Quite a story on the vacant houses in the city. houses in foreclosure and the conditions, etc. in today's paper

But wow a historic house at 12 Morris Ave

Listed for sale in 2010-11

No one willing buy move into the city to buy it and pay the huge taxes.

Gone to foreclosure

Not "being negative" but rather pointing out FACTS, stating the TRUTH, and presenting the EVIDENCE.  Things need to change in the city, stop all the downtown re-doing because it is bring the city down big time, DRASTIC MASSIVE REDUCTION in the city's tax base, people can't sell their houses so they jut let the go, or they sell at a hyuge loss.  And other's mortgages paid off cannot afford to pay their own taxes PLUS the taxes of the millionaires and billionaire cronies of the dems (Galesi, Mallozzi, Paul Mitchell, the Hiltons, King Phillip, even General Electric - just a SMALL sampling of the properties of the richest and the dems have exempted the rich from paying taxes)

And the number of long time vacant properties continues and will continue to increase.

Sad.

Good thing that street was designated historic, or McCheese would be using our money to knock down vacant houses.

Anyone have the article MC1 is talking about that can post it here?

I found this sort of related regarding unshoveled foreclosed houses
SCHENECTADY : Unshoveled sidewalks of vacant buildings add to city’s snow removal burden
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter


There is a class of vacant building that remains hidden in Schenectady throughout most of the year.
   They’re not boarded up, the lawns are cut often enough to be acceptable and they don’t look like they’re uninhabited.
   But as soon it snows, they stand out with unshoveled sidewalks and not a single footprint heading up the steps.
   A foot of snow fell overnight Saturday, and by Monday, almost every vacant house in Schenectady was surrounded by a moat of untouched snow.
   The group consists of hundreds of houses taken by the city in foreclosure last year; the many unoccupied houses about to be taken in the next round of foreclosures ; and others where landlords, tenants and owners have simply walked away.
   Mayor Gary McCarthy said city workers will start shoveling out those sidewalks today — three days after the storm.
   “We try to maintain all the ones the city has,” he said.
   But workers couldn’t get to them Monday, because they were shoveling out intersections, he said.
   The curb-cuts where sidewalk meets street were generally clogged throughout the city, he said. In other cases, residents threw more snow into those areas as they shoveled out their own sidewalks.
   “People are pushing snow into the roadway and blocking intersections,” McCarthy said.
   He urged residents to do more than simply dig out their cars. He advised them to move snow off the curb, onto their lawns, to make room for the rest of the winter’s storms. He also advised them to dig out the entire width of their sidewalks — rather than one shovel length — and to dig out entire driveways rather than just around their car.
   “It’s a lot easier if people will do a little maintenance now so you build up a capacity for the future,” he said. “It has the potential to be a long winter. We could have snow on the ground until March.”
   He also asked residents to remove at least one shovel-full of snow from each side of the nearest fire hydrant so that fi refi ghters can find them and hook hoses to them without first digging them out.
   “It’s very simple: one shovel on each side of a fire hydrant,” he said.
   He’s not planning to ticket people who don’t shovel their sidewalks — at least, not yet.
   “We’re trying to approach things with a common-sense approach,” he said, explaining that he thinks people need more time to adjust to the realities of snow removal.
   “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a foot or more of snow,” he said.

Quoted from rpforpres

I found this sort of related regarding unshoveled foreclosed houses
SCHENECTADY : Unshoveled sidewalks of vacant buildings add to city’s snow removal burden
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter


