just watch Portlandia
just watch Portlandia
I lived near Albany for 4 years, and I really enjoyed it. It's exceptionally good for outdoor activities like hiking, cycling, running, skiing, climbing, etc, and there are enough nightlife and cultural offerings to keep things interesting.
It's not so great for finding work, though.
Rhinebeck is probably one of the nicer places in upstate NY if you'll consider it upstate. Lots of state land for great trail running, great surrounding school systems, and at a perfect location being only about 75 min from NYC and 50min from Albany
Worked in the Adirondacks (High Peaks Wilderness) for a season. An amazing park and I still cannot wrap my mind around it being 4 hours from New York City. I worked with people who had been everywhere in the US and insisted that nothing is more beautiful than the Adirondacks.
It's a very hard life for people up there. Most people have 2-3 jobs, pretty much the only exception being state workers, everything is very remote (not a ton of roads) so people barely make enough to put gas in their pickups to drive an hour to buy shit.ty, expensive groceries. 2 hour drive to get routine medical appointments or to buy name brand clothing. Combine this with the winter, and you get a pretty tough population, a little hard to interact with if you're an outsider, definitely not warm and fuzzy. I came to appreciate this but I felt like I could never be on the same level as the locals. Life is pretty much hard all the time, which is true for many people, but on top of that these people live in the woods and freeze their asses off 6 moths/year.
Grew up in upstate NY, went to college in upstate NY, met my wife and lived in upstate for three years post college.
Don't go back much as I now live in Massachusetts. That being said my impression now some twenty five years removed as a resident is that if were a professional-- particularly a doctor or lawyer, it would be a great place to live and raise a family.
Would also recommend it to anyone looking at colleges to attend.
I also second that the region has great road running and track clubs and with the D1 colleges sprinkled through out upstate provide opportunities to race on the track year round.
Rochester NY was always number 1 in hispanic community in black community and islam community then syracause and buffalo in 1827 Rochester NY was the 3 biggest cites . And still now the most special citie in america.
Upstate NY is great if you like plenty of great parks, numerous lakes, opportunities for cross country skiing and kayaking and fishing and mountain biking and trail running and driving distance to mountains to hike and good schools, higher education/universities and lots of land around your home.
The negatives are low sunlight and in some areas too many far right crazies.
With global warming the appeal of Upstate NY is increasing.
One more thing, its beautiful, very verdant.
I personally hate the sand/tan look of some areas in the west.
agip wrote:
someone mentioned the Adirondacks - Lake Placid in particular is a special place. Its olympic history and facilities make it unique and fun. Not the greatest for running, but good enough.
And of course in the winter the place comes alive - world class athletes training, competing - nordic skiing, biathlon, speed skating, ski jumping, etc.
before my map is eliminated I would like to live a year up there. With a very thick jacket.
Ah Lake Placid, the greatest most special vacation in my life was in Lake Placid. It was the first away trip I took with the girl I was dating. We were both in grad school, didn't have much money back then, but we had a perfect vacation. I took an older car that I would never drive any distance today on. It was winter, back in the late 70's and the setting was beautiful and quaint and everything was perfect. We stayed at the Edelweis which my memory told me was this cute little motel. (I just googled the place, and its still there but not quite the way I remember it)
I'm 66 now and my wife is 65 and we have been back a few times. Its still beautiful but its been discovered and its quite busy now. I have been on many vacation, some rather exotic and expensive but none match my time at lake placid.
Everyone should have a vacation like that.
what an odd post to bump a fairly ancient thread.