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Hello fellow travelers, as someone who has lived in Albany on and off since 2005, I wanted to share my perspective of what I perceive as the ups and downs of this place. The positives and the negatives.
First, let me describe my experience. I am a transplant from downstate, NYC to be exact. The reason I ended up here is because I first attended school in Schoharie county, then suny Albany. I lived in Schoharie county for a couple of years prior to finally deciding to move to this small city for reasons of accessibility. I found Schoharie to be a little bit off the beaten path, which was nice and not so nice for several reasons.
So I found myself in Albany around 2005. When I first came here, I lived in Student housing on western Ave, close to the intersection of Madison and Western, where they Bisect. I found living in this area to be a little disconcerting at first, because in schoharie, my student housing was an apartment quite distant from my school, and thus more removed from the caterwaul of student life. This was a little bit of a shock to my system since I was sort of use to my own space at that time. This almost felt like people were living on top of me. So after about a year of this I decided this was not the best first impression of Albany and decided to seek a separate apartment elsewhere.
Where I found myself was at State Street, right at the corner of State Street and Dove as a matter of fact. And I found this infinitely preferable for many reasons. First of all, it was in a more consistently nice area (more on that later), secondly, downtown accessibility to pretty much everything, the park, the financial district, the bus line, everything. Also, my apartment was far removed from the street level as I was on the third floor, toward the back of the building.
So when I was actually in my apartment I felt like the world outside didn't exist. Good, right? Yes, accept that my landlord was very adamant about having to have access to my apartment to "make repairs". Which was understandable if these repairs were once or twice a year, but they seemed to crop up every couple of weeks. That and the fact that this guy was like 90 years old and I felt horrible about him having to do all this work. So I just told him I would have things taken care of myself. Overall it was a decent place, I kind of miss it as a matter of fact. It had an old fashioned feel about it.
Okay so, after about three years of living there I ended up moving back in with my mother for a couple of years, which need not even be explained in further detail, then back to albany for a couple months in a roommate situation that I almost forgot about, which lasted less than a month. After which I fled for almost 3 years to Ohio and then Indiana.
So, august of 2012 I find myself back in Albany looking for an apartment.
Found one by Washington Park, lived there for about 10 months, then recently moved due to Rat infestation to a new apartment on the other side of the park, which is kinda like Student housing but kinda not. So somewhere between my first place and my second.
Okay, now that you have a small window into my experiences let me present my list of positives and negatives Of Albany New York, as I see them.
First, the negatives (yup, I had to)
1-It is a very inconsistent place as far as quality of housing units, and neighborhoods. Which CAN be interesting, but tends to be depressing and confusing a lot of the time, so you kind of forget about the interesting part. What I mean by inconsistent is a building or two will be really well maintained by its property owner, and then you will see one down the block that is in shambles or completely abandoned and utterly falling apart. So you could be walking down one block thinking "what a nice place" then 20 seconds later saying to yourself "I spoke way too soon, this sucks". I think there needs to be a lot more done with building code enforcement and regulations set in place so these SLUM LORDS (Yes I did) are forced to present decent living environments for their tenants. As a matter of fact, I am beginning to think that the only consistently decent place to live in downtown Albany is the Area of brownstone buildings below washington park and above Empire plaza, from washington Ave to Dove street. And it is precious little wonder why real estate has gone up in this zone over the past 5 years. The property owners are trying desperately to maintain that consistency.
