When you cover as much territory as New York does and have so many different regions, it’s easy to rack up quite a long list of things that people associate our state with. There may be plenty of stereotypes that hover over us as New Yorkers, but if you keep reading below you’ll be reminded of some of the simple things that pop into people’s minds when they’re thinking about the Empire State.
1. Snow, snow, a side of blizzard, and some more snow for dessert.
One of the many amazing states that you can find up here in the Northeast, this region of our country is almost always associated with snow. From historic lake-effect storms in Western New York to blizzards down in the Big Apple, we've more than earned being associated with snow.
2. Waterfalls
Not only does New York have a ton of waterfalls, some of these natural wonders have become pretty darn popular. Easily accessible to all, places like Niagara Falls State Park are visited by people from all over the world each year.
3. Our small towns
In a perfect world, I would spend hours explaining to you why every single one of our unique and charming small towns have become popular places to visit. But for the sake of refraining from virtually chewing your ear off, I'll simply say that we're proud to have so many people love our small towns.
4. New York City
One of the first things people tend to think of when you mention New York, most of our residents either love or hate New York City.
5. Our mountain ranges
Ah, New York's mountains. One of the main reasons why so many people travel beyond New York City, regions like the Catskills and the Adirondack Mountains are completely out of this world.
6. Dave Matthews Band
New York is a breeding ground for incredible artists, with plenty of famous celebrities being born and raised in the Empire State. But when it comes to music, one of the things we tend to initially think of is Dave Matthews Band. Another thing our residents either love or hate, the band has filmed music videos in our state at locations like Opus 40 in Saugerties.
7. Wings
The only place where you should ever eat this savory treat, you won't find any other city that has so many consistently amazing restaurants serving up wings. Where would we be without Buffalo?
8. Pizza
To all of our other states in America, we love you for trying. But the only other place where we could possibly justify allowing you to eat pizza is in Italy. New York pies are total pizza perfection.
9. Crime scandals
Some of the craziest and most publicized crime scandals in our country have come out of New York. For example, in 2015 the miniseries The Jinx came out and blew everyone's minds with a story about Robert Durst — a New Yorker who was being looked at for murder.
10. The Yankees
The state of New York has quite a few popular sports teams, but out of all of them, generally the first one that comes to mind is the New York Yankees.
11. The Olympics
Not only has New York been the host of two Winter Olympic Games, Lake Placid continues to be an Olympic destination to this day. Athletes from all over the world come to the small Adirondack town to practice at our Olympic complexes to gear up for the games.
12. The Great Lakes
We enjoy being able to proudly say that we're one of the states in our country that gets to claim territory of two Great Lakes!
13. Canada
With easy access to our northern neighbor through Western New York, a grand view from Niagara Falls and our North Country region being so close to the border, it's hard not to think about Canada when you're discussing our state.
14. Saratoga Race Course
A popular place to spend the day at during our warmer months, the Saratoga Race Course has been opened since 1863 and is a one of the oldest in our country.
15. Our island accents
New York is one of those places in our country where you can hear a handful of different sounding accents while you're traveling through the state. Out of all of the accents in our New York though, you'll often hear our Long Island and Staten Island accents mimicked the most.
16. Finger Lakes Wine
Some of the best wine you'll ever taste, we're so appreciative to have so many amazing vineyards and wineries right in our backyards.
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