Another expression common to the southern tier of NY is "We're going 'down' to Ithaca" even though by looking at the map, one is theoretically going "up" if one lives in Corning.

When I first moved to this area and wasn't familiar with the towns yet, where places actually were located confused me. So I wonder from where the terms "uptown" and "downtown" came. I've always thought both to be unspecific unless one was actually going down into a valley or going in a southerly direction, etc.

"Adversity is the whetstone of creativity"