Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Mont Pleasant neighbors dig in
Hydrant painting effort takes off
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Hydrant by hydrant, a new sense of community is sweeping through the Mont Pleasant neighborhood.
    The newly reorganized neighborhood association sparked a movement that has neighbors cleaning up their blocks and banding together to fix the neighborhood’s welcome signs.
    “It started with painting a hydrant. It just took off! Now it’s like we’re all addicted,” said resident Flora Ramonowski.
    She had lived in Mont Pleasant for decades, but moved away to New York City. When she returned, she was shocked by how far the old Italian neighborhood had fallen.
    It now has one of the highest percentages of vacant buildings in the state, and the commercial corridor has very few businesses left. In parts of the neighborhood, crime has spiked.
    “I said, ‘Oh my God, what happened to Mont Pleasant?’ And I started taking care of my street,” she said.
    She wasn’t quiet about it, and soon others were doing the same.
    Lifelong resident Donna Foley said Ramonowski and others persuaded her to, at the very least, paint one hydrant.
    “This has been my neighborhood forever,” Foley said. “I’ve seen over the years how much the neighborhood has changed. I just fi gured it was a way for me to help out.”
    The idea was to weed around one hydrant, scrape off debris and loose paint, and then paint it bright red to make it easy to find in an emergency.
    “I thought, well, I could at least do that much,” Foley said, confessing that she picked it because it was the easiest thing on the neighborhood group’s ambitious list of neighborhood projects.
IDEA CATCHES ON
    Now her truck has become the hydrant-mobile, filled with tools and cans of paint. A large group of residents have painted 115 hydrants. And many of the people they recruit to the task have gone on to join other projects.
    Foley volunteered to maintain the islands on Michigan Avenue. That turned into a plan to create flower beds in the triangles of grass between major roads in the neighborhood. And once they started talking about gardening, it only made sense to repaint the welcome signs at the borders of the neighborhood, and plant fl owers around them.
    “We’re looking around for where we can really make improvements. It’s spreading and what I’m hoping will happen is each street will hear about it, pick up a couple cans of paint and do their own street, and then start picking up,” Ramonowski said. “We’re not just painting fi re hydrants, we’re bringing the community together.”
    Neighborhood association President Mohammad Hafez said residents had begun to feel that the city was neglecting the neighborhood.
    So while volunteers poured their own effort into beautifying the neighborhood, they also gathered complaints from residents and brought them to the city for help.
    “People felt if we don’t do anything about it, it’s going to start going down and down. We do whatever we can do,” Hafez said. “And this way we will also get the city’s attention.”
    That’s worked. City Council members praised the group at last Monday’s meeting, highlighting their efforts.
    City officials promised more cameras to help fight crime, and agreed to empty the public trash cans more often.
    ReTree Schenectady will also plant 20 trees at locations determined by the association, which is organizing volunteers to do the planting. ........................>>>>....................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00103&AppName=1

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t.....sQxYPnGVdV-W6M66HCFg

Anyone desiring to paint a fire hydrant this year
will be able to Adopt-A-Hydrant.
The Water Department will supply you with the
proper paint and brush. Anyone interested should
contact the Water Department at 382-5023.

THAT WILL SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM

Honestly it is a very warm and fuzzy article that gives one a feeling of 'community'.............HOWEVER...........these overtaxed folks are already paying for these services.......yes?

meanwhile the city employpees get paid.......real nice....terminate them......save money.......hooray for the volunteers.....

Awesome. Hope is not all lost for these neighborhoods!

It's one way for the neighborhood to come back together.  Then, maybe, the city will reduce the taxes, as this is one thing they won't have to pay for out of their budget.  Interesting, I usually say that government closest to the people is what works best.  In this case, it is the people showing the government that they don't need the help that is actually going to do the best.  At least it will be replacing a city government doing things they can't manage to get around to instead of money coming from some sort of federal grant.  You know they're probably out there.

Quoted from GrahamBonnet

THAT WILL SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM

A new low for the Gazetto. Mt Pleasant is another Hamilton Hill. Longtime residents can't give away their property because of the insane DEM clown posse taxes. Hydrants? That's so low on the scale it's laughable. The Gazetto and the DEM morons are desperate to create some positive news with their pals ruining City Hall. Bring on the audits, Moody's bond report and State Control Board.

Gangs hate freshly painted fire hydrants.

Wait until one of the volunteers gets sick from breathing in the fumes from the paint that the city provided.....it will be a doozy.

Quoted from TakingItBack

Wait until one of the volunteers gets sick from breathing in the fumes from the paint that the city provided.....it will be a doozy.

Did downtown have to paint their own hydrants?

Mt Pleasant is a third world country.

All the sorrow ends. A new day has come. The hydrants are fresh

Quoted from CICERO

Gangs hate freshly painted fire hydrants.

LMAO.  

I wish they'd clean up Mont Pleasant itself, the school that is. The grass is always overgrown and the brush along the fence line is ridiculous. I graduated HS from there and it breaks my heart to see what a dump it's become. Does no one in this city have any pride?

Tax death has replaced neighborhood pride.

Everyone is on the waiting list for exiting Schenectady.