Cute, Safe, Affordable town to move to? (New York, Buffalo: co-op, house prices)

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by It'sMe!

I mean more like a rural, small town feel where everyone knows each other and the houses aren't right on top of one another, where it's safe for kids to play outside all day and where people are generally friendly (unlike the city!)

Then, you would like communities like Tully, LaFayette and the southern Onondaga county communities. Jordan, Elbridge, Baldwinsville, Marcellus, Skaneateles and pretty much any of the suburban areas with maybe a few exceptions in the inner suburbs.

Actually, cities in Upstate aren't as bad as people would think in terms of being friendly, but I understand what you are getting at.

Outside of Onondaga County, you would probably like places like Homer, Chittenango, Canastota, Weedsport, Central Square, the Oswego County part of Brewerton, Cazenovia, Hamilton and maybe parts of the Phoenix area.

[pazmundial]

You definitely should consider Ithaca, NY...
This place is absolutely gorgeous, and a great place to have a family. Housing costs vary, but you can definitely find something in your price range. With two colleges in town, you get much more than a small town in terms of culture...and yet it is still small and you will find a community that works. I promise, you won't be disappointed...

[bellafinzi]

Originally Posted by pazmundial

You definitely should consider Ithaca, NY...
This place is absolutely gorgeous, and a great place to have a family. Housing costs vary, but you can definitely find something in your price range. With two colleges in town, you get much more than a small town in terms of culture...and yet it is still small and you will find a community that works. I promise, you won't be disappointed...

Ithaca has a quaint vibe?

Hippie vibe is more like it.

[proulxfamily]

Originally Posted by bellafinzi

Ithaca has a quaint vibe?

Hippie vibe is more like it.

LOL - it's kinda true though. When done right, "yuppie-hippie" is considered quaint and unique... except that when there are so many, it's not so unique anymore. Like how tattoos were really bada$$ until everyone's Mom started getting them. haha!

But I love Ithaca nonetheless- it's where I go for all of my crunchy/hippie/granola stuff. :P And good pizza at Joe's!

[Jeromeville]

I like Ithaca but have to put in a word of caution. Ithaca is a place where a lot of wealthy white people live. College professors, Ivy League students. But they have had some racial tensions there, most recently a school incident. And a couple years ago I was camping down near Ithaca (Buttermilk Falls) and had an encounter that bugged me. I had gone to the shower building/restroom to take a shower. I opened the door and saw that a park employee was finishing cleaning the ladies room. I smiled and said "Sorry, I'll come back later when you're done."

It so happened the park employee was a black man. I only felt shy about going in to take my shower because, well, he was male. I would rather he finish and me not get in his way, or he get in my way, etc. I would have reacted the same way if it was a female employee, frankly. But I was taken aback when he reacted very badly to what I said. "What -- are you afraid of me?" he said in a very disgusted way. I just smiled again and said I would come back later, and then went back to my trailer... feeling very bewildered and surprised at the bad attitude which I had never experienced before from any other park employee (white or black) in the NYS parks.

I thought, "Well, this guy is just having a bad day." But thinking about it more, his reaction was so knee-jerk and angry that I thought it just couldn't be that. I realized, this guy must be interacting with wealthy white people, college students, college girls, etc, all the time at the Ithaca area parks. He must have interpreted my shyness as some sort of racist fear of black men. Maybe he had experienced racist attitudes in a past incident. Maybe he thought I was just another spoiled white Cornell girl, maybe he had a bad attitude toward them. And I wondered... what really is the underlying situation in Ithaca?

It's not fair to derive too much from one person and one encounter, but let's face it: Ithaca is not a progressive heaven. No place in the world is. I enjoy Ithaca, but sometimes the hippie pretensions are a bit much. It's a city that's struggling just like any other Upstate city is. If you want to go to Ithaca to enjoy an all-white "progressive" playground with cute little coffee shops and "liberal thought," I'm sure you will find it a great place... but I would just hope that anyone who goes to Ithaca realizes it also surely has warts and is not THAT "different." It's still a small town. I guess the incident stood out to me because, having lived near a city metro area (Syracuse) all my life, and having worked with, and been waited on by, people of different races all the time, I just never experienced such anger that felt like race had something to do with it.

I hope no one interprets this as a slam on Ithaca... I just feel that too many people on city-data are looking for the same fantasy lands. I really hope anyone who wants to migrate to Ithaca or anywhere else in Upstate NY is interested in making it a better place.

[ki0eh]

I sometimes wonder if the definition of a small town is when people are friendly until you move there.

Perhaps the sweet spot is to find a place where there's a high enough proportion of people who have lived other places so that folks in town are used to the concept, but not so high a fraction to destroy the sense of community or price out the locals. (Of course assuming you can find work, a chronic issue in upstate.)

I drive the speed limit so 4 hrs from NYC to Syracuse is a bit of a stretch for me. Since this sub-forum defines the Syracuse area fairly narrowly I wonder if this thread should be moved out to the general NY forum for more comments.

