The term “Big Six” has historical significance in New York.
   
Since at least the 1950s, New York State’s six largest cities have been called “Big Six.” “With little fanfare and much less public recognition, Comptroller Frank Moore has opened the road to fiscal independence for boards of education in fifty-six cities in the state and pointed the way to fiscal independence for the ‘big six’ cities—New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and Yonkers” was printed in the Buffalo (NY) Evening News on November 4, 1950.
   
A “Big Six” mayors’ conference that was held in Syracuse in January 1955 excluded New York City and included Utica. “Mayor Donald H. Mead will be host to nearly 25 officials from Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Utica and Yonkers as the ‘Big Six’ mayors’ conference gets under way at 10 a. m. tomorrow in Hotel Syracuse” was printed in The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) on January 1, 1955.
     
The “Big Six” became known for school board unity in the 1950s and 1960s. “School boards from four of the state’s ‘big six’ cities have formed an organization apart from the State School Boards Association. School representative from Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers formed the new association yesterday. Albany and New York were invited to join” was printed in the Binghamton (NY) Press on November 15, 1958. “The cities involved are known in educational circles as ‘the Big Six’—New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and Yonkers” was printed in The Evening News (Newburgh, NY) on August 26, 1965.
     
 
Newspapers.com
4 November 1950, Buffalo (NY) Evening News, pg. 5, col. 6 ad:
OLEAN TIMES HERALD—
“With little fanfare and much less public recognition, Comptroller Frank Moore has opened the road to fiscal independence for boards of education in fifty-six cities in the state and pointed the way to fiscal independence for the ‘big six’ cities—New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and Yonkers.”
(Friends of Frank Moore.—ed.)
 
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1 January 1955, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), pg. 18, col. 2:
Curtain Rises Tomorrow
On ‘Big 6’ Mayor Talks
Mayor Donald H. Mead will be host to nearly 25 officials from Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Utica and Yonkers as the “Big Six” mayors’ conference gets under way at 10 a. m. tomorrow in Hotel Syracuse.
 
The precedent-setting gathering represents the first attempt by the state’s largest cities, exclusive of New York city, to achieve unanimity of legislative proposals affecting all of them.
     
Newspapers.com
3 January 1955, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), “Syracuse Headlines,” pg. 1, col. 7:
ROCHESTER, BUFFALO AND YONKERS OFFICIALS WERE among guests last night at an informal reception preceding today’s “Big Six” mayors’ conference here.—Page 11.
     
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15 November 1958, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 5, col. 3:
Big City School Group
Buffalo—(AP)—School boards from four of the state’s “big six” cities have formed an organization apart from the State School Boards Association.
 
School representative from Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers formed the new association yesterday. Albany and New York were invited to join.
 
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22 March 1960, Buffalo (NY) Evening News, sec. 2, pg. 19, col. 4:
Rubino Will Seek
Aid of ‘Big Six’
On State Program
Paschal C. Rubino, a Board of Education member will solicit the aid of the Si Large Cities School Boards in efforts to create a state program geared to the needs of educable and trainable children.
(...)
The “Big Six,” he explained, is an organization composed of the school boards of Buffalo, New York, Yonkers, Albany, Syracuse and Rochester.
   
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9 February 1963, Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle, “City’s Aid to Schools Praised by Gillette,” pg. 18, col. 5:
Rochester does more for its public schools than any other city in the “Big Six,” Mayor Henry E. Gillette asserted yesterday.
(...)
Rochester schools get a greater share of the sales tax than do schools in Buffalo and New York City, Gillette argued. Schools in Syracuse, Albany and Yonkers get no sales tax revenue because no tax is levied in those communities.
 
Google News Archive
26 August 1965, The Evening News (Newburgh, NY), “James Allen Presides Over Tumultuous Decade” by Robert T. Gray, pg. 2A, cols. 1-4:
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)—James E. Allen, observing his 10th anniversary as state education commissioner, has presided over most tumultuous decades in the history of public education in New York State.
(...)
The cities involved are known in educational circles as “the Big Six”—New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and Yonkers.
     
