All Over Albany

What if Albany is upstate, but not "Upstate"?

What are we really talking about when we use the term "Capital Region"? Is it a geographic place? A population of people? A set of economic connections? A culture?

That's one of the questions we were thinking about while looking over a recent attempt by researchers to define megaregions and lay out a "functional economic geography of the United States." The work -- by Garrett Dash Nelson of Dartmouth and Alasdair Rae of the University of Sheffield (UK) -- takes a ton of Census data about commuting patterns and processes it into a series of maps. It's published in PLOS One.

So, let's have a look at those maps for this area, along with a few thoughts about the results.

Look up

Map clips are above in large format -- click or scroll all the way up.

About the maps

As mentioned, the researchers used Census data from 2006-2010 for commuting trips between census tracts. And they processed and analyzed this data using a variety of mapping techniques and algorithms. In fact, a large part of the paper is about the various strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. Boiled down a lot, the researchers basically conclude there's no single best way to do this, but they've tried to use a set of techniques to create maps that are helpful.

The full (open) version of the paper walks through these details and also includes full national maps.

And for a quick, not very technical overview of the paper, Wired has a write-up.

A few things

The structure of the Capital Region
One of the defining geographic characteristics of the Albany metro area is that it doesn't really have a clear, single center. So the "shape" of this region is a streak stretching from Glens Falls to south of Albany, with Schenectady and Amsterdam pulling to the west.

That's in contrast to many other metros around the country that are more or less central hubs with radiating spikes. (The PLOS One paper focuses on Minneapolis as a prominent example of this starburst metro shape.)

Of course, this isn't a new observation -- this area has been like that for a long time. But it highlights how this place isn't necessarily like other places. And it adds some different development challenges. (If you could combine many of the aspects of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy into one place, you'd have a pretty great urban area. But... you can't.)

The Capital Region's relationship to the rest of Upstate
Another thing that sticks out in the various maps is how the Albany metro sort of stands apart from the rest of Upstate. And in some interpretations, it's more closely linked with Western Massachusetts and Vermont than, say, Syracuse.

We've always thought that Albany was somehow different from Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo -- that Albany leaned more toward New York City and the East Coast, while those other cities seemed more like they belonged to the Great Lakes. Maybe there really is something to that.

If anything, it's a reminder that "Upstate" is a big place and it's probably wise to not make generalizations about what sort of place Upstate is or is not.

Vermont
You know, Vermont was once part of (colonial) New York. Maybe it sort of still kind of is. (Don't tell Vermont that.) Or maybe Albany and eastern New York are still sort of part of Vermont. (Don't tell Albany that.) Maybe the Capital Region and Burlington need to talk more.

Also: This apparent connection between this part of New York and Vermont reminded us of the data from a recent NYS Attorney General's report indicating Vermont was one of the hot spots from which "likely trafficked" guns came to the Capital Region.

High-speed rail
One other quick thought: There's long been talk of maybe, potentially, someday running high-speed rail along a path that more or less follows I-90, so that it would connect NYC, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo.

Complications and cost -- of which there are many -- aside, the Albany-New York City link seems obvious. That route is already highly traveled on the existing rail line. And this analysis of connections does't seem to provide any argument against it.

But... What about Albany to Buffalo? It makes sense when you look at a traditional map, but maybe it makes less sense when considering connections among those major cities. That said, if you could hop a train in Syracuse and be in Albany in less than an hour, maybe more connections start to form.