HUD loan to help Schenectady demolish structures Thursday, March 6, 2014 By Jeff Wilkin (Contact) Gazette Reporter
SCHENECTADY — About 80 vacant or heavily damaged buildings in Schenectady will be demolished thanks to a project funded by a $3 million federal loan.
The loan, from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was announced Thursday by Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.
The funding will allow the city to raze buildings considered blights on the community, structures that reduce property values for families living nearby.
“These are houses that are burnouts. They’re ones that are really beyond having any salvage values or the chance for rehabbing them,” said Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy.
McCarthy said the targeted buildings are located throughout the city. He believes once blight properties are removed, neighborhood improvements will follow.
“The properties that are adjacent to them, people have not wanted to put any investments in them because you’ve got this burned-out house, you’ve got this dilapidated structure right next-door that will be gone,” McCarthy said. “So we’ll now be working with people to fix up the adjacent property.”
Three structures that could be among the first to come down are on Foster Avenue, Eastern Avenue and Albany Street.
At 1580 Foster, a light yellow house with blue trim, two code enforcement posters proclaiming the building unsafe — one from 2013 and the other from 2008 — are tacked to the front door. Bay windows on the first and second floors are boarded up; side windows are either open or boarded, and eaves reveal damage from a fire.
The Eastern Avenue house — 858 Eastern, located across from Wendell Avenue — is a white and maroon brick front that also was heavily damaged by fire. Near the charred back of the house, a broken toilet, upended table and old chairs are half-buried in snow. The place was declared unsafe in 2008.
Andy’s Ski Shoppe is the boarded-up storefront at 738 Albany St., between Germania Avenue and Paige Street. A heavily damaged house stands right behind the store, with many open window spaces.
McCarthy said a list of the city’s worst properties was submitted along with the HUD application.
“I think we have flexibility where we might be able to take one off or put one on,” he said. “We’re also going after the property owners in a lot of these cases, trying to collect fines and penalties where they let the property go down and walked away from it.”
According to Schumer’s office, Schenectady has proposed the following breakdown of funds:
• $2,460,000 will be used for the acquisition, demolition, rehab and redevelopment of abandoned and deteriorated structures citywide.
• $500,000 will be used for the rehabilitation of 487 Nott St. into 14 units of rental housing, eight of them affordable housing units.
• $40,000 will go toward the Community Loan Fund of the Capital District for economic development technical assistance.
The loan program requires that at least 70 percent of the cleared sites be used for a new building or used in a way to improve adjacent properties. McCarthy expects city crews will be demolishing the structures by summer.
There are other components in play as the city continues redevelopment plans.
“As part of our sales tax agreement with the county, the county is giving the city $100,000 a year for dealing with some of the blight,” McCarthy said. “We’ll use that money to pay back this loan as we do the foreclosures on the properties. The properties we’ll be foreclosing on, I believe, will be worth more money because we have gotten rid of the worst of the worst.”
Bob Harvey, president of Schenectady United Neighborhoods, was glad to hear about the planned demolitions.
“I think it’s great in the sense we’re going to take a whole bunch of them in a fell swoop as opposed to four or five a year because that was all we could afford to do,” Harvey said.
He’s seen houses around the city that deserve to go.
“One house looks as though the front porch has caved in, exposing the inside of the house,” Harvey said. “It looks pretty disturbing because the rest of the houses on the street are not in that condition. Think of what that one house does to the property value of the homes around it.”
I support neighboorhood revitizalizations but NOT AT THE TAXPAYERS EXPENSE! THIS IS A LOAN WE HAVE TO PAY IT BACK AS OPPOSED TO A GRANT WHICH IS FREE! WE HAVE TO MENTION THE GALESI GROUP IN THIS TITLE BECAUSE THE GAZETTO AND TU IS TOO AFRAID TO DO SO.
Home values just took about another $5,000 drop in value
A bunch of homeowners in the city are on the phone right now with realtors beginning the process to put their houses p for sale.
Yep, property values fall to unprecedented levels while the big cheerleader has another orgasm shaking his pom poms over more wild uncontrolled spending of the taxpayers' money to give it to the millionaire political cronies of the city and county dems
[OOH OOOHHHHH AAAAAHHHH heavy breathing Uh uh uh OOOH AAAAAAAHHHHHH Phew] Mayor McCarthy and his team are doing a great job in the city. Keep up the good work.
All the cheerleading and STILL McC won't hire him for a job
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.
So it costs on average $30,000 per house to demolish ($2,500,000/80). Seems high to me but anything the government does is expensive. At that rate another 16 houses could have been demolished with the $500,000 that Galesi received. ($500,000/30,000 = 16).
