Syracuse, New York--tell me about it, please

[Ipsey]

Hey, gang.

 

Again, I come to the best fount of communal knowledge I know of. :)

 

Who can talk to me about living in Syracuse, NY?

 

Anything and everything, please.

 

Thanks so much!

[beaners]

That's my hometown! :) What do you need to know?

[KungFuPanda]

One of my best friends moved there. Their taxes are HIGH. There doesn't seem like there's much to do, but she's not IN Syracuse.

[Ipsey]

That's my hometown! :) What do you need to know?

 

 

Can you tell me about the schools? How do you like living there? I know the winters are tough. Do you have a snow blower :)

What would you tell anyone looking at moving there?

 

Thanks so!

[beaners]

School quality varies a lot. The city schools are not good at all. Better districts in the suburbs outside of Syracuse would include Fayetteville-Manlius, Skaneateles, Westhill, basically anywhere the houses are more expensive, unfortunately. There are some private schools like CBA, Bishop Ludden, Bishop Grimes, and Manlius Pebble Hill. The Syracuse paper regularly publishes information with the percentage of students that graduate, how many go to college, etc. Their site is Syracuse.com and this is one article.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/06/high_school_graduation_rates_i_1.html

 

Honestly, even aside from the schools, I wouldn't want to live in the city itself. There are some parts near Dewitt, Nottingham and the SU Hill that aren't too bad but are still city schools. A lot of those parents use the private school options. The crime in Syracuse doesn't begin to come close to other places I've lived like Memphis, but the inner-city areas have been getting worse and worse.

 

We aren't there now because of my husband's job, but we've talked about moving back a few times. We almost ended up back in New York last year, but we were sent to Ohio instead. :) On the whole, I wish we had moved there, but that's is where almost my entire family lives. It might be kind of lonely to move there if you don't know anyone. In the area I lived in, people didn't move around too much. Most of the kids I went to kindergarten with graduated with me. I still see them and their parents every time I go to Wegmans. People are friendly enough, in general.

 

I felt like there was quite a bit available for a city its size. There's a zoo, art museum, symphony, kid's science museum, some smaller malls and now one HUGE mall, several small historical sites like the French Fort and the Salt Museum. There are college sports teams, minor league baseball and hockey if you're a sports person. There are parks like Green Lakes, Jamesville Beach, the Erie Canal, Oneida Lake Shores, Onondaga Lake Parkway, and Long Branch. There were a lot of options for parks and rec and youth sports during the summers and at private facilities for things like soccer and lacrosse.

 

Winters can be bad, but the last few haven't been as bad as usual. We never had a snowblower. We did have good shovels, and some of my family members have paid contracts for snowplowing. It probably depends a bit on your health too. My husband and I are young and fairly healthy, so it was just a bit of exercise. You did have to plan ahead to leave the house and take into account road conditions. Generally the roads there were better than the roads in places that get less snow, because they have the equipment and the budget to keep the roads cleared and salted. North of the thruway the snow is worse. Most commute times are pretty short in the city because it's not that big, but my husband was working almost an hour from where we lived when we were there. He was going on 81 and 481 up to Clay, and the roads were sometimes bad up there. Some people get snow tires, but we generally just made sure we had newer tires with tread on them.

 

I'll agree that taxes are high. I liked the grocery stores, especially Wegmans if you haven't had one of those before. The one in Dewitt is always packed, but it's really great. Houses in a good area might be expensive, depending on where you're coming from. I have no idea about rental rates and availability outside of apartment complexes. I recall utilities being kind of expensive too, but I'm not sure if that was the unit cost or the amount we were using for heat. Summers can get warm enough to occasionally want an AC window unit, although we never had one. Fall leaves are beautiful. There wasn't much topsoil where we lived, so you would hit the bedrock pretty quick if you were going to garden. I'd recommend raised beds if you're interested in gardening. I love the German food at Danzers. There are a lot of Irish pubs on Tipperary Hill, and check out the reversed traffic light if you're over there.

 

Is that helpful at all? Feel free to ask more!

[JumpyTheFrog]

My grandpa has lived about 30 minutes from Syracuse for 67 years. They (especially where he lives, in a hillier area) get much more snow than other cities upstate like Rochester or Albany. It's cloudy most of the time. Like most cities in the Rust Belt, it has been hemmorhaging jobs for decades. I grew up a few hours away, but I imagine that it is much the same: young people leaving for other cities or states with better jobs.

 

If I ever had to move back to NY, I would go to the Captial District, north of Albany. I enjoyed Rochester, too, but it has a high crime rate in many areas. If I have to put up with the cold, I want to be near the ski areas in VT and the summer fun in the Adirondacks.

[Thia]

Taxes are super high. Gas is super high. Utilities, food...super high. The over all economy is terrible. For each open job position there are a hundred applicants. That means that employers can treat their employees however they want. If one quits, they can just hire another. Not great working conditions. A lot of industry has left the area in the last decade. Not sure if you're a gun owner, but if so, you better check the new highly restrictive legislation. The crime keeps going up, there seems to be at least one shooting a day b/c the criminals don't turn their guns in for buybacks. Honestly, the weather is the least of that area's problems.