Cortland, or some community around Binghamton, would give you a bit of a head start on 4 hr to NYC. Ithaca has such a high proportion of outsiders that they kind of make their own community if you're into the yuppie-hippie scene. Maybe Dryden would give some balance to rooted community vs. acknowledgment of outsiders.

Again stretching the 4 hr radius, Corning draws smart people without the leftist politics. Economy is cyclical depending on the fortunes of the Corning [Glass Works], which still puts it further ahead of much of upstate where the economy has been steadily declining since 1950, 1970, or 1990.

4 hrs from NYC encompasses the eastern third of Pennsylvania as well. Older house lots in southeastern PA, based on a German-ish community form, are much smaller than house lots in New York or far northern PA, based on the more open New England model. Typically in eastern PA jobs are more plentiful, home prices are higher, sprawl/growth issues more intense, and property taxes significantly lower than upstate NY. If you want to be 4 hours from all of NYC through DC then Carlisle could work out for you. (The truckers know this too...) Bloomsburg and Lewisburg are college towns with some attraction to outsiders. Wellsboro is nice too but really pushing 4 hours from NYC and lacks employment opportunities.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by Jeromeville

I like Ithaca but have to put in a word of caution. Ithaca is a place where a lot of wealthy white people live. College professors, Ivy League students. But they have had some racial tensions there, most recently a school incident. And a couple years ago I was camping down near Ithaca (Buttermilk Falls) and had an encounter that bugged me. I had gone to the shower building/restroom to take a shower. I opened the door and saw that a park employee was finishing cleaning the ladies room. I smiled and said "Sorry, I'll come back later when you're done."

It so happened the park employee was a black man. I only felt shy about going in to take my shower because, well, he was male. I would rather he finish and me not get in his way, or he get in my way, etc. I would have reacted the same way if it was a female employee, frankly. But I was taken aback when he reacted very badly to what I said. "What -- are you afraid of me?" he said in a very disgusted way. I just smiled again and said I would come back later, and then went back to my trailer... feeling very bewildered and surprised at the bad attitude which I had never experienced before from any other park employee (white or black) in the NYS parks.

I thought, "Well, this guy is just having a bad day." But thinking about it more, his reaction was so knee-jerk and angry that I thought it just couldn't be that. I realized, this guy must be interacting with wealthy white people, college students, college girls, etc, all the time at the Ithaca area parks. He must have interpreted my shyness as some sort of racist fear of black men. Maybe he had experienced racist attitudes in a past incident. Maybe he thought I was just another spoiled white Cornell girl, maybe he had a bad attitude toward them. And I wondered... what really is the underlying situation in Ithaca?

It's not fair to derive too much from one person and one encounter, but let's face it: Ithaca is not a progressive heaven. No place in the world is. I enjoy Ithaca, but sometimes the hippie pretensions are a bit much. It's a city that's struggling just like any other Upstate city is. If you want to go to Ithaca to enjoy an all-white "progressive" playground with cute little coffee shops and "liberal thought," I'm sure you will find it a great place... but I would just hope that anyone who goes to Ithaca realizes it also surely has warts and is not THAT "different." It's still a small town. I guess the incident stood out to me because, having lived near a city metro area (Syracuse) all my life, and having worked with, and been waited on by, people of different races all the time, I just never experienced such anger that felt like race had something to do with it.

I hope no one interprets this as a slam on Ithaca... I just feel that too many people on city-data are looking for the same fantasy lands. I really hope anyone who wants to migrate to Ithaca or anywhere else in Upstate NY is interested in making it a better place.

Interesting......As a Black male that has actually has had a good time in Ithaca, in a way I can see what you are talking about. What was telling to me was how you can go to the Commons on the weekend and that you would see Black people hanging out downtown, but it seemed like they did cross this one street, for some reason. I know they have had their incidents there, but I still think the city is generally more "progressive" than most other cities in NY State.

[serena72]

I live in Canastota and it is really cute and affordable. Also nice because it's close to both Syracuse and Utica without being too close. It's also close to the casino, if you're into that. I've never been, but I hear Cooperstown is a nice, all-american type town. It's also where the Baseball Hall of Fame is so if you're husband likes baseball, that's a selling point It's probably only about 4-5 hours from New York City. BTW, I don't know if you've ever been to GA but I lived there for awhile and trust me--you will NEVER see kids playing outside there. It is too hot in the summer and basically they are lazy because there are NO sidewalks and you cannot walk anywhere! I lived in GA and TN and I'm not a real big fan of the south.

[Jeromeville]

I am inclined to think it's maybe not so much a "black" and "white" thing in Ithaca but more of a "black working class" and "white middle or upper class" thing. A difficult combination of factors that might complicate things... sometimes.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by Jeromeville

I am inclined to think it's maybe not so much a "black" and "white" thing in Ithaca but more of a "black working class" and "white middle or upper class" thing. A difficult combination of factors that might complicate things... sometimes.

True...I think it is as much, if not more about economics than race. There is a decent upper middle class Black population there too, due to Cornell and IC. All things considered though, I think you are right in regards to the economic factor.