Crypticel

When I moved to Troy in 1991, the downtown area was pretty awful – lots of closed-down shops, low land values, and generally not a pleasant place to be. But the last few years it’s been better and better. There was a real effort made to clean the place up, and a load of small businesses opened up, especially near the riverfront. There are a number of nice coffee shops, antique stores, local artisans selling their work, and the like. There’s a local arts center that offers excellent classes and sometimes takes part in arts festivals, and RPI has been doing a load of expansion. Sure, it still has its bad areas, but doesn’t anywhere?

Troy really went from being an area my friends and I used to mock, to being somewhere I’d happily stop for lunch and have a wander around, even if I’d never previously known the place. I look forward to being back next time I visit family there.

I’m hoping to move there before too long. I’m probably biased, since I have a good few friends there, but I’ve just always really liked the feel of this city. It’s big enough without being overwhelming, it’s not bad to walk around, and there generally seems to be stuff going on.

Bradford’s not as bad as some people seem to think (I get some odd reactions when I say I live there), but I wouldn’t recommended visiting it, unless you have some specific reason to. It’s just a bit dull, and the city centre’s not even very nice to walk around.