Heh... Maybe you are right there - divide up New York into separate states... You poor folks that are tied to New Youk (City) have a very hard row to hoe...heh.
We've been wanting to do that for years. Push NYC out to sea and pull the plug.
Upstate has a LOT going for it, if it weren't for the government. We have a lot of natural resources and tremendous agriculture. CNY is dairy and apple country. WNY and along Lake Ontario are wine country.
We can and do grow almost anything during the summer short of citrus and we have have an abundant supply of water and beautiful scenery.
Even Syracuse University is surprisingly conservative for a university of that size. The values of the people from the surrounding communities who work there is reflected there, except at the very highest (Chancy Nancy) levels.
NYS is not all NYC suburbs, nor are all NYers NYCers. There's a BIG difference. We're simply outnumbered.