As we drove past the Alco Loco. site today and noticed the giant pile of rubble that used to be the main assembly line, this thought struck us. With it's CLOSE proxcimity to the STS steel company it is hard to comprehend the logic of how one would expect this location for residential development to succeed. We envisioned the bldgs/condos. etc. but despite the presence of the river view to the West, to the East lurks those tons of steel in the STS steel stockyard. Plus the plant itself. No doubt some noise/air pollution so close to shopping/living abodes will discourage occupancy. Assume a buffer of sorts will be in the plans. Even so this would not appeal to us as an acceptable compromise to consider living there. Which brings us to a scenario we have brought up in a previous post. Sometime in the future, especially if sales of parcels are lagging, along with condo purchases, you will see a "sweetheart" deal offered to STS to relocate to another site. This is why they may have not wanted to move as yet. The longer they wait the better the deal. If this is the case, a smart business move. This of course in some way, shape, or form will result in a higher expense to the taxpayers. Plus the fact it is located in a commercial zone ,and we understand the adult bookstore on Erie Blvd. re-location will take place along this corridor, as the bookstore is relegated to a location in a commercial zone. You will see one if not two additional traffic lights/pedestrian crossings as well between Nott St. and Freemans Bridge. For these reasons the project has some difficult hurdles to navigate over , at least in the view of this poster. As usual these thoughts are IMHO.
The ALCO "plan" is half baked like everything from Death Ray/Metrograft. Those that think condos are needed in a City with a 13% vacancy rate should talk a drive to Anthony St. The model townhouses are still available. STS should be expanded not moved on the taxpayer dime. More parkland that cannot be maintained is insane.
For once these phony planners should have a public forum to allow public discussion on the future of this site. Like Mr. Manning used to have. This is vital to the City and cannot be mishandled like Gillen's Gulch and the Van Dyke. More surplus housing will only further erode resale values that are tanked because of DEM tax and waste.
The ALCO "plan" is half baked like everything from Death Ray/Metrograft. Those that think condos are needed in a City with a 13% vacancy rate should talk a drive to Anthony St. The model townhouses are still available. STS should be expanded not moved on the taxpayer dime. More parkland that cannot be maintained is insane.
Truth is, it doesn't matter what you build, people will not come.
People will not move to a City with high crime, no jobs, a bad school systems and triple taxes. There is nothing drawing families to the City. The Novemeber election better bring a leader who realizes that cutting taxes is a #1 priority. Then, the second priority should be ending the useless building of apartments and condos and moving in new industry with jobs.
If new leaders bring in just one nanotech site, they will surpass all that Metroplex has done in decades.
Think about the years of toxic waste. Of course, there's a nuclear reactor run by RPI on the site but shhhh don't tell anybody. The residential component of this idiotic "plan" needs to go the way of the SCCC music department relocation. Act like real economic development planners and find some corporations that want to relocate/expand here. If that fails go to a park.
If new leaders bring in just one nanotech site, they will surpass all that Metroplex has done in decades.
So true! If they bring in one national retailer or get STS to expand at ALCO they will have done more then the DEMS/Metrograft bozos have done for decades.
People have short memories. Remember, anyone, when a site was being sought for a factory to build subway cars? Officials wanted to put it on land off Sunnyside Road in Scotia, which the homeowners in that area did not want. They were attacked for being NIMBYs. It was loudly bemoaned that the old ALCO industrial site could not be used because GE still owned it. Schenectady had a "shortage" of suitable industrial sites, it was said, which was the same reason the city used when planning to condemn a poor but stable neighborhood (O'Dell Street area) and force the lifelong residents to move to benefit that guy who owned the former Maqua site. Suitable industrial property was at a premium in the city, we were told. The business owner was friendswith a city councilman, that didn't hurt, did it, but we needed industrial property so bad we were going to have to give up residential neighborhoods for it, we were told. Now that premium, ideal industrial site is available, and we need it for housing!!!??? Don't the genius planners already have some kindof master plan saying we have "too many houses" or some kind of crap like that? Genius Stratton already turned away a guy who wanted to put a tire recycling business in there. An industry in an area zoned industrial, we can't have that. Better to establish a new, better Schenectady, a fancy-schmancyville, with a fence to keep out the riff-raff within walking distance from the Van Vranken area. We can make the road (a highway, really) all shiny new looking with some of those bricks that come out after one winter and some tiny trees. Remove all signs of our history (Erie Canal, Alco) because it meant nothing to BS, he has only contempt for anyone actually from here, and he doesn't like anything old and icky, just shiny new. What? He's gone, you say? We will still carry on in his name, like he was Christ or something, because look at all the wonders he has left behind, and we need at least one shiny new neighborhood to go with the shiny new downtown. The other neighborhoods have all gone to hell anyway. Oops. I digress. The plant in Scotia ended up in the industrial park, by the way, where it should have gone in the first place, but there was some bad blood between the owner of the park and someone trying to bring the plant to town, so everyone had to suffer through the ensuing battle. My point, if industrial property is so valuable, you don't let it go for residential, which we already have plenty of, just waiting to be reclaimed.
