Elmira - how bad is it really? (Rochester, Binghamton: low income, crime rate)

[ana.m.]

I cannot wait to get the hell out of here!!!If you are a family person, that likes quite nights and slow pace environment- that's a paradise for you.Beautiful scenery-indeed. But depends what you are looking for in life.This scenery,lifestyle and just overall condition of the town-is not my life or something that I will like. If i have had a choice, I would not be here.
People are nice here.

[tim2k214]

I'm from Fredericksburg, VA. And I have most of my Family in Elmira that have been there their entire lives. I visit there very frequently and will be going up next week to stay for a week. My aunt lives on W. Thurston street, she lives on one end and the prison is on the other end. She lives directly across from an elementary school ( it may be a middle school, I'm having a brain lapse and can't remember the name ). She is within a 10-15 minute walk of Hathorn court. SO with all that in mind, I LOVE going to visit and have looked into seriously moving up there. It's a great "little city, big town" I do agree with some of the comments of it being a depressed area. There are plenty of depressed and run down areas. Jobs are hard to find, unless you are into manufacturing and enjoy $8.50 an hour. Anchor glass is probaly the main employer, along with Storflex, and Kennedy valve. Although if you have the education or higher level job there are plenty of opportunities within short commute. Houses on the "West Side" are much nicer, but more new houses are sprouting up around Arnot Mall and some other places. They are still priced pretty moderate compared to where I live. Comparable houses on the west side for $70-100K would easily fetch $350K+ here. The city is kind of quiet as far as things to do. There is a cinema at the mall, and Harris Hill (which is a small amusement area more for kids), eldridge park, a small sports complex (for the local hockey team ( The Jackals), and various other little things. Eldridge park has had a skate park added to it in the last couple years. I find plenty of things to do in the area, even going for a walk can be good. Downtown is pretty empty which is a shame, but the shops that are down there offer something for mostly anyone. The crime from my experience and knowledge is no worse than any other comparable area with a somewhat depressed area. It's not my favorite place to walk around at night, but like anything some areas are better than others. The schools seem average to below average. Not the best from my cousins experiences, but definetly not the worst. It depends on the school. Thomas edison high school ( Elmira Heights) is a beautiful school with a new track and foot ball field. I think that is all I have right now. My wife and I are seriously thinking about moving up there as the cost of living is so much cheaper. They also have a grocery store called " Dollar Foods " Ghetto yes, but for you bargain hunters you will love it. Name brands for $1 or less. Elmira is a place you love or hate, its hard to be inbetween. I like the area, the people and the community.

[tviz25]

I also live on W. Thurston street tim2k214. It's about a 2 minute walk to Hathorn Court. The elementary school is Fassett Elementary.

[rabit152]

First, the city-data population info for Elmira is incorrect. So, this should help with the number of sex offenders issue. Tviz25 is right, the current population is in the neighborhood of 30,000. And I don't believe that number includes the surrounding areas, Elmira Heights, Southport, Horseheads, or possibly even West Elmira. I believe these are all independently incorporated townships or villages.

Sadly, 30K is about half what Elmira's population was in its heyday back in the late 50s to early 60s. The economy IS severly depressed and has been since the early 70s. Folks have been trying to convince themselves that it's getting better for more than 30 years now. It hasn't. You can view my other posts in various threads, for my perspective on why that is.

Born and raised in Elmira, I still have family living there. My father is 71 and has lived his entire life there. Based on his comments, whenever the subject comes up, he would not encourage anyone to move there. Among his biggest complaints is taxes, taxes, and more taxes. I try to change the subject whenever this comes up because he can talk for hours about it.

Again, I don't wish to repeat comments I've made in other posts, so I'll just say this about Elmira... during the 18 years I lived there I always felt that folks there had no interest in anything that was happening in other parts of the state, the country, or the world. From recent visits back to Elmira, I've seen nothing that changes my impression.

The local economy is poor to just plain bad. I honestly haven't seen it get better since before I left town. But Elmira is not the only place where that is true.

In an effort to be fair, I will say that Chemung county is very scenic and has a tranquil feel to it. And I always liked the weather there, no too hot in summer nor too cold or snowy in winter. If you're looking for a slow pace and some peace and quite, Elmria is just the place for that.

[smithit]

Originally Posted by looking4home

I don't know where you are looking for the city's stats, homeward, but I didn't think an incarcerated population was counted in the stats. It would be much higher, if that were the case, as many of those in prison commit sexual crimes along with their other crimes. Also, my old hometown of Auburn has a maximum security prison, and with a city population of about 28,000 and they don't have as many registered offenders. I have a feeling you touched on the reason - perhaps once the felons are released they stay within the community for their parole period or whatever. That's a scary thought in itself!

