Upstate New York statehood movement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the separation of Upstate New York from New York State. For the proposed separation of New York City from New York State, see New York City secession.

In the face of lagging job growth in Upstate New York in the first decade of the 21st century, a few living in the region have broached the idea of seceding from New York, in the belief that the state's emphasis on New York City issues has contributed to Upstate's problems. See, e.g., Public Policy Institute of New York (describing problem but rejecting secession as a "pointless discussion").

Some potential grounds for secession include:

Desire for lower taxes.
Creation of an upstate identity.
More conservative outlook upstate.
More direct attention on problems in a dying region.
Less rights restrictions as a result of being affiliated with such a large and prominent city. (New York City, for example, has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, the rest of the state being close behind.)

Ironically, in New York City a feeling of undue focus on Upstate issues, as well as a feeling of subsidizing Upstate governmental activities, has lead to a New York City secession movement.

Many Upstate New Yorkers also support the New York City secession movement in favor of this one, reasoning that since New York City is a part of the rest of the state, and not the other way around, they should be the one to split off and get their own name.

[edit] See also

Urban secession
Peconic County - a proposed county for the secession of the five easternmost towns in Suffolk County, New York.
San Fernando Valley - an area that has tried to secede from Los Angeles several times, most recently in 2002
Maine - A state that used to be part of Massachusetts.
Kentucky - Formerly western Virginia.
Tennessee - Formerly western North Carolina.
Vermont - Was once disputed to be western New Hampshire or northeastern New York.
West Virginia - A state formed by a section of Virginia breaking off from the rest of the state due to opposition to Virginian secession during the Civil War.
Province of Toronto - A proposal for the secession of Canada's most populous city.
Politics of New York
List of U.S. state secession proposals