Quoted from Madam X

Proctor's was there, putting on shows, before anyone ever heard of Morris. Schenectady had more downtown in the 1970's than it does now. If Proctor's is so good for the city, why isn't the city good?

There were probably twice as many people living in the city then, with GE at full strength.

There were more people in the city then, but my point is, people keep trying to say that if we didn't build all this stuff downtown, we'd be returning to the ghost town that was there in other decades, but that is inaccurate.
As for the population in the city, that has dropped, but the fact that there weren't as many jobs here is not what made people leave the city. The city workers that used to live here moved out too. I lived here, I never worked at GE. People keep emphasizing the loss of jobs at GE as the reason for the city's problems, but that isn't entirely true, but it looks good, because then elected officials can pretend they had nothing to do with killing the city. Bear in mind, as the population in the city dropped, the population of this entire area GREW ENORMOUSLY. People who moved to Burnt Hills, Glenville, Colonie, etc. did so not because those areas had jobs, they moved there for a house, and a school. We have houses, and we had nice schools. We even have people who still would move here, but are being deterred. The city loses people because if you move here, you get to subsidize other people to live much better than you do, and if Schumer's "help" gets accepted, you will get to pay off another loan to knock down buildings that were sitting here rotting away for years before you ever stepped foot in the place. Would you want to move into an apartment and have the landlord charge you for a previous tenant's back rent? Would you buy a house if you had to pay the balance of the previous owner's mortgage? Of course not.
I, personally, don't know why, if Proctor's "makes" enough to purchase other buildings, they don't have Morris draw his salary from that money. I don't care what "the going rate" is for these types of jobs, and I don't care how long people have been fooled by this type of racket in other places. How do we know someone is doing a good job? What are the performance measures?
My point is, we are getting killed here, because of government, not in spite of their efforts.

First........proctors is the only thing keeping the other businesses afloat. Without a show, the businesses would go belly up...EVEN THO they pay no taxes!!!!!!

second.....since proctors is subsidized by the taxpayers and the businesses are not paying any taxes...........then downtown is nothing more than a false sense of economic security. The taxpayers should be applauded for their sacrifice.

third....it is irresponsible, misguided and out and out lying for the 'powers that be' in Schenectady, who try to pass this façade off as 'economic growth'.

The entire downtown section of Schenectady is all government subsidized via the taxpayers (that are left)

It's a sham!!

I notice most of the businesses around Proctors hire people who are white and the owners probably live in the suburbs. I would like to see them hire people who actually live in the region and can use a break. A $15 per hour job waiting tables in City Center is better than working at a McDonald's a mile or two to the east for $8.

Quoted from Jaystreet

I notice most of the businesses around Proctors hire people who are white and the owners probably live in the suburbs. I would like to see them hire people who actually live in the region and can use a break. A $15 per hour job waiting tables in City Center is better than working at a McDonald's a mile or two to the east for $8.

And perhaps better than welfare.

The unskilled jobs in the downtown hotels all seem to be filled by immigrants. If the people languishing downtown are not even employable in those kinds of jobs, I don't know what will become of them. Actually, I do know, welfare to SSD to Social Security and subsidized housing.
I think Bomber's isn't really dependent on Proctor's, he does very well at that location and I'm glad my taxes are going to subsidize Matt Baumgartner and a burrito place I never go to.
Maybe some of these places getting subsidies from the city and adding "hundreds of jobs", should have also agreed to attempt to hire some of the local hard-core unemployables. An NFP could maybe have gotten involved, in a 'supported employment' type arrangement, to train people for working in the jobs that there are, not some silly drywall school or some such. There are already more people ready and willing to do drywall work than there are jobs, they don't have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for workers.

Quoted from bumblethru

And perhaps better than welfare.

$15/hour barely helps a full time college student....hahahahaha

Morris to me....well, he needs to have more of a first impression.....that "tattered" look may be for actors....but for him it stinks..

clean himself up.....that's my impression before anything.

Quoted from bumblethru

First........proctors is the only thing keeping the other businesses afloat. Without a show, the businesses would go belly up...EVEN THO they pay no taxes!!!!!!
second.....since proctors is subsidized by the taxpayers and the businesses are not paying any taxes...........then downtown is nothing more than a false sense of economic security. The taxpayers should be applauded for their sacrifice. third....it is irresponsible, misguided and out and out lying for the 'powers that be' in Schenectady, who try to pass this façade off as 'economic growth'. The entire downtown section of Schenectady is all government subsidized via the taxpayers (that are left)
It's a sham!!

Proctor's and Metrograft are two shell games totally propped up by stunad County taxpayers. Despite constant DEM lies total County employment is DOWN over one thousand
jobs since Death Ray took over. I thought Metrograft would be an example that swept the nation? No other County is stupid enough to screw taxpayers to help multi millionaires
avoid paying ANYTHING back. No one wants property in the City and that is spreading Countywide. Resale prices keep falling and Schenectady County is the only CD County under
$100,000. Everything McCheese and the County Manager do further collapses property prices. Buyers are not interested in curbing, 5 story street lights and bike paths. They
want low taxes, safe streets and solid neighborhoods. The City school "crisis" is from decades of middle class flight replaced by welfare class attracted by easy no check benefits.