SCHENECTADY Empty homes dot poor areas Mont Pleasant near top of state’s vacancy list BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Mont Pleasant now has a new dishonor to match its worsening crime problem and the flight of local businesses: It is one of the top 10 emptiest neighborhoods in the state. It’s not the worst — that’s a neighborhood on Buffalo’s East Side, according to an Associated Press analysis of government data. In fact, five Buffalo neighborhoods are in the top 10, the AP said, and the city has lost half its population in 50 years. But one section of Mont Pleasant is looking more and more like Buffalo. More than one in every four homes is vacant between 6th Avenue and the railroad tracks. In number, there are more empty houses in that part of Mont Pleasant than there are in Buffalo’s emptiest neighborhood — the No. 1 neighborhood on the list. That neighborhood has 430 shuttered homes, a 30 percent vacancy rate. Mont Pleasant has 482 abandoned houses, a 28 percent vacancy rate. The neighborhood’s vacancy rate even exceeded that of nearby Hamilton Hill — although that neighborhood, too, made the state’s Top 10. The vacancy rate in the heart of Hamilton Hill — from Brandywine Avenue to Hulett Street — is 25 percent. There are 369 empty homes in a neighborhood of only nine square blocks. The Vale and Eastern Avenue neighborhoods slipped in just behind Hamilton Hill, with a combined vacancy rate of 21 percent. (Government data, divided by U.S. Census tracts, combines most of the Eastern Avenue neighborhood with Vale.) There are 399 empty homes there, including nearly an entire street of vacant buildings on Windsor Terrace. That gives the city a total of 1,250 empty houses in just the neighborhoods that posted a vacancy rate of more than 20 percent. The total is staggeringly high, compared to nearby cities. Albany does not have even one neighborhood with such a high vacancy rate. Its highest is 19 percent, in a neighborhood with 205 empty homes. Troy and Binghamton, which are often compared to Schenectady because of their similar poverty rates, size and population, have vacancy rates of 16 percent in their worst-hit neighborhoods. Troy has two such neighborhoods, with just over 100 empty houses in each; Binghamton has one neighborhood with 230 vacancies. Among cities similar to Schenectady, only Utica came close. Its emptiest neighborhood has 218 vacancies — 23 percent of the homes. Nationally, the emptiest neighborhoods are clustered in places hit hard during the recession of the 1980s — cities such as Flint, Mich.; Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Ind. One neighborhood in Columbus is 70 percent vacant. Some badly emptied cities have given up recruiting new homeowners and are now demolishing thousands of houses. Buffalo is demolishing 5,000. But Schenectady can only afford to knock down a handful each year. “We would love to demolish. We don’t need the density and the amount of homes we have,” Mayor Brian U. Stratton said. “I wish we had the money.” Residents in Mont Pleasant say their neighborhood is still tightly knit, despite the increase in crime, the steady loss of local stores in the Crane Street business district and the increasing number of vacant houses. They know the owners of the vacant buildings, they know why they’re vacant and they’re willing to give their friends time to return to occupancy. “It’s OK. It’s fine, maybe because of the neighborhood. Everybody looks out for everybody,” said Maria Rodriguez, who lives across from a long-vacant house on 4th Avenue. “We know the owner, and he said he’s going to put the pipes in and rent it out.” On 6th Avenue, Marie LaGuire lives next to a vacant apartment and across from a boarded-up building. But she is also content to wait — she knows that the owner of the house across the street is working on it. “I’ve been inside. It’s nice. It looks ten times better than it did before,” she said, before adding with a sigh, “But he’s working on the inside first. He did new siding on the back and the sides — not the front. He’ll do the front, though, maybe in June.” Her neighbor has been working on the house off and on for two years, commuting from New York City, she said. Before he bought it, for two years it was mostly vacant, with just one family living in the multi-unit building. The house next door to her is also a partial rental, with a tenant upstairs while newspaper covers the downstairs windows. Just a block away, on Cutler Street, a burnedout house also sits vacant. That’s the house that she says should be demolished if the city wants to start knocking buildings down. “It caught fire I don’t know how many years ago. No one does a thing and I don’t know why,” she said. “This used to be a beautiful area.” Stratton proposed last year to demolish the 50 worst houses in the city — all burned-out buildings left to rot for years. But then