Well, now that the Schenectady power brokers are in lockstep about becoming a potential casino location, it's time to come up with a glitzy new identification slogan for the town.
For many decades, as long as I can remember, Schenectady was known as "The city that lights and hauls the world."
That description was based on the town being the once-bustling home base of a sprouting General Electric Co. and also the birthplace of the American Locomotive Co.
In the World War II era, at one end of Erie Boulevard, GE employed about 44,000. On the other end, the locomotive factory had about 9,000 workers.
Unfortunately, the choo-choo plant, aka Alco, went out of business long ago. GE became global and decimated its local production force to about 4,000. Clearly, the old "lights and hauls" bragging rights title is no longer accurate.
So let's dream up a motto that can be a sales pitch for a casino town. How about, "Schenectady – A safe bet." That may be a bit misleading because there is no such thing as a casino safe bet.
Maybe "Schenectady – A lotta slots" or "Slots a lot." The two catchy phrases could indicate the gambling shrine will have hundreds of seductive slot machines.
How about reworking an old GE promo; something like "Schenectady – Our casino brings good things to life." Some exiting casino winners will identify with that fluff, but the vast majority will leave the honky-tonk palace with a lighter wallet.
That's my cornball start. If you have some new casino slogan ideas, send them along.
A lotta slots - spelling error ROFL
I think Schenectady needs to call Bill Murray, you know, one of the ghostbusters, because Schenectady is becoming such a big ghost town under the current leadership, then someone develop a slogan around that.
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.