Two Snowden Avenue homeowners question police priorities on their block By Paul Nelson Published 10:21 pm, Sunday, December 8, 2013
Julie Utter is conflicted.
The self-professed country girl from Cooperstown said she loves her neighbors and the century-old home on Snowden Avenue that she and her fiance bought in May 2009.
But within two years, the euphoria of being first-time homebuyers began to wear off, she said, and was replaced by their frustration at open-air drug-dealing on their block between State Street and Becker Avenue. They've also watched intoxicated patrons from the corner bar urinate on their property, and are constantly picking up garbage discarded by motorists and pedestrians.
"Why should I have to tolerate these things as a homeowner and somebody that pays taxes in the city?" said Utter, 30, a stay-at-home mother who has her teaching license and is in graduate school at The Sage Colleges. "One minute it's nice, and the next minute it's not."
Her fiance, Cransen Arnold, 42, was raised in Ithaca and works at the Hampton Inn on Route 7 as an assistant general manager.
Utter, who loves the diversity on her street of modest, single-family homes, said she's seeing more "for sale" signs popping up on the block. And now the couple, who have two children, ages 3 and 4, are ready to join others who are putting their house on the market.
The decision to leave their hard-working neighbors in the blue-collar area near State Street comes even as Mayor Gary McCarthy's administration is making a push to attract homebuyers amid pledges to clean up neighborhood blight.
That effort has been buoyed by the city teaming up with local banks to offer affordable loans for potential buyers, and a separate program under which contractors rehab foreclosed homes, sell them and share profits with the city.
One of Utter's neighbors, Patrice, who declined to give her last name, said she's lived on Snowden Avenue with her boyfriend since 1992. She recalled when the street was filled with families with children, but said that over time many have departed.
"Raising children here is what's making them move," said Patrice, a retired state worker. "If it wasn't for the good neighbors we would have walked away years ago, and you know what? The good neighbors are starting to leave."
The woman, in her late 50s, also complained about what she described as a lack of police presence on the street, including officers walking the beat. The only city employees they ever see, Patrice said, are parking enforcement officers.
Utter said it leaves the perception that police don't care about Snowden Avenue.
The women said the summer months are particularly bad. They said open-air drug-dealing picks up and vehicles line their block for illicit purposes, and that there are also regular disturbances at a nearby bar on State Street. Patrice said a patron once parked in her driveway.
"Come summer, when our windows are open, it's going to be a zoo," Patrice said.
Utter's mother, who lives in Cooperstown but was raised in Niskayuna, has warned Utter that she needs to leave Schenectady for her kids' sake.
"But that's my mother being a mother and her being a grandmother," Utter said, repeating her mother's admonition to move "because it's not safe like it used to be."
"I feel safe in my own home, but when I leave the house I always have my guard up," she said.
Police Chief Brian Kilcullen said Friday that high call volumes preclude an officer assigned in that area from walking the beat and getting to know people.
"The call volume dictates the amount of time they are able to spend on community policing efforts, and unfortunately with the call volumes they are not able to do a lot of community policing," he said.
Utter and Patrice said they have confronted drug dealers when police are slow to respond to their complaints.
Kilcullen said he couldn't immediately provide the department's average response times, but he cautioned there are a lot of variables in prioritizing police calls that dictate how fast officers can respond to an incident. If a suspect in a drug sale has left the area, he said, the priority for that call is diminished.
The chief said residents can help police by getting good descriptions of suspects or a license plate number. "If we can't respond immediately, it's because we are on the scene of other calls," Kilcullen said. He said Snowden Avenue is not a "problem street," but acknowledged there are incidents in that neighborhood that require police attention.
The mayor, meanwhile, said he would need to study the issue more deeply to determine how police calls about alleged drug dealing are being handled.
McCarthy also said that Utter and her neighbors could contact him on his mobile phone and Utter said McCarthy phoned later, promising to have police look into her concerns. "My neighbors are what makes this place great, and it's because we all care that (it) keeps this neighborhood going strong," Utter said.