First let me say how much I appreciate all of the opinions expressed about the present state-of-affairs in Elmira, NY. In fact, I revisited the area last year and was shocked to say the least. For instance, our old home just sold for $35,000 on a prominent West Side street. My Grandmother's house in the 1000 block of Lake Street sold for $46,000 a couple of years ago, and the house in back of her's was auctioned off for $2,000. It's crazy, I know. There are speculators buying up property right now who may become very "lucky" in the not to distant future. This city transformed from a vibrant hub in the "southern tier" from the mid 40's to the mid 60's to a bankrupt, maybe even dead city in a mere 50 years! Why? Having lived there from 1945 to 1956 between the ages of 1 to 11, let me offer my insights:
City infrastructure has changed, albeit for economic reasons. Back then, our elementary schools were public schools or better said neighborhood schools. Mine was PS11. I walked to school every day. There was a corner drugstore that had a soda fountain. There was a local grocery store, Ben Franklins 5&10, a candy store and bakery. We had a community. We had ice cream socials at the beginning of summer. We had a community playground across the street from the school with supervised summer programs, tennis, athletics, swings, teeter-totters (see-saws), lots of room to run off all of our energy. The school was replaced with townhouses. The park was replaced by office buildings. Back then, I could walk or bike downtown to a $0.25 movie at the age of 8 all by mself. We had YMCA programs for swimming and basketball, we had little league baseball, pee-wee football; all within a short distance from everyone's home. Elmira was bustling. And we had parades...boy did we have parades. Around the College and Woodlawn Cemetary areas we had Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Independence Day (July 4th). We'd weave red-white-and blue crape paper in our bike tire spokes and attach baseball cards or baloons with clothes pins to the spokes to make noise and ride in the parades. There were bands: the Elks, the Moose, the Grotto, the Internaional Order of the Odd Fellows, the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force. There were lots of veterans! We went to Sullivan's Monument for weekend and holiday picnics. We went to Harris Hill to watch the gliders or fly kites. We only lived three blocks away from the Chemung river on W.Gray St and down by the river was the Crowley's milk factory. They had horses and delivered milk in glass bottles to your doorstep. There was even a rag man that came down the street...he had a horse-drawn cart and went up and down the streets calling "rags for sale" (just like in the Golden Book story). My mother did the sewing and mending and washing and fixed meals (which we all attended) and managed the house, and kept an eye on us kids. My Dad worked hard and earned the money for our family. He made maybe $3,000 or $4,000 a year and we were middle income people. We had a ringer-washer in our dirt basement and hung our laundry out in the sun to dry. We had push mowers (no motors) to cut the grass. No air-conditioning, just open windows. We had one car, a 78rpm record player, a radio, and a TV with rabbit ears. We had slate sidewalks in front of the house and slate shingles on the roof. Everyone burned coal for heat back then and in the winter, the snow eventually got a slightly black film, but we were all happy and busy and this was what it was like in 1945 to 1956.

My gandfather, Ivan T. Smith, rose to Assistant Superintendant of the Elmira Reformatory from Chief Clerk in 1914 until he retired for health reasons in 1944. My Grandmother, Eleanor V. Smith was at one time the largest real estate company in Elmira (E.V.Smith Realty). The reformatory was a magnificent innovative "outside-the-box" facility, erected in 1876 , and provided trade school training and education to youth who went astray of the law. It worked. I have many letters from former inmates who thanked my Grandfather for turning their lives around. Unfortunately, between the 70's and 90's, the gurus in Albany, who had no sense of history let alone sense of any kind, transformed the reformatory into a maximum security prison with the worst of the worst as residents. Of course they bring along with them their ilk to live in the area and when released, they stay! The average age is now 35! This has had a major negative impact on Elmira. Another major negative impact is the river. It floods. In fact, no area is safe within a mile of the Chemung river. My grandparent's house which was in the 1000 block of Lake St was flooded in 1972! The ordeal was enough to end my Grandmother's life. Elmira must devise means for the Chemung river to bypass the community if they want to preserve any hope of a future city. Being located on this river offers no benefit today as it may have in the past. Why do you think real estate is so cheap in Elmira? Downtown is at the rive's edge! This used to be a vibrant bustling downtown...no more. It would be too costly and disruptive to endure another flood which is seems to happen about every 20 years and is inevitable in another 5 - 8 years.
There have been at least three major "hundred year floods" since 1940. The city will not survive another one. You know, I am so tempted to start buying up property like a lot of investment companies are doing right now. But I'm not doing anything untill I see some responsible actions by the City's politicians regarding the river. BTW, in 1990, the population of Elmira was 66,000, #311 of US all urban cities. In a mere ten years the population as dropped by 50%. This isn't subtle...I think it can be reversed if the obvious causes are brought into the light of day and removed. The whole corredor from Elmira/Corning to Binghamtom has so much potential for high tech business and industry and it's so cheap! Oh well, I have so much more history in my mind that I could share about Elmira...maybe later if I see a glimmer of hope!

[pathfinder44]

i was planning on relocating with my family in 2007 to elmira with my surveying comp.i looked at beautiful houses in the area,clinton st,thurston st,and college.after putting in an offer on a house on clinton street i was informed it was a crack neighborhood to my shock.then the more i looked into elmira i discovered the drub problem is outta control along with crime i imagine they go hand and hand.i decided to stay in massachusetts than move young kids into a drug infested town.i can see why elmira's population has dropped 50% since 1990 with problems like that.

[artyst]

if people know of these drug infested neighborhoods, why can't the police/city clean things up? they certainly must know what's going on in their city!!

[Urbanica]

[SIZE=1]Smithit -

You really need to get your figures straight. No doubt Elmira is losing population, but your figures are totally wrong and 100% misleading. Elmira never had more than about 50,000 population, even in its heydey. Population figures below:

1950 - 49,716
1960 - 46,517
1970 - 39,945
1980 - 35,327
1990 - 33,724
2000 - 30,940

The 2006 estimate is something like 29,500.

Get the facts straight...Elmira has contracted 8.3% from 1990 to 2000.

Urbanica
[/SIZE]

[Derrick8]

Originally Posted by artyst

if people know of these drug infested neighborhoods, why can't the police/city clean things up? they certainly must know what's going on in their city!!

actually things have been done about it there has been about 4 or 5 big drug bust so the police are trying to clear things up.

[718bound]

You say you either work from home or fly to wher you go... Well where do you fly? Will flying out of Elmira be a hassel? Buffalo and it's suburbs are cheap and has a bigger airport... I have never flown out of Elmira... Rochester is the same distance to me as Elmira so that is the airport I go to... From what I have seen (used to have to go to the area near the airport for work daily a couple of years ago) there are some 50 seat commuter planes and mostly prop planes flying in and out...