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Truth about downtown hurts, but better to know about it
Saturday, October 5, 2013


Truth about downtown hurts, but better to know about it
Thanks to the Gazette, some severe problems with downtown Schenectady security have surfaced [Oct. 1 Gazette].

Identifying any problem, of course, is the first essential step required in order to fix it.

Our paper was correct in not keeping it quiet.

We feel badly for all those committees and dedicated people who got downtown going again. To some degree, we find that we are back to Square One.

Personally, my instincts say that it is OK to spend money down there. I would attend matinees and eat luncheons for now. For nighttime dinners and evenings out, I would pay special attention to restaurants that advertise that they will provide walking escorts back to our cars.

Finding a way to get back lost customers will take time. Establishing a feeling of downtown security will take a consistent, 100 percent effort. Future patrons need to be convinced that 100 percent security is there for them during and after business hours, seven days a week! Year after year!

Convince, convince, convince! One gap like we just had, and we are back to Square One. My heart goes out to that family.

Edwin Litts

Schenectady





More cops needed after shows let out
That was an interesting take on the Bow Tie attack in Kathleen Moore’s Oct. 1 story. Metroplex must have tried to keep it a secret [on the theory that] if the public finds out, you’re going to lose customers. So the public was kept in the dark because, otherwise, it would be bad for business in Schenectady.

Oh, yes, statistics show that downtown Schenectady is relatively safe — relative compared to what, Chicago? We read about the shootings, knifings, drug deals, prostitution just a few blocks from State [Street] and Broadway.

We do not go to the Bow Tie in Schenectady because it is out of the way. But some friends have gone and will not return because they were hassled outside the theater. We do go to Proctors.

We do see police lounging in the arcade before the show, but we do not see them inside or outside afterward. We park in the lots east of State Street — lots off Clinton, Broadway, Liberty and Franklin [streets]. It feels a little lonely walking down the cut-through from Jay Street to the Clinton Street lot — even though the Schenectady Police Benevolent Association is right there on Clinton!

[Proctors CEO] Philip Morris should see if police will show up after the shows, on streets around Proctors. Mexican Radio will be opening soon kitty-corner from the Bow Tie. How will this affect their business?

For us, it’s into Proctors and right back out of Schenectady. We don’t want to be the next headline — months after the event!

Don Colosimo

Saratoga Springs

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2013/oct/05/1005_print/

Quoted from Madam X

That is something I've said, Proctor's should arrange to have police available when shows let out. I was downtown once, when a show ended, in broad daylight, and people stampede to their cars, but I think it isn't because of fear so much as older people don't want to get stuck in difficult traffic bottlenecks. Anyway, I noticed that there were enough people trying to cross the street at State and Broadway, that we really should have been providing assistance there, like Lake George Village does, in season.
The people crossing State to Jay Street weren't having problems, because that is a very safe crosswalk, but unfortunately some business had decided to drive a trunk full of junk up the middle of the Jay Street mall at that very time. Not good planning.