I’m writing this column on my laptop, sitting in an aptly named Adirondack chair, gazing out over a 400-acre bass lake in far upstate New York, just on the eastern edge of the Adirondack Mountains. So far upstate that the highway signs warned us that both cell service and 24-hour gasoline availability is limited. My handy-dandy mapping software shows we are about 35 miles south of the Canadian border. Luckily, modern technology triumphs over the forest and we have access to a very respectable Wi-Fi connection, otherwise this column would still be on my laptop and not on your screen.
How we got here is also a testament to modern technology. Less than a week ago several family members noticed this week was the only one all summer when there was free time on our household calendar. No soccer camps, clinics, practices or tournaments. No work or meetings that couldn’t be rescheduled. And of course, no school.
So those same family members took to the internet and in less than an hour identified this lake house as a place we could spend that week of free time. It had a last minute cancellation and was therefore vacant and ready for our use. Several mouse clicks and a credit card entry later and we were set. Modern technology triumphs again. In the pre-internet days we might have been lucky to make the same arrangements but it would have involved many phone calls, several hours or days, and the skills of a seasoned travel agent.
On the drive up to this wilderness wonderland we did experience cause for concern about our safety. Not because of the wild animals, but because of the preponderance of death. It seemed every other exit was a “kill.” Peekskill, Fishkill, Wallkill, Plattekill, Kaaterskill, West Kill, Wynantskill, Cobleskill, Poestenkill, and of course, the Catskills.
Certainly those of us familiar with southeast Pennsylvania are well aware of the Schuylkill River which flows south through downtown Philadelphia. It turns out the etymology of kill comes from the Middle Dutch “kille,” meaning riverbed or water channel. Apparently it is used in the Hudson Valley and other areas of the former New Netherland colony of Dutch America to describe a strait, river, or arm of the sea. And because of the topography around here there are a lot of kills.
This Dutch influence in what was once New Amsterdam also provides a connection to modern-day Happy Valley – and the rest of rural Pennsylvania.
New York state contains two distinctly different regions. New York City – the city that never sleeps, the city with more people than any other city in the United States – and its surrounding counties constitute THE major metropolitan area of the state. The rest of the state, and by far the largest part of the state by geographic size, is either small rural towns, or medium-size cities – Albany, Rochester, Buffalo – and their suburban communities. In the parlance of the average New Yorker, downstate and upstate.
Pennsylvania exists in a similar dichotomy. The metropolitan areas of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the rest of the state. Which is why a movement afoot in New York state could be relevant to those of us residing in Happy Valley.
The “Divide NYS Caucus” is a group of New Yorkers who are trying to divide the state into what they refer to as two separate autonomous regions – New Amsterdam (upstate) and New York (downstate). The reason to make this division is that the two areas are so distinctly different in many ways – demographically, financially, politically – that it is unfair to both regions that regulations and laws are and have been created that may be beneficial to one region while being detrimental to the other. Autonomous governments would be more effective governments.
As New York’s state government is currently set up, every 20 years the people of the state have the opportunity to vote on whether to hold a New York State Constitutional Convention. That 20 year mark comes up this November. If the people do vote to hold a convention, delegates would be selected the following November, and a convention would ensue. The convention could create an amendment to divide New York state into two regions and this amendment would then go directly to the voters in the next election.
The plan is designed so no governmental or constitutional adjustments need to be made at the federal level – something that would be extremely unlikely. It also is set up so, in theory, the regions would be financially viable within their tax base.
The experts and pundits doubt that this division will ever occur, but they’ve certainly been wrong before. And how many times have those of us in Happy Valley been subject to the whims of a state government that may be taking from we rural folk to give to the city folk?
That’s why in the elections this November it might be worthwhile to pay attention to the results from our neighbor to the north, the state with which we share the longest geographic border. They just might provide a blueprint to cure some of what ails us in the Centre Region.
