Walking through Downtown Schenectady one has to be impressed by the amount of successful redevelopment that has taken hold from the center of the city to the east along its main thoroughfare, State Street. There are numerous vivid examples of what official attention and lots of state money and development agency bonds can do to revitalize an Upstate urban center.
Take a stroll along the same street to the west, however -- across Erie Boulevard where "Clinton's Ditch" and the Enlarged Erie Canal bisected the town from 1825 through 1918 -- and a very different impression is painfully apparent. You enter what the Albany Times Union describes as "what looks like a dying city, with vacant storefronts, crumbling sidewalks and empty parking lots."
The neighborhood is a gateway to Schenectady's 300 year-old Stockade District, and many existing hundred year-old buildings are ripe for development, according to Steve Strichman, director of city planning and development. The story reports that officials intend to focus on what can be done to leverage state and Federal funds to improve the lower State Street area. A study has begun with the Capital District Transportation Committee to examine street layout, sidewalk and curb needs, and opportunities for residential and commercial development.
Read the Times-Union story at:
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=806758