They could have done a much better program with the $3,000,000 such as a tax credit program for people who invest in improvements to their homes in blighted areas. The money would have gone a lot further.
Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid - John Wayne
TIP TO NEW VISITORS TO THIS FORUM - To improve your blogging pleasure it is recommended to ignore (Through editing your prefere) the posts of the following bloggers - DemocraticVoiceofReason, Scotsgod08 and Smoking Bananas. They continually go off topic, do not provide facts and make irrational remarks. If you do not believe me, this can be proven by their reputation scores or by a sampling of their posts.
They could have done a much better program with the $3,000,000 such as a tax credit program for people who invest in improvements to their homes in blighted areas. The money would have gone a lot further.
You can't trust all the people to funnel that money back to the Democrat Party campaign coffers if you give tax credits. If you give grant money to one person, you know who to go to at election time for contributions.
"Schenectady gets $3M loan for vacant building demolition
Thursday, March 6, 2014
SCHENECTADY — The City of Schenectady has been approved for a $3 million federal loan to demolish 80 vacant buildings in the city.
The money will come from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The loan was announced Thursday by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY).
The funding will allow the city to raze buildings that are considered blights on the community and reduce property values for families living nearby.
The project, in many cases, means new construction will follow.
Schumer said the program requires at least 70 percent of the targeted sites be used for new buildings or in ways that will improve adjacent properties. The final goal will be neighborhood revitalization.
Schenectady officials have identified over 130 buildings that have been abandoned or are in poor condition."
So, let me get this straight.... yesterday the Gazette stated that this money was to go to raze homes and get rid of the blight.
Today, they said this loan is for 'some' properties to be rehabbed??
I'm confused.... did the terms of this federal loan amend itself overnight??
PS: Wonder how Golub, the Union College dorm residents and Union college will appreciate having 14 low-income apartments right across from their parking lots.
Kinda' like having the DSS offices there all over again...except this time the people don't leave at 4pm.... they will be there 24/7....
Can someone find out how much money does THE GALESI GROUP give to the DEMOCRATIC PARTY for elections??? I know McCarthy, Schumer and Cuomo is all getting kickbacks towards their campaigns from THE GALESI GROUP. THE GALESI GROUP is the reason why SCHENECTADY COUNTY IS 11TH ON THE MAP FOR HIGHEST TAXES IN UPSTATE NY.
“The properties that are adjacent to them, people have not wanted to put any investments in them because you’ve got this burned-out house, you’ve got this dilapidated structure right next-door that will be gone,” McCarthy said. “So we’ll now be working with people to fix up the adjacent property.”
News for you McCarthy. It's the high taxes and fees stupid! You can knock all the houses down in Schenectady and no one wants to come here to buy and live in a city which taxes the hell out of people. You should of stayed in college McCarthy you shouldn't of dropped out!
Love how they say there are too many units (rental units) in the city and then they spend $500,000 more to build 14 more. Think those 14 units will be adding to the tax base then think again.
Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid - John Wayne
TIP TO NEW VISITORS TO THIS FORUM - To improve your blogging pleasure it is recommended to ignore (Through editing your prefere) the posts of the following bloggers - DemocraticVoiceofReason, Scotsgod08 and Smoking Bananas. They continually go off topic, do not provide facts and make irrational remarks. If you do not believe me, this can be proven by their reputation scores or by a sampling of their posts.
THIS IS A LOAN WE HAVE TO PAY IT BACK AS OPPOSED TO A GRANT WHICH IS FREE!
No grant is FREE - taxpayers paid for it someplace!
We are advised NOT to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.
"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."
Can someone find out how much money does THE GALESI GROUP give to the DEMOCRATIC PARTY for elections??? I know McCarthy, Schumer and Cuomo is all getting kickbacks towards their campaigns from THE GALESI GROUP. THE GALESI GROUP is the reason why SCHENECTADY COUNTY IS 11TH ON THE MAP FOR HIGHEST TAXES IN UPSTATE NY.
There could be a way to look up donations, HOWEVER, it is an absolute guarantee that whatever kickbacks "donations" Galesi is making to the dems, it is being done under hundreds of different names. Just look at the property records, ownership names are like snowflakes, no two are alike.
If search could be done based on address and all were made form the same address in Rotterdam Ind park, then yes, but for sure, this rip off artist Galesi knows exactly how to hire the best and most expensive attorneys to insure that no average person, probably not even the board of elections at ANY level, could EVER identify eve two donations as being from the same source connected to Galesi
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.
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