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TRASH TALK?   OR TRUTH TALK?    
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mikechristine1
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Instagrammers trying to throw out Schenectady trash (talk)

Pair promote beauty, vibrancy where others see chance to tear down the city

Sunday, August 31, 2014


By Bethany Bump (Contact)
Gazette Reporter  

SCHENECTADY — One of the earliest examples comes from Jonathan Pearson’s diary, an entry from 1832, when he was a student at Union College.

Schenectady, he wrote, was a city “only fit for hogs and Dutchmen.”

“Why are the ways and walks never cleaned? Why never repaired? Oh, what a world of filth,” he continued.

Schenectady bashing is a pastime that dates back generations, and it’s one both locals and outsiders seem to delight in equally. School kids take particular pleasure in uttering the Electric City’s unofficial nicknames, picked up from peers and parents: Scum-nectady, Sketch-nectady and various others a newspaper would never print.

Last summer, the pastime was immortalized by BuzzFeed, the online news site prone to list-making. “Hating on Schenectady” ranked No. 25 on its list of “49 Things People from Upstate New York Love” — after cider donuts, eating Stewart’s ice cream and laughing at other cities when they complain about snow.

But if you’re a local on Instagram these days, you might have noticed a curious little counterculture gaining steam in the city everyone loves to bash. A contingent of more than 1,000 Instagram users is crushing hard on Schenectady, their pride declared in the comments and likes on two growing Schenectady-themed accounts: @SchenectadyDoesntSuck and @LongLiveSchenectady.

The accounts popped up in April and May, respectively, and have since amassed more than 1,200 and 550 followers. The people running them don’t know each other, but they have more in common than they realize. Both are young women, millennials fed up with all the Schenectady bashing who wanted to replace it with something else — a little pride and love for a city that’s constantly fighting a bad reputation.

@SchenectadyDoesntSuck

“I was sitting in my office one day, and it’s a county office, so everybody there kind of lives and works in the area, and they were talking about how Schenectady is so horrible,” recalled Kelly Marr, 26. “So I got angry. I was like, ‘Really? You live here and you work here and you hate it so much? Why not go away and make room for people who actually want to be here and make a difference?’ ”

The idea for @SchenectadyDoesntSuck came to her that day. The name came from a hashtag she had posted with a photo on her personal account a year earlier.

“I was on a run in Riverside Park, and it was just really nice and really pretty,” she said. “And I was just like, ‘Hey, Schenectady doesn’t suck.’ ”

Marr works for Health Schenectady Families, a home-visiting program for pregnant women and parents of infants and toddlers, run in collaboration with Schenectady County Public Health Services and Catholic Charities of Schenectady County. Most of her workday is spent in the field, where she sees “the best and the worst” of the city every day.

Since April 3, Marr has posted more than 350 photos on the account, some taken by her on trips through various neighborhoods and others submitted by followers. They range from bits of trivia about the city (Did you know Schenectady is the hometown of Doctor Octopus in the Spider-Man comics?) and like-bait (colorful sunsets over the Mohawk and post-storm rainbows) to city icons (the General Electric sign, the Central Park Rose Garden, City Hall looking stately) and even the mundane (a freshly paved Brandywine Avenue).

Many of the shots serve as recommendations of things to do and places to visit in and around the city. One commenter wanted to check out Grout Park, thanks to a photo of some lovely wildflowers there. One commenter who has lived for 20 years near the Boat House on Aqueduct Road never knew they rented kayaks until viewing a photo Marr took while paddling along the Mohawk.

Other photos prompt followers to share their memories of the city. A black-and-white shot of The Costumer jogged the memory of one commenter who recalled “playing with and staring at creepy stuff” inside the costume store on Barrett Street, where her mom used to work.

In a photo posted two weeks ago, a gray-haired man sits in the Stockade neighborhood, painting a picture of the ivy-covered brick building just ahead. The photo amassed 115 likes and a heartfelt comment: “I love that you post all these beautiful pictures of my hometown! It reminds me that although things aren’t going so well there is so much beauty still left!”

