Truth about the CITY of Binghamton

Colleges and Universities A-Z Binghamton University - SUNY
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<p>Wow - some of this thread is downright hysterical - as in hysteria, not as in funny! </p>

<p>The truth is that the city of Binghamton is like most small cities - good parts and bad parts. Most of the housing is from the early 20th century and might not be as elegant as some of the students are used to - what are typically called “working class neighborhoods”. I guess people who can’t afford a house in an upscale neighborhood are all unsafe and drug dealers in their eyes - ooo - scary! The sad truth is I could go through the dorms up on campus and make any kind of buy if I tried…</p>

<p>I live in the area, lived in and visited the neighborhoods mentioned and know the real truth about the city. I suppose I am one of the “creepers” mentioned above even though you wouldn’t think so if you knew my life, my job, my income, etc. </p>

<p>Sure, there are areas that are bad and are to be avoided, but blanket statements like “The whole city of Binghamton is really not safe” just shows the ignorance of the person making the statement. I do recommend that anyone who is thinking about moving off campus truly understand the neighborhood they are moving into and who they are renting from. There are some absentee slumlords (and ladys) out there who just don’t care. A little common sense and some research is well worth the effort.</p>

<p>The main Vestal campus and the area around that campus is a safe suburban setting. The one academic building downtown is across the street from the county hockey arena, next to a Holiday Inn, a block from City Hall and police station and next to several private student housing buildings. These buildings have long waiting lists and private developers are wanting to build more. Apparently a great number of students do not think downtown is a “Lion’s Den”. </p>

<p>I go down that way all the time, day and night, and have never had an issue. It’s true you may see some undesirables, but as with any city center, you should have some street smarts and take basic precautions. If you truly think “danger is lurking in every corner” of Binghamton, you really should just stay in Vestal - or go to Stony Brook. Fear is a powerful thing. Frankly, the reason most of the locals avoid downtown in the late evening because of the drunken students hanging out at the State Street bars…</p>

<p>And about the tragic shooting of the police officer, yes that was in the area of the proposed pharmacy school and next to the local hospital, but the shooter was an employee of a medical office located there, who apparently had some sort of mental breakdown. It was not at all related to the neighborhood. And if a street full of doctor’s offices and a hospital is the “worst of the worst” in someone’s eyes, they really need to get out and see more of the world…</p>

<p>Which brings me to this point - do these students just plan to live, work, play in their “safe” suburbs after graduation and not interact or even see people who don’t live in the same kind of houses like them, have jobs like them, don’t look like them? </p>

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<p>People saying there are good and bad spots clearly live in the SUNY bubble. I know college kids think they know it all, but never want to use DATA. And a simple Google search will show the crime rate in the area. It now has 50% more crime than the state average. Just 10 years ago, it was LESS than the state average. Those apartment complexes that supposedly have waiting lists (hint: they don’t…there are plenty of available apartments in Twin Rivers Commons and 20 Hawley) are safe because they are fenced off and have 24 hour security.) Doesn’t change the fact that if you go for a walk outside those gates, you are in the neighborhood where there are major drug and gang arrests every month or so. One data shows that there only 8% of the cities in the entire COUTNRY are less safe than Binghamton. And only 2% of the cities in the state are worse. being in the bottom 8 or 2% is not “like any other small city” So although I know college children like to think that they are experts and don’t need to go by actual facts and data, here are some. <a href=“Binghamton, NY Crime Rates & Map”>http://www.areavibes.com/binghamton-ny/crime/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Oh.,…and saying that people just want to “play it safe” shows that you don’t care how stupid you look. HUGE difference between not wanting to interact and not wanting to be around drug dealers everywhere you go. Or sex offenders. (Binghamton has THE highest rate of sex offenders per capita in the entire country. Another awesome accomplishment.) And no…most people’s goal in life is NOT to interact with criminals. Call that scaredy cats if you want, but most people can happily live their whole life without ever encountering members of the Bloods gangs, of which Binghamton just had a major arrest of over a dozen…including sales made on the Binghamton campus. But that is what NORMAL people think. Not that it matters. Less than 10% of Binghamton students stick around after they graduate. And with every graduation class, that number is getting smaller.</p>

