It's MORE PROOF THE DEMS ARE DESTROYING SCHENECTADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The house of the week is in Albany. 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms 1,320 sq ft in the house 7,300 lot size built 1920 beautiful deck nicely landscaped two car garage Sold in 2002 for $121,000 Value increased BIG TIME - asking almost $20,000 more than the assessment (and they will probably get close to that) Taxes $5,641
Compare to houses in Schenectady:
Brierwood Blvd - for sale 4 bedrooms 1.5 bath 2,387 sq feet inside 6,500 lot built 1928 no deck two car garage Assessed for $168,800 (2009 value) VALUE TUMBLED BEYOND BELIEF !!!!!!!!!!! Listed for sale OVER ONE YEAR AGO (June 10, 2011) for less than assessed value at $152,000 - NO ONE WILLING TO BUY IT. Price has been reduced several times, the last reduction occurred way way back seven months ago down to an asking price of just a paltry $110,000 AND STILL NO ONE WANTS TO BUY! Owners grieved the assessment and the dem appointed puppet assessment board told them "insufficient data" and did not even reduce them one penny! In other words, the dems insist the house has a market value of $162,115, and market value is the amount a house is supposed to sell for, but it can't even sell for $110,000 but the dem puppets insist it will sell for $162,115 The taxes indicated in the for sale ad indicate a whopping $6,940, but my math says that may be be based on a STAR Enhanced so taxes will be much higher, probably $7,400 is closer
Glenwood Blvd 6 bedrooms 1.5 baths 3,027 sq ft space 6,091 lot size built 1930 Sold in May 2005 for $125,000 Listed for sale again in June 2008 asking $144,900, no buyers, removed listing Nov 2008 City then in 2009 assessed, i.e. declared it's market value was $$159,200 Listed for sale May 3, 2011asking $139,900 One year and two months later, along with three reductions in asking price, most recent reduction occurring on Feb 28 this year, down to $124,900 and STILL NO ONE WILLING TO BUY IT! But the taxes! A WHOPPING $6,500 !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Note that this the owners of this Glenwood Blvd house WILL be taking a loss when, and IF, the house ever sells. No one has even been willing to buy it for $100 less than the owners paid for it seven years ago!
So you see, again, the UNDISPUTABLE, UNDENIALBLE PROOF--THE EVIDENCE--Stratton, McC, and the dems are destroying the city big time and causing homeowners DRASTIC LOSSES
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.
Myself? I think it's one big collusion. Keep house values artificially inflated no matter what, force homeowners to go the extra step, some will some won't. Ties into Metroplex, the big failure.. which has done zero for the city, we are completely busted. At least what, 5 mil in the hole?? After how many years of Metroplex magic? 2 blocks downtown look good? I came out of Bellevue area today, decided to cut up Congress, over 3rd to Crane and down Craig to Albany St. HOLY sh*t is all I can say.
There is no way I would consider buying in Schenectady. It's not pretty, it's not interesting, it's not safe, and absolutely everything from stores, to schools, to entertainment to health care to services, is substandard. There isn't a single thing about Schenectady that isn't lesser than.
Even the neighborhood in the Bronx that I left many years ago, is FAR superior to anything Schenectady has to offer.
How about $1 the going rate for property Downtown? Keep the DEM implosion going! Until the City goes bankrupt and a State Control Board is established nothing will improve. Everything Roger Hull said was right and the City moron vote refused to listened to him. We don't need no professional administrator down here. We gots DEM working together!
There is no way I would consider buying in Schenectady. It's not pretty, it's not interesting, it's not safe, and absolutely everything from stores, to schools, to entertainment to health care to services, is substandard. There isn't a single thing about Schenectady that isn't lesser than.
Even the neighborhood in the Bronx that I left many years ago, is FAR superior to anything Schenectady has to offer.
And this is the reality of the entire City. Ask ANYONE...the reputation of the City is in the toilet and the reality is ....that reputation is totally on point.
What do you get for your high taxes? Unsafe neighborhoods, a poor school system, dirty parks, a bar every 10 feet Downtown? Tommy is right on the money.
