Morning Read: Is Gov. Cuomo snubbing the North Country?
The Watertown Times is running a story that questions whether our region is being heard and taking a prominent role in the various task forces that Governor Andrew Cuomo has created. The article reaches a pretty bleak conclusion:
The marquee task forces and teams that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has convened to cure some of the state’s ills will do so without much north country input.
Three of the task forces — on Medicare, mandate relief and agency consolidation — include no members, out of 73 total, with a connection to Jefferson, Lewis or St. Lawrence counties.
The article later qualifies that judgment with a comment from Assemblywoman Addie Russell:
“I’m not concerned about it, and mainly because of the prominence of north country officials within his administration and our legislative delegation,” said Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, who mentioned Dierdre K. Scozzafava and Darrel J. Aubertine, former north country legislators who won top posts in the Cuomo administration. “I wish there was some north country representation, but at the same time I know we are represented at many levels of state government at this point.”
It’s worth commenting that state Senator Betty Little (R-Queensbury), whose district includes a big swath of the North Country, was named to the Governor’s Mandate Relief task force.
So what do you think? Does the North Country need a clearer voice in the Cuomo administration? Or are we fairly represented?
Tags: politics
The Tri-Lakes area will do OK in this department with Andy. We have lots of millionaires and billionaires with seasonal homes here, and the past 4 months show that these are his true constituents.
Too bad about the rest of the region.
Well gee, if Addie isn’t worried then I feel all warm and snuggly….
There are differences in all parts of NYS that aren’t being addressed. Rural parts have their own issues and as such need more representation than is currently being offered. Rural areas themselves are not one big monolith where if it’s good for one area than that should take care of all of us.
I think that even the media of this area has a hard time covering all the different areas of Northern N.Y. It seems as if NCPR does 89% Adirondacks and Champlain Valley while the other 11% tackles the rest of the area.
I noticed the Ogdensburg interview ended with stating the reporting was done from upstate N.Y., all this time I thought St. Lawrence County was part of Northern N.Y. That’s the problem with such a big geographical area, its easier to primarily focus on one part and leave the rest to hope for the best.
Strong agree with above re “upstate”. I wish the media (starting you guys, NCPR) would cover ongoing this semantic problem with our geography. Calling everything north and west of Westchester Co, “Upstate” should be strongly protested until it stops.
Perhaps Albany should just finially come out and admit that they have given up on attempting to rejuvenate the North Country (that area somewhat above the Thruway); with the exception of the service industry there is now even less reason for a family to try to maintain residence here since most of the local school systems have been left hung out to dry…
It’s worth remembering that while the whole idea of everything north of the city being “upstate” is ridiculous in terms of geography, it’s really not all that crazy in terms of population: New York City plus Long Island plus Westchester and Rockland Counties make up 88% of the population of the state. Leave out Westchester and Rockland, and you’ve still got 80%.
The North Country has less than 3% of the state’s population. If it seems like we’re an afterthought, it’s because we are.
But we own the high ground man.
Yeah, so they could never drive us out (though they could starve us out pretty easy).
Or they could just keep on ignoring us.
Being ignored by Downstate is not all bad.
Perhaps it’s best if the governor DOES ignore us.
Walker says:
April 26, 2011 at 5:18 pm
“It’s worth remembering that while the whole idea of everything north of the city being “upstate” is ridiculous in terms of geography, it’s really not all that crazy in terms of population: New York City plus Long Island plus Westchester and Rockland Counties make up 88% of the population of the state. Leave out Westchester and Rockland, and you’ve still got 80%.”
You’re figures are way off.
Sorry, you’re right, I was adding the population of Long Island to that of NYC, thus counting Brooklyn and Queens twice. Still, the North Country figure is still under 3% no matter how you figure it. Data is from Wikipedia.
New York State: 19,378,102
North Country: 422,000 (2.2%)
NYC: 8,175,133
Nassau: 1,334,544
Suffolk: 1,419,369
Westchester: 949,113
Rockland: 286,753
Orange: 341,367
Total: 12.5 million (65%)
All the more reason to cut the lower part of the state off somewhere near Albany and let NYC/LI/”Upstate” be it’s own State. Other state have the same issue, predominantly out west. Friends in Oregon and Washington state tell me their issues are just like ours only it’s west/east instead of south/north. Rural areas like Northern, Central and Western NY will always be ignored by the urban population centers…until their food runs short.
I don’t think they need us for food either.
The reason most of us live here is becuase it is NOT downstate and I count downstate starting south of Saratoga.