Nicest town in NY state? (Saratoga Springs, Milton: home, jobs, schools)

[TeaJay]

Originally Posted by reevelarham

The nicest town in New York State is Penn Yan, NY on Keuka Lake. It is absolutely beautiful.

Penn Yan is gorgeous- my husband and I love the Finger Lakes, so we've spent lots of times in different towns in the region. Canandaigua is also great, a little bigger, but has a lovely town area.

My personal fave is Cazenovia- has to be the prettiest town I've ever seen- I felt like I was in a movie. Though I was there last in the mid-90s, so I don't know if it's changed.

As for something near NYC, there are plenty of great little towns in Westchester and Putnam (I am not familiar with the other side of the river) but of course the nicest ones are pricey.

[inpd]

Small towns:

Kingston, Hyde-Park area, Saratoga Springs,
BattleBrough (sp?) (in VT)

Bigger cities

Rochester, Albany (I didn't care much for Syracuse sorry!)


But all more than an hour from NYC. Technically Albany
is 120 miles but getting to NYC could take you anywhere
from 1.75 hours and 4 hours I've done both!

[homeward bound]

We were in Cazenovia this summer. Judging by its beauty and the fact that a recently-built building wasn't in sight, I don't think it's changed much since you were there in the '90s, TeaJay.

You're exactly right: felt like a movie. Even our three-year-old boy noticed how special the place was. As we were strolling around, just soaking in the peace and beauty, he said, "Where are the pirates?" His way of saying, "This is a place where history lives." (He also asks where the pirates are when we're reading dinosaur books--and when I show him a picture of my childhood 3-speed bike!)

As dusk came on, there was that still, charged-sky feeling, and the deepening purple clouds, of a looming thunderstorm. The birds got quiet, the air got thick, everyone moved off the streets--and it was as if we had the town itself, and time itself, to ourselves. Truly, except for the parked cars, you could not tell what century you were in. (Our three-year-old just held our hands a bit tighter and said, "We can stay and watch the rain, right?")

It's amazing how many Upstate towns have this same timeless feeling. The ones that seem most timeless to me are Angelica over in Allegany County; Hammondsport in Steuben County; and Gilberstville and, when the tourists aren't numerous, Cooperstown in Otsego County. But Penn Yan, Canadaigua, etc.--I can see what all the posters mean about those places, too. These are all well west of the region that the thread-poster asked about, but are at least well worth a visit. So many states have almost NOTHING like this, but NY has it in abundance. Taking your lunch to the village green, swimming at the free beach on the lake on the edge of town, strolling safe streets full of stately houses made by craftsmen--try doing THAT in 99% of the places you go to these days.

Putting Cooperstown, a special case, aside, there IS something to be said for places that have been overlooked by American restlessness--and that destructiveness we mistakenly call "growth." A lot of these special Upstate places have remained so special because their boom period ended before "growth" meant bulldozing anything "older" than 10 years, cookie-cutter tract housing, chainstores, parking lots, by-passes and beltways, and generally enslaving everything in sight to the car. This has meant economic stagnation or even decay in some of these places. And so a tough trade-off is involved. I come down, obviously, on the preserving-the-old side of things. I'm not being glib about economic troubles, but I think that what makes these places special is worth more than prosperity per se. Look how many communities now painfully regret "modernizing" their commercial and housing stocks in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. If you look at what Rome, NY, for example, looked like prior to "urban renewal" and what's it like downtown now, you wanna shout, "What WERE you people thinking?" Concrete office bunkers in parking lot moats you can get anywhere around Atlanta, Raleigh, Houston, etc. But a beautiful AND more livable America you can only get where either there wasn't money to rip out the good for the modern, or in the few pockets of common-sense that protected all this against pressures to modernize it all away.

But yes, what a hard balance to strike: having/continuing/renewing prosperity AND preservinvg the more-human scale and more livable patterns of older town designs. Maybe high tech industry + good zoning laws is the only way this can work. I still wonder why NY State doesn't better harnass its abundance of colleges & universities to this kind of prosperity + preservation model. To help root new and growing businesses in the state, it should long ago have been amassing a high tech start-up cooperative fund, drawing on the talent & innovation these schools produce--talent that usually heads out of state these days.

But that, I guess, is easier hoped for than put in place now, with the budget so out of whack.....

[homeward bound]

Clinton and Hamilton are two lovely towns, too.

Trumansburg, just up the lake from Ithaca, is very nice, too. Proximity to Ithaca has to be a big plus for it, as well.

I saw Aurora, up the other side of the lake, only once, and at dusk. And while tiny, it is very pretty, as well.

For each of these towns, a big positive is the fact that they're close to or host a college. While I have my issues with college towns (i.e., students are barbarians when drunk!), if you don't live right among the students, the college provides a lot of economic stability and, usually, a good variety of culture, events, free or discounted educational opportunities, and a good public school system to meet the faculty's demands that their kids get well educated. The home prices and taxes tend to be higher, of course, but then again, you're pretty much assured steady home-value appreciation for when you want to borrow against your home or move and cash out.

Seneca Falls and Geneva have some issues, but a lot to recommend them, too.

And Skaneateles, while very pricey, IS very, very lovely.

[I'minformed2]

Trumansburg was founded and named after my 5 greats (I think) Grandfather. Used to be called "Tremainesburg".

[homeward bound]

I see that time hasn't dimmed the genes!

Why was the name changed?

[I'minformed2]

Something about they misspelled it on the town post office, and instead of changing the spelling (and pronounciation) of the name on the post office...they just changed the name of the town!

[newyorkborn&raised]

Agree Cooperstown is the nicest town in New York State. The region is beautiful and the village has the Baseball Hall of Fame...what more do you need?

[nymetschick5]

I love Saratoga, Hurley, Cooperstown, New Paltz and White Plains.

[Krisps]

Probably few people have seen most or all of NY's small towns. I've always thought that Naples (just south of Canandaigua) is maybe the nicest town, at least in the western part of NY. It's next to beautiful Canandaigua lake and surrounded by hills and vineyards.

Other towns to consider... Geneseo (college town overlooking the Genesee valley), Dansville, Wellsville (southwestern NY in the Allegheny foothills), Westfield (along Lake Erie, also lots of vineyards).