Nothing says "Detroit" or "South Bronx" better than a bunch of vacant lots where houses used to be. Nothing says "gentrification" better than a bunch of motivated young people buying houses at bargain prices and lovingly fixing them up and building 'sweat equity' with their own hard work. Nothing kills that faster than having the city come through (200  and steal all your equity to give to connected non-residents by taxing the hell out of you. The article says that Schenectady finally has the money for all this destruction. No, Schenectady has always had money, our money, this money is a loan, and if anybody does buy a house here they will end up paying it back. Fix the damn taxes, use the damn loan to stabilize as many of these places as possible, and then let the buyers purchase them for the cost to the taxpayers of the money that went into fixing them up. No more demolitions in favor of some expensive, cheesy instant tenement to benefit some crony. |
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