Read some negative comments on Oneonta Main St.- True/False? (New York: coop, buying a home)

[gdowler]

The Oneonta city website seems to really talk up their Main St....as a rockwellesque sort of place. But, I just read some negative comments on this forum regarding the main st. being deplorable. is this so? Would it be worth paying a visit to? We would like to live within a town/ city center and a walkable Main St./Downtown. Interested in buying and living in a multiple family under $200k. Thanks!

[Timtheman]

It's a mixed bag tending toward the positive. There are some nice stores and places to eat and some seedier ones. Overall, very decent for the economics of Upstate. To my mind, the issue is the "hanging out" on the street. Nothing scary, just a little too teen city sometimes. Overall, a great little Main Street. Would be a lot better without the New Age shops nonsense.

[honeychrome]

Getting rid of the 'new age' shops would get rid of about half of the retail businesses on the street!

But I agree- its not a perfect Americana fantasy Main Street, but it certainly isn't terrible. Nicer and more to offer than many upstate towns of similar size/history and I think/hope it will only get better.

[gdowler]

sorry what exactly do you mean by New Age Shops?

[honeychrome]

Basically they are 'gift shops' with artsy-craftsy, new-agey themed, fair trade items. Junk.... 'socially conscious' junk, but still junk....

[ScranBarre]

Cooperstown is somewhat nearby. That community has a MUCH preferable downtown, in my humble opinion, but it is also rather expensive in relation to the rest of Upstate NY.

[Glimmerglass]

Originally Posted by Timtheman

To my mind, the issue is the "hanging out" on the street. Nothing scary, just a little too teen city sometimes. Overall, a great little Main Street.

I'd suggest the OP look at the local paper: The Daily Star, Oneonta, NY - The Newspaper for the Heartland of New York - Home for what occurs in the community relative to Main Street and other popular areas.

You have two colleges (SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick) and the Job Corps that collectively represent a significant percentage of the City's population at any one time. I'd dare say a slight majority are from down-state urban areas. So a measured amount of problems with violence, drug consumption/dealing, and petty theft occurs. Does this happen elsewhere? Of course - but compared to say a Delhi (also with a SUNY school) the problems are a fraction of what they've been in Oneonta.

I live in a major urban area today and have lived in other major cities before although was raised not far from Oneonta so I've been around. Yet even I'm taken aback by the all too frequent incidents involving knives in that community. From house parties gone bad to the late night bar fights on Water and Market Streets - both just off Main. Thats just what gets in the papers of course.

Does someone simply interested in buying a home and living the community really need to be concerned with kids fighting in bars over who looks at someone's girlfriend? Likely not. Although I would say if anyone is looking for trouble it can be sadly all too readily found and quickly there.

[Timtheman]

Glimmerglass,

Your point is a good one. There a little too much wantabe"gangsta" idiot-cool among some of the kids. It's hardly an epidemic, but it would be good if the cops came down hard on it. The thing with Oneonta is the residual hippie culture makes proper policing a protest problem. Those kids need some serious roping in. And the Oneonta Star -- perhaps the worst and most agenda-driven paper in the nation. Whatever you do, don't read it!

[ann13820]

Well, now.
gdowler, the reports are right and wrong. Rockwell-esque, somewhat. My first impression, driving into town, was very good. There are a couple of "urban renewal" blights still there (aluminum facades). Walnut Street, just behind downtown, is an historic district and absolutely Rockwell-esque. Downtown is not deplorable or dangerous. It is very safe and very pleasant, definitely walkable, but not all that shoppable. For instance, you won't find a grocery store in walking distance. I believe a super-Walgreens is on the way on the outskirts of downtown and they'll have some amount of food.

Walkable? I LOVE walking around downtown and the surrounding residential area. There are a couple of nice parks. There's a very decent library for a town this size, a fun owner/operated ice cream shop on one end of town where LOTS of people head on hot summer nights. etc. Yes, it seems a little like "teen city" sometimes - the teenagers rightly say there's not a whole lot for them to do here although there is now a Teen Center and a skateboard park.

Worth looking at? I looked here and moved here 10 years ago. It was good then and it's getting even better.

It is a small, rural town with small, rural town problems. The economy is not great, although somewhat cushioned by the colleges and the large medical community (GREAT medical services here).

