Lindsey

There isn’t even much of a town here! I drove around in it, but there wasn’t anywhere worth stopping, so I kept going down the highway instead.

I was forced to go to Utica for a mandatory zoo lab at my college. Somehow we got lost, seems like signs heading to Utica aren’t existing in various places and such. Once we got there, dear god…there was absolute trailer trash working at one of the gas stations we visited. The whole place was just depressing to drive around, most of it was quite the ghetto.

However, the zoo was quite fun. :) I’d at least go there again!

I came here to go to SUNY Oneonta but over time I’ve come to find I like the town a lot more than the college, and thus spend more time there when I can. The area has 2 parks, both of which are nice. I fondly remember the day at Neahwa Park when a hot air balloon lifted off without warning. Wilber Park is absolutely beautiful and has a creek/stream that runs through it that you can check out. Also, there’s quite a few places to go hiking, including a short path leading to Emmon’s Bog, which is a unique, quiet place.

It is a bit small, and sometimes feels suffocating, but usually a trip away from the region for a weekend does the trick, or even just hanging out and checking out the plentiful live music downtown at night. There’s the Sego Cafe, the Autumn Cafe, General Clinton Pub, and some other places with good music and good food. Also, there’s some downtown shopping to do as well, although since it’s small I personally find that I do need trips to Binghamton for the bigger items.

Also, the winter can be quite the drawback as it gets VERY cold and blustery, and in the summer the place has been a site of some bad flooding, but in spring and fall it is worth checking out by all means.

I went down there yesterday for a climate crisis action rally, and I had quite a blast. It was awesome being somewhere obviously quite important and doing something important as well. I got lured off by the amazing architecture of the buildings and went for what turned into a 4-5 mile walk, and was awed. Since I only had a few hours, I took a foot tour of sites like the Capitol building, the White House, the Smithsonian buildings, got inside the Cannon building, the Washington Monument, etc. The National Mall itself is a really nice area, and a lot of people were out enjoying themselves. And the gulls, ducks, and pigeons flying around were quite amusing. The metro was quite sci-fi, which amused me as well. I can’t wait to go back since I feel like I only touched upon a tiny fragment of D.C.!

Oh and sunblock, yesterday was 60 degrees, sunny, and quite windy, but don’t let the nice weather fool you, I now have a 2nd degree burn!

I really keep waiting for GF to have some redeeming qualities. Who knows, maybe in the far future. It is growing economically, albeit VERY slowly. It still fails to have a bookstore. It fails to really have anything, especially if you get technical and look at what’s actually there compared to that’s actually in surrounding towns. I usually find myself having to leave and go to QUEENSBURY or Saratoga or Lake George to find something entertaining. And the people? Don’t even get me started, it’s like many of the people here drank toxic water or need lots of psychiatric care. I don’t understand it. And there are not very many decent jobs, despite it not being a tiny area.

And no, it’s not ALL bad, but there’s so little that’s good that it’s not worth it for more than a couple of days. It is pretty, yes. Nice architecture. Crandall Park is BEAUTIFUL and a great place to spend a hot summer afternoon. Crandall Library has a good selection and if you can’t find what you want, there’s a large interlibrary loan system. And try Dango’s for their chicken wings, amazing! But that’s really about it. Rachel Ray doesn’t actually live here, and the Boston Candy Kitchen…shrugs New Way Lunch hot dogs are actually pretty gross too.

I went here just because my college was nearby, and I must say I wasn’t very impressed, but then again I’m not a baseball fan by all means. However I wasn’t completely lost for stuff to do, they have a really awesome used bookstore downtown, some neat little diners, and it’s worth visiting to go visit Otsego Lake (beautiful!). I just personally wouldn’t suggest going unless you’re going to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame as well, because there isn’t much to do here.

I’d set this place on fire, if I had the chance. (I used to live here)

After having spent the evening reading about the Oneida community I think a visit to the Oneida Mansion House is in order!

All right so I might write this a little bit biased as I have a friend who lives here and I enjoyed being there as I was with her when I went last weekend. :) However…I think I wouldn’t suggest visiting Edison to just anyone. I think it’s better if you are with friends, particularly ones who live there. The first thing I noticed about the area is that driving around it is in CONFUSING if you are used to straight ways and an occassional traffic circle like me. I can’t even explain their roadways as I didn’t understand them, but where you’d like to do left turns, there’s a weird construction with the roads you have to take in order to take left turns. And the traffic seems like it’s always strong. Also, Edison from what I saw is very much a commercial area, with a tiny residential area. The residential area has a nice small-town set-up to it but there was just so much shopping which could be both a pro or a con. I just felt a lack of community while there. I may have simply missed it though!

I think I’d suggest the region if people like traffic, don’t mind living somewhere where there’s lots of shops, or if someone wants a place to stop and check out lots of Asian foodstores and restaurants (there’s lots!)...it’s not far from NYC. And it seems as though there’s quite a bit of industry jobs, I noted that Johnson & Johnson HQ really isn’t far from there.

So yeah I think without visiting someone there, it could prove to be disappointing. It was hard finding something to do on Day 2. However there are a lot of places to bowl, in fact there’s a very nice big alley which I assume is great if there weren’t huge lines to get a lane!

To be honest, I only want to visit Edison because I know people who live there! :)