Up-State New York (Rochester, Syracuse, Albany: homes, neighborhoods, middle school)

[shibainu]

Originally Posted by I'minformed2

Just a plain fact...Rochester is the most ethnically diverse city upstate. All of the upstate metros are "whiter" than Average; but Rochester has the most diverse central city in the region.

You’re kidding right. Rochester the MSA is not diverse at all. The city is but the suburbs are 80% white or more. There is segregation in Rochester and the other Upstate cities. Most of the minorities live in the city and not the suburbs. In Monroe County there is a current black population of 103,000. (1 of 5 counties in the MSA) of which 83,000 live in the city of Rochester. So in the suburbs there are 20,000 blacks. 527,000 people live outside the city in Monroe County. So when you do the math that make Rochester 96% white in Suburbs. Albany County is 96%, Erie County 97%, Onondaga County 98% white in the suburbs. I do not see that Rochester has a big difference from the other cities. Yes, Rochester is the most diverse city in Upstate excluding the suburbs. Rochester also is one of the poorest cities in Upstate New York. Albany probably would be the diverse because there are about 60 to 100k people not counted in the population of Albany due to they are college students. That almost doubles the population for more than half the year. Which most students are from NYC and surrounding areas. The student body at most of the schools are very diverse.

[I'minformed2]

I was referring to the city proper. Did you not read what I said in the post? ALL of the upstate metros are whiter than average including the Rochester MSA, but the CITY of Rochester has the most diverse population of any of the central CITIES upstate. Tell me where I went wrong in that statement?

[garmin239]

Originally Posted by shibainu

You’re kidding right. Rochester the MSA is not diverse at all. The city is but the suburbs are 80% white or more. There is segregation in Rochester and the other Upstate cities. Most of the minorities live in the city and not the suburbs. In Monroe County there is a current black population of 103,000. (1 of 5 counties in the MSA) of which 83,000 live in the city of Rochester. So in the suburbs there are 20,000 blacks. 527,000 people live outside the city in Monroe County. So when you do the math that make Rochester 96% white in Suburbs. Albany County is 96%, Erie County 97%, Onondaga County 98% white in the suburbs. I do not see that Rochester has a big difference from the other cities. Yes, Rochester is the most diverse city in Upstate excluding the suburbs. Rochester also is one of the poorest cities in Upstate New York. Albany probably would be the diverse because there are about 60 to 100k people not counted in the population of Albany due to they are college students. That almost doubles the population for more than half the year. Which most students are from NYC and surrounding areas. The student body at most of the schools are very diverse.

If you are going to double the population in one area because of colleges then the other areas gain too. Albany isn't the only area with colleges. A very very large portion of RIT students are from out of the area for example.

[juppiter]

Having lived in both Rochester and Albany, they seem equally diverse to me. It's kind of interesting that both are majority Catholic cities. I honestly don't think that I could ever live in a Protestant city (I would say that Syracuse seems to be the most whitebread out of Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. My friends from Syracuse had never known many Jews, for example.)

In Rochester, the blacks are more part of the culture, whereas in Albany they're segregated into their ghettoes and ignored by the white majority. So Rochester would seem more diverse even though it technically isn't.

[tallylady46]

Originally Posted by Nancy-NJ-NY-ME?

I second Albany. Buffalo and Rochester are both great. But Albany is the state capital and isn't far from NYC (relatively speaking) if you want to go there for a day or weekend. Plus, Albany is in the beautiful Hudson Valley.

I agree. Albany is probably the best city/area in New York outside of New York City.

[bellafinzi]

Originally Posted by juppiter

(I would say that Syracuse seems to be the most whitebread out of Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. My friends from Syracuse had never known many Jews, for example.)

There are about 9,000 Jewish people in the area Syracuse (Onondaga County). Most live in DeWitt....where the Temple Adath is located. The rest are scattered around the suburbs.

Temple Adath Yeshurun - Welcome

Rochester's Jewish population is roughly 22,000
Buffalo's is about 20,000

The Association of Religion Data Archives | Surveys

[shibainu]

Originally Posted by I'minformed2

I was referring to the city proper. Did you not read what I said in the post? ALL of the upstate metros are whiter than average including the Rochester MSA, but the CITY of Rochester has the most diverse population of any of the central CITIES upstate. Tell me where I went wrong in that statement?

