A New Schenectady? Not for Everyone.
A New Schenectady? Not for Everyone.
At a formal launch event held at Proctors Theatre, Neil Golub, chairman emeritus of Price Chopper/Market 32, unveiled a new civic branding effort: “The New Schenectady.” Speaking before an audience of city officials, business leaders, and invited guests, Golub proclaimed,
“Today is the day that Schenectady officially comes out of the shadows of the past and into the sunlight... We are a New Schenectady.”
He cited the city's storied industrial past—from General Electric to the American Locomotive Company—and framed the new campaign as a turning point for a city that has invested heavily in downtown development, tourism, and entertainment.
But for many actual residents, the so-called “New Schenectady” feels like a rebranding effort that ignores the lived experiences of those who never left, who built businesses, raised families, and endured the economic transitions that followed the departure of those same major industries.
Orlondo Otis Hundley, artist, organizer, and former city council candidate, offered a direct and timely response:
“The fact that unelected business leaders can work in concert with city officials and power brokers from the county to totally bury the fact that—with close to $500 million spent on downtown Schenectady—the so-called revitalization effort has so viciously failed the people of Schenectady that have been here…
It has failed the people who opened businesses, raised families, retired here—and it’s also failed the people they sold a fantasy to, of a fictitious economy centered around a philosophy of if you build it, they will come.
Well, the buildings are here. But the people they bet our futures on are not.
And the ones who commandeered our home under the idea that they would invest to build us up have only invested in an attempt to send us packing.”
As Hundley points out, “new” isn’t always better—especially when it comes without accountability, shared prosperity, or space for the voices of those who live here every day. The marketing may change, the billboards may get updated, but unless the people of Schenectady are centered in the vision and benefit from the investment, it isn’t revitalization—it’s replacement.
If Schenectady is to move forward, it must do so with its people, not despite them.
