Quoted Text

City was a great spot to grow up and still is
BY GAIL GARRASI AGGEN For The Sunday Gazette

    I was born in 1954 to a typical Schenectady family — blue-collar, Italian, Catholic, patriotic, somewhat neurotic, but thoroughly family-centric. Now that I have had ample time to reflect on my childhood as juxtaposed to the “great cultural enlightenment” of the last 40 years (a k a the de-volution of society), I can truthfully say that growing up in Schenectady at the time I did was “A Wonderful Life.”
    I always felt my hometown was kind of magical, and never more so than at the darkest time of the year, when the sun set early and the first downy flakes began to fly. Undaunted, and in spite of the dying of the year, the city “that lights the world” truly lived up to its reputation, beginning with the parade down State Street in late November.
    My father loved a parade. We would be bundled up to the point where we walked about like the unfortunate dead in zombie movies, put into place along the road, and then treated to the colorful stream of high school musicians, puffy politicians, marching veterans, and yes, oh yes, Santa himself!
BEAUTIFUL CARL CO.
    The streetlights boasted tinsely finery and storefronts bedecked themselves with frosted windows, merry elves, snowmen and all manner of glorious Christmas imagery. Carl Co. department store had the best, and you knew there was a God in heaven after viewing their annual Christmas display.
    Santa shopped lightly and carefully at Carl’s and other downtown stores for our gifts. Always thrilled with the “bounty” underneath our skinny balsam tree, we secretly suspected that we were the richest people around. Sure, Dad was a construction worker who would be pink-slipped as soon as the ground froze. But that meant that he was there all winter to work on his “inventions” and repairs down in the cellar. I would be working too, right beside him, banging nails into blocks of wood mostly, but having a glorious tomboy time of it!
    He also had leisure to take us sledding at the golf course and skating at Central Park. We would take weekly walks to the Woodlawn Library (as Dad loved detective stories and was always in need of a fresh supply), and sometimes we’d just trek through the frozen wilderness behind Bishop Gibbons school, looking for animal tracks.
    I also remember having a childsized snow shovel, and while my big brother was out earning money by shoveling snow for the neighbors, I would be my father’s righthand girl, enduring with him the frustration of having the snowplow come and push all the snow off the street and back up onto our just-finished driveway. My father would say words I never heard him say in front of my mother, but were reserved for outside misfortunes and banged fingers down in the cellar workshop.
    These memories and many more came rushing back to me the other day when my husband was doing some minor repair work in our Virginia Beach home. I went to see how things were going, and there, with other tools he had left on the counter, was the little hammer that I used as a child down in the cellar of the white cottage on Albany Street. I guess my husband must have taken it when we were clearing out the old homestead after my mother died. At that time, still full of grief and loss, I remember not caring about any of the fancy, “forshow” stuff, but making sure I took her rolling pin, her measuring cup, and the big metal spoon, relics of a wonderful woman’s hard work and devotion.
    As I remember, my parents and my childhood were not unique, but rather like most others at that time and place. Would that, once again, regular folks had steady, good jobs and wore their modest, pay-as-yougo lives like a badge of honor. The taxes would go down, wouldn’t they? And maybe the crime?
PLENTY TO PRAISE
    I am so thankful for the city and the people that formed me. We were a somewhat gruff, exteriorized people, but loyal and generous to a fault. There is something grand, and yes, magical about the place: its traditions, its beautiful buildings, the alleys, the magnifi - cent park, those little bomb-like lanterns that used to mark out street work being done, the food (still unsurpassed in any place I have seen in the States or abroad), the fragrant, runny mud of spring, the green freshness of summer, the audacious color of autumn, and yes, the long, sleepy winters — they all form a most wonderful, unique world.
    And after having traveled and lived in many different places, I can assure you that the people of Schenectady are themselves larger than life, characters all, a splash of vivacious color on an otherwise gray canvas of the runof-the-mill. If we could afford to live there, we’d be back. (I have some ideas about this, but alas, I am now an outsider).
    You are a people and a place which vastly underestimate yourselves. Perhaps that is still what makes you so special — you are not self-conscious, there is ......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar03902

Gail, come back for a visit you wouldn't believe what this city has become.

Quoted from Shadow

Gail, come back for a visit you wouldn't believe what this city has become.

.insert chuckle.

Beautiful Carl Company shuttered. Beautiful Central Park trashed. Schenectady was a great City now its a shell of its former self. Memories are great, especially from Virginia Beach.

Remember when the ALCO was making train engines, GE employed 30,000 workers, Wallace's, Barneys, Woolworth's, The Plaza Theater, Condec, and on Thursday nights you could hardly walk down the sidewalks on State St due to the crowds of people shopping downtown. Schenectady was once known as the "City that lights and hauls the world" now all that's left is a couple of theaters, a bunch of gin mills and a high crime rate.