children set fire to a vacant, historic school and the city had to use the entire fund to knock it down. The owners had insurance, but the company refused to pay since the city had notified the owners that their building was open and being used by juveniles. Keeping the building locked was a requirement for the insurance. Making matters worse, the city’s housing stock is so old that nearly every building has asbestos that must be removed before demolition. The process adds thousands to the demolition bill. “Brandywine School cost us half a million dollars because it was loaded with asbestos,” Stratton said, referring to the school that children burned down. “You get into asbestos everywhere. It’s a huge issue.” Metroplex Development Authority turned one asbestos-demolition project into a hands-on seminar for young construction workers last year, allowing several locals to work as apprentices and earn their asbestos removal certificates. Such labor could reduce the cost slightly — but the real problem is paying to dispose of the hazardous, flameretardant material. Stratton said simply hiring inexperienced workers would not cut costs enough to make demolition affordable. ................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00100
I think the cure for people moving out of Schenectady is to raise taxes higher to stimulate people to move here, not. The cities governing body is doing such a good job of running this city, into the ground that is.
Schenectady tops vacancy rates Data show Mont Pleasant section has third highest percentage of unoccupied housing in the state
By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer First published in print: Wednesday, May 6, 2009
SCHENECTADY — The hostas are lush and the shrubs manicured at Rich Florek's Second Avenue home.
Two doors down, a house is charred from fire, its windows boarded up. The front door is wide open on a crumbling building in an alley behind the burned-out shell. The place stinks of urine.
Welcome to Schenectady's Mont Pleasant neighborhood, which has the distinction of having the third highest percentage of residential vacancies in New York state.
According to an Associated Press database of U.S. Postal Service records released this week, 28 percent of residences inside this Mont Pleasant census tract were vacant at the start of this year — a number exceeded only by one neighborhood in Elmira and another in Buffalo.
Every apartment counts as one residence.
A section of Schenectady's Hamilton Hill placed 10th in the state for most vacancies. Twenty-five percent of its homes are empty.
Florek, a Polish immigrant and Second Avenue resident on and off since 1967, has seen firsthand how the exodus to suburbia and the flight of jobs has crushed cities like Schenectady, where once-working class neighborhoods are now saddled with absentee landlords and drug crime. Florek regularly picks up garbage strewed on the street. His said his son has warned him he'll get shot one day if he keeps yelling at people who don't pick up after their dogs.
"It's changed a lot," said Florek, 56, who works at the SI Group, a local chemical company that used to be Schenectady International. "It breaks my heart."
Albany's highest vacancy rate — 19 percent — is in the area bounded by Clinton Avenue, Lark
Street, Washington Avenue and Robin Street. The city has targeted its blight with the Block by Block program, launched in 2007 after an Alexander Street couple's home was ruined by flooding from a vacant building next door.
On top of making a list of vacant buildings and fining the owners in Vacant Buildings Court, Albany recently received nearly $1 million in Community Development Block Grants to rehabilitate homes, said Mike Yevoli, commissioner of development and planning. Almost $5 million in federal stimulus money is also headed Albany's way to assist in redeveloping abandoned and foreclosed properties.
Schenectady's recent efforts to clean up derelict properties have been hit or miss.
While Schenectady will receive more than $1.5 million in CDBG and stimulus funds, city officials are funneling it into paving projects and a green home program to build 10 environmentally friendly, affordable homes on vacant lots.
The city unloaded 500 properties during bargain-basement auctions from 2002 to 2007. The sales required the new owners to keep the homes for at least five years before reselling them.
But it's been difficult to complete a new landlord registry with limited City Hall staff. The list seeks to track and hold out-of-the-county landlords accountable for code violations........>>>>....http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=797402
While Schenectady will receive more than $1.5 million in CDBG and stimulus funds, city officials are funneling it into paving projects and a green home program to build 10 environmentally friendly, affordable homes on vacant lots.