There is a class of vacant building that remains hidden in Schenectady throughout most of the year.
   They’re not boarded up, the lawns are cut often enough to be acceptable and they don’t look like they’re uninhabited.
   But as soon it snows, they stand out with unshoveled sidewalks and not a single footprint heading up the steps.
   A foot of snow fell overnight Saturday, and by Monday, almost every vacant house in Schenectady was surrounded by a moat of untouched snow.
   The group consists of hundreds of houses taken by the city in foreclosure last year; the many unoccupied houses about to be taken in the next round of foreclosures ; and others where landlords, tenants and owners have simply walked away.
   Mayor Gary McCarthy said city workers will start shoveling out those sidewalks today — three days after the storm.
   “We try to maintain all the ones the city has,” he said.
   But workers couldn’t get to them Monday, because they were shoveling out intersections, he said.
   The curb-cuts where sidewalk meets street were generally clogged throughout the city, he said. In other cases, residents threw more snow into those areas as they shoveled out their own sidewalks.
   “People are pushing snow into the roadway and blocking intersections,” McCarthy said.
   He urged residents to do more than simply dig out their cars. He advised them to move snow off the curb, onto their lawns, to make room for the rest of the winter’s storms. He also advised them to dig out the entire width of their sidewalks — rather than one shovel length — and to dig out entire driveways rather than just around their car.
   “It’s a lot easier if people will do a little maintenance now so you build up a capacity for the future,” he said. “It has the potential to be a long winter. We could have snow on the ground until March.”
   He also asked residents to remove at least one shovel-full of snow from each side of the nearest fire hydrant so that fi refi ghters can find them and hook hoses to them without first digging them out.
   “It’s very simple: one shovel on each side of a fire hydrant,” he said.
   He’s not planning to ticket people who don’t shovel their sidewalks — at least, not yet.
   “We’re trying to approach things with a common-sense approach,” he said, explaining that he thinks people need more time to adjust to the realities of snow removal.
   “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a foot or more of snow,” he said.

rp what did people do 50 years ago when Schenectady st was TWO WAY TRAFFIC  & it snowed 12 inches over night ?

OMG McCheese is so critical! I don't like it when people don't shovel their walks at all, but now he wants the poor besieged residents to get out there and get all fancy, while meanwhile, his cowlike cohort refuses to allow her street to be properly cleared, so she doesn't have to walk.
I saw a plow going up Baker yesterday, if we'd used alternate side parking, it would have been able to clean the whole side of the street to the curb, and the other side would have been done the day before. Tell us again, how alternate side parking "slows down" plowing?
Now he's threatening us with ticketing. How about the city places stakes with red paint next to the hydrants during the winter, so no one will be confused as to where they are?
Again, I want everyone to clear their walks, but the city really needs to step things up on their end, before they go getting all picky with the property owners. When there is so much snow, they (the city) just has to take some away.
BTW, someone told me that those passageways from the city lots to Jay Street weren't properly cleared either.

Found the article

SCHENECTADY : Houses of horrors
AG looks to make lenders care for delinquent buildings

BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

It took just three weeks for 530 Summit Ave. to devolve from home to wreck.
   In January, the house was in good shape, but it was vacant.
   Then a homeless couple cut off the locks and moved in with their young child. Three weeks later, the basement was full of water and the electrical system destroyed.
   The squatters used the house as their home, Building Inspector Eric Shilling said, but they also cut out the copper pipes, selling the metal for what Shilling estimated was $10 to $12.
   They didn’t turn off the water valves first, and water began to spew into the house at full pressure from the main city water connection, Shilling said. Eventually, “even they got concerned” and called 911, he said, but it was too late: The house may be beyond saving.
   “It exponentially increased the rehab cost,” said Shilling.
   Similar situations are occurring all over the city. There are as many as 1,000 vacant houses in Schenectady, and Shilling said he can’t keep up with the number of break-ins and thefts.
   A new law proposed by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman could put a stop to some of them. FIGHTING ‘ZOMBIES’
   Schneiderman is targeting houses in the murky depths of foreclosure. In many cases, owners move out when they get a foreclosure notice from a bank, but the bank doesn’t complete the foreclosure process — or take ownership of the building — for years. In some cases, Schneiderman said, banks even work to slow down or cancel the foreclosure process after the residents move out. That leaves the property in limbo for years.
   Schneiderman has named them “zombie” properties to emphasize the harm they can cause to the community.
   “There are thousands of these zombie properties plaguing communities all across our state, and that’s just wrong,” he said. “We are looking to change state law so that lenders become responsible for delinquent properties soon after they are abandoned — not at the end of a lengthy foreclosure process.”
   Not every vacant house in Schenectady is awaiting the end of a years-long foreclosure, but Assistant Corporation Counsel Carl Falotico said he encounters the issue every week.
   “That is a huge problem I deal with all the time,” he said. “I have a pile of them sitting on my desk right now.”
   This week’s stack: nine properties, all jointly ignored by the original owner and the bank. In one case, Falotico cited a man for code violations at 543 Schenectady St., only to learn the man gave up the property in 2009.
   The foreclosure was pending, and the owner was in bankruptcy court. He agreed to surrender the property, Falotico said.
   “That means the bank should take possession,” he added.
   But the bank never did. Four years later, code enforcers got involved when part of the garage roof collapsed. Someone had also dumped a pile of construction debris on the property, Falotico said.
   “The property’s in pretty bad shape,” he said. “It’s the standard case we get.”
   Now he’s trying to track down the bank, which is not as easy as it might sound.
   “The problem is it’s very labor intensive to find the right person,” he said.
   In another case, code enforcers cited landlord Sarita Persaud, owner of 1130-1132 Pleasant St., where a front window is broken and plywood covering one door has been pulled back, allowing access. But when Falotico tracked down the owner, she said the bank told her to vacate the building in 2012.
   “She provided us quickly with paperwork,” Falotico said.
   Residential Credit Solutions Inc. initiated a foreclosure, but two years later, the process still wasn’t complete, Falotico said.
   In an indication of how difficult it is to communicate with banks in these cases, a reporter was transferred four times during a call to Residential Credit Solutions. No one was willing to take the call, and although they agreed to take a message, no one called back.
   In court, Persaud pleaded guilty to not listing her property on the city’s vacant property registry. She paid the minimum fine of $250 and promised to handle snow removal and other maintenance until the property is taken by the bank, Falotico said.
   But snow covered the sidewalk weeks after the most recent storm, and it looked like someone had moved into the house. Neighbor Carol Isdell said she’s sure people have moved in.
   “Because I know there weren’t curtains before, and now there are,” she said.
   Isdell is worried about fires, noting that squatters often set them for heat. The last thing she wants is for her apartment to be destroyed by a fast-moving fire.
   She wishes the rent-paying tenants had been allowed to stay during the foreclosure.
   “Let them stay in their own home,” she said. “It’s better to have people living in there.” Better than nothing Schneiderman’s proposed law would encourage that by requiring banks to tell owners they don’t have to move out until the end of the foreclosure process. Isdell was startled to hear current laws allow owners to stay until a judge signs the foreclosure.
   “I had no idea. You hear you have to move out right away,” she said.
   Realtor Toni Lupi-Pallotolo objected, at first, to the idea of encouraging people to stay until they formally lose title to their house. During that time, they aren’t paying their mortgage, so they’re living rent-free.
   “But that could be two years rentfree,” she complained.
   Still, she agreed with Schneiderman it would be better than vandals moving in.
   Thieves removed all the copper pipes from a vacant house across the street from her, she said. She had offered to buy that house when the bank began the foreclosure, but the bank did not respond to her calls.
   “Now, it’s near tear-down status,” she said.
   Building Inspector Shilling said vandals sneak in when they figure out no one is in charge of a particular property.
   “It’s an invitation to those that may not have a place to live, those who want a place to conduct illicit activity, curious children,” Shilling said. “No one benefits from vacant property.”
   He interviewed the couple who caused the water damage at 530 Summit St. to find out what they saw from the outside that convinced them to try living in the house. He said he’ll use their answers to try to formulate city policies to combat the issue.
   Among other things, he’s considering shutting off the water supply to vacant houses. It’s costly, but then again, so is boarding up a house — about $600 for a two-family home, he said. He thinks vandals might stop breaking in if they knew there was nothing inside but walls and a roof.
   “If they have absolutely no heat, no water, they can’t flush the toilet, that might deter them somewhat,” he said.
   Lupi-Pallotolo is hoping Schneiderman’s proposal will get banks to take control as soon as residents move out. That, she said, could stop the vandals, too.
   “It will make a big difference. I hope that it passes,” she said. “It really is blighting the community.”

