Not a great place to live
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11/7/2008
The city of Albany old, poor and run down. The downtown is empty during the nights and weekends except for a couple of blocks where the bars are. The nightlife is populated with mostly poor and uneducated people. The college areas are run down and often referred to as the "student ghettos". Most people that work in Albany do not live in the city. Nearby suburban areas like Colonie actually have a larger population than Albany does. There is not much "city life", shopping is all in strip malls and large indoor malls. Other nearby cities like Troy and Schenectady are even more run down. The only good area near Albany is Saratoga which is about a 40 min drive north. The winters are long and tough - about 6 months out of the year you can get snowfall and we typically get about 2 or 3 large snowfalls a year (1/2-2ft of snow). It is cold and dry during the winter and summers last a blink of the eye and are typically humid. There is no where good to go during the summer, except for some hiking/biking trails and mountain climbing and a couple of lakes up north. One good thing - if you like taking weekend trips you have NYC to the south, Boston to the east, and Montreal to the north and other more nearby areas that are nice to visit.
John | Troy, NY