AAA just sent me an email encouraging me to get a Real ID at one of its "10 convenient downstate NY branch locations" which included the one by me. So I think that ends the debate over whether Rockland County is upstate or downstate.
They're AAA! They would know! Just because NYC people think everything else is Upstate doesn't make it true!
Anyway my passport expired so I guess I probably should make arrangements to get a new DL. So this was informative and helpful.
VIOLENTLY STUFFS MY FIST IN MY MOUTH
every time someone is like "[place that is commuting distance to NYC] is upstate" an angel gets a wing plucked off
You are correct
Looks like Westchester and Rockland are the only non-NYC counties in the downstate club which makes sense to me
question: is everything that's south of the straight line part of the border considered downstate?
Ihdreniel: Not really. There are some counties in that segment that I wouldn't call upstate-upstate but not really downstate either.
also renew your passport
everything north of yonkers is upstate to me, yo.
cuddlebug: 
it might be upstate of you but I maintain there is a critical difference between that and being objectively Upstate
it might be upstate of you but I maintain there is a critical difference between that and being objectively Upstate
yeah sorry but to native nyc folks there's "upstate" which is pretty much everything north of the city and then "WAY upstate" and i cannot change that
I don't think there's any changing it lol
it's like how manhattan is "the city" and the other boroughs you use their names
but Rockland is officially Not Upstate so...damn I don't have a smug emote anymore
"i'm going into the city" "...you live in the city" "/sighs in new yorker"
oooh yay! precheck is so worth it
I sometimes include Brooklyn in my "the city" designation if that helps
Ottergirl: yeah I planned to get it in 2020 and then I just never got around to it when I started flying again
if you're not yet in nyc at all and say "the city" to mean any borough, that is valid. but if you live within the five boroughs, "the city" means manhattan. again, not my rule! but impossible to explain to people.
Language is a funny thing that way
on line/in line is probably my most nyc quirk that drives people insane tho
that baffled me when I first moved east
it's not even just an NYC thing
it's only like a 20 mile radius lol it's pretty localized!
and in looking for an explanation (i don't think it exists, tbh) of why i just stumbled across "New Yorkers are much more likely than other Americans to pronounce "grocery" with an S sound in the middle." in a regional dialect article and ... how else is it pronounced??? help!
are there people out there pronouncing it with a hard c like they're in ancient rome?
I only ever hear on line around here
maybe it's spreading like a disease 
(but seriously how else do you say grocery?)
I think it's just we're so close to the city. You know. Since we are also downstate 😁
Re: grocery, I think "Groshery"
.......i have never heard that ever lol
I might be wrong but that's all I can think of
like even if i drew it out as in gross-ery that... still sounds right?!
but if i'm wrong somehow, the rest of the country can't seem to hear the difference between mary merry and marry so /shrug
i love linguistics
linguistics are amazing
i'm unusual where i live bc i distinguish between pin/pen by sound
(most southerners say "pin" or "ink pen" to distinguish)
if we really wanna wade into the pedant mines then upstate doesn't start til north of the thruway and everything else is downstate or central ny
i shun the pedants and lean into colloquialisms very strongly, if that was not obvious already. like the city has rezoned and renamed quite a bit lately and nobody uses the new map boundaries or neighborhood names and the battery tunnel is the battery tunnel so there 😅
that interactive map the nyt put out last year of what locals call certain areas was so fascinating and also gave me ammo to point at our address and go "see? spiritually this is still sunset park."
wtf @ grocery... i feel like i hear the sh sound sometimes when people say groceries, but never in the singular
the only pronunciation discrepancy i hear regularly is two-syllable vs three-syllable
(i'm a two-syllabler)
From my part of the south a lot of people made it a two syllable “groshh-rees”