-cousin Teddy Roosevelt.
 * , yet another governor turned President. Twice!
 * Thomas Dewey was another governor, but failed to make it the White House.
 * Nelson Rockefeller, yet another important governor turned Vice President.
 * Millard Fillmore failed to become governor, but did end up becoming President.
 * John A Dix — Only on this list because of the name. Teehee!  Also there were two John A Dixes, because New Yorkers love their Dix.
 * John Gotti — The Gambinos were making $500-700 million every year, having mastered the art of racketeering and white collar crime. So what does the Dapper Don do? He sacks all these experienced criminals and instead appoints his thuggish, low-IQ friends and relatives. He turned the Gambino family from a half-billion-dollar conglomerate into a glorified street gang in a few years....who spent most of their time in trials.
 * Rudy Giuliani, ferret-hater in chief.
 * Pamela Geller — AHHHH! AFTER 10,000 YEARS I'M FREE!  In 2012, she had to scratch, bite, and claw to get a spot at CPAC, presumably because she had become an embarrassment.
 * Peter King — Old Irish/Italian-Americans are basically calling for a race war, completely ignoring the fact that they were the Mexicans once.
 * 2016 has been a big year for New York...
 * Millionahs!
 * and Billionahs! — No matter how many buildings he puts his name on, daddy will never love him.
 * Jared Kushner — Never forget that Javanka's address is 666 5th Ave.
 * John McClane
 * Andrew Cuomo — Former governor and perv.