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<p>What’s with all this bashing of the city of Binghamton? Yes, there are good parts and bad parts…just like any other city in America. I live on campus but go downtown on Friday and Saturday and sometimes Thursday Nights. I go over my friend’s house on the west side of Binghamton all the time as well. I have never felt threatened or scared at all. If your with a group of friends or even alone, nobody will bother you. People in this forum make Binghamton out to be this crime ridden city, It’s really not that bad. Stop scarring people away from the university. </p>

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<p>Lakawak - No I am not living in the SUNY bubble and I am not a college kid - I have lived in the immediate Binghamton area for about 30 years and my daughter is considering going to BU. When I saw the title of this thread I couldn’t help myself but see what folks are writing. </p>

<p>First off, by reading your post, it’s clear YOU don’t know how to use data at all! </p>

<p>How credible is your data? Can’t tell! Your data source seems to be a webpage called AreaVibes. Never heard of it and they provide no information on their web page about where their data comes from. But for the sake of argument lets assume the raw data is correct. </p>

<p>Your link shows where you got the 2% number from – did you bother to look at the “cities” it was comparing the crime rate to? Yes, the big name cities in New York are listed, but so are the Village of Newark Valley (a one red-light “city”), the neighborhoods of Apalachin and Endwell which are not a city, village, town or anything definable, and Big Flats Airport (yes an airport). The denominator includes hundreds of places like these – not cities at all. In other words your 2% number is garbage. </p>

<p>A meaningful comparison would be to compare it to other similarly sized “real”upstate cities and if you do, even with the AreaVibes data, you’ll see that Binghamton is right in the middle along with Utica, Schenectady, Troy, Albany, Elmira, Poughkeepsie, Niagara Falls and better than Buffalo, Rochester etc. No surprise. So stop this hogwash about being the bottom 2% of cities in New York. It IS like any other small city in Upstate NY. </p>

<p>Plenty of empty apartments at Twin Rivers and 20 Hawley? Then why do the private investors want to build even more? They don’t make money on empty rooms….And please provide evidence of “major drug and gang arrests every month or so” in the downtown area of these apartments. Not out in different neighborhoods, different parts of town, but in the Washington St, State St, Court St area where the restaurants and bars are they want to live near to. </p>

<p>And If you think there are not good parts of Binghamton also, you are the one living in a bubble, not me. You know what I’m talking about - off of Vestal Ave, West End Ave, Riverside Dr, Upper Conklin Ave, by the zoo etc. are some very nice neighborhoods. Like I said – there are good and bad spots.</p>

<p>I wasn’t saying anyone wants to interact with drug dealers and sex offenders – you are the one insinuating that students living in the downtown apartments will be based on incidents in other parts of the city. The students downtown have no need to go out to the North or Clinton St areas where the gang arrests were. And the sex offender “title” was created by a local politician years ago when he was running for mayor and subsequently debunked. You are just throwing the same mud around. My point was that some of the posters (particularly ptrocker) have the attitude that the whole area is full of “sketchy townies” and a ghetto. A very immature attitude towards people and a place you know nothing about. Some day they might actually have to take a bus or subway or work with (or for) people not like them – lose the attitude. </p>

<p>And what is the point of stating less than 10% of the students stick around after graduation? They mostly come from downstate and intend to go back to downstate when they graduate. Do you really think this is different than say Cornell and Ithaca? Penn State and State College?</p>

<p>Speaking of looking stupid, how do you think YOU looked after resurrecting a year old thread to announce to everyone how SUNY is planning on building their pharmacy school in the part of town where a cop got shot literally just hours earlier (nice taste!) – when it turns out the shooting had nothing to do with gangs, drug dealing, the neighborhood, etc like you were insinuating, but was a disturbed employee of a MRI office next to the hospital.</p>

<p>You have 4 posts all in this thread and all bashing the City of Binghamton. I suspect you also used the nycgirl21 username that started this thread years ago – that username also has 4 posts all on here bashing Binghamton with the same style of WRITING, throwing random statistics out. So this begs the question – why are you even posting to CC? </p>