On the up side, there are things to do there, as someone mentioned. And short drives will take to you some breathtaking places. The weather really isn't terrible. You'd want a four wheel drive vehicle and just keep a few extra staples around during the winter. Most people here know how to deal with snow and clean up is usually quick.

Schools in the city are not great, the schools outside the city vary. Homeschooling in NY is not as terrible as people make it out to be. I know there are some Christian homeschool groups in the area, not sure about secular.

[Ipsey]

Egad.

This doesn't sound good :(

Thanks for the input!

[Starr]

There are some lovely little towns near Syracuse. Everyone isn't driving around in a 4 wheel jeep worrying about their automatic weapons. :lol:

[I talk to the trees]

We have had a VERY, VERY, VERY negative experience in this area. Ymmv, but I really wish someone had warned us before we moved here. The cost of living is sky-high, as are taxes, and the winters are beyond awful- and that's just the beginning... My suggestion would be to run as far and fast as you can in the opposite direction.

[JumpyTheFrog]

Let's define the "super-high" property taxes of NY. I don't know about Syracuse, but where my parents live, people pay school/property tax of $4-8,000 per year. Plus, people pay several thousand annually to heat their houses.

 

There is a reason so many people are moving south.

[Mrs_JWM]

I'll write more later, but I've lived here all my life and I LOVE IT! YMMV, but it works for us! :)

 

We live in a great neighborhood near Syracuse University. I can walk or bike everywhere - library, organic food co-op, grocery store, deli, bakery, restaurants, parks, public pool, ballet and piano lessons, friends' houses, etc. Most of my friends and neighbors have one car; at least one spouse always walks to work at the university or the nearby hospitals. It's a very friendly place to live, too, with tons of stuff to do, as beaners mentioned. Our library system is huge, and we have a good-sized homeschooling community. The University neighborhood is diverse, liberal, activist, and dynamic. People are always out walking, riding bikes, stopping to chat with neighbors or people passing by.

 

People do commute from the suburbs; it's really easy, and nothing is much more than 30 minutes away. I wouldn't live in the suburbs, but that's just me. You can still get a lot of house for not much money, but you've got to drive around. That's no fun for me.

 

Our house was just over $100,000 ten years ago; 5 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and all the other usual rooms. Great yard. Houses nearby are now selling for around $130,000, which is still quite reasonable. We pay $3000 in property/school taxes. Is that high? I don't know. It goes to pay for all the things I love about living here, so it seems reasonable to me! Let's see - I could pay $250 a month or $52 a week to belong to a gym, buy books, pay for trash pickup, find lots of expensive entertainment, or I could pay my taxes. Just my $0.02, but I find that we live very well on what we have left after taxes.

 

The economy is definitely struggling, but it has been for a long time. There are rougher parts of town that deal with way too much crime, but I have never felt unsafe in most parts of town. I've never felt unsafe driving through rougher parts, either, but I don't do it frequently because I don't have any need to.

 

Maybe you should come visit to see what you think. :)

[wapiti]

It snows a lot (highest average annual snowfall in the country for a city?)

[sarah1615]

I grew up in a little town outside of Syracuse. I agree with the PP about good school districts, but would also add Cazenovia to the list of very good schools. Taxes are high by comparison to other parts of the country. I don't think housing prices are ridiculously high so the higher taxes kind of even it out. Now, I live just outside Rochester, NY and I do prefer it to Syracuse, but there are still things that I miss about Syracuse. Overall, it's a nice area (in my opinion), but depending on the town you live in it can be a little pricey, but not that bad! The landscapes are beautiful and there is decent skiing if you are into that. Having grown up there, I don't think the snow is that big of a deal, but that is certainly dependent on where you're coming from. I think most people tend to love it or hate it!

[Ipsey]

Maybe it all comes down to a matter of perspective. Where are you coming from, Ipsey? Or what other areas have you lived in? What criteria do you value in terms of quality of life?

 

 

I've lived a bit everywhere. Midwest I liked very much. We were in a pretty liberal area, in a small town right outside the capital city. My husband commuted into the university there. Utah, which I loved socially and scenically, apart from the religious aspects; that was hard. Deep South which I _hated_.

 

I don't know about the subdivisions in Syracuse. Can one commute easily into the university from the suburbs?

 

Thanks for all the replies.

[MedicMom]

I live about two hours southeast. Taxes overall in NY are high. Gas is running about 3.99/gallon. We are in a small town so our property taxes would be different, but they aren't terrible. COL is relatively low. Winter is variable. Some years you get several feet of snow, other years none at all.

 

I would not live IN Syracuse. There are some nice towns just outside that I would look at. We love the zoo there.

[Peplophoros]

Very easy commute to SU from the suburbs (I do it twice a week). Fayetteville-Manlius is a great place to live. Taxes are high, but real estate is ridiculously low (compared to most cities). I live in a house that would be more than a million downstate or in any other big city, but for 1/5 the cost here. Big houses, big yards, awesome libraries. Snow stays too long (still slushy out, and staying that way), but you get used to it. Great homeschooling groups--and growing by the week. My family and I really like living here, and we're not from the area. We do have a snowblower, but that's only because we can afford a huge driveway :)