Albany’s neighborhoods consist of a varied lot demographically, geographically, historically and architecurally Downtown Albany is the city’s oldest neighborhood, centered on State Street, one of Albany’s oldest streets and its original main street. Today downtown consists mostly of office buildings inhabited by state agencies, though a recent push to bring in permanent residents has led to ongoing building of condominiums and apartments . North and south of Downtown are old residential communities often consisting of row houses. North is Arbor Hill, Sheridans Hollow , and North Albany; to the south is the large super-neighborhood of the South End, which consists of a multitude of smaller neighborhoods including the the Pastures, Mansion District , Delaware Avenue, and Krank Park. These neighborhoods tend to be have more minorities and lower incomes than the western, more suburbanized part of the city.
Empire State Plaza is west of Downtown , which effectively cuts Downtown off from the gentrified neighborhoods of Center Square, Hudson/Park, Lark Street, and Washington Park. Often collectively referred to as mid-town, these neighborhoods are often compared to New York City’s Greenwich Village for their eclectic mix of residential and commercial uses, including bars, night clubs , restaurants, and unique stores . Albany’s gay culture is vibrant in this area . Nearby Park South, a nine-block area surrounding New Scotland Avenue and home to roughly 1,000 individuals, is currently undergoing an urban renewal, removing and renovating existing housing units and adding new office, commercial, and apartment buildings. New construction includes expansion of Albany Medical Center, one of the largest employers in Albany. Nearby is University Heights, a united campus consisting of Albany Medical Center Hospital, Albany Medical College ,Albany College of Pharmacy, Albany Law Scchool , and Sage College of Albany.
Single-family detached homes, duplexes, and apartments , along with single-family houses that have been carved up into multiple units, can be found west of the older neighborhoods. These neighborhoods, such as Delaware Avenue, Pine Hills , Whitehall, Helderberg , Beverwyck and New Scotland tend to have larger lots and more suburban surroundings. Problems have occurred in an area of Pine Hills often referred to as the “student ghetto” due to the proximity of the campuses of Saint Rose College and University at Albany, resulting in the area from North Main to South Lake between Madison and Washington avenues becoming home to off-campus college students residing in houses carved into multiple units by absentee landlords.
Further west, the neighborhoods become more affluent and dominated almost exclusively by single-family dwellings . These neighborhoods, such as Melrose, Eagle Hill , Westland Park, Campus , and Buckingham Park, have some of the quieter streets and larger lots in the city, and more closely resemble neighboring areas of the suburban towns than they do the downtown parts of the city. Further west is the W. Averell Harriman State Office Campus and the University at Albany’s main campus. West of those campuses are offices and commercial properties lining frontage roads along Washington Avenue Extension, with a small housing development called The Dunes, all surrounded by the Pine Bush Preserve.
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