Marr grew up in Burnt Hills, but she can trace her roots to Schenectady as far back as her great-grandmother, who emigrated from Poland to Schenectady long ago. One grandmother was born and raised here. One grandfather worked for GE. One set of grandparents lived in Scotia. Her father works for the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna. Her earliest memories of the city are of Perreca’s, a 100-year-old bakery on North Jay Street.

“My mother used to work there,” she said. “I remember going in when I was maybe 3 or 4, my mom plopping me up on the counter, and going, ‘Mama Papa, this is my daughter.’ And they loved me because I had some chub on me and was this cute little blonde thing.”

She may have gone to school in another district, but her favorite childhood memories were of the city across the county line, of Perreca’s famous tomato pie or the Italian ice and spumoni from Civitello’s across the street. Today, Marr lives in the Stockade, a few doors down from The Van Dyck Restaurant & Lounge, where she may be found some evenings downing a big glass of red wine after work.

“It’s been fun getting to really know the city and the people in it,” she said. “I think there’s a lot to the city that people just don’t know, and I feel like a little unofficial tour guide, almost. I personally think it’s awesome to watch the followers just kind of loving on it and being like, “Yeah, stand up for your city.’ We live here, so let’s make good things happen.”

@LongLiveSchenectady

Some of the vilest Schenectady bashing comes from Schenectadians themselves. The self-deprecating habit was always easy for Secora Kohinke to fall into during her days at Schenectady High School, where the prevailing school of thought was, in a phrase, Schenectady sucks.

“Growing up here, I cannot tell you how many people hate it here,” the 24-year-old recalled. “They were always like, ‘I hate it, I can’t wait to get out of this city.’ And I kind of fell into that, too, where I’d think, ‘I don’t want to live here, nobody likes it here.’ ”

Her perception quickly changed when she moved out of her dad’s Bellevue home into an apartment downtown at age 17. Without a car, she walked everywhere, and still does. Along the way, she takes snapshots with her phone and uploads them to Instagram, where she has gained a following under the name @LongLiveSchenectady.

The shots are everything Instagram loves (flowers, sunsets, ivy-covered buildings) and things only Schenectadians will appreciate (brunch at More Perreca’s, the ornate façade of the Nicholaus building, a streetscape featuring the Zen Asian Fusion Lounge, Bombers Burrito Bar and Nico’s Rooftop Tavern).

“Like, this was not like this 10 years ago,” Kohinke said from a window seat at Happy Cappuccino one recent morning.

She looked out on the Jay Street Pedestrian Mall, where a man with a guitar sat smoking a pipe. Passers-by walked purposely toward State Street, or otherwise strolled leisurely past shops as they waited for the Jazz on Jay concert to begin.

“So many of these businesses were closed down,” she said with an eye toward State Street. “It’s insane. I just remember walking down here, and it was a ghost town. There was nothing going on. And now you come downtown and there’s people everywhere and all these brand-new restaurants.”

Despite the ongoing revitalization downtown, Schenectady trash talk remains a sore spot for some downtown businesspeople who fear the city will never shed its negative image. One Jay Street business — Zaria & Bella’s — even picked up and left earlier this year, citing, among other things, the persistent, damaging misperception that downtown is dangerous. Business suffered as a result, the owners said.

In a sure sign of the times, however, some businesses are crediting the existence of these newfound Instagram accounts for boosting business or, at the very least, spreading a positivity that wasn’t there before.

On Kohinke’s last day of work at Manhattan Exchange in early May, she posted a photo of the restaurant to @LongLiveSchenectady with the caption, “The friendliest pub in town.” The brick façade looked warm and inviting, cast in the soft glow of twinkling lights from a nearby tree. Contented diners ate under umbrellas on the stone patio. Bright red flowers climbed an iron gate fronting lower Union Street.

When she went there for dinner two weeks ago, her old boss asked her if she was the person who posted the image.

“I told her I was,” she recalled, “and she said, ‘I just wanted to thank you, because I’ve had so many people come in and say they’re here because they saw that photo.’ ”

Kohinke also serves as the city’s unofficial tour guide, replying to commenters who want to know which beers are on tap at Manhattan Exchange or how much longer a pilot bike share program will be in town. And she’s happy to do it. She’s even met up with some of the commenters personally to ruminate over their mutual love of the city and disdain for its trash talkers.

