I've been really interested in Broad Avenue and Binghamton ever since it was chosen as the laboratory for the new unified development code a few years ago.
A friend of mine and I were standing on the street last week, just chatting, and she looked at the buildings and suddenly said, this would be a cool place to live.
On the one hand, there's a new elementary school in Binghamton, a nice parcel of vacant land for redevelopment near East Parkway, and, perhaps most appealing, really good bones.
Broad Avenue has a distinct feel to it, one that seems to me to be pseudo-nostalgic. The scale between the height of the buildings, the width of the sidewalk, and the street seems just about right.
On the other hand, there's the Lester Street murders, last week's gangland shoot-out, and tons of car break-ins (including, but certainly not limited to, at last year's hottie biscotti party for the Flyer's annual Hotties issue).