I don't apologize for being an optimist and working to PROMOTE the county in which I live. I'd much
rather live my life thinking positive and BUILDING UP the community that I call home ..than to be
constantly drowning in the bile of negativity that only tears down and hurts our community.   And for
those of you who don't like, my response --- IT'S MY LIFE AND IT'S TOO DAMN BAD IF YOU DON'T LIKE.

Just FYI - I haven't been insulting to you...  personally I'm trying to help you.

I don't mean that in a patronizing way.

There are storms brewing throughout the world....  Entitlements and the massive debt they have created and will create, are starting to crash world economies.

Very bad things may be happening here soon.  Just look at the government debt forecasts.

Those people that think everything is great are in for the biggest fall of their lives should we have a substantial dollar collapse.  It's much better to be informed and prepared for such a legitimate possibility.

Just an example of entitlement "outrage" that we've been seeing more and more of...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....cend-Parliament.html

Seriously...  20 years ago, would anyone have thought the future King of England would be attacked by his own subjects like that?

Amazing what is happening in the world.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

I don't apologize for being an optimist and working to PROMOTE the county in which I live. I'd much
rather live my life thinking positive and BUILDING UP the community that I call home ..than to be
constantly drowning in the bile of negativity that only tears down and hurts our community.   And for
those of you who don't like, my response --- IT'S MY LIFE AND IT'S TOO DAMN BAD IF YOU DON'T LIKE.

What is there to promote?   Now we have a job for you, Open a real estate office for yourself and promote all the existing vacant housing.  See if you can get owner occupants to buy them and fill up the houses.  

You try to think positive, but in to doing, you totally tune out the problems.  Let's be positive.  To be positive means to start with reducing crime, taxes, and the vacant houses in the city.  

In order to reduce taxes, the 100% tax exemptions have got to be rescinded immediately, make these rich people pay their own taxes, and then lower the taxes on the homeowners.  THen change to a two tier tax system where businesses with over a certain threshhold of profit perhaps will pay a higher rate than lower profit businesses and the homeowners.  Then go after the tax delinquent scum lords.  None of this letting their properties go 10 years without collecting taxes on it.  

Instead of spending tax dollars on tax exemptions for the rich downtown, use that money to have monthly raids in the city---similar to that big one back around 1993 or so.  

Do you realize that someone who buys a house in the city can't get ANY HELP whatsoever from the city, from the county, or from metroplex to fix the house up?   No handouts and if the homeowner did take out a loan (of course at their own expense), and fixed their house up, their assessment would go up which would increase taxes even more.  And we'd be talking families who might want to buy a house at a lower price than in the burbs.  I'm not saying I would want to see them get all kinds of tax exemptions, I'm just pointing out that struggling homeowners don't get anything from the city, county, or plex.  But, we have these multimillionaires who can WELL AFFORD to pay their own purchase and remodel of the buildings, and pay their taxes, but instead of making them take responsibility for paying for their own, your dem buddies give them handots and then exempt them from paying taxes.

And what has the city gotten in return for all those handouts?   Higher crime, people leaving the city in droves, a school system that gets worse by the day, a record high rate of vacant houses, no one wanting to buy in the city, reductions in city services and a taxes that are nearly the highest in the whole country.  Yes, I said whole country, not whole county.

The city will not improve based on a bunch of gin mills, bricks on a sidewalk, narrow streets causing traffic james, and all kids of taxpayer handouts

MC .. i have a job for you ... dance like a monkey

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

MC .. i have a job for you ... dance like a monkey

Keep acting like nothing needs fixing.  Keep letting your cronies steal money from the lower income people to give handouts to the rich downtown.  Keep ignoring the fact that there are major problems.  Keep ignoring the fact that services are being cut and neighborhoods are becoming war zones.

Keep turning a blind eye and there won't be a city to promote at all

Still looking forward to the great project to be built on the old ALCO site  ... nothing more to add for
now.  

End of discussion,

end of discussion - ya, we're tired of hearing from you anyway

Quoted Text

Alco buildings to live on through recycling efforts
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    Materials used to build the former American Locomotive plant are finding new purpose as the sprawling facility is being demolished to make way for the redevelopment of the 59-acre site along the Mohawk River.
    The buildings, many of them composed of brick, wood, steel and concrete, are being recycled.
    The bricks and concrete will remain on site, serving as fill. Wood from the structures will be converted into paper products, and steel beams are “going on a boat to China,” said Chris Freni of Testa Corp. of Boston. Testa is demolishing more than a dozen structures on the site, which is owned by The Galesi Group.
    Items that can’t be salvaged, mainly those consisting of asbestos or plastic, are sent to landfi lls. “The only things that go into the landfi ll are anything contaminated,” Freni said.
    In essence, Testa views the demolition as a salvage project, with the company seeking to squeeze as much profit as it can from the scrap steel, Freni said.
    “We make our money on steel,” he said. .........................>>>>........................>>>>....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00103&AppName=1

So, there is a profit on the steel, tax credit for revitalization and money from the Plex to build unneeded housing and office spaces?

Hopefully in November the Plex will have a moritorium placed upon it so that the new leaders can determine if projects like ALCO are yet another waste of millions of taxpayers dollars.

Hey, how many of the Center City offices have been rented? Apartments at the Parker Inn? Union Square?

