Do you think it's odd that ALBANY is the capital of New York State?

[bold]Albany is the 7th most unfriendly city in the country and the 13th unfriendliest in the world, according to a survey by Conde Nast Traveler.[/bold]

^ actually, that link @ R1 DOES work.

I'll take Albany over Jefferson City, MO any day.

Springfield is the capital of Illinois, that doesn't make sense either. Except for the olden days when the capitol was put in the middle of the state so everyone would have equal access.

Ridiculous

Who cares? Who said it has to be a major city nowadays? Its the center of NY's 3rd metropolis. It was the cross roads of the state, and it was very important when it was named capital.

State capitals should be small removed and rustic.

Juneau is perhaps the most beautiful city in the U.S., so there's that.

For much of the 1800s, upstate New York was a far more populous and prominent area OP.

All those canals.

Montpelier is beautiful as well.

Albany s the capitol of New York for the same reason Columbia is the capital of South Carolina, Montgomery is the capitol of Alabama, Jackson is the capital of Mississippi, Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana, and so on.

To make it fair for legislators' travel distances and time and/or to get the capital out of a state's dominant city.

Harrisburg is the armpit between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, though York was briefly the U.S. capitol.

Most states have small, unimportant cities as capitals.

Sacramento, CA Olympia, WA

Boston seems to be an exception.

R11, why not Orlando instead of Tallahassee, which is awfully inconvenient?

Why should it be odd, OP? Capitals are not always the largest cities in a state. The capital of California is Sacramento; the capital of Texas is Austin; the capital of Pennsylvania is Harrisburg; the capital of Maryland is Annapolis; the capital of Washington is Olympia.

R13, Atlanta, Phoenix.

The capital of Georgia was Milledgeville before the Civil War. In the chaos of the aftermath, Atlanta stole the capital from Milledgeville.

Orlando was nothing when Tallahassee was named state capital. In fact there was not much to Florida below Gainesville. Pensacola was the dominant city in the state at that time and the legislature did not want it there.

[quote]Sacramento, CA Olympia, WA

Sacramento is neither small nor unimportant.

capitOl=building

capitAl=city where the capitOl is located.

Albany NY was settled in the 17th century. It has long and continuous history. It celebrated a 400th anniversary years ago. It was Fort Oranje (Dutch) in what was New Netherland. Sure, at some point the capitol might have been changed to a city with 5 boroughs, 2 populous islands and 4?? 5 ?more tiny islands. I don’t think that would have well served the state.

It must have been an interesting place during prohibition.

Please share more of your profound thoughts with us, OP!

Yes it should be Port Charles

NYC was not as important a city as Philadelphia or Boston until the Erie Canal was built in the early 19th century.

17 US Capital cities are the largest cities in their respective states.

Although it was the temporary capital until DC was built.

Some planned capital cities satisfy one or both of the following criteria:

A deliberately planned city that was built expressly to house the seat of government, superseding a capital city that was in an established population center. There have been various reasons for this, including overcrowding in that major metropolitan area, and the desire to place the capital city in a location with a better climate (usually a less tropical one).

A town that was chosen as a compromise among two or more cities (or other political divisions), none of which was willing to concede to the other(s) the privilege of being the capital city. Usually, the new capital is geographically located roughly equidistant between the competing population centres.

If New York’s capital were Manhattan and not Albany how would the state legislators be able to abide by the Bear Mountain Compact?

Why not ask why Washington is the capital and not NYC? Or Philadelphia?

Wow. Let's talk about NOTHING.

it's usually not the BIG CITY. there is a reason for that, in pretty much every state. they don't want the BIG CITY. they want a capital that is kind of rural. it usually doesn't stay that way, but that is pretty much always the original idea.

This thread should have been a pole OP.

This thread is basically a hokes.

I'm usually pretty good on state capitals, but I thought Philadelphia was the capital of Pennsylvania. Turns out its Harrisburg. I'm pissed at Pennsylvania anyway for voting for the criminal orange douchebag.

Actually, it was Kingston NY before Albany. That would have made more sense -- closer to the city, and a nicer area. But...

Capitols are often specifically built or established far away from huge cities, which have politics that are often at odds with the rest of the country (or state) and are also frequently the subject of unrest.

Even the kings of France ruled for centuries outside of Paris, although in the end it wasn’t outside *enough.*

Yes but upstate NY is a shithole now, the only important city is NYC, specifically the borough of Manhattan. We should kick the UN out and use that space for the state capital.