http://olivedev.dailygazette.n.....amp;Section=National

Quoted from Sombody

rp what did people do 50 years ago when Schenectady st was TWO WAY TRAFFIC  & it snowed 12 inches over night ?

Oh,oh,oh, I know. They did what needed to be done without complaining. They weren't driven by news media declaring that the "end of the world" was coming, or by wimpy money grabbing politicians declaring phony "states of emergencies". Or constantly carping about the politicians and city workers. Nope, they dealt with it and moved on.

Quoted Text

   He urged residents to do more than simply dig out their cars. He advised them to move snow off the curb, onto their lawns, to make room for the rest of the winter’s storms. He also advised them to dig out the entire width of their sidewalks — rather than one shovel length — and to dig out entire driveways rather than just around their car.

Not even gonna comment on the bolded text  

Sombody-what did people do 50 years ago, well they shoved their sidewalks, just like I did initially    And what did the city do 50 years ago? They
plowed the streets, the trash men went into our yards and got the cans and brought them out to the truck, oh and the taxes weren't too dam high.

Right on, rp. I WILL carp about the politicians, and the city workers too, as I PAY them, and they had better do their jobs. Don't you people have to do your jobs? I can remember the streets in Schenectady being in much better condition after snowstorms, and don't anybody try to tell me, oh, GE was here then, because we are still paying enough taxes to get services.
I would not get so annoyed at McCarthy and his 'helpful hints', because many of them are valid, except that every time he finally steps up to do his job, he starts "carping" about the taxpayers and how we are making things harder for him. I don't get 90k per year from the citizens, anybody who does had better give the people what they paid for.
p.s. 50 years ago, city employees lived in the city, not out in Alplaus, some of them actually spent time in the neighborhoods, they new the special conditions, such as rp's street, where there is more room to push the snow on one side than the other, the areas where people don't have much in the wayof a front yard, etc. Nobody is knocking the rank and file workers out trying to do the job. They need leadership. That would be McCarthy, and Olsen. If we are whiners about things like garbage collection and snow removal, let those politicians and workers who don't like it quit, and give somebody else a chance at their salaries and benefits.

Quoted Text

If we are whiners about things like garbage collection and snow removal, let those politicians and workers who don't like it quit, and give somebody else a chance at their salaries and benefits.

Quoted from Madam X

p.s. 50 years ago, city employees lived in the city, not out in Alplaus, some of them actually spent time in the neighborhoods, they new the special conditions, such as rp's street, where there is more room to push the snow on one side than the other, the areas where people don't have much in the wayof a front yard, etc. ....... They need leadership. That would be McCarthy, and Olsen. If we are whiners about things like garbage collection and snow removal, let those politicians and workers who don't like it quit, and give somebody else a chance at their salaries and benefits.

Yes, and in a house that has doubled in value since moving in, with a value that a similar valued/assessed house in city would have a total tax bill of probably about $14,000 a year.  

the city is a money losing sh!thole....between the METROPLEX/GILLEN to the slumlords, to the foreclosures to the welfare recipients. The city of Schenectady CHOSE to let it crumble as long as the friends and family club were getting their palms greased.

The is no present solution as long as these clowns keep getting voted in. And they will since the pathetic city is populated with mostly welfare recipients.  

And 'IF' there were a change of guards running the city.........would the new 'guards' abolish METROPLEX/GILLEN? Would they make all the METROPLEX/GILLEN businesses pay taxes? Don't throw your dirty water out before you can replace it with clean water.

All of the favors these clowns doled out, are guaranteed votes! That's what they do! Great strategy....yes?