Quoted from Shadow

Remember when the ALCO was making train engines, GE employed 30,000 workers, Wallace's, Barneys, Woolworth's, The Plaza Theater, Condec, and on Thursday nights you could hardly walk down the sidewalks on State St due to the crowds of people shopping downtown. Schenectady was once known as the "City that lights and hauls the world" now all that's left is a couple of theaters, a bunch of gin mills and a high crime rate.

And something called "metroplex"

My grandmother worked at Barney's for years and my grandfather was a cab driver.  I spent alot of time in Schenectady growing up and never remember being afraid or uncomfortable.  I can remember my grandmother telling me to stay away from the "crazy lady" with the shopping cart at Veterans Park, I think her name was Mary!!  I saw Old Yeller and Bambi at Proctors and loved to hang out downtown.  You can imagine how much of a treat it was for me.

GE employed over 40,000 Downtown. ALCO made locamotives that were exported worldwide. Barney's Wallace's. Carl Company, WT Grants, Woolworth's with it's famous lunch counter, Planters Peanuts!You could buy a suit Downtown. You could get a great deli sandwich on Jay St! Now? Fuhgetaboutit!

     The insane idea that a couple of governmental gin mills {Big Hose that still hasn't opened} that pay little or no property taxes, is any kind "renaissance" is complete Krat propaganda. The crime problem must be tackled and industrial jobs created BEFORE retail or arts can accomplish anything.

WHO YOU CALLIN' AN OLD YELLER???    

If you were in the trenches doing the planning and work, what would be your suggestions?  How would you accomplish the goal?  I know you will say "get rid of Metroplex", but I want to hear something more substantial.  The businesses we all remember were long gone before Metroplex came on the scene.  It seems to me the businesses that have opened up more recently probably would not have if Metroplex (us as taxpayers) did not help in funding etc. I'm not saying I agree with all of the Metroplex projects and I'm not saying bars downtown is the answer, but help me to see what is.  What would you do?  How I see it is either this works or we just throw up our arms and close the doors to Schenectady.
Also, when you consider the overall picture of downtown in "old days" other than the 40, 000 jobs at GE and Alco, they were all service jobs with very low pay.  Waitresses, retail clerks, and yes bartenders.  The city was not necessarily a mecca for manufacturing and high pay jobs aside from those two employers.  

Hey, a tad defensive huh Graham?  If the shoe fits........

I remember downtown when it was great. Christmas time meant not being able to wait to see what the window in Carl Company was decorated like. It was always beautiful. Thursday night was the highlight of the week for me and my friends. I guess we could compare it to the kids that go to the mall these days. It was a gathering place, where you could eat and shop and the prices varied from cheap to expensive.

I also worked at GE for a short time, and I remember when it was lunch time, hundreds of people would walk down Erie Blvd, to get to State Street where we would either get a bit to eat or shop.

Shadow is correct. GE was the hub of downtown. The Alco and Condec was also instrumental in downtown's success and the success of the entire county.

In my personal opinion, without the magnitude of employment created by manufacturing companies like GE, Condec and Alco, downtown and the entire county will never be what it was. Not even close. This country does very little manufacturing. They have all been outsourced. GE, Alco, Condec and all of it's employees made Schenectady great.

I don't know what I would do downtown to "fix" it, but so far, in the last 10 years, I really don't see a major, positive economic change. Crime is still a major problem, taxes are out of sight and businesses are either moving out of the immediate area or right out of the state.

And we are not alone. There are many many cities facing the same problems.

Over the years GE made sure that no other major employers were allowed to set up businesses because GE wanted to be able to have access to all the available labor in the area. I remember when DuPont wanted to set up a paint factory near the Rotterdam Industrial Park because of the easy access to the rail transportation and thru some of GE's efforts the plant was never built. ALCO was already out of business and when you have a 1 employer town that's a recipe for trouble if and when that employer down sizes or moves out. The cities past administrations assumed that GE would always be here and it's not there anymore and we the taxpayers are paying the price for their short sightedness. This area has the potential to be an industrial area again because of the rail hub here and easy access to the Thruway and I88 corridors but until the taxes are lowered and the lack of infrastructure such as sewers are corrected businesses will never consider this area.

Both your points well taken.  I am genuinly interested in thoughts of what should/could be done.  I agree without GE and Alco or companies like it we may be doomed as a city and county.  The likelihood of businesses like that setting up shop is remote at best.  Not necessarily the fault of anyone in particular, we know all manufacturing is moving out of the country.  So, whats the alternative??  Throw up our arms, last one out of the city turn off the light??

I doubt that we will find a major company that could employ 30,000 to 40,000 people, with health and retirement benefits like GE, Alco and Condec did. I don't anticipate seeing that anytime in the near future. Shadow is correct. Infrastructure needs to be addressed. But the all important question is, who is going to pay for it? So many people are financially strapped already.

And there are already people that are throwing up their arms and leaving. Some that I personally know have left Schenectady County and some are leaving the state. They just can't afford to live or retire here.