Actually, it's kind of funny... the whole page (2 pg spread) reads:

Celebrate the Labor Day Weekend Along Hamburg Street
Watch for wonderful developments along the Hamburg St Corridor such as
Street Crossings, New Lighting, Christmas Street Decorating and More



When did all this get planned?  When did it go back to "Christmas" Street decorating - maybe I missed the memo?

Talked about and had meetings on this over a year ago......believe it when I see it !!

Quoted from biaggio

Talked about and had meetings on this over a year ago......believe it when I see it !!

I dunno, the Hamburg Street Assoc. seems to be pretty active.  I see notices for their meetings when I go to FNB of Scotia on Hamburg, and I also heard they are planning a street festival...Kudos to them!

hey, I hope it all works out, all I'm saying is this has been going for a year..... you say " pretty active "....what has been accomplished...sorry I dont see anything going on....I wish this area the best...

The fact of the matter is Biag, that the merchants, the active ones that is, are putting all they can and have into the revitalization of the area. Theyneed $$$$$.  It is the 'powers that be' that we and they are waiting for. The metroplex was suppose to help out too...but where are they? Oh I forgot, they are on State Street and in the developers back pockets....with OUR tax dollars!  Sure they are helping out Rotterdam, but where? Galesi's Corporate Park! The plex certainly found a million dollars floating around to buy a 260,000 ft building for Galesi. What about the rest of the town? The plex is where I would start.

Labor day came and went....didnt see anything special, did I miss it ?? Drove through the intersection of Hamburg and Curry this morning 6:00am...road work signs being set up...maybe some work being started on the roundabout...

Hamburg Street needs and wants more than a roundabout. I still say the intersection does NOT need a roundabout. Just put up new stop lights with arrows for God's sake. A roundabout is clearly over kill for that intersection. And of course more taxpayer's money.

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Roundabout safety figures roll in
More accidents, few injuries reported
BY STEPHEN WILLIAMS Gazette Reporter

    Accidents are up on a stretch of Route 67 where five roundabouts were built two years ago, but injuries are not, according to state Department of Transportation statistics.
    The two-lane-wide roundabout at routes 9 and 67 was the location of 63 accidents between its opening in September 2006 and December 2007, though there were only four personal injuries.
    “We’re experiencing more accidents at some intersections, but fewer injuries,” said DOT Region One Director Brian O. Rowback. “What you get are fender-benders, accidents at a lot less speed.”
    The accident history provides some realworld nuance to the rosy scenarios state officials painted of roundabouts a few years ago, when they were a new concept and much of the public was apprehensive.
    The roundabouts have largely worked as advertised, slowing traffic and preventing serious injuries, except that the rate of minor accidents has turned out to be higher than anticipated.
    “There’s always a period of adjustment as people come to understand how roundabouts work,” Rowback said.
    The series of roundabouts around Northway Exit 12 is the biggest grouping of roundabouts in the region. The number of accidents appears related to their two-lane design, since accident rates are far lower at single-lane roundabouts in the region.
    “There are people doing things inside the roundabouts that are problematic,” Rowback said.
    When being planned, roundabouts were portrayed as an effective way to stop frustrating traffi c back-ups, while reducing the risk of serious injuries or death from serious accidents.
    Traffic light-controlled intersections, the argument went, have more serious accidents because often one or both vehicles may be traveling at high speed, with at least one driver having ignored, missed or tried to beat a red light.
    The collisions at the roundabouts tend to be fender-benders or sideswipes.
ACCIDENT STATISTICS
    State figures for the roundabouts through December 2007, the most recent numbers available, show the following:
    Route 67 at the State Farm entrance, 11 accidents from November 2005 onward. No injuries reported.
    Route 67 and the southbound Northway ramps, 16 accidents from June 2006 through December. One injury.
    Route 67 at northbound Northway ramps, 18 accidents from June 2006 to December, with five personal injuries.
    Route 67 at Kelch Drive, nine accidents from May 2006 to last December, with one injury.
    Route 67 at Route 9, 63 accidents from September 2006 to December 2007, with four injuries.
    No fatalities were reported.
    Many of the accidents are occurring inside a roundabout, when people cross between lanes, Rowback said. Different signs and other driver education measures are under consideration.
    “We don’t just build roundabouts and leave. We monitor what’s going on,” said Peter van Keuren, a spokesman for DOT.
    Roundabouts work like a traffi c circle, but have a much tighter radius, designed to force people to slow down as they approach and enter the intersection.
    Advocates cite long experience with them in Europe, and say they reduce injuries, as well as the delays and pollution from vehicle idling that occurs at traffic lights.
    The half-mile from State Farm Place to Route 9 took 6 1 /2 minutes during the evening rush hour when there were five traffic lights, and can now be negotiated in two minutes.
    Many drivers dislike roundabouts, though, and in 2007 plans for two on Broadway were withdrawn from a downtown Saratoga Springs traffic improvement plan. In Schenectady, where one roundabout is currently proposed as part of a redesign of Erie Boulevard, merchants have criticized the idea.
    Malta Supervisor Paul J. Sausville, who roundabouts on a daily basis, remains a defender, and he predicted over time the number of accidents will drop.
    “They do calm traffic,” he said. “There are still a lot of benefits to them.”
    He said drivers using them need to slow down more. “People are so pleased they don’t have to stop at a traffic light they just dash right through.”
    Roundabouts may work best in rural areas with light traffic volumes, Sausville said. “As you get into high traffic volumes, the roundabouts begin to lose their glow,” he said.
HISTORY AND PLANS
    Construction of roundabouts has been a growing traffic management trend for the last decade, and they’re being built in urban, suburban and rural locations.
    The first local roundabout opened in 2004 in Greenwich, Washington County, and there are now about two dozen in the eight-county area served by DOT Region One. Others are under construction, and still more under consideration.
    Malta alone will eventually have a dozen, based on current plans.
    New single-lane roundabouts are currently under construction at two locations on Dunning Street in the Luther Forest housing development, and two more will be at either end of the Round Lake bypass.
    Statewide, there are now 44 roundabouts, with another 14 under construction, according to DOT.
    However, Rowback said, roundabouts are no longer the generally preferred design at state highway intersections, but are an alternative considered along with more traditional traffic control m e a - sures like lights.
    Roundabouts are more expensive to build than a traffic light intersection, and they take up more space, he noted.
ACCIDENTS
    “If the problem is we’re trading off the number of accidents for the severity of accidents, that has to be part of the conversation,” Rowback said. “I don’t think it’s correct to say it’s the preferred engineering control, but it’s one of the options out there.”
    The fact that the Route 67 roundabouts were designed with double lanes to accommodate high volumes of traffic appears to be one reason they have more sideswipe and fender-bender accidents.
    Two other roundabouts built elsewhere in the region that are only a single lane wide have fewer accidents, state figures show.
    The roundabout at Route 29 and Route 40 in Greenwich, which opened in September 2004, had five accidents and one injury as of last December.
    In downtown Glens Falls, the roundabout that opened in May 2007 had three accidents with no injuries in its fi rst e i g h t months of operation.
    “Glens Falls is an example of a roundabout that works very well. Single-lane roundabouts have fewer conflict points,” Rowback said.
    State officials like to have three years of accident history before doing intersection analysis, but they’ve seen enough to know certain patterns are emerging at the Malta roundabouts.
    Rowback said the cause of many of the accidents — at the Route 9 roundabout in particular — is people changing lanes while in the roundabout. That can be because they’re in the wrong lane for the turn they want to make, or because people are driving aggressively, he said.
    “If you’re going to turn right, you really need to be in the right lane,” Rowback said. “If you’re going straight through or turning left, you need to be in the left lane. Just having people sort themselves out before they get to the roundabout is very beneficial.”
    Georges Jacquemart of BFJ Planning in New York City, a leading roundabout designer, has also said motorist attention is important.
    “Traffic lights are very simple, they treat us b l i a k - e YOU bies and we perceive them as safe,” he said at a municipal planning conference in Saratoga Springs last winter. “You have to pay attention at a roundabout.”
    Some residents say they love the roundabouts.
    “Roundabouts are not perfect, but they are the best option for now. They have saved me nearly five minutes in commuting time from Malta to Burnt Hills each way. Our bus drivers have a much easier time maintaining schedules, regardless of the time of day,” said Keith Stewart, a local resident and vice president of the Ballston Spa Board of E d u c a - t i o n .