2-The 'other' side of central avenue is a complete and utter Ghetto. As a matter of fact, a lot of Albany is becoming a lot more of a Ghetto than it ever has been before. What do I mean by Ghetto? Well, property that is not maintained, people who conduct all sorts of dealings outside apartment buildings, where children can sometimes be seen playing. And let's face it, the disparity between rich poor, or to throw the politically correct non-sense out the window, between black and white. Essentially most of the black residents live in poverty, and are transplants of NYC. Now this is not to say that there are no white transplants who also live in poverty or near poverty (I am an example), but the proportion of blacks living in Poverty vs whites is incredible, and depressing. And if you ever want to see an overt example of such disparity just please feel free to visit albany any time you want. You can also get an idea of the disparity between those who have money and those who do not by riding the CDTA any time of the day. Most of the commuters are poor blacks, unless it is business hours in the financial district, then you get some downtown workers also. But pretty much not outside this time of day. That said, although there is some rough energy on the bus, it is usually contained and nobody bothers anybody else.
3-Because Albany is a fairly old city a lot of the buildings come with little furry problems on four legs. Pretty much every unit I have lived in has had at least one incident with a mouse, or even worse in one case, A Rat! This is because the buildings deteriorate and the property owners are such greedy prickks that they do not see any point investing in the future of said property, or the comfort of their tenants. But blame this on the system. The economy creates slumlords. They aren't born out of a blue sky.
4-Everybody and their mother smokes. Yup, I know people may not like this but when the bus shelter says "No smoking" and you smoke anyway, you're a selfish Bastardd. And this effects me because I have an allergy to cigarette smoke and a case of Asthma. So when I wait for the bus I often have to wait 15-20 feet from the shelter in order to not get choked out by other peoples second hand habits. Otherwise I would be arguing with a dozen people who are already disgruntled about so much in life.
5-Hate to do this, but yes a lot of the people have negative attitudes about life and a self entitlement mindset. I mean, I understand this. All they want is Job security, decent and consistent living conditions and a place that is not hostile, or where you don't have to hustle over every little thing just to wake up in decent shape the next morning. But the people are not all negative, and I will get into that in the positive aspects of the city.
6-Traffic system downtown. The traffic system once you get out of downtown is very decent, but in the downtown area it is ludicrous. You get stuck at every light for the most part and it is not designed to flow well at all. So it makes bus rides a lot longer than they should be in such a small geographical area.
7-Colonie. It is not a pedestrian friendly place. You feel threatened by the traffic if you are on foot there and it is not designed to be walkable. It feels like it is designed to feel threatening to pedestrians. Downtown is much better in this regard.
8-Lack of trees! Washington park is nice (more on this under positives) but it does not contain nearly enough tree density. I don't know if they designed it this way to stave off crime, but it sucks.
Now, the positives.
1-There is absolutely more racial tolerance here than in a lot of other places. Even NYC! Believe it or not, there is less Racial tension here than there is downstate. I think maybe it's because of the fact that people are forced to live together more instead of having entire neighborhoods segregated into rich white/poor black. So that is also a positive aspect of the inconsistency thing.
2-Downtown is nicely Walkable. There are plenty of sidewalks here, and you actually feel invited to walk around and do your thing, unlike in Colonie!
3-Proximity to nature. You are pretty much a 30-40 minute drive to several counties with plenty of camping and nature, Schoharie comes to mind as a place full of nature, I would know since I lived there before.
4-City feel but smaller. It does have a bit of a city vibe, but on a much smaller scale than NYC.
5-Although I mentioned that people tend to have negative outlooks here, they also have a very humble side to them. I do not as often feel like people are trying to compete with me as I would in NYC in that purely egotistical way. Whenever I take the bus most of the people seem to be trying to avoid trouble and keeping to themselves. They don't seem to be imposing their problems on other's anywhere near as much as in NYC.
6-Washington Park. It is not the biggest park, by no means is it a central park, but it might be the closest thing Albany has. And it is a nice place for a brisk walk or a early morning Jog. I tend to stay away when it is largely populated by people but this only happens later in the days during summer months.
Neutral aspects of Albany
Some of the bus drivers have chips on their shoulders, and no matter how nice you are to them they will not be nice back. This is kind of a bummer and almost caused me to get into a fight a couple times.
Food prices are not as bad as NYC nearly, but also not quite as good as Indiana, this is especially true of fresh produce in many cases.
