We lived in a small town between Syracuse and Utica (50 miles east of Syracuse) 40 years ago. First job out of grad school and, being young and enjoying skiing and cheap home prices, it was fine for three to four years. The lake effect snow, and lack of sunlight from November to April was pretty depressing, as there was less sunlight than Buffalo. Lake effect every morning from November until the lakes froze in December, followed by wind-driven major storms all winter gave us 120 to 150 inches of snow annually. There was a small ski area about 50 miles north that got over 400 inches of snow annually.
Went through our old town, and Utica, and near Syracuse this past June and not much has changed. Very nice small communities along the Finger Lakes (your typical summer home environments that have outside money keeping them up), but our old town and the larger towns and center cities are just old. Old factories that would be converted to nice lofts in DC, or other areas with growth, sit empty or house "incubators". Old housing, old public buildings, old arenas, lots of tenement houses. Probably the same in Syracuse but we bypassed it. By the late-70's Syracuse had already lost a huge number of manufacturing jobs. There were a number of large factories (GE and others as I recall) that shrank over the decades (massive parking lots less than a quarter filled). Carrier still has a presence I guess, but not sure what else.
The contrast is especially stark when you compare Syracuse/Utica/Rochester with Charleston, SC, San Antonio, TX, Charlotte, NC, Nashville, TN, Raleigh/Durham, etc. Basically anywhere outside the Northeast is growing. Recruits probably don't care much because they're in their own cocoon and looking ahead to some NBA city, you know, like the Syracuse Nationals.
