Looking for the Blue Line: Can We Find Differences between People Living inside the Heavily Regulated Adirondack Park and Those outside the Park?

Jan Vink, Cornell University
Joe Francis, Cornell University
Sutee Anantsuksomsri, Cornell University
Nij Tontisirin, Cornell University

With 6.1 million acres the Adirondack Park in New York is one of the largest parks in the United States and its status as wild forest lands is protected by the NY State Constitution. The Blue Line is the commonly used term for the park boundaries. In 2010 there were circa 130,000 people living full time in the park. It is estimated that another 100,000 people live in the park part-time. In 1971 the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) was created to develop long-range land-use plans for both the public (40% of the park) and private lands (60%) within the Blue Line. The question being addressed in this research is whether the Demographic, Social, Housing and Economic characteristics are influenced by the location with respect to the Blue Line. In other words: are characteristics different in the park as opposed to outside the park.