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I currently live in New York City, in Manhattan, as it happens near the neighborhood in which I grew up. And DH and I both love it here... But our building has changed hands several times, rents have skyrocketed, income has not... and we're getting older. We are starting to look at the logic of leaving New York City in a year or two to start a new life somewhere else.
For a variety of reasons, we definitely want to stay in the Northeast (and if we did decide to go elsewhere, we know where we would move, for family reasons... so that does not need to be discussed here.) We lean strongly to staying within the state, though we have looked at some other options.
Culturally, we're city people. And we live in a nice building at the edge of the Lower East Side/East Village, so that's what we are used to. (Well - before they started turning tenements into million dollar condos...)
Above all, we want to live somewhere we do not need to go out and buy a car. I've always said our higher rent balances the cost of the car(s) we do not need (I did own one for years when I lived in New Jersey) - buying one (or two!) would counter the money saving aspect of the move. We both currently work from home, so commuting is not an issue (and any car would stay parked much of the time.) That also means that the jobs market is not an issue - and neither are schools.
Discussions of "walkable neighborhoods" generally seem to assume that you want to walk to the coffee shop, but will drive to the supermarket - we don't care if there's a coffee shop, but want to be able to walk to the supermarket. (And have the Manhattan concept of walking distance - anything under a mile... but we will both be 60 by the time we move, and should take that into account.) We're also perfectly comfortable with buses for anything else, but ideally we would not have to haul all our groceries on one.
The Capitol District does look like an option. I'm not familiar with it - he has spent some time in Schenectady, with friends who used to live there, but didn't really get around much. From what I see, that may be the right place for us - it looks like a Real City, shall we say, but we're still open to other areas.
We have some rather vague connections in the area - friends of friends and the like - so we'll be able to get to know people better once we are there, but we don't know them well enough to ask for advice or assistance at this stage.
I've had trouble identifying neighborhoods in the district - I see people refer to them, but can't figure out just where they are. I look at maps a lot... LOL We would want to rent an apartment, which could be either in an apartment building or in a two family house or the like - I don't really know how common the latter is.
If the Grocery store is your main concern, I'd start there! In "downtown/uptown" of Albany I believe there are 3 Price Choppers (grocery stores) in "walkable" neighborhoods. Madison Ave (Pine Hills), Delaware Avenue (Delaware Neighborhood), and Central Avenue (Downtown). I have listed these in order of my preference. I would 100% choose the Pine Hills Neighborhood.
My parents live there, and choose that area because my mom does not drive (never has). They own a 2 family house, which seems to be how most are set up (not many row homes- and I don't believe any apt. buildings). My mom walks 2 blocks (or less) to the grocery store- Price Chopper. Madison Ave in that same area, is lined with other amenities. Restaurants, sports bars, coffee shop, dry cleaner, movie theatre, public library, a theater (Steamers No.10), bank, CVS, etc.. This area also sits on 2 of the main bus lines. That will get you downtown in minutes, or anywhere else for that matter.
Delaware Ave is the furthest from downtown, and considered up and coming. This area has a nice little strip also with restaurants and a cool old movie theatre- the spectrum, a public library and other amenities but this area is a little further from the neighborhood price chopper than Pine Hills. The city or community seems to be putting in effort here to rebuild this neighborhood.
Central Ave (Downtown)... I've always heard this grocery store location referred to as the ghetto chopper. The most urban areas out of the 3.
The Delaware Ave neighborhood gets a glowing review on this forum for some reason. Delaware Ave area is a dump and it is not walkable except for maybe between 9am and 3pm. Any other time of day, you better be looking over your shoulder the whole time. Want to walk to a grocery store on Delaware Ave? This happened on Monday. I didn't have to go back months or years to find something.
Is that a freak occurrence? No. Sadly not. That is the Delaware Ave neighborhood for you. It might be better then say, Schenectady, but it isn't much better then Arbor Hill. No one considers it "up and coming". It's an area that was once great, went rapidly downhill in the 1990's, and now they are trying to salvage a little something.
Where do you want to go? Probably Pine Hills for the reasoning explained above. But don't discount Delmar or East Greenbush. You can survive in the suburbs. Walkable with stores. Both connected to Albany downtown with buslines that run well.
And to help the Ghetto Chopper lingo.
The original "Ghetto Chopper" is Delaware Ave, not Central Ave.
Delaware Ave= Ghetto Chopper
Madison Ave= Ghetto Chopper 2
Central Ave= Big Ghetto Chopper
The main stumbling block you'll find in Albany is your desire not to have a car. I understand that desire - completely! - and I myself am about to relocate for the zillionth time, and am focusing on the same thing you are - being able to walk to the grocery store.
In my opinion, if you're culturally a city-dweller, Albany may not quite cut it for you. It has buses, and with a quick hop across the river you can take the train down to NYC, but I never found Albany to be very walkable. The closest thing I found to an urban neighborhood feel was Lark Street, but I'll agree with other posters about the Delaware Ave Price Chopper not being really great. It's okay, but not great.
I loved living in Albany - because I had a car. I usually drove to the Hannaford on Central & Colvin, and also belonged to the Co-op, which moved to the same part of town. For me, Albany was a great blend of culture and affordability. Nice selection of restaurants, decent music scene, The Egg for plenty of cultural performances, Albany Symphony, Albany Institute... I really appreciated the amount of culture that the Capitol District had to offer, while at the same time being a very affordable place to live. The net result was that I felt I had a great quality of life there. And I had a car.
