More to the point of the upstate/downstate divide, there is a clamor around here that goes like this: downstate New York is holding upstate New York down/hostage/back and we need to secede from them in order to have more control over our own political, economic, and social destiny.

Because this region is so dramatically different from the New York City area, this clearly resonates with a lot of people. Even downstaters have begun to talk of secession because they’re tired of subsidizing upstate’s ancient, tired, and static economies.

If Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin had had their way, we’d be living in a state called “Buffalo”.

But secession is a drastic remedy to the identified problem.

The notion of “one country, two systems” is not new. Hong Kong is still legally part of the People’s Republic of China, but enjoys a completely different political, economic, and social system…for now. In Switzerland, the cantonal governments are in many ways stronger than the federal government, and each canton is run differently. In Bosnia and Hercegovina, the Republika Srpska was carved out and is run separately and autonomously from the Bosnian/Croat federation, but nominally still a part of the Bosnian nation-state with its capital in Sarajevo.

New York could remain one legal state entity with two autonomous systems, so that the massive political influence that downstate holds would be dulled, and upstate could be free to control its own economic policies and affairs, and thus better compete for business and residents.