YO MAN's definitions

Hudson Valley

A region of New York State. While it technically could mean everything in the Bronx to Albany corridor, people who identify with this region are those who live just past the NY suburbs but relatively close to the city, typically in Dutchess, Ulster, Orange, or Putnam County. Poughkeepsie could be said to be the capital of the Hudson Valley region.

Everyone from this region thinks they are from "Po-town" (Poughkeepsie). Kind of like how everyone in Westchester thinks they are from the Bronx or Yonkers when they really live in Scarsdale.

by YO Man July 27, 2004

rockland

The reason why Westchester and Long Island are downstate and Rockland is upstate has nothing to do with urbanization or location, but rather historical connection to New York City. The Bronx used to be part of Westchester County until the late 19th century and much of Westchester's nomenclature still exists in the Bronx today; the Eastchester neighborhood used to be part of the present-day Town of Eastchester; there is an Eastchester Bay and Westchester Creek in the Bronx, as well as an Eastchester Road, White Plains Road, and Westchester Square. There is a Town of Pelham in Westchester as well as Pelham Bay Park, Pelham Bay, and Pelham Parkway in the Bronx. Also, there is a Bronx River and Bronx River Parkway running through the Bronx and Lower Westchester. However, by this method Upper Westchester might qualify as upstate because it really is not involved in the Bronx/Lower Westchester history, and has some upstate names (e.g. "-on Hudson","-kill" as in Peekskill).

Nassau County used to be part of Queens and that is apparent based on similar names on both sides of the city line. Little Neck is in Queens adjacent to Great Neck in Nassau County. There's an East Rockaway in Nassau and Far Rockaway in Queens. Also, some towns in Nassau on the Queens border have the same name as the QUeens neighborhoods on the other side, like Floral Park and Bellerose. Furthermore, many zip codes straddle the Queens-Nassau border.

Rockland has none of those. It does not border any borough of NYC nor share any history with it. In fact, Rockland County used to be part of Orange County (which is upstate according to most Rockland County residents) until about 1800. This is why Orangetown is in Rockland County.

Nobody seriously believes Rockland County is rural or far from the city, it just has no historical connection to the city, which Westchester and Nassau Counties do.

by YO Man July 16, 2004

Crestwood

A neighborhood in Yonkers, New York. Thought of by Yonkersites as being its own "stuck-up town", Crestwood chooses not to identify with the rest of Yonkers. It is entirely residential, middle to upper-middle class, and to compound their sense of being separate from Yonkers, it shares a zip code (10707) with the neighboring town of Tuckahoe.

Crestwood is the northeasternmost section of Yonkers, bound by the Yonkers city line and by Scarsdale Road, Crisfield Street, and Central Avenue. (plus maybe a couple of blocks over those boundaries.)

by YO Man July 7, 2004

White Plains

A boring, phony, sterile "city" in Westchester. Has a lot of malls though little culture, flavor, or character to it. Basically a more built-up version of affluent suburbia, calling it a "city" is misleading.

White Plains just seems to perfect to me...it seems more planned than evolved, unlike Yonkers, a haphazard mess of everything.

by YO Man December 25, 2004

Eastchester

A town in Westchester where kids think they are "niggas" who are "from" the South Bronx because they lived in the Bronx's upper middle class Country Club section until age 1.

Eastchester is full of guidos

by YO Man December 12, 2004

Burgle

Irish for pizza

Let's go get some beer and burgle

by Yo man November 24, 2014

Yonkers

A place predominantly known for its racetrack. Otherwise regarded as the "6th borough" of NYC (sometimes Jersey City/Hoboken is the 6th boro however.) For those of you not familiar with it, most of Yonkers is like Staten Island without the landfills; the downtown area is similar to Newark, N.J. Though located in notoriously wealthy Westchester County, Yonkers is largely middle and lower middle class and has little in common with the rest of the county and is probably more like New Jersey (Of course, this would have been an insult before the Sopranos made Jersey hip).
The two main ethnic areas are McLean Avenue/Woodlawn (Irish) and Dunwoodie (the Little Italy of Yonkers, where you literally can find people who look like they could be on Tony Soprano's crew). There is also an upper middle class area called Crestwood which doesn't like to identify with Yonkers.

Population 200,000
Area Code 914
Zip Code 107's

by YO Man June 30, 2004