war zone? - talk about exaggeration.

There are significant crime problems but to call this City a war zone is wildly off the mark.

Quoted from visitor

war zone? - talk about exaggeration.

There are significant crime problems but to call this City a war zone is wildly off the mark.

Significant crime problems? I thought you said there aren't any crime problems?

Having a change of heart or did the SPD officers at the "Open House" refused over time for showing up?

Quoted from visitor

the drug problem is worse here than it is in nyc. you obvously know much about nyc

Couple relatives are NYC cops.

Quoted from rachel72

Significant crime problems? I thought you said there aren't any crime problems?

Having a change of heart or did the SPD officers at the "Open House" refused over time for showing up?

Crime is rampant in schenectady.  DRUGS for one!!! Anyone can get any drug anytime!!! And that is no kidding!!! It is a very lucrative business to say the least. There are crimes that never get reported. Folks that call the cops for their window being shot out are lucky if they arrive in less than 24 hours.  Same with many break-ins. Our friend's daughter was at Mohawk Honda just before they moved and was approached by a stranger asking her if she 'needed anything'! This crap goes on ALL the time!

In defense of the 'good cops'......they have a population where 60% are on welfare. Many living in section 8 apts owned by absentee slum lords. Not to mention the empty buildings that now are crack houses and/or inhabited with squatters.

There are women who are collecting welfare while their supposedly absent 'baby's daddies' are working in nyc m-f.....and drive upstate on the weekends to procreate again!

There are also many folks who live out of state, but collect schenectady welfare using a relative's address.

Until schenectady's leaders address this issue and at least raises the eligibility for welfare, this will continue!

Rachel - You know darned well I never said there were not crime problems.  I said some crimes are down, some are still a major problem primarily
and car larcenies, although the latter are trending downward but still a significant problem.  Domestic violence is a significant problem and arguably one of
more difficult ones to address.  

And, Command Staff is not paid overtime.

If your relatives are telling ytou crime is worse in Schenectady - I doubt they leave the station house.

That is a ridiculous statement.

Window shot out witha bb gun or a real gun - please, specify.  And, I sreiously doubt someone had to wait 24 hours for someone to respond.

There are some long response times and that has to get better, but 24 hours?

YES....24 HOURS! These elderly folks didn't know exactly 'what' shot their window out when they called!

This is the truth.....it was an aunt/uncle in-law! Mt. pleasant.

one doesn't go from being a police officer to a registered nurse for nothing.....or do they?

SOOOOOOO     Was the  Renaissance Boy at any of these open houses today, shaking his pom poms cheering for the city, telling people the city is in a great renaissance.

The way he thinks the city is oh so wonderful, it's a given he would buy a house in the city if he REALLY thought is was so great.  

Quoted Text

Mayor: Key to the City sparks Schenectady home buying
Posted at: 02/19/2012 8:02 PM | Updated at: 02/19/2012 8:04 PM
By: Dan Levy

SCHENECTADY - In Schenectady on Sunday, there was a big push to continue re-energizing residential neighborhoods one house at a time.

City officials say the Key to the City partnership has already been successful attracting new home owners into Schenectady and those leaders, along with bankers and realtors are determined to continue transforming the Electric City into an ideal, desirous community in which to raise a family.

After living in Schenectady for 13 years, Fernando Jimenez is now convinced he wants to buy a home in the city.

"It's not only just to buy a home," Jimenez says, "It's also to be a part of Schenectady and help in its growth. To me it's appealing because it's also becoming part of the solution."

City leaders are hoping more people like Jimenez attend one of the many open houses hosted by Prudential Manor Homes. It's part of a "Key to the City" initiative involving KeyBank which makes loans available for credit qualified, owner-occupied home purchases.

The program launched at the end of last September and they've already closed on 17 properties.Joseph Riedhammer, Senior Loan Officer of KeyBank Community Development, says the numbers speak for themselves.

"We've had 98 new inquiries since January third," he says, "Bringing the total interest of prospective home buyers to over 270 since November."

For that momentum to continue, Mayor Gary McCarthy knows the city needs to shed negative perceptions, much of it rhetoric and media misinformation, he says.

Even though that is happening, McCarthy believes, the perception -- or misperception -- has created bargain prices for the city's housing stock.

"The market has overly compensated for some of those perceived conditions," McCarthy stated. "Our housing prices are far lower then they should be as a result of that. Some of the taxes and fees represent a greater proportion then in some of our suburban locations or other communities."

One of the key selling points for any community in luring new home owners is its school district. Outgoing interim superintendent John Yagielski said at Sunday's news conference that Schenectady schools are second to none in what they have to offer their students.

Yagielski also said that incoming superintendent Lawrence Spring applied for the job in Schenectady because, "He wanted to come to this city so that he could have his own young children join in the school system and experience what an urban school system of this diversity and outstanding programs can offer."

http://wnyt.com/article/stories/s2503905.shtml?cat=300&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Quoted Text

One of the key selling points for any community in luring new home owners is its school district. Outgoing interim superintendent John Yagielski said at Sunday's news conference that Schenectady schools are second to none in what they have to offer their students.

