The Southern Tier/Western NY, the Rust Belt of America, an area I have much experience with, is the Existential Pit of ****ing Doom.
I'm talking about your Binghamtons, your Cortlands, your Buffalos . . . Syracuse outside of the campus is a nightmare . . . the Niagara Falls region . . . Elmira . . .
I have a friend who lives on the slopes of a ski "resort" called Greek Peak . . . about 30 minutes from Ithaca, it's smack in the middle of nothing but shanties and farmland for miles . . . I have no idea what he is doing there in his mid 20s living in a cabin in a community of inbreds and **** the universe just turned up. . . I think the population is 500 and every couple weeks a serial killer comes through to make a little noise . . . reminds me of the town in that novel Capote wrote, about the real life massacre in rural Kansas . . .
Another friend/former professor has this little photo blog showing just how awful this part of the state really is:
http://www.sobriquetmagazine.com/dot...1_archive.html
* Ithaca is a gorgeous town however, right on Cayuga lake . . . though it is still pretty ****ed up economically. It's always rated the #1 town in America and the smartest. Does have a lot of deadbeats and hippies though. Very pastoral and egalitarian.