A lot of clothing stores have sales a lot of the time which are better than anything you'd find in NYC and surrounding burrows.
So, will I be staying in Albany this time? More than likely no. But while I am here I intend to be as positive about my living situation as possible and thus make the most out of it in several ways.
Where am I going next?
Someplace with more consistent housing unit quality, someplace where the landlords actually give a F about their tenants and property beyond the business agreement and somewhere where the air is clean and I have room to stretch my legs and be creative. Oh yea, almost forgot to mention, i'm an artist and a musician.
Thanks for reading.
Last edited by Travelling_Alien; 07-19-2013 at 10:53 PM..
Definitely agree with you that code enforcement has to be stepped up. It has improved over the past couple of years under new city administrators, but it has a ways to go before being considered excellent.
Food-wise, there are some excellent farmers market throughout the city in from late spring to late fall, which can help reduce food costs. Plus, like you mentioned, since we are so close to rural areas, the produce is very fresh at the markets. Have you tried any? You can get to one on Tuesdays at the Delaware Library easily by bus.
Definitely agree with you that code enforcement has to be stepped up. It has improved over the past couple of years under new city administrators, but it has a ways to go before being considered excellent.
Food-wise, there are some excellent farmers market throughout the city in from late spring to late fall, which can help reduce food costs. Plus, like you mentioned, since we are so close to rural areas, the produce is very fresh at the markets. Have you tried any? You can get to one on Tuesdays at the Delaware Library easily by bus.
You mean the delaware avenue albany public library? Can you tell me the time periods they are out there?
About code enforcement. Yup, I have decided that any place I live in I will give the landlord a single chance to deal with problems I present, then I call the health department. There is absolutely no excuse for certain outcomes. Like mice or, Rats in an apartment.
I remember one guy I was "going to" rent from last year, told me mice in apartments during the autumn time should be an accepted reality. I was like literally "NO F***ing way!". And hung up on him. And the place he was renting was 800$ too! These people are delusional. But people tolerating this BS is not helping their delusions. We have a responsibility as tenants to make them better landlords. We must force the issues.
I will definitely second your observation about racial tolerance. I lived in the Albany area between 1987 and 1998, and coming from Buffalo, which was a very racially segregated city at the time and still remains so, I was surprised at how racially tolerant Albany was.
While I think that part of that is there's smaller neighborhoods and so more interaction, part of it is that there are so many Blacks in state government, especially in management positions. This means that white state workers have lots of contact with Blacks who are like just like them socially and economically, and it erodes stereotypes. Now these Black state workers/managers may not be a big percentage of Albany's total African American population, especially in the areas where you've been living, but it's a big contribution to the area's mindset since many of these Black state workers live where other state workers live in the better neighborhoods in Albany, Troy, and Schnectady as well as in many neighborhoods in Colonie.
Uneven housing quality is what you'll find in most Upstate cities. Because real estate is relatively cheap in these areas, these towns become targets of absentee slumlords and/or flippers.
Re rats: Buffalo has been very successful in combating its rodent problem by issuing plastic totes (large wheel garbage cans) to residences and requiring their use. Surprisingly, this program has nearly 100% compliance and, if it has not totally eliminated rats from residential areas, it has made them very scarce. It has been so successful that the suburbs surrounding Buffalo that provide municipal garbage services have gone or are going to the totes as well. I'd send a letter to the mayor and your council person about the rat problem and encourage Albany to look into the Buffalo program.
I agree with most of your points and appreciate how you highlight both the positive and negative. As Linda_d said, is amazing how tolerant and open minded Albany is with little racial tension. I actually found Albany to have less racial tension than NYC too. I think the huge college presence contributes to this, giving Albany a more socially progressive vibe.