Has the interim superintendent even LOOKED at the low graduation rates? School taxes second to none in the state? They rank 463 out of 700 in the state ...   Second to NONE??

http://www.homesurfer.com/schoolreports/view/schoolrankreports.cfm?state=NY

Quoted Text

For that momentum to continue, Mayor Gary McCarthy knows the city needs to shed negative perceptions, much of it rhetoric and media misinformation, he says.

Even though that is happening, McCarthy believes, the perception -- or misperception -- has created bargain prices for the city's housing stock.

What media misinformation is Gary McCarthy talking about??? Wasn't it the GOVERNOR OF THE STATE who publicly acknowledged that schenectady has a 'gun problem'??? OMG!!

Is it misperception where everyone knows that the city has an on going pit bull problem? Gang problems? Drug problems? Infrastructure problems? High tax problems(the highest in the state)? 60% population on welfare?

And as far as the school.......SECOND TO NONE????

Talk to some folks involved in this fiasco. Some of these new 'home buyers' need financial counciling. YUP THEY DO!!! Which will be on going until these new homeowners are on the right fiscal track! YUP...TRUE!!!

The misinformation that McCarthy is talking about is called the truth something he has never run across before.

What a big farce McC is

He says that with gas costs going up, people will want to live in the city so they  can walk to work.   DUH    Walk to what jobs?      He says gas costs take up too much of the expense in a household.   Gee, can he explain, can ANY cheerleaders for the city explain, WHY, when gas costs first hit $1 a gallon in the 70's, WHY, when there was a terrible energy crisis back in teh 70's, there was gas rationing and stuff, peoples STILL moved to the suburbs?   Guess McC has never heard of carpooling.  

Guess McC has never heard of public transportation and those, what do they call them, where you park your car and ride the bus.   Gee, you can live way out in westernmost Rotterdam, out in the most rural quiet places with tons of acres of land out Princetown and Duanesburg areas and STILL you can take public transportation to almost anywhere.  Just go park your car at Rotterdam Mall, hop on the bus to Albany if you work down there.   There is bus service to Saratoga, people love it.   CDTA boasts of increased ridership because of the bus plus which they have plans to add more.   I'm not try to glorify public transportation, I'm just stating the facts that unless McC endeavors to put CDTA out of business, people will live outside the cities.   If people demand bus service from outer areas, and they are willing to pay, it will be provided.   True, many whined and moaned when the fee went from $1 a ride to $1.50 a ride and you can bet many who complained were the lower income people to take buses.   I think they had monthly passes that went from $50 to $55 maybe.   Hey, McC needs to face the facts.  People who have decent jobs with good pay, they WILL be willing to pay $125 maybe $150 for a monthly pass if the gas goes so high that driving their car results in paying $400 a month into their tank.

Did you hear that woman on TV say you get more service in the city, because "you don't have to pay for trash service" (meaning the private service) mentioned it's "rolled into the tax bill"    BUT, the law does NOT allow homeonwers to deduct FEES.   Homeonwers pay probably $300 a year FEE for sewer, about $300 FEE for water, and roughly $200 FEE for trash (for a one familiy house, could be much more) and these fees CONSTANTLY INCREASE.    When a homeowner does their taxes, these fees are NOT tax deductible.  

He thinks that taxes are going to go down if people live in the houses.   Not a valid argument either.   The property taxes will go down ONLY when they remove the exemptions from the multimillion dollar assessed properties.   Houses that are CURRENLY vacant are probably privately owned and the dems in the city are too busy catering to the politically connected and well-heeled to bother with going after these properties for taxes that are owed.   Perfect example is the city dems doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to reimburse the taxpayers for the cost of demolishing Popolizio's buidling that had the fire.  

The city dems also, instead of seizing that Foster Hotel because it was not insured, they NEVER went after that pair of owners for million dollars worth of damage when the owners WILLFULLY AND DELIBERATELY caused the pipes to break by choosing not to turn heat on to the building.   With all the money that pair owed to the city on that building alone, what did the city dems do??????    They give them a huge profit, the dems bestowed a grand reward of a whopping quarter of a million dollars of the taxpayers money.   AND they exempted that pair from paying all the delinquent taxes on the building    And because it's a well known fact that this pari is delinquent on many many properties in the city, what are the city dems doing about that?   ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.   They just hike the taxes on the the rest of the homeonwers who live in the city.    And what about that Wisoff guy who was a tax delinquent and had already declared bankruptcy, yet the Stratton and the dems approved seliing Wisoff MORE properties which caused MORE properties to become decrepit and not have taxes paid on them.

Do you think for a minute that McC is informing prospective buyers that they will be paying the property taxes for millionaires downtown?   HELL NO!   So just pass the word