Mayor McCarthy and his team are doing a great job in the city. Keep up the good work.
Notice how DV is just about abandoned the topics that relate to his buddies in the city. Guess he has realized that we "nayboobs" were telling the truth all along and he's too embarrassed to admit it.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Police priorities is that of raking in revenue, just like the other day when they set up another road block on State St. The city is trying to squeeze what little the tax payers have left and the police are right on board with it because they don't give a sh1t about this city. This is not their city, we are not their problem, our safety is not their concern. Its been that way for awhile but it seems as if people only notice it when it hits them at home or personally.
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."
Police priorities is that of raking in revenue, just like the other day when they set up another road block on State St. The city is trying to squeeze what little the tax payers have left and the police are right on board with it because they don't give a sh1t about this city. This is not their city, we are not their problem, our safety is not their concern. Its been that way for awhile but it seems as if people only notice it when it hits them at home or personally.
Police want to hunt people autonomously on the roadside or undercover.
What they really dislike is coming to your house when you call them.
Snowden is complicated further because there is an alley over there. It only takes one or two really lousy households to ruin the whole street. If you actually go there, which I have done recently, you see that most of the people living over there are decent people, and keep their homes very nice. I've been on State Street when school let out, and seen the kids coming off the buses. What nice kids! It is too bad our local officials have written off their neighborhood in favor of building apartments downtown, to lure in some new residents, probably white, that they would prefer. There are some very nice, very cheap, houses for sale over there with no takers for years. The kind of houses families used to love to start out in, right next to open parkland. Of course, when people who get high salaries courtesy of the residents won't deign to live here, they can't really support the needs of people they don't know and never see. That's why you get cockamamie ideas like all that money dumped into Steinmetz Park, or refurbished tennis courts (!) in MP. If the kinds of problems people are having on Snowden were happening around their houses, the problems would end pretty quick.
And this is the reason why residency requirements for most city employees MUST be required AND MUST be enforced/
McC should IMMEDIATELY issue an order that ALL department heads, assistant department heads, police officers and firefighters must move into the city within six months or lose their job. Oh yeah, police and fire, yeah, union opposes that and the wuss McC wouldn't push for such a requirement in their contracts.
The question needs to be answered -- and the dems REFUSE to challenge them -- ask the cops and fire WHY they won't live IN the city? Of course, they don't want to pay the highest taxes and because they know the services are being reduced.
McC will NEVER enforce residency. He takes care of his cronies.
But I must add that the rules should also be that anyone, the head of any company that is getting tax breaks here, i.e., downtown, they should live IN the city as a condition for getting the money. But nope, McC just wants their kickback money for his party.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
McCheese actually had some of these non-residents showing their faces and one of his sell-athon events. Ready to answer your questions about why you should buy a house in Schenectady, but they won't. They did this with straight faces. It almost made me physically ill.
McC should IMMEDIATELY issue an order that ALL department heads, assistant department heads, police officers and firefighters must move into the city within six months or lose their job.
you will NEVER see that happen!! We know folks who work in some of those departments.....and they all say....THERE AIN'T NO WAY!!
Altho I'd love to see where they think they could get a job with those wages and benefits.
Personally.......I'd call their bluff!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
A TAX PAYER named "Utter" which is what the democraps see taxpayers AS. And objectified only as udders. How ironic. If it was spelled like that kind it would be particularly funny.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Notice how DV is just about abandoned the topics that relate to his buddies in the city. Guess he has realized that we "nayboobs" were telling the truth all along and he's too embarrassed to admit it.
Of course we were right. One party rule didn't work in Cuba, Germany and Russia and can't work here. McCheese's home buying program is a total failure like everything else he does. They have no solution because they can't increase taxes anymore. McCheese is finished even the DEMS are running from him. Roger Hull is the next Mayor and will beat whoever the DEM tax machine puts up in a landslide. Watch more pull a Brucker and flee the mess they created.
Logged
Of course we were right. One party rule didn't work in Cuba, Germany and Russia and can't work here. McCheese's home buying program is a total failure like 
