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Neighbors battle fleeing roaches as a squatters’ lair is cleaned out
Thursday, August 18, 2011
By Michael Goot (Contact)
Gazette Reporter


Workers clean up a house infested with roaches at 1251 Webster Street in Schenectady on Wednesday.

SCHENECTADY — What would ordinarily be good news — the eviction of squatters and cleanup of a house they’d taken over — has turned into a running battle for neighbors, as they attempt to fend off the cockroaches that are also vacating the home.
People living in the area of Webster and Hodgson streets said Wednesday that the roach problem they’ve had for a while has escalated sharply with the developments at 1251-1253 Webster St.
“There’s a line at night. You could see them walking over the street to come visit us,” said Andy Sookdeo of 1231 Hodgson St.
Sookdeo said he has to regularly spray around his house to ward off the roaches.
“There was one sitting on the veranda with us,” he said.
John Horton, who also lives on Hodgson Street, said the problem has been occurring for about three years, and the cause was people who were squatting at the two-story Webster Street house and garage.
“They were throwing the garbage out of the top window and putting it in the other guy’s yard,” Horton said.
The city did send an inspector to look at the property and spray it, according to Horton. They also informed the owner, who came to evict the squatters.
Workers were removing garbage and cleaning up the garage late Wednesday afternoon. A man who would only identify himself as Vernon said he recently bought the property and evicted a squatter. He has somebody coming in to spray the property.
Zabida Persaud of 1225 Webster St. is also having problems with the roaches.
“Every night, I have to get up and kill about 10, 12,” she said. “They get in the house. They’re all around the house.”.........................>>>>............................>>>>......................http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2011/aug/18/0818_roaches/

The city should provide assistance to the neighbors as a public health issue. You can't combat a cockroach infestation piecemeal and it is safer to have aprofessional to the spraying when it is a big job like that. Imagine living there in the heat wave with the cockroach problem exploding next door?

This is common with cockroaches. When one infested home is fumigated, the roaches just march on to the next available dwelling.

However.....the real problem is just the fact that there were 'squatters' residing at this location. And no one knew???????
So now these squatters move on and the taxpayers have to pay for the filth they left behind?

The city better start doing routine checks on ALL of these vacant buildings before something much more serious then cockroaches are the problem.

The Gazette says that is a great area, the immigrants love it. Squatters. Sheesh. Can you get more "slum"? It has to be somebody's job to check up onthe neighborhoods. Those people pay pretty heavy taxes over there, too.

Will they advertise the new development as "cockroach free"?

there are squatters all over the city.....I work with a few

must be MC's home

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

must be MC's home

We definitely know it's not anybody's home that is employed by the city.  Since we know those people don't live in the city.

actually .. the house is probably cleaner than MC's

This isn't about City Hall?

Unadulterated Schenectady/facebook

I recall a similar situation that occurred many years ago near the corner of Hulett Street and Lincoln Ave.  The trees were reportedly filled with
cockroaches that had evacuated a home that had been fumigated.  There's a reason that they have survived for thousands of years ...

We were supposed to have had a system in place for dealing with cockroach infestations after the world famous Emmett Street roach house. Maybe the city needs to make people aware somehow of who to call with environmental health issues. We have a lot of residents in that area who haven't lived here that long and probably wouldn't know what to do. You know, if we had beat cops walking around now and then, they would serve as a liaison to otherbranches of city government.
The fact that there were squatters there in the first place, SOMEONE working for the city should be aware of these things. Someone needs to drive through these areas frequently, and if there is something that doesn't look right, investigate! It can't be left up to the neighbors to try to cope. The Gazette even pointed out how many are recent immigrants. Do people from third world countries even know how government is supposed to operate? If they get civics classes at all, it wouldn't include specifics of particular cities, I wouldn't think.

Quoted from Madam X

The fact that there were squatters there in the first place, SOMEONE working for the city should be aware of these things.

There are squatters everywhere. And why? Because the pickin's are easy since there are vacant properties everywhere. And it is, after all, the government's role to provide a safe environment for it's citizens. And with all of the tax supported non-profits in the county, and all of those created JOBS, there should be no squatters......or unfortunate deaths......or COCKROACH INFESTATIONS to this degree!!

Exactly, Bumblethru. Our money is being spent, but this happens. It is our job to question how this happens. I wonder why the Gazette didn't interview the squatters to see how they like it here. Or maybe they did.
Did Gary McCarthy, or Roger Hull for that matter, run over there to see what is going on while running for office? I think there are enough city employees on the payroll to do better, and enough who want to do better, but there is a terrible lack of leadership.