All of New York state outside New York City and its suburbs is an economic backwater. The far North doubly so. The state’s onerous tax burden is killing businesses across the state while NYC sucks up all the spending revenue. It all rests on huge income from Wall Street. The whole vicious circle is sickening. There was a time when places like Syracuse and Rochester meant big thriving businesses. No more. And forget about the thousands of small towns.
Yes, indeed. The decay of upstate New York—meaning everything but NYC and the commuter suburbs—began all the way back when FDR was governor, before he became President.