Quoted Text

Merchants fed up with crime
One Van Vranken Ave. business broken into four times
For The Daily Gazette
Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola contributed to this story. Reach Gazette intern Caitlin Tremblay at 374-4141, ext. 4080.
Sadak Hassan’s luck has been just as bad as the weather this summer.
    Hassan owns Gazy Sportswear and Clothing on Van Vranken Avenue in Schenectady, and his store has been broken into four times in the past three weeks, most recently last Tuesday night.
    In January, the store was held up at gunpoint. Two men entered and one of them displayed a sawed-off shotgun. They forced clerk Ibrahim Seidi, 20, of Schenectady Street, into a storage area, where he was bound with duct tape. They took approximately $650 in cash, shoes and Seidi’s keys, then fled.
    Early this past week, plywood covered the only window in the shop that hadn’t been replaced with plastic, though the burglars made a few large dents in the plastic door and the other plastic window in their attempts to gain access.
    Hassan said that the break-ins occurred on June 20, 22 and 25 and July 7. He also said that more than $1,000 worth of merchandise had been taken and he’s grown weary of his shop’s location.
    “I’m trying to move,” he said. “I may move soon, but I’m just too busy right now. I don’t do well [on Van Vranken Avenue] anyway.”
    Police are still investigating the incident. “It is being targeted for a particular reason,” Schenectady Police Department Assistant Chief Brian Kilcullen. “In all cases, there was forced entry.”
    With each burglary, evidence technicians processed the scene, he said.
    Other business owners on the street share Hassan’s views on the neighborhood — that it’s exhausting to have to deal with all the crime.
    Jack Felthousen, who runs a landscaping business a few doors down from Hassan’s store, said someone should know that Hassan is being relentlessly harassed.
    “I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 14 years, but I don’t let anyone come to this office at night,” Felthousen said. “Schenectady is getting urban; it’s not a small city anymore, and we have bigcity problems. I’d like to see more police here. I understand that the Schenectady police are very busy, but we need someone here.” .........>>>>..............>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01603

Gee, thought Son of Sam had a new plan for crime-disband the SPD? LOL.

     The Gazetto should be ashamed of itself. Just last year they ran a puff piece on "revitalized" Van Vranken. Now with 2 restaurants closed next door to each other and stores boarded up harder to lie? Many of the "retail" they puffed is now boarded up.

     Crime is out of control. Gangs are out of control. And horrible Son of Sam keeps raising taxes and fees on everything in the City.

This story was buried in the gazette's hard copy of the paper. I thought it should have been front page!!! IMHO

Of course-it's buried. But if it's a new governmental gin mill opening with taxpayer largess than it receives the front page treatment. Then they wonder why readership is in the toilet?

     Van Vranken is like Eastern, like Broadway, like Crane St, like lower State below Erie-rotting on the vine while everything is dumped into a 2 block area around Proctor's. Absolutely disgusting.