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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.
hahaha I'M BRINGING THE CITY WITH ME!!! Because of where my job is, I never looked across the Hudson (although I've never heard anything bad about Troy). You're right about the similiarities--I've even noticed a few PGH equivalents here in Albany. The most obvious is Center Square and Lawrenceville: hipster feel, lots of pretty rowhouses, eccentric little shops and restaurants along Lark Street (much like Butler Street). Past Washington Park, there's Pine Hills (or the "Student Ghetto" to some), the equivalent of South Oakland .
Prices in both are low, but for the downtown areas, I think Albany is lower. I think 100k would get you more in say, Mansion area here vs Shadyside in Pittsburgh.
(I'm not sure how familiar you are with The East end in Pittsburgh--if you're not, sorry for throwing these areas out!)
Everyone's covered the city parts to check out (i'd DEFINTELY recommend center square, for obvious reasons). Despite my utter disdain for suburban living...I absolutely love Niskayuna. Colonie and Latham are neck-and-neck for second.
I have to say, I really appreciate that you can respect that our experiences were different, rather than virtually tar-and-feather me because I blaphemed against the Holy Steel City lol
Best of luck with the search! If there's anything I can help with, just let me know
i'm definitely familiar with the east end - it's where i live, where i have lived since i moved here (with a brief diversion into the south side slopes) and where i spend most of my time.
i currently live in wilkinsburg, wrong side of the busway, so you will understand that i mean it when i say we don't mind living in a marginal neighborhood! troy actually reminds me of my part of wilkinsburg (hamnett place), only further along the redevelopment path. for example there is a decent business district here but it doesn't really have anything "cool" going on, just some useful stuff. and there are urban farms and community gardens springing up all over the place! and lots of people and organizations fixing up the beautiful old victorians. both places have followed the pattern of being extremely wealthy areas that have declined and are now starting to come back, and it shows in the housing stock.
i was pretty happy to find this thread even if our views of pittsburgh are different because a comparison between the capital region and pittsburgh is *exactly* what i am looking for right now!
just a little update on my investigation, i've made some connections in troy already through a friend and just by e-mailing people involved in things i've found there that i think are cool - so far i've found everyone to be super friendly and helpful (i've been offered a place to stay and several tours of the city) and really excited at the prospect of potential transplants!
Groar - It sounds like you are ready for either Albany or Troy. Troy is a bit cheaper, so you may want to start there. Albany has more going on for young people, but it's just a hop, skip and a jump from Troy, especially if you have a car. Parking in Albany after work hours is easy, with the possible exception of days when something big is going on in the Times Union Center.
As someone else mentioned, the best Farmers Market in the area is in Troy on Saturday mornings. It goes all year. You may also be interested in the Capital District Community Gardens. The Community Gardens community is big here, so if you want to grow your own stuff but live in a place with no yard, just get yourself on the list to get a plot. CDCG also does some need things in the community, including gardening with Troy High School students.
The Radix Ecological Sustainability Center is based in Albany but does training for people all over the Northeast. They are into urban gardening and other sustainable practices in a huge way.
If you are into urban farming, be aware that Albany does not allow chickens, goats or other farm animals. There was a big dust-up in the Common Council on this last year. I believe Troy does, and I know Schenectady does - there is a big Guyanese population there that use goats as an important part of their diet.
As for schools, there is a lot of fear about the urban schools around here, but you sound like the sort of people who could easily handle them. My kids have been in the Albany City Schools since 1st grade (oldest is now in 9th grade), and I know folks with kids in the Troy City Schools. There are some problems with having a high poverty student population, but I don't think there are any more problems than in the suburban schools, just different problems.
Lots of vegetarians and vegans around here. Most restaurants in the cities will have some items on their menu to meet your needs.
My boss lives in Schodack. Much of it is nice, but it is not as highly regulated as other areas. In some ways this is good, but it also means that things like warehouses with toxic chemicals in them go unnoticed. There was also a proposal to build a giant distribution center there last year (Target? Wal-Mart?), but that seems to have fallen through. So what I am saying is be sure to look at what abuts your property in Schodack. Schodack is also "unserved" by a public library. There are ways to get services at other libraries, but they are limited. Be aware that addresses in NYS are strange - for instance, your address could be East Greenbush, but you are really in the Schodack school and library district or vice versa. So ask the real estate agent exactly where you fall in terms of school district, library district, services you receive from a town or village, etc.
we're not super scared of urban schools - we haven't raised kids before (obviously) but i think we'd be very involved parents and not to brag but i think we'll probably have smart kids, and those things go a long way. there's just a line between districts where maybe test scores are low overall but kids can still get a quality education and schools that have serious violence problems or class sizes so big that teachers are essentially just babysitting.
no library in schodack? eep. that is important to know!
we're not super scared of urban schools - we haven't raised kids before (obviously) but i think we'd be very involved parents and not to brag but i think we'll probably have smart kids, and those things go a long way. there's just a line between districts where maybe test scores are low overall but kids can still get a quality education and schools that have serious violence problems or class sizes so big that teachers are essentially just babysitting.
no library in schodack? eep. that is important to know!