“I just feel like it’s not as bad as everybody says,” Kohinke said. “That’s another reason I started this, because I’m always saying Schenectady’s great, and now I can say, ‘Here, let me show you.’ ”




In relation to that comment, how can people leave if they cannot sell their house??????    Of course the cheerleaders for the city and the increasing taxes on homeowners in order to spend wildly and uncontrollably on downtown, they won't address the inability of people being able to sell their homes.   They REFUSE to address the FACT that people are NOT buying houses IN the city.  


Yeah of course these cheerleaders REFUSE to talk about the FACT that the city's tax base is falling massively, they REFUSE to address the falling home values and the dem refusal to a citywide reassessment, they RERFUSE to address how everything outside of downtown is becoming a ghost town.



Unofficial tour guide    ROFL      Is this so called guide speaking on
the falling tax base, the falling home values, the falling home sales and falling prices (while everywhere else the sales AND prices are rising), the increase in taxes, the increase in tax foreclosures because homeowners cannot afford to pay the taxes of downtown millionaires and political crony tax deadbeats, the cutting of essential services while spending money on stupid UNNECESSARY fancy light poles, the blight spreading like wild fire.      Yeah, we all know this unofficial tour guide doesn't pay any taxes, has not even a remote clue what life is like for the financially struggling homeowners paying the taxes for all the gin bills downtown.


We want the city to improve but it MUST NOT BE DONE on the backs of the taxpayers.   No one has yet been able to explain why homeowners should be paying their own taxes PLUS the taxes of the businesses downtown.   What have the homeowners gotten in return for that money?????   Falling home values and higher taxes.   Why is that a good thing?  No one can explain 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.
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senders
August 31, 2014, 10:34am Report to Moderator
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works for Health Schenectady Families, a home-visiting program for pregnant women and parents of infants and toddlers, run in collaboration with Schenectady County Public Health Services and Catholic Charities of Schenectady County.


because most of what schenectady does is this type of 'help'.....I think NYS is very good a promoting the 'government will
assist you, you poor bastard'.....

and all the politicians and CEO's and lawyers and the likes can pat themselves on the backs, go to their vacation homes
outside the city whenever they want all the while having $200/dinner-wine fundraisers and 'protecting their assets' and
hoping the 'poor' are happy just being 'helped'.....

no Schenectady isn't a bad place but it has a bad system of crumb-casting to the poor and then policing them for the CEO's
politicians lawyers and the likes all the while protecting their own interests, because THAT'S what the government does
for it's own legitimizing existence.


...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......

The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.


STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS

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CICERO
August 31, 2014, 11:16am Report to Moderator

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The accounts popped up in April and May, respectively, and have since amassed more than 1,200 and 550 followers. The people running them don’t know each other, but they have more in common than they realize. Both are young women, millennials fed up with all the Schenectady bashing who wanted to replace it with something else — a little pride and love for a city that’s constantly fighting a bad reputation.


I'm going to take a guess, but what they have in common is: Neither are raising a family and/or own property in Schenectady, and do not have to pay all the taxes and fees.  If your life aspiration is to rent an apartment downtown and blog about what beers are on tap at the Manhattan Exchange, then Schenectady is a great place.


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mikechristine1
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because most of what schenectady does is this type of 'help'.....I think NYS is very good a promoting the 'government will
assist you, you poor bastard'.....

and all the politicians and CEO's and lawyers and the likes can pat themselves on the backs, go to their vacation homes
outside the city whenever they want all the while having $200/dinner-wine fundraisers and 'protecting their assets' and
hoping the 'poor' are happy just being 'helped'.....

no Schenectady isn't a bad place but it has a bad system of crumb-casting to the poor and then policing them for the CEO's
politicians lawyers and the likes all the while protecting their own interests, because THAT'S what the government does
for it's own legitimizing existence.




So true.