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28 December 1965, Buffalo (NY) Evening News, sec. 3, pg. 35, col. 6:
Brydges Invites
‘Big 6’ Mayors
To Meet in Albany
ALBANY, Dec. 28—The mayors of the state’s six largest cities, including Mayor-elect Frank A. Sedita of Buffalo, have been invited to Albany Jan. 10 by the Senate majority leader-designate Earl W. Brydges of Niagara Falls, it was revealed today.
 
The group will also include Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York City. The other cities in the so-called Big Six are Albany, Rochester, Yonkers and Syracuse.
     
New York (NY) Times
Big Six Mayors Tour Yonkers And Find Common Problems
By Iver Peterson
Jan. 30, 1970
 
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4 March 1970, Daily News (New York, NY), pg. 5, col. 5:
BIG 6 MAYORS
ASK TV TIME
Albany, March 4 (Special)—The state’s Big Six mayors asked TV stations across the state today for a free half hour of time to argue their case for extra aid from the Rockefeller administration.
 
New York (NY) Times
BIG 6 MAYORS FIND CITIES VICTIMIZED IN STATE FUNDING
By Martin Tolchin
March 2, 1970
     
New York (NY) Times 
‘Big 6’ Mayors Planning a Drive To Get State Aid for City Police
By Murray Schumach
Dec. 31, 1972
 
New York (NY) Times
‘BIG 6’ MAYORS SCORE GOVERNOR’S BUDGET
Jan. 21, 1973
 
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22 January 1986, Daily News (New York, NY), pg. 28, col. 2 photo caption:
THE BIG SIX: Mayors of the state’s biggest cities were in Albany making financial pitch to joint Fiscal Committee at hearing on state budget. From left are: Angelo Martinelli of Yonkers, James Griffin of Buffalo, Thomas Young of Syracuse, Thomas Ryan of Rochester, Mayor Koch of New York City and Thomas Whalen on Albany.
 
Buffalo (NY) News
41% OF PROPERTY IN BUFFALO IS TAX-EXEMPT ERIE COUNTY FIGURE IS 28.4%, ACCORDING TO STATE REPORT BASED ON DATA FROM ‘87
By CAROLYN RAEKE AND PETER SIMON, DALE ANDERSON AND PETER SIMON, GENE WARNER, PETER SIMON AND AGNES PALAZZETTI, JAMES HEANEY AND PETER SIMON, MARGARET HAMMERSLEY AND PETER SIMON, Peter Simon, PETER SIMON, PETER SIMON AND DAN HERBECK, PETER SIMON AND DAVID ROBINSON, PETER SIMON AND HAROLD MCNEIL
May 18, 1989
(...)
Buffalo’s figure of 41 percent compares with these rates for the state’s other Big Six cities: Albany, 72 percent; Syracuse, 50 percent; New York City, 39 percent; Yonkers, 29 percent, and Rochester, 28 percent.
     
17 March 1993, New York (NY) Times, pg. B1 photo caption:   
Dinkins in Albany for ‘Big Six’ Mayors Meeting
Mayor David N. Dinkins arriving for a meeting with the other mayors of New York’s six largest cities—New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, Syracuse and Albany—at the State Capitol yesterday to discuss what state spending cuts have done to local economies. (David Jennings for The New York Times)
 
Syracuse.com
Miner: Making history, confronting ‘a boulder rolling downhill’
Published: Nov. 04, 2009, 4:07 a.m.
By Sean Kirst | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
(...)
That made her the first woman mayor to serve in one of New York’s major cities, although she was never elected to the job. For that matter, until this week, a woman had never been elected to serve as mayor in any of the state’s “big six” cities - New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, Albany ...
 
Or Syracuse.
 
Syracuse.com
Top 10: Stories of the decade that shaped Central New York
Published: Jan. 01, 2010, 12:17 a.m.
By Hart Seely, The Post-Standard
(...)
In 2007, Republican Joanie Mahoney became the first female Onondaga County executive, and this year, Democrat Stephanie Miner won Syracuse City Hall — the first woman to be mayor in the state’s “Big Six” cities of New York, Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Yonkers.