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

ROTTERDAM
Redevelopment projects plod on
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

HIDDEN PROGRESS
    The lack of perceptible progress at the vacant commercial properties doesn’t mean there isn’t action happening behind the scenes.
    Ray Gillen, the director of the county’s Metroplex Development Authority, offered the long-dormant Grand Union building off of Hamburg Street as an example: Developers regularly contact him about the property, and its revitalization is only a matter of time.
    “I’ve been showing it quite frequently,” he said. “But it takes time.”
    The 35,000-square-foot building is at the center of an area town planners envision as the hub for a downtown commercial district serving the thousands of residents in Rotterdam’s Carman and Coldbrook neighborhoods.
    Some maintain that the Grand Union and the area as a whole has failed to attract commercial businesses because it lacks a sanitary sewer connection. Last year, the town completed a federally funded study that suggested connecting Hamburg Street into Schenectady’s sanitary system. Such a connection would foster rapid development along the street that could be anchored by a street-front mixed-use building on the site of the former Grand Union.
    But Gillen is confident that the Grand Union property — now owned by local businessmen Dave Simmons and Skip Renaud — could be redeveloped even without sewers.
    He said a number of prospective businesses have discussed locating everything from offices to retail shops at the plaza; all it takes is aggressive marketing to generate interest.
    “You’ve got to be showing them,” he said of the vacant properties. “You’ve got to show it to everybody and hope you get interest.”

Well if the study concludes that sewers along the Hamburg Street corridor will attract businesses to that area where are those sewers? Why hasn't Metroplex included money in it's budget to fund the project instead of pumping millions of dollars into failed ventures in the city which results in no job growth just more debt?

Ray Gillen should not be in charge or be the deciding factor for anything in Rotterdam. Ray Gillen and crew, have clearly not been successful in their decision making in the city. I don't think these prospective developers should be contacting the plex. I believe the owners of the old Grand Union already have employed a real estate company. Well, I see the sign out there so I assumed it was a contract with the owners.

Just look to state street for Ray Gillen/Metroplex's resume!

because sewers are the job of the government/taxpayers......straight up......

Where do you think the money Metroplex uses for their projects comes from, we the taxpayers so why can't some of it go to fund sewers on Hamburg St.

First, how did sewers get put in BEFORE the great metroplex?

Second, is 'infrustructure' actually, in part, the role of the plex?

http://www.schenectadymetroplex.org

Quoted Text

The mission of the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority is to enhance the long-term economic vitality and quality of life in Schenectady County by cooperative, purposeful actions and investments within the Metroplex corridor with particular emphasis on downtown.

I'd say they're failing at their stated "mission" ... so maybe it's time to dissolve it.

What "long term" economic vitality? Bars? Restaurants?
Quality of Life? Seriously - have they driven down Crane Street, Upper State (anything past Nott Terrace), Broadway, Eastern Ave., Chrisler Ave., etc.

"Emphasis on downtown" - that's great, but there's more to "downtown" than just the 400 block of State Street