Then have SCCC use the Armory instead of building new. It's environmentally the right thing to do, it can't be given away and it will get rid of yet another vacant eyesore in the City.

If someone would read my post and try to understand what they are reading, they would see that I am not denying that people from out of town attend community colleges at times or that they stay someplace while they do.
More posts about what "will" happen. "Pie in the Sky", I believe that is called. I don't need someone to tell me what "will" happen, I have lived here long enough to get perspective on what does in reality go on.
Such nasty language, Georgie Porgie. You don't even know me.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Why don't you pull your head out of your butt for once -- and realize that Community Colleges attract students from more than just the local community.     This was true 35 years ago when my older siblings attended SCCC-- there has been a need for these dorms for years.

SCCC has extremely good reputation FAR BEYOND our county or region.  Building the dorms -- will allow MORE people from beyond the region to attend  -- introduce MORE people to our great county  ... and promoteMORE private sector investment in Schenectady County in the future.

DV, the city ALREADY has MORE THAN enough EXISTING VACANT housing.  There is NO NEEED WHATSOEVER to increased taxes on the financially struggling homeowners in order to pay some politically connected rich developer to build more tax exempt property.

But of course, YOU are NOT a taxpayer so YOU do not understand how people struggle to pay their taxes.  

So, DV YOU need to be educated.  

Lesson 1:    Vacant housing is unsightly.  Vacant housing is an attraction for vagrants, drug dealers and bums     Do you comprehend that statement?   Do you understand it enough for me to continue?

Lesson 2:     Vacant housing causes the properties of the occupied housing to go down in value.   Do you understand that one?   Can we go to the next lesson?

Lesson 3:     When property values go down, people with mortgages often wind up under water.  No DV, they don't have a flood on their street, they don't need bathing suits.  It means they owe more on their house than their house is worth.  Here, let me provide you a hypothetical example.  John and Mary buy a house for $150,000.  They got a mortgage for $140,000.   They owe $120,000 on it.  THe value of their house has gone down to $90,000.   The word "value" means what it would sell for on the open market.   So, the house is worth $90,000 but they still owe $120,000 on it.   You see?   THey owe more than the house is worth.  If they sell for $90,000 they still owe the other $30,000.   And perhaps they invested in some remodeling too, which makes the loss even greater.

Lesson 4.     Some homeowners just walk away, they leave their house and move elsewhere.  If John and Mary do this, that means yet another vacant house on their street which then causes the other remaining occupied houses to go down in value.   And DV, just so you now, the values WILL go down even if the economy is good---IF there is vacant/abandoned houses.  

Lesson 5:     Building something requires money.  If I want to build a house, I need money to do so.  If I don't have the money, I don't build.   Or I go get a loan and pay it back WITH MY OWN MONEY, NOT with someone else money!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Do you understand that!

Lesson 6.     In order to build this housing for students, the government needs money.   The government will increase the taxes on the homeowners/taxpayers to get the money (even if the government gets a loan, it must pay back the loan PLUS INTEREST --- the taxpayers again).

Lesson 7.     The taxes on the homeowners increase, the property values go down.  MORE homeowners flee the city which likely will cause more vacant houses.  If not vacant houses then scumy absentee landlords will buy the places and just let them rot while they rent to low lifes because they can't find decent people willing to rent

Lesson 8.     More low lifes in a neighborhood causes more people to want to move.   And that result in more vacant houses.  

Lesson 9.     Vacant houses often are tax deliqnuent, this causes the homeowners to pay higher taxes.

Review:   Vacant housing causes property values to decline causing taxes to increase and which causes more people to leave which causes more vacant houses which causes taxes to increase again, more people to leave and will cause more vacant houses and it's a never-ending cycle.

THe cycle MUST be broken.  

Tax dollars must be spent IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS where the people live

The armory (IMHO)  serves no useful purpose NOW nor will ever serve any useful purpose in the FUTURE... it would be best to tear it down and build something new on the site.    

Instead of building NEW student housing, the City and County should think about offering tax breaks to property owners that would be willing to rent month to month to SCCC students.  That way, students from out of the area attending SCCC can enjoy the entire experience all of Schenectady, living in the beautiful Mont Pleasant and Hamilton Hill neighborhoods.  This will help the student feel part of the wonderful Schenectady community.

It is time to start replacing the old housing and commercial buildings in other neighborhood   with new, modernand energy-efficient structures.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

It is time to start replacing the old housing and commercial buildings in other neighborhood   with new, modernand energy-efficient structures.

What about making current structures energy efficient? How about using what is available (with the 15 % vacancy rate on Eastern Parkway) and being environmentally and fiscally responsible?

