An old map view of the block I live on (Moyston Street), which is now treeless and composed of decaying and/or condemned houses.
The first time Kara and I saw a Camera On A String (which was in Lexington, Kentucky earlier this summer), she said we should put one somewhere in Schenectady. We never did, but apparently someone else did. My exact words when she said we should were, “Someone would steal it.” Surely enough… someone did. I hate this place.
First, an entire building of apartments suspiciously caught on fire, completely destroying the entire structure. Almost an entire month later, a dead body is found on the third floor. It is still unknown (or undisclosed) whether the body was stashed there after the fire or if the dead body was just ‘somehow’ overlooked by the firemen and investigators.
Urban Dictionary’s first and second definition for ‘Schenectady’.
1.) A bustling metropolis North of NYC. Once famous, now is largely inhabited by drug dealers who couldn’t hack it in the big city, and the gangs of roaming crack heads that have fallen victim to the lure of the big city dope dealer’s product. There are also alot of Guyanese people who have moved there from NYC and started buying property and making improvements on that property in order to turn it over for a profit….then buy nice homes for themselves in Rotterdam, a nice town on the Schenectady border where the Italians live for the most part. And let us not forget the prostitutes, as there are many. From somewhat high-class call girl types, to nasty toothless crack whores who will suck your dick for $5. Schenectady is also home of the most corrupt police department in the entire world, bar none. They run the drug, prostitution, and gambling rings. They’ve been known to drive drunk, shoot innocent people, yell racial slurrs, and throw eggs at citizens. In the early to mid 90’s, Schenectady was dubbed “Baby New York” largely due to the high murder rate. However, the people that still live there have never given up hope, and they have new pipe dreams every year of businesses moving in. Most businesses that do make the seemingly drastic move to Schenectady typically employ less than 100 people, thus not putting a dent in the city’s unemployment problem. Some of the Schenectadian’s favorite pass times include: spin the crack head, guess who’s got VD, robbing the Haji-Mart, selling drugs to cops, buying drugs from cops, getting raped in Central Park, and being a porch monkey. Some other names for Schenectady are Scum-nectady, Skank-ectady, and shit town.
girl: “so, where ya from anyway?”
guy: “Schenectady”
girl: “OMG, are you a crack head or an AIDS patient?”
2.) A has-been city near Albany that gave us Pat Riley and Alice from “The Brady Bunch”. Used to be a very prosperous city..lots of manufacturing and the old headquarters of General Electric. Today it’s largely NYC drugdealing backwater, old Irish-Americans that didnt want to leave, and some nice areas in Niskayuna. No reason to visit Schenectady outside of Union College.
I stepped in some Schenectady while walking in the grass.
The state is out with a new list of struggling schools - and three Capital Region schools are on there.
All say they’ve already been working to turn things around for their students.
It’s a list of persistently low achieving schools that the state says have not met standards for English or Math scores for years.
