ALbany "bad" neighborhoods ( area)

[Logan11]

The Capital District is spread among the four cities ..Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Saratoga (and their suburbs) and thus what bad areas that exist are smaller in each city, but each of the first three has their sections. Saratoga is all nice and wealthy. The overall population of the area is 820,000 (1.1 million if you use a broader definition) so it probably is as big as greater Rochester overall.

I don't know enough about it to say if this is much of a factor, but I know some of the criminal element comes up that easy corridor from NYC given our easy access to downstate over here...up I-87 or Amtrak/bus.

[ernieb]

even though there has only been 1 homicide in albany, the number of shootings is at an altime high, just that people havent shot others in places to kill them so we dont have the number of murders as other cities. albany isnt too bad but if you want a safe environment you need to stay away from the uptown-downtown areas. even though the police have tried to put an end to the gangs in those areas, the gangs are still there and growing so your best bet is to go to the suburbs like bethlehem or guilderland because the city of albany isnt too safe

[PatrioticReader]

What is a "bad" neighborhood anyplace? "Bad" seems to mean a place where poor people have been shoved, then ignored by the rest of society. I'm more afraid of some of the punk-hiring authoritarian police forces than I am of any neighborhood anywhere- and the same applies to both small towns and large cities.

[PatrioticReader]

Originally Posted by Logan11

The Capital District is spread among the four cities ..Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Saratoga (and their suburbs) and thus what bad areas that exist are smaller in each city, but each of the first three has their sections. Saratoga is all nice and wealthy. The overall population of the area is 820,000 (1.1 million if you use a broader definition) so it probably is as big as greater Rochester overall.

I don't know enough about it to say if this is much of a factor, but I know some of the criminal element comes up that easy corridor from NYC given our easy access to downstate over here...up I-87 or Amtrak/bus.

You must be a tourist. The Capital District is spread among the four counties ..Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Saratoga. The city of Saratoga, though not really considered part of the capitol district, is VERY nice until you get off of the beaten tourist path and see where the low-income service workers live.

Some of that "criminal element" you refer to also goes down to NYC to do business. It's never a one way road. A lot of that is changing due to the GREATLY improved David Soares DAs office and better policy.

[Logan11]

I know the classic definition of the Capital District has been the so called Tri-Cities but since Saratoga County now has 215,000 and is poised to pass Albany County in size by 2020, I think that area deserved to be listed as the fourth metro area within the region.

What did they cut the City of Saratoga out of the rest of Saratoga County and say it isn't part of the Capital District?

The suburbs now connect from Albany to above Saratoga....

[PatrioticReader]

Originally Posted by Logan11

I know the classic definition of the Capital District has been the so called Tri-Cities but since Saratoga County now has 215,000 and is poised to pass Albany County in size by 2020, I think that area deserved to be listed as the fourth metro area within the region.

What did they cut the City of Saratoga out of the rest of Saratoga County and say it isn't part of the Capital District?

The suburbs now connect from Albany to above Saratoga....

That concentration of suburban sprawl is in Clifton Park, Halfmoon, Waterford and pretty much limited to the very southern portion of Saratoga county. It's a large county and a LOT of trees and commuting minutes between the City of Saratoga and the southern tip of the county.

If we are to include Saratoga (city) as part of the Capital District, we would also have to include Catskill (Greene co.), Hudson (Columbia co), Cobbleskill (Schoharie co) Amsterdam (Montgomery co) and even Berkshire and Bennington counties as the same. Note that each has an equal or shorter commute to the Capitol than from Saratoga- and with the exception of Berkshire, local economy of these areas is very much as bedroom communities of the capitol with not a lot of other economic strength.

Of course there is "sprawl" as people who work in the service industries that service the southern SC bedroom communities spread northward. And Saratoga has had quite a boom in it's own local economy. Maybe the question is in the definition of "The Capitol District" and as the name suggests, that's the area centered around the economic heart of NYS government (as opposed to the tech heart of Malta or tourism heart of Saratoga Springs)

[Logan11]

Well I think that the latter cities mentioned (Hudson, Amsterdam, Catskill etc.) are more separated from the rest of the urban core than Saratoga Springs, but actually some broad definitions do include Greene, Columbia and Montgomery Counties in the Capital District metro area. I wasn't going that far. No question that 'historically Saratoga Springs developed separately with its own identity so I'm not arguing that point.

You come up with the 1.1 million number when you include those outer counties. I think it is about 820,000 when you just use Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Saratoga Counties.

Here is a good link that shows the suburban growth just from 1987-1997. Click on it to expand the size.

http://www.cdrpc.org/Growth1.jpg

It shows plenty of clusters surrounding Saratoga Springs and up into Greenfield Center and Wilton. I know this has only increased since 1997. I'm no expert on Saratoga because I live near Duanesburg, but I see all of the big box places etc. have now built in that southern part (Clifton Park area) and also Saratoga-Wilton. Then you find them again around Glens Falls so I imagine the day will come when it is an uninterrupted suburban belt right to Lake George.

Southwestern Saratoga County is building up also (Charlton, Ballston Lake etc) and kinda of merging in with development in Glenville (Schenectady County). It isn't far to the west from there to Amsterdam and maybe that explains the huge growth of the retail on the north side of Amsterdam over the last 5-10 years (Lowes, Home Depot, Hannafords, Price Chopper, Target coming, Walmart.....). I'm no big fan of all those places, but maybe it is a good barometer of where the growth is occurring.

Count

[Miker]

I'm with you Logan11. When I read the post above stating the City of Saratoga is not really considered part of the Capital District I thought, since when?

A large percent of its population commutes to Alb/Schen/Renns counties (I know of at least 7 in my workplace of about 200 employees in Alb Cty. that do). They have the same TV stations (WNYT, WTEN, WRGB...), fly out of Albany Airport, shop at Crossgates and Colonie Center. Demographics reported for the Capital Region (population, income, home prices etc.) include the City of Saratoga. Also, I believe the most remote part Alb Cty is a further distance from downtown Albany than Saratoga is.

[Fearringtonflash]

Originally Posted by StPete2Charlotte

One Homocide!
Are you serious?
Theres already been 2 in my NEIGHBORHOOD alone this year and where I live isn't considered bad at all for Charlotte.

Sounds like there ghettos are pretty dang nice.

That's the trouble with life down there. Southerners are very violence prone, and the crime rate in the south (especially in cities) in extremely high.

[NoNeedlessNoise]

Originally Posted by ernieb

even though there has only been 1 homicide in albany, the number of shootings is at an altime high, just that people havent shot others in places to kill them so we dont have the number of murders as other cities. albany isnt too bad but if you want a safe environment you need to stay away from the uptown-downtown areas. even though the police have tried to put an end to the gangs in those areas, the gangs are still there and growing so your best bet is to go to the suburbs like bethlehem or guilderland because the city of albany isnt too safe

Oh come on. Albany is a really tame place, I've lived here all my life. Bethlehem and Guilderland are generally boring towns with little to no nightlife. Downtown, and uptown Albany for that matter, are pretty safe places to be.