Ask a Level-Head Man Who Lived in Albany, NY (New York: apartment, renting)

[ProvGuy]

Originally Posted by ryangiggs

the problem with lark street is that it is very close to the ghetto. and parking is very much a pain. i don't know why you want to live a 500 hundred yards from the ghetto.

There isn't much spillover of the "ghetto" into the Lark St area though in my experience, except maybe car breakin around Christmas time, but that is everywhere.

[Jansu]

Thanks for the safety warning re: the park at night. I am not a mall shopper and prefer locally owned stores. I live in Rochester currently and for sure there are many neighborhoods with violent crime but there are also middle class neighborhoods that are safe and thriving and lots of shops and restaurants that add to the quality of life here. Not sure if Albany is an analogous situation.
Are there Albany suburbs which provide shopping alternatives to the mall scene and big-box stores?

[ProvGuy]

Originally Posted by Jansu

Are there Albany suburbs which provide shopping alternatives to the mall scene and big-box stores?

Saratoga and Schenectady have downtowns with shops, they're not really suburban though, more like their own little cities.

[ryangiggs]

saratoga, but that is 20 -25 miles away. if you come to albany you will have to accept that malls and chain stores are dominant. everyone goes to wolf road and to crossgates, which is close to wolf road.

[ryangiggs]

the area around the lake in the park is also a well known gay pick up spot. the park is 100% safe during the day but you are nuts to walk through it alone at night. i had two friends who got jumped walking through there once. albany is very gay. if you are gay you will love lark street. i guess i agree with one of the other posts. center square is not far from either arbor hill or the south end (both bad) but the area is not known for high crime rate. the only murder that i have heard of is when the cops shot a bystander by accident a few years ago while chasing a car.

[sean sean sean sean]

Ryan, I think you're exaggerating these risks a little bit. Yes, Center Square is close to Arbor Hill and South End but once Lark crosses Washington or Madison, it's two separate worlds. I never personally saw any crime in the neighborhood and the only crossover was the occasional homeless person trying to sell me useless junk at the Mobil gas station.

I also used to walk through Washington Park every night and never saw anything to worry about. When I was younger and drunker, sometimes we would take sleds there in the winter time and ride down the hills late at night. Police patrol through the park is pretty frequent too. Even if crime was a huge problem in the park, which it isn't, the easiest solution is just to not go there at night! Why would you need to anyway? My excuse was walking back home plastered from college parties up in the student ghetto.

Also, Center Square does draw a large gay population and has a few gay bars on Lark. I am not a homosexual and this never bothered me living there. It's not a majority by any means, you just see more dudes holding hands than you would in say...Topeka, Kansas. If you've ever been through the East Village or heck, even Williamsburg in Brooklyn, it's nothing shocking.

Jansu - there are lots of shops and restaurants in Center Square, but for some necessities (mainly clothing) you might have to once in awhile make the trek westward to the malls - which are horrible. I'm not a mall person either but the Colonie malls are definitely some of the most unrewarding, blandest experiences you'll ever go through. I know Colonie is a great area to raise a family with excellent schools and all, but honestly for me it's just like a crappier version of Nassau County (Long Island) up in the woods. Albany is cool to me because it's different.

[Jansu]

Thanks for all the responses!
Sean Sean Sean- I definitely appreciate the Colonie description. Are there any burbs with a better vibe? Looking into Delmar, Voorheesville, Niskayuna, and maybe Alplaus (whatever that is !) Thanks

[juppiter]

I would definitely do Voorheesville before Delmar. Haha, I grew up in Delmar and people there are soooo full of crap. Voorheesville is more picturesque and schools are comparable (and probably cheaper since Voorheesville has less sprawl.)

BTW Jansu I go to UR and I have to say that I'd take Rochester over Albany any day of the week. Now that I have known the Garbage Plate I could never say goodbye to it, lol. Delmar is like the Pittsford of the Albany area. Very snobbish, fake people.

[Jansu]

Juppiter- Glad you like Rochester and I appreciate your analogy to Pittsford (it helps!). I am not into garbage plates-- so not sure we have QUITE the same taste (LOL!)-- here's a question though-- is there a burb that is like Brighton? Lots of smart people but not materialistic, has liberal politics?

Thanks!

[juppiter]

Hmmm, it's definitely an interesting question Jansu and I'm going to give you a way longer answer than you wanted. You will see when you move that, although there are only 220 miles of separation, Albany and Rochester are completely different places. For one, I can tell after only being here for 2 years that Rochester had an earlier and more severe "white flight" than Albany, with suburbs like Greece and Brighton growing from post-World War 2 on. Albany's suburbs really didn't take root in a huge way until the 70s.

So I have to say that the places most like Brighton are the more suburban sections of the city of Albany—the Manning Blvd. neighborhood and all those places around Albany Academy, the neighborhood near Buckingham Lake, places like that. Also Colonie for sure. Bethlehem and Guilderland in particular are definitely more materialistic.