Finger-pointing is childish, reflects badly on the mayor
As a parent, I always taught my children that whenever one points a fi nger at someone, one points three at oneself. Mr. [Schenectady Mayor Gary] McCarthy should learn the same lesson. At the March 11 City Council meeting, the mayor again blamed the city’s fi nancial woes on Union College. Since I [no longer] work for Union, I will let those at the college speak for themselves. Suffice it to say, Union — a business with a roughly $300 million annual impact on the community — was threatened by a neighborhood of crack houses, buildings that did not meet code (such as the former Ramada Inn) and rampant crime; so it invested $26 million in cleaning up the Seward Place/College Park neighborhood. Even though a strong argument can be made that the financial impact of Union’s actions had little effect on the city’s budget, the same cannot be said for the mayor who — first as a council member and then as mayor — burdened the city with the Foster Avenue “Taj Mahal” it did not need and could not afford, and added 22 employees to the city’s payroll in taking over the water treatment plant. Look in the mirror and stop pointing fingers; even children know one shouldn’t do so, Mr. Mayor.
ROGER HULL Schenectady The writer, former president of Union College, was the Alliance Party’s candidate for mayor.
Kudos to you.....very educated comment....as a person who worked at Union, back in the day, I remember the neighborhood before all this "Renaissance"...Union has always been the light of the city....
and brings to society the finest of young men and women....maybe, one of them can turn things around in this city.....hasn't been done yet....
I long have been critical of the college/Hull over the taking properties off the tax roll. However it's been a difficult criticism because while a number of residential homes became part of Union College and thus tax exempt, the college spent MILLIONS of it's own money on that project on the Seward St side. I still don't like the GE plot homes that were taken by the college (I don't remember if that was when Hull led the college or not).
To compare downtown is to require absolute heavy negative criticism of the dems in the city, county, and plex. They too have taken properties off the tax roll. But they have taken far more in property value off the tax roll which causes a HUGE NEGATIVE impact on the taxpayers, I mean, look at Proctors alone, the theater property alone is valued at a WHOPPING $26 MILLION!!!!! And very clearly, by EVER DEFINITION POSSIBLE, Proctors IS a FOR PROFIT business. Then the for-profit businesss Proctors via King Phillip uses taxpayer money to buy a bank, spend MILLIONS of TAXPAYERS' money to renovate the bank and create a LAVISH banquet hall that hosts VERY VERY VERY EXPENSIVE EXTRAVAGANT affairs through which he brings in tons of money, but does not pay one penny in taxes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Downtown properties were built or rehabbed mostly at taxpayer expense and are all FOR PROFIT BUSINESSES. Theaters, gin mills, hotels, restaurants, hair salons. ALL are FOR PROFIT built at taxpayer expense and the dems in the city, county and plex have CRITICALLY HURT the taxpayers and residents of the city because the dems have taken these properties PERMANENTLY off the tax rolls.
Under the dems, the city's tax base going through a DRASTIC REDUCTION, causing a HUGE INCREASE in the tax burden on the homeowners who in turn cannot afford it and often lose their homes taking more homes off the tax rolls which causes the values of neighboring homes to drop which causes a loss in tax revenue to the city which causes an increase in the taxes on the homeowners which causes more people to FLEE THE CITY, which causes more vacant homes, more abanadoned homes, more homes with unpaid taxes which causes a loss in tax revenue to the city which causes an increase in the taxes on the homeowners which causes more people to FLEE THE CITY, which causes more vacant homes, more abanadoned homes, more homes with unpaid taxes which causes a loss in tax revenue to the city which causes an increase in the taxes on the homeowners which causes more people to FLEE THE CITY, which causes more vacant homes, more abanadoned homes, more homes with unpaid taxes which causes a loss in tax revenue to the city which causes an increase in the taxes on the homeowners which causes more people to FLEE THE CITY, which causes more vacant homes, more abandoned homes, more homes with unpaid taxes which causes a loss in tax revenue to the city which causes an increase in the taxes on the homeowners which causes more people to FLEE THE CITY, which causes more vacant homes, more abandoned homes, more homes with unpaid taxes which causes a loss in tax revenue to the city which causes an increase in the taxes on the homeowners which causes more people to FLEE THE CITY, which causes more vacant homes, more abandoned homes, more homes with unpaid taxes which causes a loss in tax revenue to the city which causes an increase in the taxes on the homeowners which causes more people to FLEE THE CITY, which causes more vacant homes, more abandoned homes, more homes with unpaid taxes which causes a loss in tax revenue to the city which causes an increase in the taxes on the homeowners which causes more people to FLEE THE CITY, which causes more vacant homes, more abanadoned homes, more homes with unpaid taxes, and on and on.