Remember the Gazetto piece where people were moving out of MP back to the Hill because the Hill was deemed safer? Yep, it's that bad.
You realize you're pointing at a city that struggles as mightily as Schenectady...maybe even more were it not for not hosting the state government...and using it as an example of something good, right? Look, the whole tri-city region has and continues to struggle. It goes WELL beyond politics, though they really don't do anything to help the matter much. Schenectady was a shithole when the GOP ran it, and it remains a shithole today now that the Dems are running it. I don't know what you people expect to get from a bunch of self-serving sycophants...
And you want to talk about SAFETY?!? Have any of you walked through downtown Albany recently? Just like Schenectady, the ghettos there are expanding. Lark Street, which was ALWAYS one of the city's better neighborhoods, is basically a feeding ground for the criminal element. Even the Pearl Street bar district isn't exactly safe anymore. And Pine Hills, where once the rowdy students were the only problem, is now contending with burglaries, robberies and yes, murders.
The urban areas of the Capital Region continue to struggle largely because there's simply NO WAY to make them more desirable than the suburbs. When given the choice, workers are always going to chose the relative sanctity of the outskirts than the turmoil in the city.
You realize you're pointing at a city that struggles as mightily as Schenectady...maybe even more were it not for not hosting the state government...and using it as an example of something good, right? Look, the whole tri-city region has and continues to struggle. with burglaries, robberies and yes, murders.
Hack, I would totally agree with you if it were not for a $100 million dollar difference.....over $100 million in taxpayers money has been spent by the Metroplex in Schenectady County within the past decade.
Where did that money go? Where are the benefits other than an overpriced Proctors that charges volunteers to help out and rarely helps school kids and the community.
I agree, times are tough, but if you had $100 million, it should have provided a cushion.
You realize you're pointing at a city that struggles as mightily as Schenectady...
The point is, however, that despite the troubles in Albany, their property values are going UP and the property taxes are LOWER. And that is despite a much higher percentage of property in the city as tax exempt just because it's government.
And if you looked in the Gazette yesterday, they had just a mere three weeks' worth of closings in Saratoga and it took a whole page. Schenectady can put two months worth or more. And notice how property values are so high. Some may say it's overpriced, however, the FACT is that there is no such thing as overpriced in open market sales. If buyers are willing to pay those prices on the open market, that proves market value. Schenectady County people don't want to pay good prices for homes thanks to the dems, and let's face it, these past 8 years in the city, the dems have all but destroyed the city and that is reflected in the value of homes dropping incredibly. Look at that one house (above) where someone is selling for less than they bought their house a few years ago, but the dem mayor says there is no reason to reassess house values in the city. Is he blind? Is he deaf? I mean, really, his taxpayer subsidized attempt to sell houses is even failing, the houses on those tours are not selling.
This post is NOT a post to speak negative about the city, this is a post intended to be constructive criticism and the criticism is that the dems are spending far too much, they are cutting essential services while they continue wild spending on things that are not necessary. Taxpayer paid cars for department heads are NOT ESSENTIAL. McC REFUSES to take the cars away AND he REFUSES to make the department heads live IN the city. The wild spending on Erie Blvd is NOT essential. Erie Blvd was good enough when there were 40,000 people at GE and throngs of people walking around shopping, then it is more than adequate to carry the small handful of people that are downtown, more than adequate for the lack of retail, and more than adequate to facilitate the workers fleeing from the city at the end of the day---but McC wants to create bottlenecks in the hopes that workers will give up being stuck in traffic and stay in the city, but that is NOT going to happen.
I will bet that the value of all those exemptions on the millionaires and political cronies, taking those away could probably result in a tax savings for the average homeowners that is the equivalent of the water fee + the sewer fee + the trash fee.
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.
Logged
How about $1 the going rate for property Downtown? Keep the DEM implosion going! Until the City goes bankrupt and a State Control Board is established nothing will improve. Everything Roger Hull said was right and the City moron vote refused to listened to him. We don't need no professional administrator down here. We gots DEM working together! 
