Canadian Chat → Re: [Serious] Rural Poverty

Yes, you described it perfectly. Things start to get better once you're in Jefferson County and down past Watertown (though Pulaski is just... weird), but the entire run along Route 37 between I-81 and Ogdensburg is a whole other world the likes of which I have never seen outside of the urban blight in Buffalo or Rochester. I mean, I've seen plenty of occupied dilapidated homes in the Southern US, and I figured it possible because, well, it's warm down there. But to see those in Northern New York, where it's colder than even here in the winter... well, let's just put it this way - they aren't even that bad in the worst parts of Buffalo.

You know what Odgensburg's three largest employers are? A state prison, a different state prison less than a mile away, and a state mental hospital between the two. Wonderful stuff.

It's not just how run-down and 3rd-world Ogdensburg looks. I go there fairly often, and I think the youngest person I've seen there is 55 years old. I suppose, with no opportunities, I image all the young people bail as soon as they can.

I saw teenagers when I was driving through, piled into the back of a pickup truck no less. About as rural as it gets. I have to wonder where they'll be after they finish high school.