New Jersey vs Connecticut vs Maryland vs New York vs Florida vs Massachusetts vs Pennsylvania

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by fluffydelusions

As someone from CT I've literally never got any kind of boarded up vibe from anywhere I've been there. There are definitely some sketchy cities there but boarded up? Nah. I've also lived in NYC and NJ and there are definitely some boarded up areas there. Please post some google street view links so I can see what you are talking about.

Killingly is the best example I drive through regularly. Dayville on Route 101 west of I-395 and the railroad tracks is typical failed mill town. The old brick factory in ruins. The run down factory worker housing.

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Killingly is the best example I drive through regularly. Dayville on Route 101 west of I-395 and the railroad tracks is typical failed mill town. The old brick factory in ruins. The run down factory worker housing.

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Nice county level map.

Do the town level map as they almost always are for New England. You will see the red rural towns.

If someone says NWCT or the Berkshirs again I might lose it. Are those the only areas in New England that are rural?

Were talking about adjacent areas to the NYS equivalents. Bringing up cairbou maine makes no sense. And the entirity of VT encompasses more than NWCT and the four rural west mass counties. Thats a lot of counties

However, The best answer i have for why Rural NYS is significantly more rundown/has less offerings than its New England counterparts would be the politics of the the counties. You see similar situations in NC WI MI between smaller patches of rural urban counties and their conditions. MAybe like others have said, more resort-y?

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

Were talking about adjacent areas to the NYS equivalents. Bringing up cairbou maine makes no sense. And the entirity of VT encompasses more than NWCT and the four rural west mass counties. Thats a lot of counties

However, The best answer i have for why Rural NYS is significantly more rundown/has less offerings than its New England counterparts would be the politics of the the counties. You see similar situations in NC WI MI between smaller patches of rural urban counties and their conditions. MAybe like others have said, more resort-y?

In reality, the biggest determinant of local economic conditions is income level. If you look at household income at the Census Tract level, it's clear that that comparably rural areas in Massachusetts are more likely to have higher incomes compared to much of Upstate NY (the Albany area running towards Saratoga Springs is a very notable exception, in addition to the suburbs surrounding other metros like Syracuse, Rochester, Utica and Buffalo). Justice Map: Visualize race and income data in your community

The fact of the matter is, however, that MA simply just does not have that vast of a rural area, so in many respects, it's an apples-oranges comparison. The bottom line is rural MA is somewhat better off by virtue of the employment prospects/industries (and tourism economy) that keeps the vast majority of the state afloat economically (the area around North Adams may be the only exception in rural terms).

You can also see the trend of incomes beginning to decline in the area of Northeastern Vermont heading into Maine, which gives way to Maine's vast rural interior being relatively low-income.

So, in a way, given MA's relative geographic "luck" and Vermont's unique hubs of tourism that attracts disproportionately higher-income folks, they are the exception that proves the rule of rural decline in the US.