The upper Manhattan neighborhoods of Washington Heights and Inwood are far removed geographically and culturally from midtown Manhattan. New Yorkers frequently call anything above Westchester County as “upstate” New York. By the mid-1990s, Washington Heights and Inwood were called “Upstate Manhattan.”
Other names for the area include WaHi (Washington Heights & Inwood), NoMa (Northern Manhattan) and MaNo (Manhattan North).
Urban Dictionary
Upstate Manhattan
The far reaches of uptown Manhattan. Primarily refers to Washington Heights and Inwood.
Fifi wants to move Way The Heck Upstate, but Upstate Manhattan will do, for now..
by Flea Sisters Jul 8, 2004
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From: Champ Knecht
Date: 1996/06/11
Subject: Re: thoughts after the .con
Some Manhattanite friends of mine refer to Inwood as “Upstate Manhattan”.
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Vicki Rosenzweig)
Date: 1999/07/09
Subject: Re: The Bronx missing, please advise
>>Actually, from where I live on Long Island, Upstate is everything
>>north of midtown…
>I have two different friends who have assured me that Upstate begins
>at 14th Street.
Nah. Upstate begins at the Cloisters.
Posting from Upstate Manhattan, a.k.a. Baja Bronx,
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Deborah)
Date: 1999/07/23
Subject: Re: Upperstate New York?
>You are correct about “Upperstate New York”, it’s just a malapropism. But
>you>are absolutely and irrevcocably wrong about “Upstate Manhattan”. There
has
>*never, ever* been such a designation. What you may have heard is a
>reference>to “upper Manhattan”.
Well, it’s not an official name of a neighborhood, but I know people who live there and refer to it that way. They use jokingly, but they use it.
Best regards from Deborah “I’ve also heard joking references to ‘Baja Manhattan’ ” Finn
7 February 2001, National Public Radio:
My wife and I had an apartment well up in upstate Manhattan at one point, up in Washington Heights, and so I had time to, you know, walk around the ...
New York (NY) Times
If You’re Thinking of Living in Inwood;
Away From Manhattan Without Leaving
By NANCY BETH JACKSON
Published: December 15, 2002
FOR SALE: Two-bedroom, 1.5-bath Manhattan penthouse, updated kitchen, 500-sq.-ft. terrace with wide-open Hudson River views. Steps from salt marsh, primeval forest, hiking trails, kayaking and collegiate football. Asking $375,000.
THE offering sounds too good to be true, but the apartment went on the market last month in Inwood on the northern tip of the island, bordered by the Harlem and Hudson Rivers and a greenbelt of parks. The neighborhood’s southern boundary with Washington Heights depends on who’s defining. Residents line up in two camps: Fairview Avenue as described in the Encyclopedia of New York City and Dyckman Street, about a half-dozen blocks to the north, on Department of City Planning maps. Real estate agents seem to agree with the encyclopedia.
Ed Romanoff and Joyce A. Presutti, actors who moved from an Upper West Side studio to a $39,750 two-bedroom co-op in 1998, like to say they live in ‘‘Washingwood’’ or ‘‘Upstate Manhattan.’’
New York (NY) Times
Island Cafe, Irish Roots, and ‘Everybody’s Home’
By DAVID GONZALEZ
Published: August 23, 2005
“Nobody wants to look at the East River,” Kevin O’Rourke insisted. It was hard to argue with him, since the Hudson River and the Palisades loomed behind him, while the George Washington Bridge and the Cloisters beckoned from the south.
(...)
Mr. Robinson lives nearby, in an area he dubbed Upstate Manhattan.
New York (NY) Times
(Solar) Power to the People Is Not So Easily Achieved
By JIM DWYER
Published: January 23, 2008
One day nearly four years ago, it suddenly seemed like a good idea to give solar electricity a try at home — home, for me, being an apartment house in Washington Heights, alias upstate Manhattan.
New York (NY) Post (July 16, 2008)
About Washington Hts.
Some call it “upstate Manhattan,” and there’s certainly a laid-back vibe in this northern Manhattan neighborhood. Once crime-ridden, the area has seen an influx of new artsy and professional residents—and, as a result, Washington Heights has seen staggering price increases in recent years.
Nonetheless, WaHi offers large apartments that are greatly discounted from similarly sized homes south of 96th Street. The nabe offers numerous prewar, Art-Deco co-ops, particularly along the Hudson River. Among the most notable buildings is the Grinnell, widely known as the “uptown Dakota,” at 155th Street and Riverside Drive.