I've owned/operated a Main Street business for over four years - a contemporary fine art gallery/gift shop (not "new age", thank you). Main Street is struggling, just like in many other small, rural towns. We're too far from a major urban center (closest is Binghamton at 65 miles/Albany at 75) to draw day tourists (except summer). There was a large anchor store, Bresee's, that held downtown together for many years. I'm told people were rubbing shoulders on the sidewalks on Saturdays and Thursday nights. Now, I can step out of my shop, look left and right and usually see just a few people on the street in the middle of a non-summer weekday. Summer picks up a bit because of Cooperstown (see more below) and because more and more people are building second homes in the Catskills just to the east as an escape from New York City (about a 4-hour drive).
But Bresee's is all the way closed now. It has serious structural problems. The bright side? The city is working with three developers on plans to renovate it.

There are two colleges in town that comprise roughly 2/3 of the city's population. That's why the median age is so low (23). At one time legend has it that Oneonta had the largest number of bars per capita in NY state. MTV filmed part of their documentary on college campus debauchery here (before I arrived 15 years ago). Yes, there are a few bar fights, a couple of knifings but unless you're a party-animal college student, you'll likely not be there to see it. Main Street is more alive at 2 am when the bars close than at any other time of the day. True.

ALL THAT SAID, there are some wonderful things about the Oneonta area. Access to cultural events is amazing for such a small rural town. There are some people in this area who are working very hard to rebuild. A brand new performing arts center is under construction (Foothills Performing Arts Center) to replace a condemned molasses factory that the city tore down a few years ago. There is a very active performing arts community. Sports are really big in the area. The most successful retail store downtown is probably the sporting goods shop next door to us (oh, and the Dollar Store). The Greater Oneonta Historical Society is in the process of renovating an historic Main Street building. They're in throes of establishing a bona fide museum and already have a gift shop. They're doing a great job.

Main Street closes off to cars a few times a year. The City of the Hills Fine Arts festival in August, only in its 3rd or 4th year, is drawing a nice group of regional artists. There's also the imminently popular Grand & Glorious Garage Sale, and wonderful small-town Halloween and Christmas parades. All-day Fourth of July celebrations with fireworks. Sidewalk Sales. A baseball farm team for the Detroit Tigers (Oneonta Tigers). Step It Up (global warming awareness bicycle parade). A Farmer's Market on the plaza in the growing season.

Exactly because of the colleges, there are always things going on. The State University of NY, College at Oneonta, is beginning to draw a much higher caliber of student since the MTV days and is rated in the top (50? - don't remember number) affordable schools in the country. Hartwick College is a very nice private liberal arts college, also highly rated. The faculty of both institutions are actively involved in community affairs and help keep us all young.

Glimmerglass, a young man was murdered on the campus of SUNY Delhi just a few weeks ago by "downstate" thugs. It can happen anywhere.

ScranBarre - Cooperstown is ALL about baseball! It's very touristy and extremely crowded in the summer and pretty much shuts down in the winter. Oneonta gets overflow sometimes from the many thousands who descend on the nationally-recognized baseball camps. These people eat a lot of pizza (so do students).

Restaurants are decent to a point. A couple of unique home-town type - notably the Autumn Cafe is a long-standing institution for those "residual hippie types" and others who like fresh, interesting food that includes vegetables. Interestingly, there's no fast food downtown, unless you count pizza. Lots of Italian food. Chinese, Japanese. No Mexican!

Anyway, people DO come downtown to eat. They usually do not come downtown to browse-shop. Downtown shopping by locals is destination-oriented. There's a mall and a Wal-Mart just a few miles away that have pretty much taken care of that pesky unique, small business problem. At least four great little sole proprietorships have gone under in the last few months (oh, and the pool hall went under, too). But it runs in cycles and I disagree that the shops are all "new age (read "hippie")." There's an artists' coop (good art, not folksy craftsy stuff), and yes, a fair trade shop but it has nice things. There are no big box stores. You won't find a Borders, Banana Republic or Victoria's Secret.

So. We have mixed blessings and a few curses, but as small towns go, Oneonta has a lot going for it. It is by NO MEANS "deplorable." Just struggling a bit.

Phew. I guess I have an opinion, eh? This turned into a scattered essay, but I think you probably get the point(s).

Karen

[gold dust]

^^^ exactly what I was waiting for to hear about Oneonta! Thank you!! Needed an opinion on the area.