I thought you meant the entire MSA.Usually when some one desribes metro area they are meaning suburbs as well. I was just stating if you are talking about the MSA all of the Upstate cities are about the same with diversity.Rochester the city compared to the city of Poughkeepsie are very similar.

Races in Rochester:

White Non-Hispanic (44.3%)
Black (38.5%)
Hispanic (12.8%)
Other race (6.6%)
Two or more races (3.8%)
American Indian (1.3%)
Other Asian (0.6%)
Vietnamese (0.6%)

Races in Poughkeepsie:

White Non-Hispanic (49.2%)
Black (35.7%)
Hispanic (10.6%)
Other race (5.3%)
Two or more races (4.1%)
American Indian (1.2%)
Asian Indian (0.6%)

[shibainu]

Originally Posted by garmin239

If you are going to double the population in one area because of colleges then the other areas gain too. Albany isn't the only area with colleges. A very very large portion of RIT students are from out of the area for example.

okay that is one college of 12,532 that is close to student body University of albany. The difference is that most of Rochester colleges are in the suburbs where most of the colleges in albany are in the city limits.Albany has about 95 to 100k people that live in the city so when you add about 45k-60k students to the city that is a huge increase. Albany is more of a college city than most Upstate cities.
Colleges in rochester city= U of R, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (Both near the edge of the city limits near brighton),St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry
suburbs = Monroe Community College(brighton),Nazareth College(pittsford), Roberts Wesleyan College(north Chili),Rochester Institute of Technology(Henrietta),Saint John Fisher College(pittsford), SUNY Brockport(brockport)
albany= U albany, Saint rose, Albany law, Albany Med, Albany Pharm, Maria College of Albany
Suburbs=Hvcc(troy), RPI(troy), Siena college(loudenville),Rusell sage(troy), Union college(Schenectady)

[garmin239]

Originally Posted by shibainu

okay that is one college of 12,532 that is close to student body University of albany. The difference is that most of Rochester colleges are in the suburbs where most of the colleges in albany are in the city limits.Albany has about 95 to 100k people that live in the city so when you add about 45k-60k students to the city that is a huge increase. Albany is more of a college city than most Upstate cities.
Colleges in rochester city= U of R
suburbs = Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School,Monroe Community College,Nazareth College, Roberts Wesleyan College,Rochester Institute of Technology,Saint John Fisher College,St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry,SUNY Brockport
albany= U albany, Saint rose, Albany law, Albany Med, Albany Pharm, Maria College of Albany
Suburbs=Hvcc, RPI, Siena college,Rusell sage, Union college

Before you were wanting to use the MSA area as a comparison. Now its the city?
I don't know where you are getting the 45 to 60k figure either. Those schools you listed in the "city" don't add up to that. Is there a large community college or something you didn't list?

[RosaGneco]

To answer your orginal question.. the biggest city in NY (besides NYC) is Buffalo (w/ a population of a quarter million) followed by Rochester then Syracuse.

I went to SUNY Buffalo and the town is defintelty significanly influenced/ tailored by local colleges. LOTS of bars. Actually, at the time I went to school there it has the most bars per capita in the nation.

As far as diversity is concerned, it's a fairly diverse area. It's has double the amount of diverisity when compared with the national average (MONEY Magazine: Best places to live 2007: Buffalo, NY snapshot).

To be honest, from my experience, it's still a racist town. I'm hispanic and from NYC and was very surprised to have bad experiences there with both whites and blacks. Don't get me wrong, there's racism everywhere, even in NYC, but I found the racism there to be more blatent. I'm not sure where you are from, so in your case the racism may be insignificant compared to what you are used to. In a nutshell, this factor would not stop me from going there. I've seen MUCH worse places.

As for Albany, I also attended SUNY Albany... what can I say I get around ... it's a diverse city. I would say it's as diverse as Buffalo. It's a smaller city though. I only lived there for a semester so I don't have too much information on it. I didn't really like it there. It seemed to me to be a town that was on the way ruins. To any Albany folk who may be reading this I mean no offense! That's just in my opinion after only one year of residence.

I currently live upstate NY in Fishkill. I live about 5-10 min away from Newburgh (I believe you said you went there recently). Newburg is the smallest city of all three...very small city. In no way is it a college town. If you are looking for a big city college town, this is definatly not it. I guess, in your case, the only advantage is proximity to NYC.