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For today's photo tour I decided to venture north of the border into the Empire State to explore Binghamton (Bingo) on foot for the very first time as a tourist. I must say that I have quite a lot of analysis to provide you all with in regards to the city---both good and bad---but I'll reserve those judgments until after I've posted all 100 or so of my images for your viewing pleasure.
Binghamton, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is perched at the juncture of I-81 (North/South) and Route 17 (East/West) in Upstate New York's Southern Tier, approximately 15 minutes north of the PA border. It is about an hour north of Scranton, PA, an hour south of Syracuse, an hour east of Elmira, and three hours northwest of NYC in Broome County. It is home to roughly 47,000 residents in the city proper with a metropolitan population closer to 250,000. The city is home to the Binghamton Mets baseball team (AA Affiliate of NY Mets), and the Binghamton Senators (AHL Affiliate of the Ottawa Senators). The city also hosts the Binghamton Philharmonic, Binghamton Zoo, Binghamton University, Rod Serling Museum (creator of the "Twilight Zone"), and the Roberson Museum and Science Center. The Susquehanna River meanders through the city rather peacefully for most of the time, but several floods have ravaged it in recent history.
Please enjoy the photos that will come below, and then stay tuned for the analysis of my visit. Overall I had a great time in the city (residents such as Hartwick should be relieved to hear that), but there were many disappointments I came across that I'll allude to later.
As always with my photo tours, please hold off on a reply until you see the word (END) at the bottom of a series of photos so that your message doesn't get mixed-up in the middle of the photo tour.
Thanks for letting me visit your beautiful state!
-Paul
I left my home at around 8:30 AM, bound for Binghamton, NY, a city that I've always admired online but never experienced in person. The drive along I-81 north was a little hectic as I passed through Scranton at the tail-end of the morning rush-hour, but then I put on my Coldplay CD, rolled down my windows, and totally allowed the fresh mountain air to infiltrate my lungs as I passed out of Scranton's northernmost suburbs and into the farmlands of Northern Lackawanna County and Susquehanna County on the hour-long stretch of pristine paradise between Scranton and Binghamton.
"Welcome to New York, You Stupid Pennsylvanians!" LOL!
I have to give Broome County credit where credit is due. As a first-time visitor to the city without a map, I was able to navigate my way into the heart of downtown and around a twisting mess of interchanges with perfect ease thanks to the amount of wonderful signs you all have pointing we wayward tourists in the right direction.
The view of the city skyline as I entered from the freeway.
After getting dumped out onto Court Street (Route 11) in Downtown Binghamton, I proceeded through downtown and onto Main Street to what I think was known as the "First Ward" in Binghamton's West Side (Hartwick can correct me if I am mistaken). I hung a left onto Chestnut Street and found a free parking spot in front of this home. Notice my car in the foreground panting for breath after my leadfoot had it hovering at around 75 miles per hour the whole way up to Bingo!
Some more scenes from Chestnut Street.
Some scenes from along Main Street in Binghamton's West Side.
This marker sits on the front lawn of Binghamton High School along Main Street and pays tribute to Rod Serling, the city resident who created the "Twilight Zone" television series.
I continued marching eastward along Main Street until I came to the bridge over the Susquehanna River that links the West Side to Downtown Binghamton.
Looking over the bridge from the West Side into Downtown as Main Street turns into Court Street. There was some sort of construction project going on that was snarling traffic.
A view of the Susquehanna River as it passes beneath the bridge.
Boscov's Department Store. This is a regional chain that also has downtown locations in both Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, PA as well as various suburban locales.
Urban blight along Court Street. One of the many instances of potential in Downtown Binghamton.
Some more scenes from along Court Street as it passes through downtown from the West Side to the East End.
Central Fire Station
Some more images of the skyline from the outer fringes of the downtown.
Binghamton YWCA
From this angle, the city looks much larger than it truly is.
From the downtown I decided to head over the bridge along Exchange Street to explore the South Side of Binghamton, which is home to Binghamton Hospital.
While crossing the bridge, I couldn't help but snap a photo of the Susquehanna River at what appears to be a dam of some sort just upstream.
Some homes along Conklin Avenue.
The South Side Veterans' Park, which runs between the levee wall and Conklin Avenue.
The Park Diner, Conklin Avenue
Crowley Factory, Conklin Avenue
Some more scenes from the South Side.
Two more views of the skyline as I once again cross the river via a nice bicycle path/pedestrian bridge between the Exchange Street and Route 434 Bridges.
After passing over the bridge I decided to head left on Riverside Drive and over another bridge into what appeared to be a more upper-middle-class urban neighborhood.
Binghamton Visitors' Center, as well as the Roberson Museum & Science Center.
Some more scenes from this neighborhood. I didn't keep a mental note of what dwellings were on what streets, but the streets I covered included Riverside Drive, Front Street, Oak Street, Murray Street, Chapin Street, Vincent Street, and Leroy Street.
A view of the Susquehanna River as it passes by this neighborhood.
I rounded the corner onto Chestnut Street but stopped briefly to examine a sexy 2006 Mini Cooper convertible that was perched in the front of a used car lot at the intersection of Main & Chestnut. I WILL own a Mini Cooper someday, even if it kills me! Shown below are two images of my trek southward into the Keystone State.
Hmmm...I might just have to make this very same choice again in a few years after graduate school if Scranton's employment sector doesn't begin to pick up steam.
"Pennsylvania Welcomes You (and your fat tourist wallets!)"
While heading down I-81, I decided to veer off at the New Milford exit en route to a second photo tour of the quaint country town of Montrose, PA. I will be posting my photo tour of that community as well in about an hour on the PA forum if any of you would be interested in seeing more of my work.