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<p>Same for you Bearinhoney-do you get a paycheck from admissions? I would guess so. Binghamton is not save in the way that Detroit is not save. When a city is on a long economic decline, as Binghamton has been since 1990, there is a brain drain. Those with resources, young, educated, move out of the area. The glut of housing brings property values down. Not the way that the housing bubble did for many communities. It is a steady deterioration with no hope for recovery. It’s not an artificial temporary downturn-but a steady, intractable decline. When that happens, low end properties are simply abandoned because it does not pay to fix them. The cost of a simple paint job can be higher than the value of the house. That pulls down the value of even homes in more affluent parts of the city. When the prices get as low as they are in Binghamton, there is an influx of people on assistance with housing voucher and food stamps looking to get more for their assistance. They often are uneducated, have no resources, may have many children and no future. And, if they have adolescents, the kids may already be involved in problematic activities. That is what has happened in Binghamton. Binghamton is not just like any small city. it is an economically depressed city that has been totally impervious to any upswings in the economy. People are depressed and broke-more so than in communities that can recover from economic downswings. There is nothing coming in to Binghamton and no speculation that the town will ever recover. That makes it a different kind of place than most other cities. yes it is markedly different then Ithaca. There is no comparison. Ithaca benefits from a steady influx of wealthy students, an influx of wealthy tourists enjoying the lake, an educated population, far better public schools. Ithaca is more like Ann Arbor and Binghamton is more like Detroit. Spend a day in Ithaca and a day in Binghamton. Compare the two on demographics. How can you even question that? Sad that you can’t really trust Binghamton PR to be honest with perspective students. Pity really because perspective students need to hear the truth-they will find out anyway. </p>

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<p>That should read safe not save.</p>

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<p>^^^^^ because defending my hometown from terms like “There is danger lurking in every corner” and “worst of the worst” means I must be on the payroll? Providing correct information about an incident that was presented here in a very inflammatory manner is PR? Give me an break… I already stated my background above - I have no association with the university, the city, the chamber of commerce etc. I live here and work at a local private business. My daughter was considering going to BU so I came on this web site. That’s it. </p>

<p>And I have resources, am still kinda young, am educated and I have not moved out of the area - and neither have my many, many coworkers, neighbors, family and friends. We are not depressed and broke. And my business is bringing in young, educated workers like you are describing. I have no idea where you get your impression of Binghamton from, but you are definitely not hanging out in my circles. I freely admit that Binghamton is not the same place it was 20-30 years ago, but the doom and gloom of your post is over the top.</p>

<p>Why are you bringing up Ithaca? No where did I try to compare or question anything about Ithaca. My only comment about Ithaca was that like Binghamton Univ most Cornell grads don’t stay in the area after graduation - hardly a controversial statement. I like the Ithaca area a lot and actually view it in many ways better than the Binghamton area, but employment outside of the universities there is even more limited than near Binghamton - hence where I live. It’s great you like it, but no need to use a thread about Binghamton to crow about Ithaca.</p>

<p>My exact words about other small cities was this: “The truth is that the city of Binghamton is like most small cities - good parts and bad parts.” Are you saying most other small cities only have good parts? Are not the West Village and Chestnut Hill Apartments part of the city of Ithaca?</p>

<p>And my other words about small cities was concerning crime - “you’ll see that Binghamton is right in the middle along with Utica, Schenectady, Troy, Albany, Elmira, Poughkeepsie, Niagara Falls…It IS like any other small city in Upstate NY.” If you want to add the smaller city of Ithaca to the list, then yes I should change “any” to “almost any”. Ithaca is certainly in its own unique bubble in a lot of ways with the two universities - the students might outnumber the full time residents! </p>

<p>I am well aware of what has changed in the Binghamton area over the years as I have lived here most of my life - thanks for the lecture. IBM moving out devastated the area economically. And I have seen similar changes in many of the cities in Upstate NY and the rest of the rust belt over the years. This is NOT unique to Binghamton. If you think Binghamton is so bad, you’ll really hate some other places. Do you believe Syracuse has a really bright future? Is Kodak is hiring all 50,000 workers back in Rochester? Is Hartford is a nice safe community? is New Haven? Camden? </p>

<p>And “nothing” is coming into Binghamton? The university IS the future of the city of Binghamton…and it is growing - that isn’t “nothing”. In fact in the long term Binghamton will most likely be more like Ithaca - a college town without much other economic activity.</p>