Someone please stop the bleeding.

"Steel beams are going to China"-WONDERFUL! It all makes sense now. A big nothing pushed by the same DEM morons that bought you the Big Hose, Van Dyke I and II, and Parker Inn.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

I don't apologize for being an optimist and working to PROMOTE the county in which I live. I'd much
rather live my life thinking positive and BUILDING UP the community that I call home ..than to be
constantly drowning in the bile of negativity that only tears down and hurts our community.   And for
those of you who don't like, my response --- IT'S MY LIFE AND IT'S TOO DAMN BAD IF YOU DON'T LIKE.

DV, the way to build up a community is to work to getting property taxes lower, to getting the goverment to provide  basic NECESSARY services, to STOP the government from taking the homeowners hard earned money and using it for NON-NECESSARY gin mills, theaters, hair salaons, etc,.   You build up a community by getting after the government to take steps to reduce crime---and that means they spend tax dollars on crime rather than giving tax exemptions to the well-heeled.  

When taxes go down, and the commiunity is a safe place to raise children, and the city spends the tax dollars eliminating blight instead of giving tax dollars to gin mills and hotels, then property values go up, people will move here, and then private businesses will want to come here and private businesses will come here without the need for taxpayer money.    And THAT is what builds a community.  A community is NOT built on, nor can it exist on taxing people out of their homes, eliminating necessary services, and doing totally exempting millionaires from paying property taxes.

But then, we wouldn't expect you to know that, nor to understand, becuase as you do not pay taxes you have no clue.   You sound exactly like those people who go to the CDBG hearings claiming that only with the big handouts to their welfare agencies will the city get bettter, and hwo many decades of giving money to these organizati9ons, and hwat has it done?   It's not related to CDBG, but look at Head Start---that program existing on the taxpayer dole, that was a program to give children this head start to succeed when they grow up, but for most, the kids grew up, became teens, gave birth as teens, their kids when through head start, grew up and today have children in the head start program.  It has become a permant taxpayer handout program, totally exempting the parents from responsbility.  

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Alco project gets $4 million grant
Restore NY money will help fund first phase
BY BETHANY BUMP Gazette Reporter

    The former American Locomotive Company site will see a $4 million boost in redevelopment money from the state, after Empire State Development’s board of directors announced a slew of statewide grants Thursday.
    The economic development agency approved a total of $9.19 million in funding for fi ve projects that will create 46 new jobs and retain 348 existing state jobs. The Capital Region was the recipient of two awards, including $4 million toward Schenectady’s Alco industrial site and $4.5 million toward a rehabilitation project in Albany’s Arbor Hill neighborhood.
    The award will fund about a third of the $12 million Alco project through a third round of Restore New York Communities Initiative capital grants, which are doled out in three rounds each year.
    “This is probably one of the most significant regional waterfront projects in the state,” said David Buicko, chief operating officer for the Galesi Group, which owns the property. “It’s the poster child for upstate New York development. You’ve got an old factory that was taken down to be developed literally right in the sweet spot of Schenectady. So you have all the benefits of economic development for a city.”
    The Alco site has been on Schenectady’s radar for redevelopment, though the strip of land along the Mohawk River and Erie Boulevard just west of Freemans Bridge has long been considered an eyesore, with vacant and obsolete industrial buildings. The brownfield site is one of the oldest in the country and once served as the home to Schenectady County’s booming railroad locomotive industry, when thousands of steam and diesel locomotives were manufactured.
    The project to restore the 60-acre Alco site is expected to be completed by July 2013. The mixed-use commercial and residential project, which has been approved by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, will include construction of a 60,000-square- foot commercial building, condominiums, offices, retail outlets and a marina.
    The project is expected to create jobs and opportunities for further economic development within the county.
    Metroplex Development Authority Chairman Ray Gillen said the redevelopment project could be as much as a $200 million buildout investment. The $4 million Restore NY grant money will be used toward the first phase of the project, which includes demolition, cleanup and construction of the 60,000-square-foot commercial building.
    “We expect many more to be built,” said Gillen of the commercial building, “but that’s part of this initial phase. There will be multiple phases. This is just the work that will occur in the next year or so. And the demolition is largely complete, and the site is just phenomenal right now.”
    The Restore NY award comes less than a week after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced $62.7 million in state money would be awarded to the Capital Region through the state’s Regional Economic Development Councils. Nearly half a million dollars was awarded for the development of an Alco trail, which will serve as a walkway and bike path along the canal system at the former Alco site.
    “This has all been very positive and shows the commitment of the state of New York to Schenectady,” said Buicko.
    Other work at the site is being funded through the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, which provides tax credits to redevelop blighted properties. Possible contamination of the site means it requires asbestos removal and state environmental monitoring. ............................>>>>...........................>>>>........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00100&AppName=1

The Restore NY grant could have been used to help the City neighborhoods where there are blighted and abandoned properties....where people actually live.

Congrats to Gillen for helping grease the palms of Galesi again.

Retail, apartments...this was the same promised Downtown....and that hasn't happened.

This will cost the taxpayers another $400 million..........for nada........  

Brownfield cleanup, since when is burying the problem chemicals considered cleanup. The toxins will still seep through the soil into the river and groundwater.