| reply to Gone
Re: [Serious] Rural Poverty said by Gone:said by Last Parade:If you want rural poverty, try driving through the outskirts of WNY. Draw a triangle from Buffalo down to Salamanca out to North East and pick your poison.
edit: but not yuppievilleEllicottville You think it's bad in Western New York? Try heading up to St. Lawrence County. Either way, the situation is far worse in the US. The stark difference on the two sides of the Ogdensburg/Johnstown bridge just blows my mind (I cross at least once a week to do shopping in Ogdensburg on my way home from work). I cross into NY State and feel like I'm in a 3rd world... the houses are all old and falling apart, the yards are full of junk, there's no "nice new neighbourhoods" with any type of new construction. It's just painful being over there... I go into Lowe's to buy some stuff for the house and I'm the only one in the store.
Back on this side - while Johnstown, Prescott, and Cardinal are not exactly the bastion of economic success seen in Ottawa or Kingston, they feel like being in Beverly Hills in comparison to the stuff in St Lawrence county, NY.. One of the things making that happen that I've noticed is that the entire 416/401 "intersection area" has become a bedroom community for Ottawa. You can still buy a really nice house in the area for $200k-$250k... the further up 416 you go the worse the prices get - by the time you get to Kemptville $350,000 is a nice house, North Gower $400,000 or so, and Manotick - well you're $500,000 and up. |
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 GonePremium
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Fort Erie, ON
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| 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. |
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PX EliezerPremium
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Hutt River
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said by Hydraglass:The stark difference on the two sides of the Ogdensburg/Johnstown bridge just blows my mind.
Johnstown is part of the flow of traffic in Ontario, being right off the 401 etc. It's in the shipping lanes so to speak.
Ogdensburg is isolated in upstate New York, it is NOT near major roads, there is no big reason to be there except that NYS put jails and a mental hospital there....
US traffic heading north is going to go on Interstate 81 to the Thousand Islands Bridges.... |
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| reply to Gone
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. |
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GonePremium
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON
kudos:3 | 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. |
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GonePremium
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Fort Erie, ON
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said by PX Eliezer:Johnstown is part of the flow of traffic in Ontario, being right off the 401 etc. It's in the shipping lanes so to speak. Even parts of Southern Ontario that are off the beaten path (e.g. Owen Sound) aren't the holes that Odgensburg is. Quite the opposite, in fact. Owen Sound is beautiful.
Northern New York is a beautiful place, it's a shame that cities like Odgensburg are such a hole. |
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| reply to PX Eliezer
said by PX Eliezer:said by Hydraglass:The stark difference on the two sides of the Ogdensburg/Johnstown bridge just blows my mind.
Johnstown is part of the flow of traffic in Ontario, being right off the 401 etc. It's in the shipping lanes so to speak. Ogdensburg is isolated in upstate New York, it is NOT near major roads, there is no big reason to be there except that NYS put jails and a mental hospital there.... US traffic heading north is going to go on Interstate 81 to the Thousand Islands Bridges.... Yeah - I always attribute it to "That corner of upstate NY is about as miserable, cold, and far away from anything meaningful that there is for US residents" while on this side, it's right on our southern border - the middle of traffic and commerce from Toronto to Montreal, etc.. but, in any case, that area even makes the hometown of the US part of my family (Scranton) seem "not like the hole of the earth that Joe Biden makes it out to be".
Mind you, I'm not diminishing poverty in rural Ontario and Canada at large, it's there, all I need to do is drive around on some of the dirt roads up in the area near my cottage (Bancroft area) - and it doesn't take long to find old falling apart farms and farmhouses that barely look like they can hold the roof up, with nothing more for the residents to drive than an old '70s or 80's pickup truck that has the fenders held on with bungee cords and duct tape. The "great unseen" of cottage country.. I've at least tried to bring more of my service and product purchasing out there and take less with me from home - to try to bring a little more $ to the folks out there. |
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peterboroAvatars are for posersPremium
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Peterborough, ON | said by Hydraglass: Mind you, I'm not diminishing poverty in rural Ontario and Canada at large, it's there, all I need to do is drive around on some of the dirt roads up in the area near my cottage (Bancroft area) - and it doesn't take long to find old falling apart farms and farmhouses that barely look like they can hold the roof up, with nothing more for the residents to drive than an old '70s or 80's pickup truck that has the fenders held on with bungee cords and duct tape. The "great unseen" of cottage country.. Minden, Bancroft, or most of the ares north of Peterborough and Lindsay have areas of diminished value unless they are on the waterfront or in the actual towns. |
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PX EliezerPremium
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said by Hydraglass:Yeah - I always attribute it to "That corner of upstate NY is about as miserable, cold, and far away from anything meaningful that there is for US residents" while on this side, it's right on our southern border - the middle of traffic and commerce from Toronto to Montreal, etc.
That's it, unfortunately.
As Luke said about his homeworld:
if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from
Rural upstate outlying areas like Ogdensburg---sad to say they don't get attention from [anyone]. |
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 WhaleOilBeeWhat a long strange trip it's been
join:2011-08-02
Manotick, ON | reply to peterboro
I lived between Madoc and Bancroft from mid 70's to mid 90's. I always felt like an outsider. Most of the locals were multi-generations there.
There were lots of hard working people living there who would do whatever they could to make a living... snowplowing, firewood, trash hauling, etc. Then there were the chronic welfare do-nothings who referred to their children as "meal tickets". So basically the same cross section of personalities you're likely to find in a city. |
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