<p>I responded to this thread because 16,17 and 18 year old kids read these threads to get some information about different schools and it ticks me off when adults use the opportunity to dump on a school or a city for their own reasons. This should be a place for kids and their parents to get honest and balanced information. I have no issue if someone states something like “Binghamton has some bad parts of town - be careful” or “it rains a lot” but I feel blanket statements like the ones the OP used (and admitted were to scare people) are uncalled for in this forum with this audience. </p>

<p>So why the hate from you about Binghamton? I’ve seen a few of your posts lately…what is your angle? I told you my story and explained why I posted - you say the students need to hear the truth, what is your truth?</p>

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<p>BearInHoney, you are fairly incorrect, Lakawak is painting a fairly accurate picture of what has transpired in Binghamton. You are living in fantasyland if you haven’t experienced what has happened to much of the city in the past 30 years, namely after the Crabb administration. Get to know some police officers or EMS workers in the area if you hope to know what is happening. </p>

<p>There is a substantial gang, drug, and sex offender problem in the Binghamton area at this point. There are also a large number of glossed over crimes here that never make the press or even police blotter for that matter. I have lived all over the area for almost 50 years so I have a little perspective as well. </p>

<p>I will give an example. On balance, the West side is one of the safer areas within Binghamton with a decent student population. Even within a few blocks of Chestnut and Leroy in the past couple years, there have been several stabbings, several dozen assaults (one two nights ago by the way), dozens of car break-ins, dozens of burglaries, at least two armed robberies, one abduction, one nut breaking into girls’ homes to steal their dirty underwear, and a serious home invasion where an automatic weapon was apparently discharged inside the home. I won’t even get into the SWAT-like raids which happen every few months or so. It is IS better than the OK corral nonsense going on around Broad Ave., Chenango St., or downtown Endicott. I won’t get into the swarms of l3 sex offenders not only in downtown Bing but JC and Endicott as well. No, not all paedophiles by the way. Any woman wandering about 1/3 of this area alone at night is either naive or reckless. </p>

<p>Yes, Binghamton has a lot of good people but it is a poor community now that the state has stripped away our ability to attract a manufacturing base to employ our population. Furthermore, with the near demise of our Senator, the BU gravy train is now at risk. Things are not changing for the better any time soon. No, we don’t have the intense crime of a big city such as Detroit but we have widespread areas that are unsafe. It’s a reality we need to cope with and be honest about.</p>

<p>THAT BEING SAID, students simply can’t wander about like idiots and need to be judicious with their night time activities and housing choices. I went to BU, the young women in my family will go to BU. They will NOT live in the parts of the city that Lakawak pointed out nor will they be downtown at night un-escorted. </p>

<p>KIDDOS, here’s the deal, either borrow or have mommy and daddy spring for a better apartment with the dough they are saving by sending you to BU and all is good. Enjoy the social life here but study and work hard, you will receive a solid education at BU. My degree from BU has proven solid and has allowed me to compete around the world. You are fine on campus or in Vestal. If you lease an apartment in a bad area or decide to play fast and loose with night life here, you can get burned, that’s all you need to know. Know what else? That is the same truth you will contend with in any city.</p>

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<p>Very well said. It seems as if Binghamton is separated into two completely different worlds. Nevertheless, the campus is beautiful and I look forward to attending this coming spring. </p>

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<p>Wow, this thread is so strange to me. I never once felt unsafe during my undergrad experience at Binghamton. Now I go to school in Philadelphia-- <em>here</em> I feel a little unsafe. It’s totally incomparable. </p>

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<p>Lakawak and Treblehook are on target. It really does not matter where you “feel a little unsafe”. The important question is whether an area is safe or not. How you feel is irrelevant. Look at the crime statistics. Not all cities are the same. Binghamton used to be one of the safer cities. It simply isn’t any more no matter how hard you wish or feel. A related problem is that the city is very small. So if there are shootings in the worst part of the city, that is likely to be within blocks of where you live if you live or attend classes in the city. In larger cities distance may separate you from a crime ridden part of town. In Binghamton there is no such separation. The “bad areas” are within blocks of where SUNY buildings have been built. The point is not to scare people. The point is to be honest about what is going on in Binghamton. Nothing changes until it is recognized. There are still people running the city who claim that the area has been doing well economically. Ten years ago when some people expressed concerns about the obvious growth in gangs, some of the pro-Binghamton politically active people denied that to be the case. Now we know that what was a concern by some was a justifiable one. Hiding your head and claiming things are wonderful won’t make them so. There are ways to attend Binghamton University safely. If you like the school, the crime rate should not be a barrier. But be aware of the crime problem in Binghamton so that you take steps to stay safe. Claiming it is safe and avoiding those steps will put you in a very vulnerable position.</p>