Now, someone has been posting on these boards that the city is going through this grand renaissance. Where are the details? Where is the proof of this renaissance? Where is the EVIDENCE? Where is the increase in the city's tax base? Where is the alleviating of the tax burden on the taxpayers? Where is the increase in home sales? Where is the increase in home values? How many people OUTSIDE of the city are CHOOSING to buy homes AND MOVE INTO the city. Even the "someone" has avoided the city like the plague--not buying, not even living IN the city via renting! Where is the increase in essential city services? Not one word of an answer of course! It must be that someone is McCarthy in disguise, because when people call him, he never responds. Or to we think it's some other democratic voice that posts on here? Maybe King Phillip trying to preserve his exemption from paying taxes? Or is it the ex Mayor of BS? Or Death Ray? No wait, I know, that Democratic Voice is really the savage woman, the said it's the miracle city, not one teeny weeny shred of evidence and today, she is in collusion with McCheesey to prevent the homeowners from having their homes reassessed to their true value because it would be far too embarrassing to the Democratic Voices (PLURAL)!!!!!
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.
As for Lent - I am still giving up this board -- but untruths needed to be addressed
Obviously they are not untruths.
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.
Hull was there during that fight over the GE Plot homes, and he was nasty about it, but the city had been only too happy to accommodate him over the wishes of the residents with that "Union College is good for Schenectady" blind mentality we see with Metroplex and Proctor's. How did Huron Street become Roger Hull Way? Did Roger take it upon himself to rename a city street after himself, or did some idiot mayor and council do it? Did the aforementioned idiot mayor kowtow to Union College and Roger because he had an idiot plan that if he sucked up enough, Roger would give Schenectady a big PILOT and the idiot mayor would be a hero? I didn't like the College Park idea myself, but Mr. Hull took an area of mostly rotting buildings and stabilized it which I can't fault him for doing in his role as a college president. BS' idea for downtown has been to destroy rather than preserve anything with any character or history, and big giveaways tonon-taxpaying connected entities, so I would say I much prefer Mr. Hull's behavior to McCheese's. McCheese has been in city government throughout this.
so who do you have in mind to give the city what it needs.....honest and transparency.......is there anyone out there that Gardner likes???....but then again....same party same behavior....greed and power..
I find the Union guys, many of them, to be spoiled clueless louts. Although I don't suppose they are any worse than a lot of college students anywhere.They will probably outgrow their naivete and arrogance, while the same can't be said for some of the drop-in Schenectadians for-a-day who are busy spending our money trying to attract residents they think are better than us.
I don't know who we could get for mayor now. Mr. Riggi's heart is in the right place, but the situation in Schenectady has gotten so bad, it is going to require some super strong executive management skills to fix things. I am not criticizing Mr. Riggi's intelligence, I just don't know how we can pay for the kind of help we need bad. There isn't anybody left here that can afford to fight the machine to get elected and then possesses the skills himself or herself to right this ship. I know I'm not putting this the right way. Anybody who is all that, doesn't want to be bothered with a mess like Schenectady has been allowed to become. When you've already thrown the carcass to the dogs, who wants to wade in to pick it up and put it back on the table? Someone like Mr. Riggi could do the job if he had some kind of backing like a control board to help him undue some of the damage which has already been done.
Anyway, I agree with Roger's letter. Gary keeps casting around for different villains to blame the city's problems on.
Got that right. Let's see. It's the past city GOP leadership. It's the county not sharing sales tax dollars (ROFL). It's the state mandates with no money.
But is it the CHOICES by the CITY DEMS to approve of spending TENS OF MILLIONS of TAXPAYERS' money on renovating and new buildings downtown when the property owners are FILTHY RICH and can MORE THAN AFFORD to fund it out of their own pockets? NO according to McCheese.
But is it the CHOICES by the CITY DEMS to approve of giving 100% property tax exemptions, PERMANENT exemptions, to filthy rich downtown property owners while DRASTICALLY INCREASING the tax burden on financially struggling homeonwers? NO according to McCheese.
But is it the CHOICES by the CITY DEMS to approve of wildly spending the homeowners money so much, putting so much of a burden on the financially struggling homeowners (while exempting the downtown rich) via almost the highest taxes in the whole country, so that the homeowners lose their homes? NO according to McCheese.
What does McCheese say? "Some people don't want to pay their taxes." Would McCheese EVER admit that it is the CHOICES, the DECISIONS, by the CITY DEMS that have caused long time, financially struggling homeowners to have no money left with which to pay their tax bills? OF COURSE NOT!
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.
so who do you have in mind to give the city what it needs.....honest and transparency.......is there anyone out there that Gardner likes???....but then again....same party same behavior....greed and power..
Any system created by man....will ALWAYS be greed and power driven! So it don't matter...they are all the same. Like I said.....in the little county of schenectady....and if the opposing political power gained control......just the names and faces of the friends and family club would change.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Union college kids were my tenants before - all hockey players, all on scholarship and all really decent guys. As a matter of fact, they were the BETTER tenants I've had in years. Mom & Dad were paying the rent....but at least it wasn't a section 8 check.
And Vince Riggi....have to disagree Madam, he could ABSOLUTELY run this City. Probably for the first time in decades, you'll have someone pulling back the curtains and shining the light on much of the corruption this City is involved in.
Once you bring reality to the table, you can do one of two things...ignore it (McCheesy style) or address it which Vince would do. Vince knows enough and enough educated people that we can end putting the City further and further into debt and start cutting.
No DEM has ever closed the City check book...Vince would burn it.
Logged