Just to let you know, Troy High has had an above average graduation rate in recent years and the rate in 2011 was a respectable 81%. Lansingburgh High had a graduation rate of 74% for 2011, which is around the state and national averages. What some may not know is that there are areas just outside of Troy city limits that are in both of those school districts. Here is where I got the information from in regards to the graduation rates: https://reportcards.nysed.gov/view.p...y=49&year=2011
Troy also has 3 private high schools in Catholic Central(co-ed), LaSalle(boys) and Emma Willard(girls). So, you have plenty of educational options within the city.
Albany and its metro area is great place for college students (both undergraduate and graduate) and families. It's pretty underwhelming and a lousy place to live IMO for young working professionals. Most of the young workers in Albany grew up in the area. They're just different compared to young working professionals in bigger cities, it's hard to explain. They seem to have this mentality where they "don't get out and don't really want to" and are not open to meeting new people. I know I'm generalizing here, but it's something I've observed from my personal experiences.
The best thing to do is visit and see if you like it. Get an idea of what the people are like at your job here (it'll be easier to make friends with other transplants, what I've experienced). You might just need a change of scenery from Pittsburgh and you could be satisfied with Albany because of that.
Do yourself a huge one and forget Albany , I've been living in cohoes my whole life and its been getting nothing but worse around here, gets trashier everyday, as a 23 yr old guy ill tell ya the party's ain't nothin special a bunch of nasty hoes and drunk *******s lookin to get beat up, the clubs are lame as hell, the surrounding areas are just as bad with troy leading it off, around here we call it the troylet and its by far got the largest population of scums and weirdos upstate has ever seen, cohoes is beautiful to look at yea, with the mills and falls its nice, if you can get around all the crimes, you can't walk around the city without a knife cus you got envyious eyes lookin to get what you got, the only place I don't hate is Waterford its a small little town but there all potheads and they know how to party, just don't say your from burgh, they'll think your talking about lansingburgh and it won't be pretty, well goodluck hope you make the right call, move someplace nice albanys just turning into the place for nyc dropouts take it from me I've been around enough times
funny that this got topped, i just visited troy for the second time (and drove around albany a bit) this weekend!
i am kinda pro-weirdo and the bad parts of troy don't seem so bad to me compared to other places i've lived so.... i like it!
we checked out the farmer's market in troy and it was really impressive. we also stopped at the co-op in albany to grab food for lunch, also impressive! we are sort of torn between troy and brattleboro vt at this point. brattleboro has a lot of cool stuff going on in a very small downtown, and it's beautiful around there. troy/albany/schenechtady is more run down but also has more big city amenities, and we feel like we could get involved in guiding where troy goes in the future (especially since we are both interested in eventually opening small businesses). brattleboro's already there. there are advantages and disadvantages to both places.
we still haven't gone to schenectady but at this point we've decided that if we move there, we're moving to troy. if schenectady is cool, we will go do stuff there! if it's not, no big loss.
i may be getting a job where i can work from home, which will solve the problem of finding absolutely no work up there (my call backs for jobs have been 100% in new haven so far!). if i get it we will probably just watch for houses in both places and see what happens.
I've been to pittsburgh once. And although there are similarities, I can give you three major differences.
1.) Location, location, location. Albany is located in heart of a very diverse cultural region with world renowned arts, music, and outdoor activities. Albany has many great music and art venues in the city such as the Egg and the Palace theater. Just a short drive from Albany you'll find the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Tanglewood Music Venue (home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Jacobs Pillow Dance Company, to name a few.
Albany is located in between the Adirondack and Catskill Mountain ranges, two of the pretties mountain ranges on the east coast with year round activities (hiking, skiing, camping, swimming, boating, rock climbing, etc.).
2.) Albany is the state capital and has been well insulated from the decline in the manufacturing industries that other areas of country have experienced.
3.) Albany is the center of the growing nanotech industry. Albany is now called Tech Valley, and rivals areas of the west coast such as silicon valley. [url=http://www.monticellonys.com/globalfoundries-malta-ny]Transferring to GlobalFoundries | GlobalFoundries Malta NY[/url] . I can't overstate the importance of the nanotech industry and how this is transforming our area. The Albany area is poised to become a national and international economic powerhouse because of the billions, yes billions, of investment in nanotechnologies from GlobalFoundries in Malta NY to the Albany Nanotechnology College.
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3 Major Differences
