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I have been to Albany on business many times. I have nothing bad to say about it. Nothing. It has arts/culture. Lots of restaurants. People are pleasant. Like any city it has its run donw parts but in Albany it is a small section of town.
Albany has fabulous turn of the century housing, no doubt expensive. It has charming victorian houses, very well kept. Downtown has the modern and the turn of the century side by side, very well kept. Around the University of Albany there are a lot of restaurants, cafes, bars etc; and again lots of very well kept single family homes.
It is more of a white collar town than a blue collar town. It is not congested. Just on the outskirts are Malls, very clean.
Age specific? UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY!
I am originally from NYC. I would live in Albany before moving back to NYC. Albany has everything NYC does on a smaller scale.........with a fraction of the people and the traffic congestion.
State street, by S. Swan. I can tell Tuesdays and Thursdays on this street are going to be the death of my financial stability, since there's NEVER anywhere to park when I get home from work. But I really like the area, so I just suck it up and take the bad with the good.
State street, by S. Swan. I can tell Tuesdays and Thursdays on this street are going to be the death of my financial stability, since there's NEVER anywhere to park when I get home from work. But I really like the area, so I just suck it up and take the bad with the good.
There's a bar right on your block, Center Square Pub. Good neighborhood joint, my coworkers and I are there all the time.
State street, by S. Swan. I can tell Tuesdays and Thursdays on this street are going to be the death of my financial stability, since there's NEVER anywhere to park when I get home from work. But I really like the area, so I just suck it up and take the bad with the good.
Yeah, get used to paying parking tickets. I'm at State and Dove.
this thread is cracking me up cause i am considering a move to troy BECAUSE the capital region seems like the closest thing to pittsburgh in the new england/eastern ny area. my husband and i love pittsburgh but we are moving back up that way to be closer to our families in ct. the albany area is about as far away from ct as we are willing to go, but it sounds really, really appealing to us.
pittsburgh is much bigger than albany, schenectady or troy but the 3 together kinda form a voltron pittsburgh.
- both areas have very low housing costs (albany area might be even lower!)
- both areas have great 19th century architecture
- both areas seem unpretentious and down to earth BUT
- both areas seem to have thriving art and underground music scenes, interesting restaurants, coffee houses, etc.
- both areas have state and national parks easily accessible just outside the city, although i think the capital region is a lot better in that respect.
we will be in the area in a couple of weeks and we are very excited to visit! if anyone has any suggestions of places to check out, please feel free to share them. some stuff about us:
- we're leaning toward troy because of the low housing prices, beautiful architecture and evidence of an interesting countercultural community there. but we are open to other towns as well.
- we are ok with living in a marginal neighborhood
- we don't have kids so schools are not an issue right now but they might be a few years down the line.
- our housing budget is around $100k and we'd rather buy than rent
- if we're going to live in a densely populated area, we'd like to be able to get to shopping/restaurants/places to hang out on foot, bus or bike.
- if we're going to live outside the city we want a good sized piece of land - at least an acre. we don't really want to live in a densely-populated area that is also very car-dependent - it's either/or.
- we are vegan so easy access to vegan or vegan-friendly restaurants and farmer's markets, natural foods stores, etc is a plus.
oh and just an edit to add - i don't mean to say the OP is wrong - his or her experience of pittsburgh is just different from mine, and i can see the validity in a lot of the complaints in this thread. also i've only been through albany and never been to troy so i could be totally wrong about the similarities.
this thread is cracking me up cause i am considering a move to troy BECAUSE the capital region seems like the closest thing to pittsburgh in the new england/eastern ny area. my husband and i love pittsburgh but we are moving back up that way to be closer to our families in ct. the albany area is about as far away from ct as we are willing to go, but it sounds really, really appealing to us.
pittsburgh is much bigger than albany, schenectady or troy but the 3 together kinda form a voltron pittsburgh.
- both areas have very low housing costs (albany area might be even lower!)
- both areas have great 19th century architecture
- both areas seem unpretentious and down to earth BUT
- both areas seem to have thriving art and underground music scenes, interesting restaurants, coffee houses, etc.
- both areas have state and national parks easily accessible just outside the city, although i think the capital region is a lot better in that respect.
we will be in the area in a couple of weeks and we are very excited to visit! if anyone has any suggestions of places to check out, please feel free to share them. some stuff about us:
- we're leaning toward troy because of the low housing prices, beautiful architecture and evidence of an interesting countercultural community there. but we are open to other towns as well.
- we are ok with living in a marginal neighborhood
- we don't have kids so schools are not an issue right now but they might be a few years down the line.
- our housing budget is around $100k and we'd rather buy than rent
- if we're going to live in a densely populated area, we'd like to be able to get to shopping/restaurants/places to hang out on foot, bus or bike.
- if we're going to live outside the city we want a good sized piece of land - at least an acre. we don't really want to live in a densely-populated area that is also very car-dependent - it's either/or.
- we are vegan so easy access to vegan or vegan-friendly restaurants and farmer's markets, natural foods stores, etc is a plus.
oh and just an edit to add - i don't mean to say the OP is wrong - his or her experience of pittsburgh is just different from mine, and i can see the validity in a lot of the complaints in this thread. also i've only been through albany and never been
to troy so i could be totally wrong about the similarities.
Not to hijack this, but I'd say that Binghamton looks like a mini Pittsburgh and actually has many, if not most, of the stuff you are looking for. It would also put you closer to Ithaca, which is a college town that offers a lot of what you are looking for. Binghamton is even cheaper and big villages like Endicott and Johnson City have an urban feel to them and outside of a
small area in each(maybe a few in Binghamton), are very safe. Here's a picture that may give you an idea of what I'm getting at with the comparison: Binghamton ny - Google Search
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