And have you noticed lately, more this year than we've noticed in the past, and this is not a Schenectady thing, but all over this stuff about "parents cannot afford school supplies for their kids, the school should supply them."   Well in Schenectady of course the parents can't afford them because the parents are paying the taxes of the millionaires downtown and the politically connected tax deadbeats.   But by the same token, parents are probably spending money on their Netflix accounts, their expensive cell phones, their satellite TV, their pads and pods, all their downloading, well the kids probably want the music downloads and the parents can't live within a budget.


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.
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senders
August 31, 2014, 11:30am Report to Moderator
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I don't care what people choose to do with their own budgets(government subsidized or other wise) because it shouldn't be that
difficult....

stop subsidizing and controlling what people's tax bracket and value is....the government is too proficient at keeping people
at their level and churches have become adept at teaching the masses "be thankful for what you have" "jesus loves the poor"
blah blah blah blah....like the extension of the corporate-government the church is the 3rd mass control in the unholy trinity.

the more the government control the more the 'wait for your fair share' happens.....

I don't own a boat or a plane, nor do I live in a Burroughs in NY....however, when I do my taxes these are some of the credits...

really? WTF.....unless my plane or boat are my residence again let me say WTF......

so outside of all the schenectady bashing this is an issue for NYS to visit.....they ARE gangstas.....no matter what jesus
said or god said....THIS IS NOT HEAVEN....THIS IS CAESAR'S REALM..........

they will render us like the fat from a calf............  all the while melting down all the gold we delivered as we continue to make
bricks without straw......


...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......

The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.


STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS

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mikechristine1
August 31, 2014, 11:33am Report to Moderator
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Marr works for Health Schenectady Families, a home-visiting program for pregnant women and parents of infants and toddlers



What?   What do people need taxpayer funded visitors to come visit the parents for?   Parents unable to take care of their kids?    Oh that's write, blood is thicker argument.  

There's no such thing as child neglect anymore, it's "the government will take care of you and the child when you neglect your child, you still get to keep your toy."


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.
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mikechristine1
August 31, 2014, 11:37am Report to Moderator
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Her perception quickly changed when she moved out of her dad’s Bellevue home into an apartment downtown at age 17. Without a car, she walked everywhere, and still does



Moved out at 17?   Worked at a gin bill.  Goes to Paul Mitchell.  

Typical.  Life is surrounded by the taxpayer funded joints.



How about going to school and getting a real education for a real job and support yourself


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.
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sanfordy2
August 31, 2014, 12:06pm Report to Moderator

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schenectadys next motto should be" support from cradle to grave"

wonder what will be thought of here in a hundred years      
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bumblethru
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But if you’re a local on Instagram these days, you might have noticed a curious little counterculture gaining steam in the city everyone loves to bash. A contingent of more than 1,000 Instagram users is crushing hard on Schenectady, their pride declared in the comments and likes on two growing Schenectady-themed accounts: @SchenectadyDoesntSuck and @LongLiveSchenectady.

The accounts popped up in April and May, respectively, and have since amassed more than 1,200 and 550 followers. The people running them don’t know each other, but they have more in common than they realize. Both are young women, millennials fed up with all the Schenectady bashing who wanted to replace it with something else — a little pride and love for a city that’s constantly fighting a bad reputation.


If i was a betting man....i'd bet the farm that these 'instagramers' are associated, if not...the 'friends and family club' themselves!!! It was created and the gazetto took the 'friends and family club's' cheerleading ball and printed it!!!

BETCHA!!!

FOR THE RECORD......SCHENECTADY IS AN OVER TAXES, CRIME RIDDEN, FILTHY SH!THOLE!!!!!


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
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I'm going to take a guess, but what they have in common is: Neither are raising a family and/or own property in Schenectady, and do not have to pay all the taxes and fees.  If your life aspiration is to rent an apartment downtown and blog about what beers are on tap at the Manhattan Exchange, then Schenectady is a great place.



Spot on!

I'm curious to see where she decides to settle down in life and if her opinion changes as she has a family to think about.
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Patches
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wow...GPS on this person.......does she know she is being tracked???
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bumblethru
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if the gazetto printed an article about it....it was 'set up'!!

schenectady is in damage control....even the gazetto isn't saving them with their 'fluff and misplaced truth' articles.
This instagrammer thing....is just another attempt at trying to shine sh!t.

created!!!!


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
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