Binghamton

Since everyone on here is painting such a fugly image of Binghamton, I think it's only fair that someone with a brain actually shows the good AND the bad. So far, for the most part anyway, the only people who've written an entry here have been (A) students from Long Island who are bitching because in reality they miss their parents and are trying to compensate, and (B) local idiots with no culture who don't actually try to find fun and complain a lot because fun doesn't find them. The city is what you make of it, just like every other city in the country. anyway... Unlike what others on here have said, Binghamton is a major city in New York State... right up there with Syracuse, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and Ithaca. It's situated on the crossroads of 81, 86, and 88, and contains a fairly important train artery. Binghamton University, one of the top-rated state universities in New York (or the country for that matter), boasts a world-renowned archeology department. The metro area is broken up into boroughs, much like New York City (hence there not being a mayor in Vestal or JC). The actual city of Binghamton is fairly small, with only 50k residents, but the valley itself has almost half a million residents. It's the carousel capital of the world, home to one of the oldest zoos in the country, and has a pretty cool local museum with interesting tidbits about the city's history. Speaking of which, in it's day (up until the mid 1980's, in fact), Binghamton was a very famous and crucial city, especially in the 1920's when it was on the map in bigger letters than even Albany or Buffalo. If you're a fan of that particular era, Binghamton is a great place to visit because it captures the architectural style of that era really well. There's plenty of culture in Binghamton, and at least 1/3rd of the city's population is actually cultured a fair amount. The other 2/3rds? Name a city in the world where 2/3rds of the resident's AREN'T morons... please, try, any city in the world. Give up? I thought so. The Bad: Since IBM (which was founded here) left the area, the city has started to fall apart. The sudden and drastic skyrocketing unemployment effects were created by both IBM leaving and the economic catastrophe of 9/11, which effected the entire state. Because unemployment went through the rough in a matter of days, the county increased its welfare benefits, and that lead to scummy people from New York City and the south to move here so they could live off the government and send the city further into the ground. But Binghamton rebounded a few years later, and today, the economy is growing stronger. We're starting to see the southern pickup-driving confederate-wearing fucktards from down south move away because we aren't cutting them checks anymore, and that's having a drastically-positive effect on the city. Anyway, let me close with some statistics for the idiot who said Binghamton "doesn't have black people." I'm half-black, my family is mostly black... here's some stats for you to wash down your stupidity with: 38% - Black 36% - White 11% - Hispanic (88% of which are puerto rican) 9% - Asian (63% of which are vietnamese or laotian) 6% - other ^ that's the actual racial breakdown for Binghamton, New York. Maybe if you went somewhere besides State Street you'd actually know that ;)