Editor's Notebook July 2022

Craig Mongeau - Editor in Chief - July 2022

Are you having fun? Your visitors apparently are.

In a study using "26 key indicators," WalletHub, a personal finance website, recently concluded that New York State ranks as the fourth "most fun" state to visit among all 50 of them. Without getting into all of these indicators, many of them are obvious with entertainment, recreation, nightlife and national parks leading the way and some that aren't as obvious like movie costs and casinos per capita. I thought movies were expensive no matter where you went and casinos, well, I guess they only based that off of winners.

The three states ahead of the Empire State are California, Florida and Nevada (oh yeah, casinos per capita). New York really is a fun, diverse state. As any of you know who regularly read this column, I'm originally from western Massachusetts and I attended college on Long Island. Some of my best memories from my youth to adulthood were made in New York. Whether it was concerts at SPAC, going to the old Storytown and even older Gaslight Village, cruising on the Minni-Ha-Ha on Lake George, cooling off on a hot summer day down in Howe Caverns, camping at Port Jervis, watching the Belmont Stakes, taking the ear-popping elevator ride to the top of the Empire State Building, being awestruck by Niagara Falls and yet so much more, the ranking makes absolute sense. There is so much to do and experience in New York State and I have always loved New York … and so do many others.

I'll remind you about another fun thing to do in New York this October … the N.Y.S. Highway & Public Works Expo in Syracuse. Every year, we look forward to seeing so many of you visit us and all the great exhibitors at the show. July is only just getting started, but if you would like more information about exhibiting or attending the Expo, please contact Teddy McKeon Jr. at tmckeonjr@cegltd.com and 800/523-2200. You can even reach out to me if you have any questions.

Hope to see you there and have a fun start to summer. P