This green housing is constructed at a cost of $175K each. There is approx. $100K added to the construction cost to cover program administration. The units that cost a total of $275K each are sold for $80K. That results in a cost to the taxpayers of ~$200K each.
Right LAJ-what a complete waste of money. Add to this the stunada decision by the City Attorney not to sue NE Child and Parent for burning Brandywine School to the ground. This drags the entire County into the toilet.
% of residences vacant in the Capital District {TU} 1. Schenectady County-17%!!!! 2. Rensselaer County-12% 3. Albany County-11% 4. Saratoga County-NONE
We know the Mayor Son of Sam is incapable of action but where is Death Ray, where is the County of this national disgrace? Stop opening beaneries and governmental gin mills and knock down empty retail and houses!
Bargains? Talk to the City Assessor-he has convinced himself that prices are up-despite the worst Schools and Mayor in the State. The jig is up. Buffalo East but Buffalo only has 1 empty neighborhood-Taxenectady has 3! Hello-Death Ray? This is Son of Sam-bring in the bulldozers! Forget another beanery or government gin mill.
Democratic success, Drive out the wealth and the middle class. Destroy them.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
What's all the negativity? This is part of Son of Sam /Death Ray's great "plan"- wants businesses like GE and those on Erie Blvd. to leave so he can expand "rolling green spaces".
Who needs union jobs? Not the Krats running things here. They have "plans" for ALCO too! No not messy union industrial jobs but "green space", coffeehouses and condo's that no one wants. So what if these morons are depopulating the City with record taxes and ignoring the crime/gang explosion? We will have a "green space" on Erie Blvd where businesses used to be. A welfare bum in every house-green space on every business district!
I am writing about the article in the paper (May 5) regarding empty houses in Mont Pleasant. Why are they empty? Because of the landlords not taking responsibility for their tenants. I live in this area, and for the past two months up the street on our block there has been a party every day with loud music and cussing. The people do not work, which tells us they are on social services, and the language in front of their children is a disgrace. The police are called regularly, but the neighborhood is very discouraged about these houses. One is for sale, but who would even think of buying it with this action going on? There are neighbors who have worked all their lives and thought their later years would be enjoyable on this street, as it had always been a quiet and lovely street. What is really a joke is that the assessor with the city thinks that these houses are worth a higher assessment. Who is going to buy a home in this area, with houses that have tenants who have no respect for the neighbors? Our mayor has to wake up and understand what is happening in Mont Pleasant. There have to be better laws for the landlords and they have to be enforced.
High taxes partly to blame for high Sch’dy vacancy rate
I hope the May 5 article [“Empty homes dot poor areas”] regarding housing vacancies did not surprise readers. I also hope nobody fools themselves into thinking that the skyrocketing number of vacant houses is due to upward mobility, with everyone moving from various downtrodden Schenectady neighborhoods to bigger houses in the ’burbs or even to more upscale housing within city limits. I do not have statistical evidence, but would be willing to bet the vacant houses are due to people moving out of the area where they have the means, moving in with relatives nearby to consolidate expenses, or, worse, joining the increasing ranks of the homeless. People are vacating houses in Schenectady because they cannot afford to live here anymore! It is not a coincidence that Schenectady is one of the highest-taxed municipalities and suffers one of the highest vacancy rates. Home ownership in this city is not affordable, and the burden of taxation trickles down to rent prices as well. After the usual scripted hysteria regarding school budget cuts, we will be expected to graciously approve a school budget soon that increases taxes by 4.9 percent. That is simply unacceptable and should be returned to the school board with a resounding “try again!” It will most likely pass, however, and the ratcheting of tax rates ever upward will continue for another year. Once the City Council receives the bad news that state funding and other revenue sources have been cut or decreased during the beginning of this depression, I am sure the next proposed city budget will reflect a similar, hefty tax increase. As taxes go higher and higher, those of us struggling to keep homes in the city have less discretionary funds to put toward maintenance and upkeep of properties, which perpetuates the spiral in housing stock decay. I am excited by the fantastic work that has been done to improve downtown and attract businesses [but] I fear the revitalized downtown is isolated as an island in the midst of Schenectady’s struggling neighborhoods, and is only a commuter or evening entertainment destination. This can be attributed to several factors, but the tax burden of living here is surely a major one. Perhaps it is time to implement the Draconian measures that are always threatened when it is time to scare taxpayers into approving budgets. If we call the bluff, it may force a legitimate look at spending priorities and provide the intestinal fortitude needed to demand changes to labor contracts and benefits that we can not afford.
