Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced with great fanfare that Lt. Kathy Hochul would oversee Western New York’s phased business reopening.

That was seen as a good thing at the time. At least Hochul, who is from Buffalo, can find Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties with a map, a flashlight and a GPS system.

After learning a little more on Tuesday about the governor’s plan to lump rural Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties in with urban Erie and Niagara counties when the time comes to reopen the Western New York economy, it’s apparent that either Hochul carries no weight with the governor or she joins with the governor in having no understanding how different the Buffalo metro area is from the rural areas in the southern part of Western New York.

Rural Western New York is, as of now, linked to Erie County’s hospitalization rate before it can begin to reopen. Those hospitalization rates have to decline for 14 consecutive days before things can begin a phased reopening can begin. While it is conceivable that the Buffalo region could see its hospitalization rate decrease for the next two weeks and meet a possible May 15 phased reopening date, but it is far from a guarantee.

Rural counties and their residents deserve certainty, and it’s easy to achieve when one realizes – as we thought Hochul and Cuomo did — that Buffalo and the rural areas of Western New York are like two different worlds.

Buffalo has a mass transit system. Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, with the exception of low-ridership bus systems, do not. Buffalo has a population density of 882 people per square mile while Chautauqua County has a population density of 122 people per square mile. Cattaraugus County boasts a whopping 59 people per square mile while Allegany County is really packing people into tight areas with 46 people per square mile. Buffalo has a high-functioning airport, Chautauqua County does not. Buffalo’s hospitals have dealt with a plethora of COVID-19 cases, the rural counties’ hospitals have not.

A reopening plan in which Western New York’s rural counties are negatively affected by Buffalo, then, is patently unfair to the rural counties. It may be some time before Buffalo sees a 14-day decline in hospitalization rates to trigger a region-wide reopening. What’s more confusing is that the governor has made a point the past two days that he doesn’t want to reopen “nuisance attractions” that encourage travel from one region to the next. That notion makes sense in our region if one is trying to discourage travel from Buffalo or Cleveland to the more rural areas of Western New York. It makes no sense if the rural counties will reopen only when its safe to open their great neighbor to the north.

To make matters worse, all Cuomo and Hochul had to do was to parrot perhaps the most important part of the plan devised two weeks ago by Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, and Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, whose phased reopening plan was sure to set Erie, Monroe, Onondaga and Albany counties aside when considering how to reopen the state’s businesses. Goodell and Borrello understand that what is safe in Erie County is much different than what is safe in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus or Allegany counties.

The governor has created a reopening advisory board that includes more than 100 business, community and civic leaders from across the state. Perhaps one of them can convince the governor of something his own lieutenant governor apparently cannot — reopen rural Western New York before you reopen Erie County. We don’t have high hopes of that, though. No one on the advisory board is from the area of Western New York that isn’t Buffalo.

How surprising. We’re forgotten again.