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<p>Lostaccount, you state –“look at the statistics” – well I took statistics from a link provided by Lacawak that showed the city of Binghamton is middle of the road compared to similar cities. You were dismissive of me, didn’t address my points or data, just went into a lecture about how Binghamton has declined over the years, then went onto a tangent about Ithaca, Ann Arbor and Detroit. I have never stated that Binghamton is one of the safer cities, or that it wasn’t better long ago, or that there aren’t gangs or high crime areas, but I have been trying to keep the discussion in perspective for folks like the poster who was trying to compare Binghamton to Burlington Vermont. Lakawak, ptrocker and others were going way over the top in bashing the city. My tone might have been over the top too in my first responses to compete against their tone, but I still stand by my facts and opinions.</p>

<p>Since you ignored my last set of statistics but still want us to look at the statistics, here is a different set of statistics – this from the FBI Universal Crime Reporting database. It also shows that Binghamton is middle of the pack in terms of violent crime in small upstate (north of Westchester, population 30,000-100,000) cities (as defined by New York State). Here is the list compiled from the FBI website of the rate per 100,000 of violent crimes by city in 2012 (<a href=“http://www.ucrdatatool.gov/”>http://www.ucrdatatool.gov/&lt;/a&gt;). Binghamton is number 7 of 11 on this list, almost in a 3-way tie for 5th. Kudos to North Tonawanda, Rome and Ithaca!</p>

<p>Albany 816
Schenectady 939
Utica 658
Troy 644
Niagara Falls 1229
Binghamton 667
Rome 118
Poughkeepsie 1037
North Tonawanda 170
Jamestown 583
Ithaca 215
Average 643</p>

<p>Also for comparision’s sake:
Buffalo 1288
Rochester 976
Syracuse 940
New York City 639
Burlington 234
Philadelphia 1160
Boston 835
Cambridge 402
New Haven 1439
Durham 725
Ann Arbor 197
Detroit 2123
US average 387</p>

<p>Now tell me, what number is the line between safe and unsafe? 100? 300? 600? 1000? There is no definition of that line. Rebeccar apparently feels that Binghamton is safe even with it’s 667 number and after moving to Philly with it’s violent crime rate of 1160 “feels a little unsafe”. You were dismissive of her opinion about feeling safe, talked about looking at statistics but didn’t, then went back to your lecture about why you feel the city of Binghamton is unsafe.</p>

<p>It seems like I am repeating myself, but is Syracuse unsafe enough to warn people away from Syracuse University? U of R, UB, U at Albany, RPI, Union, Columbia, Penn, Drexel, Yale, Duke? Some of these campuses are even closer to their “bad parts of town” than the SUNY buildings in downtown Binghamton – plus some of them even have trains, subways etc to facilitate the bad guy’s travels! </p>

<p>I am being very honest about the state of the city – I am using real data to show “the truth”, not just opinions and anecdotes. And the mayor is being very honest about it too – look at his 2014 state of the city address <a href=“http://www.binghamton-ny.gov/sites/default/files/files/SOTC2014.pdf”>http://www.binghamton-ny.gov/sites/default/files/files/SOTC2014.pdf&lt;/a&gt;. No head in the sand there! I personally am not and I don’t think very many people in the Binghamton area are happy or content with the state of the city, but there are many people who don’t think there is “no hope for recovery” like you say – like the people investing money to open restaurants or bars, or to build even more student housing in downtown as described in the state of the city address. As I said before, the future of the city is to tie itself to the university – become a college town. The past is past and how safe it was in 1984 or whenever is not relevant to kids looking at colleges in 2014.</p>

<p>One thing I am puzzled about, I noticed you recommended Rutgers to a student in another thread, even noting that you liked the Rutgers campus better than Stony Brook’s (violent crime rate - 120/100000 per Suffolk County PD), but you didn’t mention the fact that a large portion of the Rutgers campus is in the City of New Brunswick (violent crime rate of 685/100000). Why is that so important to you in Binghamton but not at Rutgers?</p>

