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I appreciate everything you two have said. We are trying to make the best decision based on our situation and all thoughts are useful to us. We are grateful. Thank you.
I've got to agree on the crime in Binghamton. It is mostly in a few neighborhoods. Not much to worry about if you stay out of a few blocks here and there. You can tell when you drive down the street if it is a good area or not.
I also agree on the job outlook, If you are going there and have a good job-no problem. If you are going there to find work, forget about it.
I'm a little late with this thread. Just recently found these forums.
I've lived in Binghamton, and The Greater Binghamton Area, my entire life. I wouldn't trade places with anyone to live anywhere else. We have a very diversified history.
Unfortunately, our areas prosperity has gone belly up. We host the mother plant of IBM, where I've worked for many years. IBM's local trouble started when we hired Cookie Man from Nabisco as CEO. With foreign competition making our main manufacturing products, we quickly began loosing sales in that area. It had a quick trickle down affect, and the stock holders were complaining, (thus, the new guy). It's a long story, but Cookie Man was a cold hearted business person, and went against everything our founder stood for. Once Pres Bush offered tax cuts to businesses to build and hire in 3rd world countries, our fate was sealed. No, I promise not to make a political stand here, (stepping off soap box). The effect of basically closing the mother plant dealt a fatal blow to the entire region (Endicott, Vestal, Johnson City).
The part about the drugs, as someone stated, isn't due to college kids, all colleges, whether prestigious or not, has that issue. Where the issue lies is in our gov, (Wacky Pataki) cleaning out welfare from the NYC, and sending them upstate. Check the map. Binghamton is THE main artery of traffic flow, via route 81, for drugs to be sold and delivered. Our current lose of economics has caused, even locals, to turn to making and selling drugs. I know this sounds horrible, but it is major consideration for you. IF you seek drugs, you'll find them. But we are by no means a run down crumbly town. We are currently is the process of addressing our drug and economic issues. And we WILL prevail.
PPL here are the salt of the earth. Hometown is everywhere you look. The country side is breath taking. Rural areas are growing. We have a wide variety of grocery stores, Wegmans (upscale), Giant (take great pride in offering good prices and professional meat cutters. (no prepack here), and Big WalMart on the Vestal Parkway (great if you like WalMart... meat is all prepack ed, with no 'one on one' personal service). Then we have a variety of smaller Mom and Pop stores. We have The Oakdale Mall, And The Town Square Mall. Lowe's, Home Depot, Sears, oh, and one of favorite furniture stores, Olums. Locally grown and operated. Great stuff and will go the extra mile to help ppl get what they need.
We have Dorchester Park, in Whitney Point, and Greenwood Park close by. We have a rich variety in religions, I'd say Catholic dominates. And yes, we have a large Italian population, mainly in Endicott. We also have many fine schools.
The weather may not always be great, but it sure isn't boring :-) The reason we have so many cloudy days is due to the lake effects of the Great Lakes.
Is your husbands company thinking of coming here? What is the name?
Binghamton stinks. It is dirty. The river is nasty. The buildings are either falling down or condemned. The air is smelly. I am being very honest. You will not like it. And to get in a good neighborhood you better be a doctor. Oh its only 1 street. I am from Elmira and it is a very big dfference from only being 40 minutes away from each other. People are either drunk or on drugs in Binghamton. Elmira is nice as well as Historical and any falling down buildings usually get torn down. In Binghamton they let you live in them... It's unbeleivable.
The Binghamton area has become a little depressed over the last 15 years, we used to live there and then moved to Syracuse. There is still a lot going on down there and it is nice place to live, we just notice that the city itself has gone a little down hill.
The area is NY like regarding weather. The city of Binghamton is not ideal for living, the west side of Binghamton, Johnson City, Endicott are safer. The Kirkwood, Conklin areas are also good.
I'm from Rochester, but have relatives in Binghamton. When I go down, you can just tell how sad the city is. The people are nice, like to party, but they don't know anything outside of Binghamton. It's like they're secluded there for their entire lives. The city is poor and is a dump.
Coming from Fairport, one of the nicest suburbs of Rochester, all I can really do is look down upon Binghamton. I have nothing against the city, it's just really depressing.
Look at Cicero, a Syracuse suburb and a beautiful area. Nieghboring towns are Liverpool, Clay and many other areas. Not far from the fingerlakes, the Adirondacks, and Lake Ontario. Just do some research on real estate and schools, you might like what you see. There is a great NYS education dept web site you should look at regardless of what you choose, either way goodluck, Glen (happily married w/2children)lol
i llive in bingahmton...idk if u know where the CB is in binghamton but it is located right off interstate 81 just north of town in an up and coming shopping area...quite busy. as for the snow... people all pretend they dont like it but u can sense the excitement in the air the day before a big snowfall, and when it finally does snow everybody helps everyone( shovel driveways ,freee cars etc..) also i think many people ski, snowboard or snowmobile. in general i love the area and i actually wish it would snow more!!!
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Binghamton lifer here
