Reconsider closing of Sheridan Plaza CVS
Re Dec. 2 article, “CVS leaving Sheridan Plaza in Schenectady”: It’s official: CVS Pharmacy at Sheridan Plaza is closing effective Dec. 12. All prescriptions will be transferred to 1330 Balltown Road. Rumor has it that CVS chose not to renew its lease.
In the past, I have written other articles about the plaza. So many years ago, we lost a supermarket and now the pharmacy.
All along I have made it known that there are many people residing in the Sheridan Village apartments and the surrounding area who do not drive a car. They walk over to the pharmacy to pick up their prescriptions and do other shopping. I feel very badly about this.
I have lived near Sheridan Plaza since 1967, and we have always had a pharmacy. The number of prescriptions sold has doubled recently in this store. So why close it?
The pharmacists, management and the cashiers are super people. They are exemplary at their jobs. I have heard that staff deliver prescriptions and necessities to residents at the apartments who are sick and cannot go out. They will be missed by all.
When CVS closes its doors, I am afraid that Trustco Bank and the other remaining businesses may also close. What about the VA?
One last note: Rite Aid on Gerling Street and Van Vranken Avenue will probably be inundated with prescriptions from CVS, as it is the closest pharmacy. Can’t CVS please stay open for the people?
Barbara A. Saglimbeni
Schenectady
End partisanship to improve Schenectady
Re Nov. 29 Viewpoint, “Schenectady Democrats reversed financial direction”: I was surprised and pleased Chris Gardner first posted on my Facebook page and then wrote his column criticizing Neil Golub’s history of Metroplex. I was happy he did because, for years, Gardner has operated in the shadows. After all, sunlight is the best disinfectant — and disinfectant is what we need in Schenectady.
Golub criticized politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, for allowing Schenectady to fall into a wasteland. However, Gardner, the grand puppet master of Schenectady, who has for years pulled the strings of council members, the mayor and county legislators, rejected Golub’s objective piece for a subjective defense of the Democratic Party.
Gardner, for political reasons, cited only supposed Democratic successes. While he touted the fact that in 2003, Democrats captured the county Legislature after 37 years of Republican control, he conveniently overlooked that Democrats have controlled the City Council for the past 42 years.
Despite overstating some points, Gardner made some valid ones. By the same token, it would have been appropriate to cite Republican accomplishments like Al Jurcyznski’s effort to bring Guyanese to Schenectady and the Little Italy initiative.
Of course, that is the point Neil Golub made in his column and Chris Gardner forgot in his piece. Those of us involved in Schenectady 2000 never asked each other in which political party a person was enrolled. All we cared about was changing community attitudes and providing the vision and plan for revitalizing Schenectady.
We accomplished, in part, what we wanted. (There is, of course, much more that needs to be done.) If only party partisans could recognize they should do the same thing.
Just as there was much blame to place on Democratic and Republican politicians for Schenectady’s demise, there can be much credit for both sides if partisanship can be put aside. And that, of course, was also the point Neil Golub was making.
Roger Hull
Schenectady
Schenectady voters will want votes back
Re Nov. 19 letter, “Hull could help revive Hamilton Hill center”: For the writer to suggest that Roger Hull use his money for philanthropic work in Schenectady after his trouncing at the polls is a quizzical idea.
Mr. Hull holds an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth and a law degree from Yale. Does the writer imply that Mr. Hull’s money is good enough for Schenectadians, but his mind is not?
On election night, when asked by a reporter about the results of the race, Mr. Hull said, “I didn’t lose; the people of Schenectady did.” How true. What could have been.
The folks on Hamilton Hill should have considered their own well-being on Election Day rather than vote the party line.
The Carver Community Center was closing during Mayor Gary McCarthy’s watch. Their community activist, Ms. Marion Porterfield, also dropped the ball. Now she is front and center, trying to correct a wrong. The closure never should have happened. Such a facility serviced a very important purpose on the hill.
During the mayor’s race, perhaps voters may have been dazzled by the glitz of a casino coming to town, but the casino is going to bring as much misery to Schenectady as Jack Welch did when he downsized the GE plant. Gary McCarthy is the new Jack Welch.
I invite all citizens to join me during the City Council’s bi-monthly committee meetings to learn how our city officials operate and know their shortcomings. You would want to take back your vote if you could.
Even as I write this letter to the editor, the American flag flies tattered and torn over the Foster Avenue facility. Newly re-elected Councilwoman Leesa Perazzo says exciting things are happening in Schenectady. She lives in la-la-land.
Mary McClaine
Schenectady
Flag not hate symbol to all Southerners
Re Dec. 3 letter, “Confederate flag lets hatred have a voice”: I get the impression that the writer Roger Malebranche has never been down South.
I visited a friend in North Carolina years ago. He lived on a river and had a Confederate flag nailed to the river side of his place. You will find many Confederate flags in the South.
It is a symbol of states’ rights to Southerners, of independence from the federal government, of pride in being a Southerner.
I think it is small-minded to label the flag as a hate symbol. It is like saying anyone who displays the Puerto Rican flag is anti-American.
Dick Vale
Schenectady
Grateful for upgrades on Steadwell Road
It has been some time since Montgomery County has done anything major to Steadwell Road, such as cleaning ditches, cutting shoulders, etc.
I understand the Department of Public Works has had more than a few things to take care that required priority — such as bad bridges and repairing flood damage.
This year, Steadwell Road got the full treatment.
Ditches were cleaned, shoulders were cut, and it received new paving and new shoulders. What really impressed me was the quality of the work.
The county DPW deserves a “well done” for a superb job.
Lou Mosher
Amsterdam
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Categories: Letters to the Editor
