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I just started reading this forum. from what i am seeing everyone suggests to stay in the burbs. i am moving back to syracuse next year from florida, after being gone for 21 years. I grew up in Watertown/Ithaca area. I currently live in a large city and plan to move into the city. there are very bad sections of this city but i avoid them. i have focused in on Strathmore and University sections as possible neighborhoods. i like older homes with character rather than newer cookie cutter homes. Are there older homes in established neighborhoods in the burbs? I have many family members that live in the different areas but they all live in newer homes that do not have alot of character. I cannot afford Dewitt/Manlius areas and would rather not be too far north to have easy access to head south to the Ithaca area often.
can someone explain why the city neighborhoods are not recommended? i have read on other websites where people have gushed about Strathmore, from the pics I see it looks beautiful. Now i initially thought about Eastwood but i have a cousin who lived there and would not recommend it.
The city school district and crime are the two main reasons not to live in the city. The other reason (my reason) is very subjective, I find the city neighborhoods depressing. Hard to pin-point what makes it "feel" depressing.
Could be how it looks with the lack of landscaping, the lack of large yards or space between homes, the unattached garages make the city neighborhoods look cluttered, cars parked on the streets, the overgrown, weedy lots, vines covering the chain linked fences, the run-down and abandoned homes, the sidewalks are broken and in need of repair etc.
Another possibility that could make the city feel depressing is the constant "watching your back" or "being alert of your surroundings" when you are in the city.
The city could also be depressing because it's harder to relate the with the people there. This has nothing to do with race, I have a black family as neighbors. This has to do with how you act, not how you look. I'm not the type of person that says "Yo what's up homey" or "Hey, man". I have no desire to act as though I'm a tough guy. I'm not saying everyone in the city acts like this, but it's more common in the city than in the suburbs. The city also seems to attract and retain most of the uneducated people, the blue collar workers and the white trash.
It's possible that I could like the city in the future, but dramatic changes would need to occur. Maybe something like the city attracting 50,000 Montreal residents. Seriously, the city needs an huge influx of more sophisticated people for it to turn into a desirable place again. If thousands of Canadians moved to the city and started landscaping their yards, redoing the exterior of the homes and thus made the neighborhoods more family friendly, then I wouldn't mind suggesting the city as a great place to live.
You're talking about Syracuse and I haven't been there so I can't say what's wrong with it.
But I've been to Montreal and to Quebec City and to Ottawa and to Toronto and to Vancouver and I think I know "a bit" about these Canadians.
In my opinion, they may be whatever you want them to be. But not "sophisticated". To me, Canadians (and let me talk broadly, generalizing) are as far from sophistication as an Alabama folk.
You could move them to Syracuse and it would still be an unsophisticated city, only with a Canadian feeling.
Yes, I know I'm talking about Syracuse. That's what we in CNY call Syracuse up here... "the city".
I'm not talking NYC sophisticated. If the Syracuse area ever became LA or NYC sophisticated, it would ruin the friendliness of the area. In my opinion, Canadians in general and Montreal specifically are sophisticated, yet they are mostly friendly like Upstate NYers. Most Montrealians are into art, shopping, dinning, fashion.... instead of Nascar, Yankee baseball (very big in the city- of Syracuse), WWF, and beer etc.
OK- I understand now. If compared to Nascar-watching, beer-drinking American rednecks, Canadians are "sophisticated".
People in Montreal are indeed into shopping and fashion. I swear it's all they have there, shopping and shopping! I had to live there for two weeks and I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there and come back to New York. I was so bored. Canada feels provincial to me.
But they're very friendly. And of course, looking at Montreal from Syracuse, it probably does feel like a big exciting city. I understand.
Cheers-
(Let me disagree with you about the friendliness, though: New York City has this undeserved reputation as a rude place, but it's not true. We're nice. We're friendly and we'll help you. Actually honestly nice, I mean, not Midwestern smile and backstab, if you know what I mean).
Last edited by Manhattan-ite; 03-02-2007 at 10:49 PM..
Reason: missing sentence
I do not plan to move to the parts of the city that have overgrown weedy lots with chain link fences and drug deals on the corner. I have spent enough time in and around the Syracuse area (I am there at least twice a year) to know that all of the city does not look like this. If it did no one would be coming back or staying for that matter. I understand some people prefer the burbs over the city. I have lived in both and prefer city life-a safe and attractive part of the city in St Pete Florida. However the time has come to leave Florida behind-the sooner the better.
I will find a nice neighborhood where I can fix up a house (what I have done in Florida)-I may have to drive through a run down (not blighted) area to get there but hopefully people will return and fix it up-perhaps one at a time and it will become the place that you would like it to be. Upstate New York is one of the most beautiful places that exists with all it has to offer including the snow! I am not sorry I left 21 years ago but am looking forward to returning and once again living in a beautiful area rather than Florida.
Anyway still looking for some comments about decent neighborhoods in the city--thanks
There are some great school districts listed in the replies. But overlooked in the eastern "suburbs" is the Chittenango School District. Chittenango is located in western Madison County and is a small village. The schools in the area are excellent. Our three sons had a very good college preparatory education. The taxes in rural Madison County are significantly lower than what you'll find in the Fayetteville-Manlius, Marcellus, areas (east and west of Syracuse). Don't overlook the country!!
It's not that the city is "bad" per se...but it has a lot of problems comapred to suburbs. The city has higher crime rates, higher poverty levels, worse public schools and lower land values than the suburbs. Depending on where you go though, it may, or may not, fell depressing. The Rugby Road area on the Northside, for example, with richly decorated houses and old fashioned streetlamps, is gorgeous. The poverty-stricken Southside area is boarded up and in a state of decay. Now that would be depressing. It all depends on where you want to go, Syracuse is large enough that you can find a nice house to restore in an area that's right for you.
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Seriously, the city needs an huge influx of more sophisticated people for it to turn into a desirable place again. If thousands of Canadians moved to the city and started landscaping their yards, redoing the exterior of the homes and thus made the neighborhoods more family friendly, then I wouldn't mind suggesting the city as a great place to live.
School Districts in the Syarcsue Area
