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How do you upstate NYers feel about people from downstate buying summer homes up there? Do you welcome the visitors or is it a disturbance? We are from LI and thinking of buying a summer home somewhere upstate (don't know where yet) but we'd like to know if we would be welcome.
Many people have summer residences here. Yes it is a pain getting around occasionally during the summer but we have had it every summer something we expect. So we might occasionally grump but many year round residents started as summer residents.
To be short, sweet, and to the point. We hate it. At least I hate it, as do all of my family and friends. There are many reasons, none of which would not sound insulting. After years and years of vacationing here, using these beautiful little communities as nothing more than a big garbage pail, and I don't mean physical garbage! Now all of a sudden all the property is being bought up by downstaters. Downstaters have a habit of being very pushy, and are literally pushing us out. It's a very sad situation, and I hate to see this place in another 10, 20 + years. Very sad.
My in-laws live in a small community upstate and many people around them are from LI with second homes in the area. They are accepting of everyone, but the problem comes when the people from LI and the city come in and expect/demand things to change. They live a very country/laidback life, and problems arise when neighbors complain about dogs roaming (there are no leash laws) and people riding their ATVs and snowmobiles. Basically the attitude is if you don't like the way we live up here, then why did you get a house in the country?
Like most places, as long as you don't come in looking to change their way of life, they have no problem with different people moving in.
Well, we are not looking to change anyone's way of life...just adopt it. Country living sounds great judging by other posts on this forum. We wish to get away from pushy, arrogant people. We would love to move up there permanently but we can't right now mainly because my husband can't find a job. So we are settling for a summer home for now until we can retire there perhaps. Thanks for your honest responses.
You put it perfectly MELS.
It's also the fact that this is a very depressed area, always has been. People here are just scraping by, and it's getting harder and harder. The biggest employers here are for vacationers, and unfortunately, they pay minimum wage. So, we're working 2+ jobs for minimum wage, catering to mostly downstaters, who I have to say from experience, are less than kind most of the time. The reason so many people from downstate are buying up the homes here are because people who have struggled here their entire lives are losing their homes, that have been in the family for years mind you, due to this horribily depressed upstate economy. Then, we see the people we've catered to come along and buy our homes at prices that are so far below the fair prices, that it leads to a lot of frustration and anger.
I know this as a fact, having been here my entire life, and seeing the changes that are happening. And the downstaters STILL want you to cater to them because they've bought 'summer' homes here. Again, the frustration is that their fun little summer homes they use only a couple months out of the year, are what we put our blood, sweat and tears into, and have lost.
Now, I'm not saying they all are like that, but I can tell you that in my experience, working my second cruddy job, in a hotel here, 99.9% of them are.
What ALWAYS cracks me up is they complain about the hotel prices here, and then they insult the area, like how dare we charge so much for 'this place'. I always smile, but think to myself "Yeah, like when I visit my in-laws in NYC, and can't find a hotel for under $200 a night!" LOL Gotta laugh!
And, no, we'll never be rude to anyone who visits here. It's not how we are.
I was born in upstate NY and spend a good part of my childhood there. My mother's family has lived upstate for generations. I've also lived as a 'year-rounder' and 'townie' in a few places that are summertime vacation and summer-home 'destinations.' And now I'm one of those downstaters who has bought a house upstate. Just to argue for the other side, it's these downstaters that are keeping parts of the upstate economy limping along- we work jobs that we don't like, live in a shoebox-sized studio, live with the unhealthy stress and environment of an overcrowded city and drive three hours upstate where I spend about every dime on every weekend on renovating the house we bought (I can tell you that no one else has put a drop of blood or sweat into this place in many, many, many years!). I make it a point to spend my money upstate at independently owned businesses, lumberyard, etc. so that some of the money might actually stay in the community up there. On the rare occasion I have to go to Home Depot or another mega-retailer I'm depressed to see that that is where are the locals are shopping- spending $ there is funneling it directly OUT of the local economy. The same goes for Walmart and big chain restaurants. The few other couples I know who also have bought houses upstate are the same, and for the most part we do all we can integrate into the upstate communities- most of us would rather live upstate full time, but we can't afford the mortgage without working in the city and, well, there are no jobs upstate... Some people are rude, some people are nice, whether they're from upstate or downstate. The problem is not upstate vs. downstate- it's something much bigger- a global economy designed by and controlled by corporate interests that care only about short term maximum profit- if gutting the rurual american economy is a way to a fast buck, so be it, and so it is. Giant agribusiness has killed local farming, multinational manufacturing has moved operations to countries where workers can be treated like slaves and giant retailers come in and crush local businesses. And they're the ones really laughing, all the way to the bank, while we blame and resent each other, based on where we happen to be from, for all of it.
I completely agree with honeychrome. It is a much larger issue than where you're from as he described.
A side topic...I too try very hard to support local, small businesses. I'm a transplant living in Houston after growing up in a small town on the Erie canal outside of Rochester, NY. I hate big business and chain stores and that is all Houston has. I'm working hard to made a big career change and buy a small business on Main Street USA in the town I grew up in. Small towns have a lot of charm and it's our job as Americans to keep them alive.
Don't even get me going on the Kmarts and the Walmarts! It infuriates me when they say it brings jobs into communities... It forces people who owned and worked for small businesses to shut down and work for minimum wage. Having to work two minimum wage jobs, neither wanting to give you FT because they'll have to pay benefits, it disgusting!
Well, I guess we have to agree... to disagree on parts of the problems upstate. As I sit here and write this, I'm sitting right in the middle of the whole big mess, and I see what's going on. I'm finishing up my education so that I can get OUT of the area, I just don't like what it's becoming. And yes, I know I sound bitter, I am. I've seen so many people who had homes here lose them, after catering to downstaters for years, and then they're bought for a song and a dance for a fun little summer place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We're being pushed out, that's a fact. But, the situation did push me to finish my education to get away from it, so I try to look at it in a good way!
Key, if you wouldn't mind, could you say where you live or are referring to when you describe upstate's "horribly depressed economy"? I'm not trying to argue with you, I'm just curious about what areas you mean. Thanks.
And while we are moving *back* to upstate NY, I do hope your move from it works out for you. I can understand feeling trapped in frustrating circumstances and needing a wholesale change.
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Orange County has summer residences
something we expect. So we might occasionally grump but many year round residents started as summer residents.
