Binghamton 3579z

Most of downtown and in quite a bit of the surrounding areas are retail and factory buildings built in the late 1800's and early 1900's. When I was there in the 70's there was an effort to encourage business in those buildings, but it didn't seem very successful. On my visit in August, 2007, the conditions didn't seem to have changed very much -- many buildings appeared to have relatively successful retail businesses on the first floor and many empty spaces above.

It is always disheartening to me, to see the dramatic architecture from those earlier eras being unused -- but that seems to be just part of the business cycle. The next several photos in this set are of various buildings downtown.

Makes most sense if viewed as part of Coming Out/Northeast set