Some lovely pictures but a bit selective in your choice of views I'd say. That wasn't the downtown Binghamton I saw less than a year ago.
Well, I'm just providing everyone with my honest perspectives of a first-time tourist to the Carousel City. I wasn't "impressed" at all by Binghamton, but I wasn't turned-off by it either. Binghamton reminds me of where Scranton was in the 1990s---just getting its act together to rise up from "rock bottom." Flashing forward to 2007, Scranton was just mentioned in the New York Times as being the new "Hollywood East," it was referenced in Philadelphia Magazine as being a "hip" city, it is the home for "The Office", it is home to a new film office, the NY Yankees, galleries, lofts, coffee houses, an upcoming medical school, a commuter rail link to NYC, etc. Just ten years ago people avoided the Electric City like the plague (as they seem to be doing right NOW in Binghamton), and we were dubbed runner-up for "Armpit of America." A decade later people have a renewed interest in Scranton, and I think another ten years will have Binghamton right up there among the ranks of we "Rust Belt Rebounders."
The similarities between Scranton and Binghamton were uncanny to me. Both have a Boscov's in their downtowns. Both have at least one historic, tree-lined neighborhood (Riverside Drive area in Binghamton; Green Ridge and "The Hill" in Scranton). Both have declining tax bases and growing problems with urban sprawl. Both are struggling to reinvent their economies (although Scranton is now winning in this category). Both have minor-league sports teams, river flooding issues, potholes, and a general populace that is negative about their city's future.
While I think Scranton's downtown has Binghamton's beat hands-down, there were certain little "nuances" in Bingo that made me smile. For example, I saw several vendors with wagons along Court Street selling hot dogs and beverages. We don't have those here, even though they'd be a great addition. Court Street has beautiful Victorian-era streetlights with hanging baskets; Scranton doesn't. Binghamton has at least several pedestrian crossing signals that have a red "countdown" until the light changes to green; we don't. Binghamton's arena and stadium are both in its downtown; Scranton's are in the suburbs. Binghamton has a downtown YWCA; Scranton's YMCA is in the suburbs. Binghamton seems to have tremendous cultural and ethnic diversity; I couldn't go one step near Binghamton High School without bumping into an African-American or Hispanic (I wondered why those teens weren't inside the school building at noon on a Wednesday, but I digress). Scranton, in contrast, is about 95% white, non-Hispanic. I'd also suspect that Binghamton's GLBT community is also more well-received than it is here in the "Bible Belt of the Northeast." Binghamton also has its visitors' center in its downtown area; Scranton's is in the suburbs.
Those are some key elements that Scranton could learn from Binghamton's lead. On the other hand, while Scranton has at least a half-dozen massive mixed-use retail/residential projects on its horizon with loft apartments, condos, artist's studios, etc. that will bring at least 1,000 new residents to its downtown, Binghamton still seemed to be very much a 9-5 city, and I can't find too many promises of major residential projects coming to Bingo's downtown on the internet. Scranton has two major colleges in its downtown---The University of Scranton and Lackawanna College--with a third, the Scranton Medical School, on the way for 2009. Binghamton has no college in its downtown---neither Binghamton University nor Broome Community College are present there. Scranton has a successful business incubator in its downtown. I couldn't find one in Downtown Binghamton.
Demographically, both cities are similar. Scranton has 70,000 residents while Binghamton has about 47,000. Median household incomes are similar, even though Scranton's housing values are higher. Both cities were replete with mostly newer vehicles on the roadways and in parking lots, indicating that the overall economic health in each area isn't as "bleak" as you Chicken Little like to portray (unless you're all living on credit cards).
As a first-time visitor to the city, I was a bit disappointed in the retail options downtown besides Boscov's, whereas Scranton has new niche retailers popping up left and right (fashion boutiques, gourmet dog bakery, toy store, gift shops, skin care store, etc.) I also was disappointed with the variety of restaurants offered downtown in comparison to the Electric City, where you can find a Thai restaurant, a sushi bar, a Starbucks, a blues cafe, a vegetarian restaurant, a Chinese buffet, an authentic Irish pub, a SoHo-style martini bar, and a soup cafe all within a few blocks of each other near Courthouse Square.
Binghamton has a LOT of catching up to do to reach Scranton's current level of downtown vibrancy (Wow! It feels so WEIRD to say that for a change!) However, it is most certainly on a clear path for success in the upcoming years. Just try to encourage more residential growth downtown to help create foot traffic past 5 PM, as well as giving college students an incentive to come downtown to shop, dine, and play (as Scranton does to its students), and you'll be rebuilding yourselves in no time. For midday on a Wednesday, I was floored to see Court Street so...well...DEAD! I figured that the noon lunch hour would have many throngs of office workers clogging the streets looking for a bite to eat, but I only saw a few small groups of them every now and then.
Finally, one final good note to leave Binghamton with is that I loved your police department. It seemed as if there truly was a cop on every block, judging by how I saw at least a dozen different police vehicles patrolling city streets in different areas. It truly made me feel safe to see so many cops around. Even though Scranton hasn't had a murder in two years now and rarely has any crime, it still does feel a bit unnerving at times to never see a police patrol come by. Your police department deserves nothing but the utmost praise and respect; your tax dollars are being put to great use in that area!
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I must say that I have quite a lot of analysis to provide you all with in regards to the city---both good and bad---but I'll reserve those judgments until after I've posted all 100 or so of my images for your viewing pleasure. 
On the Road Again...
LOL!