In my opinion, the deteriorated and abandoned buildings should be torn down and the site should be cleaned up and prepared for use as a technical park. Install the infrastructure (roads, sewers, water, internet, etc.) and begin to market sites to companies that will finance the construction of their buildings, parking lots, etc. that will support their operations. To attract the business to do so, extend long term (50 years of more) land leases at $1/year. High paying and permanent jobs must be created in the City of Schenectady if it is to prosper once again. Such a plan will result in increased temporary construction jobs, the creation of permanent career positions for city/county residents and demand for the goods and services being offered by the few businesses that continue to survive in the city.
Look to the Rennselaer Technology Park for guidance. RPI owns the land and has leased it to companies that locate there and that provides jobs to many of their graduates. Does Union College have a stake in the future of Schenectady? They should follow the lead chartered by RPI.
Would a technical park allow for industrial use? I'm not sure what the distinction is, but if the occasional business comes along that requires an industrial site, it is silly to have to worry about where to put it. I'm not expecting any major manufacturing to return. Your idea sounds good, much better than that stupid "city within a city" idea. Isn't there already some sort of waterfront usage going on behind there, a bike path or something? That could be developed and made more accessible if it exists, in conjunction with such a technical park, so you have the "waterfront" usage available to all residents, not just a few private owners of noisycondos.
Very good post Madame X and quite readable. Let's go further with that. The councilman was Gary McCarthy. The houses in question were on Duane Avenue. Go by there today. Half of them are condemned or ready to fall down. The whole area should have been knocked down in the late nineties. The residents could have gotten money from the developers. Now the properties are worthless. There was a cry against knocking down the "affordable housing" to benefit corporate interests. The last thing we need is jobs?
Time after time Schenectady DEM "leaders" have put housing before jobs. We could have had Lawnboy here. Talked to a guy today with a five bedroom house for sale on Waverly. He can't sell it. Beautiful home that would go for +$650,000 in Saratoga County. The DEM high taxes are killing resale, killing small businesses and killing jobs. Cicero is right and this idiotic ALCO housing proposal can't proceed without sold condo units.
You should move in from Clifton Park and by the first condo over the toxic waste site. Don't wait-you can buy the first condo by the City pollution plant today! The renaissance bus has backed on your big toe.
The only reason why the GOP's nattering nayboobs of negativity are so upset is because IT IS NOT THEIR IDEA. The GOP in Schenectady County (and, in fact, across the state and country) does not have good leaders to offer -- ones who will govern effectively. They have proven time and time again - that they can't work together let alone across party lines.
The cleaning up of the ALCO site is the first step towards redeveloping that land. The mixed use proposal makes a great deal of sense -- people will come to live, work and shop along the river front.
Mayor Stratton and the Democrats on the City Council have helped Schenectady take a huge step forward -- bybeginning the LONG NEEDED clean-up of this eyesore.
Meanwhile, the Republicans in Schenectady keep stepping in crap piles -- because they can't walk a straight line on their own .. let along lead the county into the future.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Logged
Think about the years of toxic waste. Of course, there's a nuclear reactor run by RPI on the site but shhhh don't tell anybody. The residential component of this idiotic "plan" needs to go the way of the SCCC music department relocation. Act like real economic development planners and find some corporations that want to relocate/expand here. If that fails go to a park.