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<p>Treblehook, what did I say that was fairly inaccurate? </p>

<p>I stated there are “good parts and bad parts” and listed some good parts to counter comments about the entire city being bad and you repeat a neighborhood Lakawak talked about. In the interest of “the truth” and “honesty”, here is a link to the Binghamton City Crime maps for the last few years (<a href=“http://www.binghamton-ny.gov/police-crime-maps”>http://www.binghamton-ny.gov/police-crime-maps&lt;/a&gt;) that clearly show that there are some terrible concentrations of crime and that there is also many areas with very little crime – pretty much the areas I described.</p>

<p>Also my last post I stated “I freely admit that Binghamton is not the same place it was 20-30 years ago” then you go on about how Leroy and Chestnut is not what it used to be 30 years ago. Sounds like we are in violent agreement! Binghamton used to be an extremely safe city (violent crime rate of 77/100000 in 1985 vs 667 in 2012), but that is irrelevant to folks looking at colleges in 2014. As I have stated before, the city of Binghamton is now a more typical upstate urban area.</p>

<p>And I know quite a few cops – Binghamton, Endicott, NYS troopers. I hear the same kind of stories as you do – these folks deal with the worst of the worst all the time, god bless them! I learn shocking things about my own “safe” neighborhood. But that doesn’t stop me from walking my dog at night or going to the store and it doesn’t stop my neighbors from doing the same things. By the way, the last time I went to downtown Binghamton a couple of weeks ago was with one of my cop friends and our families. Had a great time! It’s apparently not bad enough to keep him away.</p>

<p>Besides your opening paragraph, I agree with most of what you wrote. I do wholeheartly believe that students need to understand if they go off campus that they will need to be smart, not to go out alone at night, research where they are going to be - in general not be idiots. This is basic street smarts that all kids need to learn no matter if they live on campus or in the city. I hope people do realize there is drugs, thefts, assaults, sex offenses and sadly even murder on campus too. </p>

<p>I lived in Troy in the mid-80s which then was about like Binghamton is now and quickly learned how to live in a city. So today when I go to downtown Binghamton or even the OK Corall downtown Endicott (2 times for dinner already this month!), I don’t let it intimidate me. And I’m hardly a big burly tough guy but I don’t make myself an easy target either. I much prefer going somewhere local and interesting instead of a generic strip mall, even if it’s less safe.</p>

<p>I suspect folks’ real beef with my posts isn’t anything factual but the fact I’m not as doom and gloomy about it all as they think I should be. I must be more of a glass half full kinda guy than they are. I suppose if the neighborhood I lived in or used to live had gone to seed, I might be more down on the city than I am.</p>

<p>One of the knocks on BU and the region in general was always that the location is rather boring and there is no nightlife. Young, educated people want to live somewhere there is a nightlife besides TGIF’s by Walmart. Look at Syracuse where Syracuse University is known as having a much better social scene than BU. Marshall St by campus is only couple of blocks from the projects and Armory Square is also adjacent to a very rough part of town, but both are very successful nighttime areas in spite of that. </p>

<p>I already see downtown Binghamton turning into that type of environment with the student housing, restaurants, brew pubs, bars etc. – much better than 10-20 years ago. Expanding SUNY into downtown will add to the stablization of the area which in turn will help stem the tide against the decline of the city that has occurred as well as making the region more attractive to prospective students, businesses and investment. Anyone have any better ideas? </p>

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<p>Bearinhoney, I do not believe that I said that Binghamton University should be avoided due to crime nor did I say that students should feel safe at Rutgers. I don’t recall what the Rutgers thread was about but I don’t believe it was about crime. I do think it important to be straight forward and truthful. Had somebody asked me if the area around Rutgers were safe, I’d have looked at the stats and probably said no. Students should not think of downtown Binghamton as safe. Like many cities experiencing economic decline, crime has risen. There was a time when you could go almost anywhere in Binghamton alone at night and not worry about crime. That is not true any more. There are other unsafe places. Lists of other unsafe areas does not make Binghamton safer. There are bigger and smaller cities that are less safe than Binghamton. There are bigger and smaller cities that are more prosperous than Binghamton. Most economically depressed areas are less safe than prosperous areas. That does not mean students should avoid Binghamton. But they should be careful.</p>