page_title: Western New York
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Western New York / Culture
caption_attribution_description: Packet Boats on the Genesee River, with the Rochester skyline in the background, w:Rochester, New York.
context_page_description: Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, Jamestown and the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. The historic beginnings of the region can be defined by its original eastern boundary of Preemption Line, created by the December 16, 1786 political settlement between the states of New York and Massachusetts, both of which claimed political dominion over the land. This eastern boundary shifted because of changing county borders in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
  Western New York consists of 17 western counties in New York State: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates, with a land area of 11,764 square miles. Western New York includes the area of the Holland Purchase and the Phelps and Gorham Purchase.
context_section_description: Western New York is culturally a Great Lakes/Interior Northeastern area, with a dose of Appalachia in the Southern Tier, an overlapping region of the state.  Buffalo appears to most to have similarities to other Great Lakes cities/areas, while having Northeastern proclivities.  The similarities with Chicago run the list from sharing a common industrial base traditionally built around steel and automobile manufacturing.  The cities were both developed during the same period in American history, so the street patterns, architecture, and ethnic communities share a similar appearance. Linguistically, Western New York is part of the Inland North region of American English, which means it is subject to the Northern Cities vowel shift; a distinct variant of that accent, "Buffalo English", is heard in many parts of the region.
  Finally, most Western New York sports fans support the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. Team loyalties of sports fans in the rest of upstate New York are more divided. Most baseball fans support the New York Yankees and New York Mets, although the Toronto Blue Jays have seen an increase in support due to the influx of Canadians in the area - as well as the region's proximity to Toronto, the Blue Jays' increased on-field success in the mid-2010s, and the affiliation with the longstanding minor league Buffalo Bisons. The Pittsburgh Pirates have some following in southwestern New York, and teams with national fanbases such as the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs also have followings. The region has no clear favorite professional basketball franchise, with the Brooklyn Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors all claiming parts of the region as part of their regional broadcasting territories. (Western New York puts more emphasis on college basketball, where the "Big 4" Division I programs—Canisius, Niagara, St. Bonaventure and UB—all have strong followings and rivalries; while most attention has been centered around the men's college basketball teams, the recent success of UB and St. Bonaventure's women's teams has led to increased attention to women's basketball in the region. The college basketball scene once had enough clout to help drive Buffalo's NBA team, the 1970s-era Buffalo Braves, out of the city.) Syracuse University sports, being the closest major-conference school to the region, also has a sizable following in western New York, particularly in basketball. College football interest is minimal, with no team having a major following (not even UB, who has struggled to maintain its Division I football program despite modest success). For hockey, other than the Buffalo Sabres, the region is also home to a number of Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins supporters.
caption: Barges on the Genesee River in Rochester
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