Once thriving enclave, Mont Pleasant at risk Schenectady section reflects ills of a fading industrial America
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer First published in print: Sunday, December 13, 2009
SCHENECTADY -- As a boy, Rich Florek trekked along Crane Street with crowds of kindred souls to Sunday morning Mass celebrated in his native Polish at the Church of St. Adalbert. The street bustled on weekdays at the ethnic groceries and bakeries that offered working-class families a taste of home. Generations of immigrants, many of them Poles and Italians, lived in tidy two-family homes. Florek, who emigrated with his parents to Mont Pleasant when he was 11 years old, has watched his once-proud, tight-knit neighborhood unravel.
Ray Zanta, who came to Schenectady from Pennsylvania in 1954, remembers when manufacturing jobs were the backbone of the community. Mont Pleasant was a good place to live, and Crane Street was a destination.
"It was a popular area and business was good," said Zanta, 84. His barbershop was a hub at the corner of Chrisler Avenue across from a post office, a Price Chopper and a bank with five tellers.
Today, Mont Pleasant reflects what has happened in cities across the nation in which the local economy and social fabric break down and give way to poverty and decay.
The bank is down to one teller. The Price Chopper is now a Family Dollar store, and the post office has become the Mont Pleasant branch of the Schenectady County Library.
The neighborhood was hit hard as General Electric and other industrial employers shed jobs, left town or shut down. Some older immigrants died. Others, and their offspring, moved to the suburbs. More than 6 in 10 of the homes in this south-central part of the city were built before 1939. Many of them now belong to absentee landlords who rent out their properties. During the past decade, the percentage of owner-occupied homes, which at one time accounted for nearly half the residences in Mont Pleasant, has dwindled.
The Rev. Carl Urban, who grew up in the neighborhood on Michigan Avenue, has been the parish pastor at the Church of St. Adalbert for 37 years and still celebrates Mass in Polish. He blames the area's decline on absentee landlords, lax code enforcement and newcomers bereft of his parishioners' traditional work ethic, respect for property and emphasis on education.
Litter around the church is an annoying sign of the times. "After a while," Urban said, "these quality-of-life issues push the people who would like to stay out because they say 'I'm not going to put up with this'"
Florek has confronted drug dealers brazenly doing business right outside his home. He wants police to be more aggressive in fighting crime.
Police Chief Mark Chaires conceded the stretch of Mont Pleasant from Bridge Street to 10th Avenue has become "indistinguishable" from high-crime parts of Hamilton Hill. "We deal with the same social and crime problems," the chief said, although he noted Mont Pleasant hasn't seen as much gunfire as its adjacent neighborhood.
While Chaires said having cops walk the beat is not cost-effective, the department is combating crime in new ways. There are currently seven surveillance cameras up in Mont Pleasant, and he wants to add five more. And Chaires urged frustrated merchants and residents to keep voicing their concerns.
Mt Pleasant at risk? That was 25 years ago. Horse has left the barn.
They take the one thriving business on Crane and relocate it to Broadway? Another example of governmental centralized planning. The immigrants from NYC are leaving-no jobs and absurd taxes. Every neighborhood in the City is collapsing while they pour millions into 2 blocks of State St. "Frustrated merchants" where? They all left years ago. And they ain't coming back.
Logged
Right LAJ-what a complete waste of money. Add to this the stunada decision by the City Attorney not to sue NE Child and Parent for burning Brandywine School to the ground. This drags the entire County into the toilet.
