Why Does Everyone Dislike Elmira,ny? (New York, Buffalo: lawyers, houses, job transfer)

[TheShow]

economically shot. There is nothing to do, no good jobs, to expensive to even live there. Those are some of the reasons we left back in 1994 and moved south. It has only gotten worse since then. I have family who live in Elmira and I do come home once or twice a year and every time I come home I ride around to see if anything is different and it usually is, More depressed as a city in whole. Thats a look at Elmira from an out sider looking in.

Kenny

[Derrick8]

Originally Posted by TheShow

economically shot. There is nothing to do, no good jobs, to expensive to even live there. Those are some of the reasons we left back in 1994 and moved south. It has only gotten worse since then. I have family who live in Elmira and I do come home once or twice a year and every time I come home I ride around to see if anything is different and it usually is, More depressed as a city in whole. Thats a look at Elmira from an out sider looking in.

Kenny

Elmira has some of the cheapest houses in the country.Also Elmira is slowly coming back.

[tviz25]

Originally Posted by TheShow

economically shot. There is nothing to do, no good jobs, to expensive to even live there. Those are some of the reasons we left back in 1994 and moved south. It has only gotten worse since then. I have family who live in Elmira and I do come home once or twice a year and every time I come home I ride around to see if anything is different and it usually is, More depressed as a city in whole. Thats a look at Elmira from an out sider looking in.

Kenny

Yeah you must be poor if you moved out of Elmira because is cost too much to live here. It has some of the cheapest housing anywhere in the country. Also, how is it economically shot? And how has it gotten worse because the early 90's is when things were at its worst and now it is on its way back up. The are actually trying and succeeding in things downtown now. That is from an insider telling and outsider what's true.

[Hustla718]

Everytime someone mentions Elmira in NY state people think of prison. That's why.

[tviz25]

Oh thats funny because I don't know anybody that thinks "prison" when I say Elmira. Maybe since I live in Elmira and say "prison" to someone else in that lives in Elmira, they think of the two here, but other than that, no.

[Barefootgirl55]

When a town or city loses its economic vitality...........


people leave

buildings deteriorate or become vacant

properties tend to look run down and unkempt

crime tends to flourish

It doesn't help that it's located in an area known for gloomy, snowy, wet weather for much of the year.

I get the same feelings about Binghamton.


It's a crime what has happened to upstate NY in the past 30 years....skyrocketing taxes and energy costs drove the businesses away...then the people left (many)

Who stays behind? The less progressive, the elderly, the infirm.....

OK, now I shouldn't have to say it, but you understand this is speaking in general, not speaking about your block or neighborhood...

[molly malarky]

Elmira and Horseheads are the most depressing towns I ever lived in,,ghost towns. NOTHING to do, grey skies all the time, its flat and dismal

[tviz25]

Molly is full of malarky and doesn't know what she's talking about. All you say are the words grey, dismal, and nothing to do.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by bellafinzi

But then again, most towns in the Southern Tier give me that empty feeling....

The same could be said for cities like Scranton and Wilkes-Barre here in NEPA as well, roughly an hour away from the Southern Tier, as recently as the 1990s, yet we're now on an upswing of sorts. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's population has risen for the past two years, and the downtown areas of both cities are bouncing back to life. Our area was awarded the dubious title of "Runner-Up for Armpit of America" back in the 1990s, an era in which we finally hit "rock bottom." Ever since 2000, things have been looking upwards around here---the NY Yankees have come to town, along with many NYC-related stores, restaurants, and transplants. Single-family home values in the city proper of Scranton have risen by 33% between 2003 and 2006, and the values of multi-family residential properties rose by 50% in that same period. A new major medical school will be pumping new life into Downtown Scranton. A new law school is coming to Downtown Wilkes-Barre. Casinos are coming to the area, as are new resorts.

If my area can completely reinvent itself in just a decade, then who's to say that Elmira/Binghamton can't do the same? I can't wait to soon head on up to Binghamton for my next photo tour, and I'm sure I'll find that same "potential around every corner" in the Carousel City I find here in the Electric City as well. Urban sprawl has ravaged our once-vibrant core cities, but many of my "Generation Y" peers are excited about moving into cities like Scranton, Binghamton, Elmira, and Wilkes-Barre to help breathe new life and energy into them. I personally can't wait to purchase my own Victorian fixer-upper within walking distance to my downtown firm, parks, schools, coffee shops, bistros, galleries, etc. Nationwide we've been seeing a trend of suburbanites tiring of their lengthier and lengthier commutes into the city cores for work, nightlife, worship, etc., and more and more are giving our cities a second glance. I've seen it here in Scranton where, according to a recent poll I conducted on the PA forum, we now lead the state in terms of potential relocation spots (even beating out Philly and Pittsburgh!)

I've long admired Binghamton and Elmira from afar---each city is crying out desperately for help from outside investors, and I hope my upcoming photo tour of Binghamton will help to show the rest of cyberspace just how much potential that city in particular has to shine brightly once again. The architecture in your cities is absolutely stunning, and the downtowns are clean (albeit empty). You have cheery optimists on here like Hartwick and Lauri_25_NY who encouraged me to explore Binghamton as an excited first-time tourist, and I hope to eventually do the same in Elmira.

Look for my Binghamton photo tour on either Wednesday or Friday of this week.

[Genghis]

Seriously, why would one move to Elmira? I mean, it surely has some good characteristics, but if you're going to move somewhere, the chance your #1 choice is Elmira is pretty low. So people will only leave, but never come to move there. It happens, some cities decline as populations shift.