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Comment by sbradford26 | Hacker News Reader

I worked in Endicott, NY for a while which is where IBM started and I always wished I could see "Upstate" New York in its heyday. Eastman Kodak, Corning, GE Research, and IBM all located in generally the same area. It basically was the Silicon Valley of its day.

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I spent my first five years in Rochester. Xerox was very big back then. Then I returned to complete my degree at RIT. There was a Bausch and Lomb building on campus and another named after Kodak. Imaging and vision were very big.

And two of my co-op assignments were with IBM. With the Federal Sector Division in Owego and one of the labs in Endicott.

It's actually just a bit over a 2 hour drive from Owego to RIT.

I'm pretty sure Steve Jobs sometimes had that long of a commute between Pixar and Apple, given the traffic we have here.

Lockheed Martin still has a site in Owego, NY doing what IBM originally opened the site for in the 50s - avionics. Main building still looks the same [1].

Apparently located out there for defense reasons, easier for test flights outside major cities. All day long you see/hear helicopters taking off and landing

https://houseonrynkushill.com/wp-content/gallery/trinkets/ca...

"Same general area" is doing a fair bit of work there :-) Schenectady is probably a 3 or 4 hour drive from Rochester. But to your basic point, there were many (and still are a fair bit) industrial/technology companies in Westchester and points north/west in NY state.

It’s an east coast west coast thing. Four hours is nothing in the west…the drive to the nearest Montana Costco or West Texas Walmart so to speak. Four hours of driving from Las Vegas just puts you in a more remote part of the desert.

I was commenting more on Silicon Valley vs. a much bigger area.

But I agree with the basic point (much less a contrast with much of Europe).

The first couple of times I planned a trip in the West that involved driving to different areas, I remember having to significantly modify plans when I realized I'd be driving rather than doing hikes.

Point of information: Las Vegas is 5 hours from the middle of Los Angeles or Phoenix, by car.

George Eastman was one of the greatest philanthropists of his era. And unlike many of his peers he never created a foundation, but did all his giving directly.

>"Upstate" New York

The area is called Western New York.

Anything from Mount Vernon to Canada is upstate. Except Buffalo, which is over near Chicago.

I thought it was anything north of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Edit: yes it’s a joke.

You’re just trolling or you need a map. The Brooklyn bridge is south of the most populated part of Manhattan.

Tappan Zee [sic] bridge maybe (that’s at least one arguable line).

It's called Western New York to people who live in the upper New York. It's called upstate New York to anyone who isn't aware that New York has more than just NYC in it.

It’s the Finger Lakes Region now.

Like Google Maps clipping off minor towns as you zoom out, there's a level of detail filter being applied. Within my town, I'll give my neighborhood. Within my state, I'll give my town. Outside that, it'll be "Boston". Farther afield, it might just be "the Northeast [US]".

I'd say Rochester is quite distinct from the Finger Lakes and "Western NY" is far easier to grasp. From this New Englander's perspective, I'm not sure everyone here could place the Finger Lakes on a map.

Upstate and Western New York are overlapping regions. In addition to "upstate" being extremely vague and huge.

Kind of. To locals, it's pretty clearly defined:

WNY is Utica westward, the Adirondacks are North of Utica, and we don't talk about the rest of it.

Yes, I'm speaking with tongue in cheek, but I'm representing the cultural lines as best I can.

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