Talk:Southern Tier

message: I grew up in various parts of Otsego County and never knew that is was part of the Southern Tier.  It's not all that close to the southern border of the state.  It seems to me that the people in the northwestern part of the county think they live in Central New York, while people in the southeastern part think they live in the Catskill region.  The state recreation folks say it's part of the "Central Leatherstocking Region."
Does anyone know what the source of this subdivision of counties is?  Nonenmac 23:21, 14 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  I always thought it was just Broome and Tioga. The Elmira area calls itself the "Twin Tiers". ccwaters 23:38, 14 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Otsego County?

message: Here are some links that may help to define what people consider the Southern Tier to be:
* The Southern Tier West Regional Planning & Development Board coordinates planning and development in Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua Counties — the westernmost 3 along the southern border (Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua were left out by the article)
* The Southern Tier East Regional Planning Development Board coordinates planning and development in Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Schoharie, and Tioga counties. (Cortland and Schoharie were left out by article.)
* The Southern Tier Central Regional Planning and Development Board provides services to government, agencies, and the private sector in Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben Counties. (Schuyler was left out by the article).
* The Southern Tier Health Care System is a health network for Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Chautauqua Counties. (Again the western two were left out by the article, while all the eastern counties are not included in the STHCS.)
* The Southern Tier Library System covers the counties of Allegany, Steuben, Chemung, Yates, and Schuyler. (Yates, and Schuyler were left out by the article.)
* Southern Tier Economic Growth appears to be involved with just Chemung county.
One point that I noticed is that the Southern Tier of NY corresponds closely with the northernmost section of what's considered to be Appalachia.  
* The Appalachian Regional Commission Program in New York State
Nonenmac 01:05, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Google Test

message: I've done some corrections based on the arguments posted on this page. Otsego and Chenango Counties are now listed as "rarely" referred to as Southern Tier Counties. Cattaraugus County is now on the main list.
I should note that "Twin Tiers" encompasses "Southern Tier" so if you're part of the Twin Tiers, you're either in the Southern Tier (of NY) or Northern Tier (of PA). In other words, yes, Elmira is part of the Southern Tier.
JMyrleFuller 21:22, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Corrections 

message: Anyone have expertise on the Chemung and Chenango Canals, and how they influenced the early development of Elmira and Binghamton respectively? I suspect they became major centers in the Southern Tier mainly because these canals connected them to the successful and profitable Erie Canal, and by the time the railroads came, much of the development continued in these already established centers. The Waverly/Sayre/Athens area seems like a more natural transportation center, since it is the water-level gateway between the Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania and the Finger Lakes region. But straddling the border meant straddling the economic interests of competing states at a time when such competition was extremely intense. As a result, plans to connect the New York and Pennsylvania canal systems never materialized and the area saw more modest development than Elmira or Binghamton (which in turn were and are smaller than the largest cities on the main line of the Erie Canal).
Anyway, as you can see this is a big topic, and beyond my expertise as a historian, so is anybody interested in looking into this, or pointing me to some good sources?
And in any case, more info on the canals would be valuable. There is none here, none in the Binghamton article and very little in the Elmira article.--Bardobro (talk) 18:50, 16 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Canals