The current City 'leaders' like to pad the pockets of the contractors rather than use what is currently vacant and available in the City. The new Marcellas is a prime example - the contractors left town with millions and MP was left with an empty building / crack house no one has moved into.

Its bad for taxpayers when the government pretends to know anything about business.  

Quoted Text

Quoted from Cicero:
Instead of building NEW student housing, the City and County should think about offering tax breaks to property owners that would be willing to rent month to month to SCCC students.

Cicero,

Why should government subsidize with tax revenues (or loss thereof) property owners to incent them
to rent to college students?  I could support, perhaps, the City or County government compiling an online
registry or printed brochure of properties that are available for rent to the students.  I might even be
supportive of extending public transportation to those areas to serve the students and other residents.
But, I don't support subsidizing property owners who agree to rent to SCCC students with tax breaks any
more than I do extending tax incentives to those who have an "in-law" apartment in their homes
(promoted by a candidate for elected office who coincidentally has his parents living in his home)

Quoted from CICERO

Instead of building NEW student housing, the City and County should think about offering tax breaks to property owners that would be willing to rent month to month to SCCC students.  That way, students from out of the area attending SCCC can enjoy the entire experience all of Schenectady, living in the beautiful Mont Pleasant and Hamilton Hill neighborhoods.  This will help the student feel part of the wonderful Schenectady community.

ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT EXCELLENT IDEA


Let's see what DV says to this one.  

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Ray Gillen has been hitting home run after home run -- and is putting our county firmly on the path to prosperity. The Renaissance continues.

You mean bankruptcy. Another wild pitch from the pitchman from hell. Death Ray's Metrograft is not even involved in this project. This proposal is against STATE LAW. SCCC was built for County residents not out of towners on the basketball/volleyball team. Even DEMS are tired of Death Ray's lies. They now keep him in the background because everyone knows he's full of s**t.

      This will take away vital parking from our commuting students. Let them park in one of Metrograft's empty lots miles from campus? Another half baked idea from the DEM bozos with no planning expertise. It will destroy the already collapsed rental market Downtown and flood landlords with more Section 8 applicants. Same thing that happened in the Union Triangle when Union opened a new dorm at the Ramada Inn. What's it like now? lol. Thank you working together DEM morons!

it is almost a full time job having to correct your distortions --- jeez..

i had to take a break from fantasy land for a bit in order to remember there is more to life than you wingnuts.

ATM -- omg,,, gramie, u certainly have a potty mouth.. You are watching too much porn.... is business that bad at the candy factory?

Perhaps you should define ATM for our readers so they can understand your gutter mind...

That was funny, Cicero.
The "old housing" is exactly the same as what people in more prosperous communities pay top dollar for, when they can get it at any price. Nobody "gentrifies" areas without classic architecture worth saving. I had a visitor from southern California when I lived in a slightly run-down area of the city and she marveled at the gorgeous housing stock just going to waste. "You can't even buy this!" is what she said. Schenectady government has a bad habit of laying waste to it's treasures, i.e. its once beautiful "old" neighborhoods and its history. The families that look at Schenectady and then settle elsewherearen't doing so because the houses are "old". They, go to places like Burnt Hills and Rensselaer county instead, not for newer houses,but because of taxes and crime, and now because it is becoming known how crappy our government is. People who have to have a new house don't look here in the first place.

If anything the many 100 + year old  2 family homes (many of which are in detiorating condition)  should be replaced with newer single family homes --   the older buildings that are worth saving .. should be saved .. but I don't see too many of them in Mont Pleasant or similar neighborhoods.   Even the commercial structures in Mont Pleasant  are obsolete --- and that was something that was mentioned in at least 2 studies conducted after 1980.

Again, building new buildings when the vacancy rate of MP (in 2009) was 28% is absolutely irresponsible. Also 65% of the homes in MP are over 100 years old, you'd have to get rid of the entire area with your theory DV.

If SCCC wants student housing, Gillen and the Plex should be doing their jobs and encourage the use of the hundreds of vacant buildings which litter the entire City. The YMCA, the Olander Building, the Armory..how about the former MVP building right in the Stockade? It has a parking garage to boot.

Contractors and lining their pockets with taxpayer money and it needs to stop.  

Quoted from Madam X

That was funny, Cicero.

At least somebody recognized the facetiousness of my post.  They are proposing a new building because they know that no responsible parent would send their 18 year child to SCCC and have them live in these neighborhoods. It looks like the Democrat strategy is to build "safe zones" and force the the rest of the residents to live in the run down crime ridden neighborhoods.  This is how 3rd world nations develop their urban centers. They are creating an illusion.