I wouldn't have found Albany at all convenient if I hadn't had a car. I know your premise for posting is asking about walkability in Albany, and I think you could find some wonderful neighborhoods where you could get by without driving a whole lot, but I think in the end, an inexpensive small car would end up being well worth it.
I'll circle back around to your grocery store question, combined with the store I liked - the Hannaford on Central and Colvin. Check out the Upper Washington Ave. neighborhood. It's not "walkable" in terms of coffee shops, but you say you're not looking for that. You can probably find a lovely home in that neighborhood within walking distance to that Hannaford, depending (of course) on how long a walk you're up for. A 15- to 20- minute walk radius puts you in reach of quite a few very quiet residential streets. I believe that CDTA has bus service along both Central Ave and Washington Ave, so you could easily hop a bus to the downtown area, including Lark Street, and all of the above-mentioned cultural venues.
I hope that helps.
As to New Scotland Ave - nice residential neighborhoods over that way, too. But I'm skeptical of the "walk to grocery store" ability in that area. Friends I knew who lived in that neighborhood usually drove to the Co-op when it was on Central Ave.
Best of luck to you in your search. Albany's a great city, in my opinion! I just personally would opt for a car if I lived there again.
The main stumbling block you'll find in Albany is your desire not to have a car. I understand that desire - completely! - and I myself am about to relocate for the zillionth time, and am focusing on the same thing you are - being able to walk to the grocery store.
In my opinion, if you're culturally a city-dweller, Albany may not quite cut it for you. It has buses, and with a quick hop across the river you can take the train down to NYC, but I never found Albany to be very walkable. The closest thing I found to an urban neighborhood feel was Lark Street, but I'll agree with other posters about the Delaware Ave Price Chopper not being really great. It's okay, but not great.
I loved living in Albany - because I had a car. I usually drove to the Hannaford on Central & Colvin, and also belonged to the Co-op, which moved to the same part of town. For me, Albany was a great blend of culture and affordability. Nice selection of restaurants, decent music scene, The Egg for plenty of cultural performances, Albany Symphony, Albany Institute... I really appreciated the amount of culture that the Capitol District had to offer, while at the same time being a very affordable place to live. The net result was that I felt I had a great quality of life there. And I had a car.
I wouldn't have found Albany at all convenient if I hadn't had a car. I know your premise for posting is asking about walkability in Albany, and I think you could find some wonderful neighborhoods where you could get by without driving a whole lot, but I think in the end, an inexpensive small car would end up being well worth it.
I'll circle back around to your grocery store question, combined with the store I liked - the Hannaford on Central and Colvin. Check out the Upper Washington Ave. neighborhood. It's not "walkable" in terms of coffee shops, but you say you're not looking for that. You can probably find a lovely home in that neighborhood within walking distance to that Hannaford, depending (of course) on how long a walk you're up for. A 15- to 20- minute walk radius puts you in reach of quite a few very quiet residential streets. I believe that CDTA has bus service along both Central Ave and Washington Ave, so you could easily hop a bus to the downtown area, including Lark Street, and all of the above-mentioned cultural venues.
I hope that helps.
As to New Scotland Ave - nice residential neighborhoods over that way, too. But I'm skeptical of the "walk to grocery store" ability in that area. Friends I knew who lived in that neighborhood usually drove to the Co-op when it was on Central Ave.
Best of luck to you in your search. Albany's a great city, in my opinion! I just personally would opt for a car if I lived there again.
I agree, especially about Albany not being particularly walkable and not feeling very "urban". I lived in the Albany area for a little more than a decade years ago. I think that you will find it's much easier to live there with a car, but that's true in just about all the Upstate cities.
Another city you might want to consider is Buffalo. It has much more of an urban vibe than does Albany. It also has some very urban neighborhoods right in the downtown area as well as some very nice residential neighborhoods further out, especially in the Delaware District and the Elmwood Village. You can walk to decent supermarkets in those areas as well as have good bus service to both downtown and the big box shopping areas in North Buffalo.
We won't move until next Fall at the earliest - and possibly a year later than that, depends on several personal situations - but I wanted to start getting a feel for the area, and know what was or was not feasible. I'd looked at some of the individual towns, but Albany itself felt like a blur - this discussion helps. And I had looked at Union Street in Schenectady, which looked interesting.
We haven't ruled out getting a car eventually. I lived for years in Jersey City, where you absolutely can live without one - and you absolutely can do more things more easily with one... and I know both sides of that equation. But we don't want to get one immediately. (We are considering the option of renting one once or twice a month, which would give us more flexibility. Heavy shopping during the day, theatre at night, something like that... Still cheaper than buying one. We'll see what our options are.)
I'd actually started this process by looking at Syracuse - I used to have family there, I knew the area South of the city moderately well. It's still possible - I've been reading that forum, too. But DH doesn't want to go that far from NYC... he doesn't know Central NY at all, his family is South of here and he may need to be able to get to them quickly, and all our friends are in or near NYC. But there are friends of friends in the Capitol District - people we've met, or heard mentioned - so we'd be able to start with some connections in the area. All that seems to add up to keeping us in the Eastern part of the state.
So I'll keep looking around, pop in and out a bit, and try to get a feel for the area (and hopefully work out a chance to visit with friends *before* we're actually apartment hunting!)
And thanks for the help.
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