Negative attitude, many people have commented on CD about that and I think that many areas of Upstate NY have a humble yet "Debbie Downer" attitude. I believe the overcast, gray winters cause this along with the loss of many jobs with the manufacturing industry outsourcing and not enough new jobs were created to replaced the old ones.
You are right in that Albany has a lot of seedy housing with slumlords, which is very unattractive. I will add that I think housing, especially apartments, is extremely pricey for what you get. It's ridiculous that all the apartments in downtown Albany cost $800-900K per month, when the Capital Region is small metro with run-down cities and not many jobs. For $900K per month, I can get a nice apartment in San Diego or for $1000K per month (only $100 more) I can get a nice 3 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn or DC.
The negative attitude (other areas besides Albany, Upstate cities in general)--I used to think weather, but how come the Northwest population isn't as "negative"? They get a lot of grey/drizzly weather and Californians get a fair amt. overcast/foggy conditions in mornings in certain areas. Other parts of country, too, aren't ideal weather. As far as manufacturing leaving, that was how many years ago?? You hear people discuss the negative attitude and wonder what are the true reasons behind it.
The negative attitude (other areas besides Albany, Upstate cities in general)--I used to think weather, but how come the Northwest population isn't as "negative"? They get a lot of grey/drizzly weather and Californians get a fair amt. overcast/foggy conditions in mornings in certain areas. Other parts of country, too, aren't ideal weather. As far as manufacturing leaving, that was how many years ago?? You hear people discuss the negative attitude and wonder what are the true reasons behind it.
Maybe it is the aspect of snow being included in the mix or that NY gets bombarded with negativity about so many issues/subjects, that the people believe the information instead of searching for themselves and putting things into perspective.
I also think that people may be distant initially, but once they get to know you, they open up and are more friendly. I dare say that it is more genuine that way.
The negative attitude (other areas besides Albany, Upstate cities in general)--I used to think weather, but how come the Northwest population isn't as "negative"? They get a lot of grey/drizzly weather and Californians get a fair amt. overcast/foggy conditions in mornings in certain areas. Other parts of country, too, aren't ideal weather. As far as manufacturing leaving, that was how many years ago?? You hear people discuss the negative attitude and wonder what are the true reasons behind it.
I spent a few months in the UK years ago during the winter months, where the weather is similar to the PNW. The UK (and PNW) is just as cloudy, if not cloudier than Upstate NY, but the temperatures are also milder allowing the scenery to stay green all year round. Upstate NY is not green during the winter, making it more depressing IMO. Having greenery during the winter in overcast regions like the PNW and UK make feel somewhat more cheerier and bearable during the colder months. This was at least my experience.
I do notice a lot of native Upstate NYers complain about the economy in general (not necessarily the loss of manufacturing) even if they never lived or looked elsewhere for jobs. Might be what ckh mentioned in that Upstate NY seemed to get forgotten about or gets somewhat picked on by the rest of the country if mentioned. This is only speculation of course, as you said it's hard to say what are the true reasons behind it.
I spent a few months in the UK years ago during the winter months, where the weather is similar to the PNW. The UK (and PNW) is just as cloudy, if not cloudier than Upstate NY, but the temperatures are also milder allowing the scenery to stay green all year round. Upstate NY is not green during the winter, making it more depressing IMO. Having greenery during the winter in overcast regions like the PNW and UK make feel somewhat more cheerier and bearable during the colder months. This was at least my experience.
I do notice a lot of native Upstate NYers complain about the economy in general (not necessarily the loss of manufacturing) even if they never lived or looked elsewhere for jobs. Might be what ckh mentioned in that Upstate NY seemed to get forgotten about or gets somewhat picked on by the rest of the country if mentioned. This is only speculation of course, as you said it's hard to say what are the true reasons behind it.
QFT. It is almost always the people who have never lived elsewhere who constantly whine about the economy and about taxes ... and who always have excuses as to why they're still hanging around here despite how much they hate it here like they have a good paying job here or they can't afford housing in their supposed Shangri-la.
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