dont move to utica ny (New York, Buffalo: middle-class, how much, house)

[718bound]

I went to college in Utica... It was fun to party in but I would not move to Utica to look for work. The buildings are run down, I have seen 2 "high speed" car chases on my way to the grocery store...

Like one of the poster said stay away from cornhill. Another problem with Utica is it is hard to say what the bad areas are like you can with other cities. The bad areas of Utica vary block by block.

Like I said I had some fun times in Utica... If somebody asked me if Utica was a run down *****hole I have to say yes. However, I will look back and say Utica was a great place. It's not about the people (welfare recipants, "crackheads") who live in the run down buildings of a falling city, it is about surrounding yourself with good freinds and saying "this place sucks, but I am going to have fun and make the best of it while I am here." All being misserable in a place does is make that place seem 100x worse.

[beybaaayx33]

i live in utica ny, and yes there are problems..JUST LIKE ANY OTHER PLACE. no place is perfect. not everyone is on crack, so idk what kinda people you came across. and i am in fact WHITE living in cornhill and ive never had any problems. it all depends on how you approach people, it can be like that everywhere. no theres not HIGH CLASS paying jobs, but there is work that pays good here you just have to look. okay theres people getting shot but go to NYC go to syracuse ny.. its not only utica. open your eyes, its happening everywhere.

[aka_mouse]

I spent a college semester in Utica and even in that short time I picked up on the whole Bosnian thing going on.... the funny part is .. as a white guy... I see all these whites bitching , and its like they are the ones fleeing their neighborhoods -- so **** them. Its the same in Buffalo where you got these Pollacks bitching that the East Side is all black now.. OH NOES well you abandoned your neighborhoods and left a vacuum, so **** you.

This is why , no matter where Im living, I side with minority communities -- cause they are always on the moral high ground !!! I can't even think of a case where its been the other way around ! Bosnians are buiding a better Utica while the stupid Italians/Irish [WHITE PEOPLE]are leaving for the sunbelt and bitching about it ! Its hilarious !

[corduroyboy]

I grew up just on the outskirts of Utica. I would not trade growing up there for the world. But as I got older and out of college, I realized it was not the place for me. Without a doubt Utica has a ton of problems on every corner, and there does not seem to be enough ambitious people to want to fix them. So I was one of the people that bailed on the city and moved 3000 miles away. But as I get older and married and soon to have kids, I realize that life there is probably better than 95% of the country. Utica is plagued with problems, it looks like a bombed out warzone, but in that warzone is a tight knit of people, incredible geography, 4 seasons, mom and pop restaurants, and a place that isn't getting overdeveloped like the west.

Sure life is great out west. The weather is phenominal. The jobs are more than abundant and pay very well. You are never bored out here. But in the midst of all of that lies something you get in Utica and not out here. And it's called (no cliche intended here) the simple life. I can only hope to find a place like Utica and the Mohawk Valley to raise my kids and root my family. My wife being a born and raised California girl would never in her life move to Utica, so we have to search elsewhere.

Stay positive Utica. When you are down on the bottom you can only go up! Getting rid of Tim Julian was the first step!

[ecinaj]

Utica has it's faults, but Syracuse is worse. Activities are limited and, to be frank, unsophisticated--this the research does not reveal. The primary and secondary education up here, overall, is poor, unless the school is suburban. Getting into the educational "system" up here is almost impossible, unless you want to jump through the DOE's hoops (I have graduate degrees and experience in other states, and I was treated like I had nothing because I wasn't "native", so I opted out of teaching) the pay is lower than research would reveal, but it certainly isn't any worse than a lot of other economically depressed areas. There are good aspects and bad (the natural scenery is gorgeous), but I've lived a lot of places and all of them have faults. Bottom line: would I have moved up here had I known what it would be like? No. Do I want to give it a chance to grow? Yes. I have no choice at this point. Will I wait forever for that to happen? No, again. The responses from some of the Utica natives on this blog are very much like the sarcastic snippiness we have found personally from the same. Granted, there are some exceptions, but very few. Unless you have the time and means to stick it out until the area transitions into the 21st century, it would probably be prudent to get out as soon as possible. I wish I had.

[HomerBrink]

too much negativity. could mean time for a mental health check up. Seriously.

[offTHEgrid]

Originally Posted by sswebb37
Utica NY is one of the worst places to live I moved there when my husband died I thought it would be a nice place since it was upstate. But instead all thats up there is a lot of welfare receipants both black and white everybodys on crack the houses are bad and the jobs suck I will never ever live anywhere upstate again


i currently live 15 mintues outside of utica in rome and yes your right CNY has a huge economic depression, no jobs, and a high crime rate....move very far from here i know i am.

[keebler the cookie elf]

east utica is ok, west is not so nice.. i live in west near cornhill .. years ago utica was a worse place, with all the italian gangsters.. its a little better not believe it or not.

lol i could not think of a user name and i saw a keebler brand cookie commercial that moment ..hehe

[Fearringtonflash]

I hear housing is relatively inexpensive in Utica.

[adingdangdoo]

I am not from Utica, but I moved here to finish school. The housing (good housing) is expensive..too expensive for the wages in the area. The public schools are a nightmare and the private schools are basically expensive public schools. I am from small town Texas, but far from sheltered. I have been all over the world and find Utica to be one of the worst places to live.

The really sad thing about Utica is that you can look around and see that in its heyday, it was a thriving industrial Mecca. But what it is now is a hulking shell. A crumbling monument to the huge mistake America has made in sending all its manufacturing overseas. Utica has become a depressing pit full of generational welfare recipients and rejects who can no longer afford NYC. I'm sure that is very sad for the people who have had to watch Utica decline over the past few decades. Hopefully the new mayor can bring something positive to the table here. Until then, don't move to Utica unless you have a graduate degree in something they need here.