Hamilton Hill’s new view

Schenectady

It’s not what Carlos Beria sees through the front window of his Albany Street barber shop that has him feeling confident about the future of Hamilton Hill.

It’s the things that aren’t there anymore.

Beria, who has owned Platinum Kutz for the past 10 years, remembers the times when he would look out the shop and see prostitutes strolling up and down the street at midday.

“I’ve seen a lot of negative stuff, the fighting, the shootings, the stabbings,” said Beria. “I’ve been here through the changes, and it’s still here, but it’s a lot less now.”

Beria says he finally notices signs of progress that have him optimistic the neighborhood is on the rebound.

An array of projects are sprouting in Hamilton Hill, once the city’s most hopeless neighborhoods. Among them, housing for senior citizens and low-income families, a new library and literacy center, a discount store that opened last year on State Street and a modern facility on the border with neighboring Mont Pleasant for at-risk youngsters to stay busy and off the streets.

For this tough working-class neighborhood, the major investment of more than $60 million led by two private nonprofit groups is changing the landscape and perception some outsiders have of a high-crime, rundown area. Residents hope the work will restore pride in the neighborhood and bring in basic services found in many other communities.

Down the street from Beria’s barber shop on Albany Street sits the $18 million Joseph L. Allen apartments, a pastel-colored dwelling named for the city’s first black councilman that Rochester-based developer DePaul opened in October.

On Craig Street, the next block over, The Community Builders of Boston has work crews converting the old Horace Mann school into 25 senior housing units and former Craig Street Boys & Girls Club Street into 25 studio, one-two- and three-bedroom apartments on the second and third floor as part of Phase One of $19.5 million Hillside View development. The first floor will feature a police station and community artist maker space, where people with an interest in computing or technology can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment and knowledge.

Additionally, dilapidated properties on Stanley and Emmett Streets are being redeveloped as part of that first phase of work.

The second phase includes the purchase of buildings on Albany Street, Craig Street, Germania Avenue, Paige Street, Sprague Street, Delamont Avenue and State Street and then leveling them to make way for 94 more housing units, according to plans recently submitted to the city development office.

Under those plans, The Community Builders will also clean up a contaminated building at Craig and Albany Streets that used to house a family-owned cleaner and transform the building into a coin-operated laundromat.

Last year, the $1.3 million Phyllis Bornt library branch and literacy center opened at 948 State St. A Family Dollar store opened next door. More recently, a new Stewart’s opened at the corner of Albany Street and Brandywine Avenue.

The Boys & Girls Club of Schenectady has launched a campaign for a nearly $11 million two-story, 38,587-square-foot building in Quackenbush Park near the Mont Pleasant and Hamilton Hill border.

The Community Builders first started doing redevelopment work in the neighboring Vale neighborhood but pivoted to Hamilton Hill in recent years because census data showed median income was improving in Vale but stagnant or dropping in Hamilton Hill, where the average median income is $21,374, according to census data.

Jennica Huff, project manager with The Community Builders, said the organization is not “deterred by crime at all.” It works closely with law enforcement and uses internal security measures to keep sites and tenants safe.

“We believe that good affordable housing, housing that people of all incomes can live in is one of the foundations of having a healthy life, a healthy family, a healthy community,” Huff said.

Security is also tight at the Joe Allen apartments, where DePaul uses around-the-clock security staff and multiple surveillance cameras inside and outside the building.

Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority Chairman Ray Gillen said the neighborhood has suffered from a paucity of outside investment.

“We are linking with experienced, proven developers, and we have over $80 million in development under way or planned in that neighborhood,” he said. “We certainly want to do more, but the first step is when you have a lot of new development and the neighborhood starts to look better, it’s easier to draw in other investments.”

City Councilwoman Marion Porterfield, who has lived in Hamilton Hill for 30 years, said the community needs a supermarket, community center, and a hair salon.

“The kind of amenities that people need in a neighborhood, as you start to redevelop, you start to see that come in,” said Porterfield, who predicted that with a year or so a grocery store will open in Hamilton Hill.

A group made up mostly of Hamilton Hill residents launched a campaign called ‘“Miracle on Craig Street” where they are trying to raise $200,000 to acquire and reopen the Carver Community Center at 700 Craig St., which shut down over financial problems in 2013.

Porterfield said she would like to see developers extend sidewalks to make Hamilton Hill more pedestrian-friendly.

She also touted the mixed-income concept as a way to lessen “the concentration of poverty” in the area.

“You can make $65,000 and live in the same development as someone who makes $25,000,” she said.

Marva Isaacs, president of the Hamilton Hill Neighborhood Association, said the city should continue to tear down eyesores.

“I hope the city will get rid of most of those blighted houses that are there because Hamilton Hill is starting to look good,” Isaacs said.

Angelicia Morris, who has called Hamilton Hill home for 16 years, said the redevelopment means greater availability of affordable housing for seniors and the needy.

Development is not the only thing that can improve the neighborhood’s image.

Morris, head of the county Human Rights Commission, said renaming a section of Albany Street after Martin Luther King Jr. earlier this year injected a greater sense of neighborhood pride. “There is a rebirth of community development, of home ownership, and so as a resident I am glad that these projects are taking place,” said Morris.

Felicia Collins, pastor of Bethel AME Church on Mumford Street for the past five years, said Hamilton Hill is a “place to watch” over the next decade.

John Howard III, a lifelong Hamilton Hill resident, said when he goes into his local barber shop for a haircut, he hears concerns from people in the community who worry “that over time, they’ll get priced out of their homes.”

Howard, a construction trainer for a local nonprofit group, said he would like to see “more initiatives with owner-occupied programs that allow people to buy-in and reinvest in their own communities.”

For nearly 20 years, the taxpayer-funded Schenectady Metroplex has underwritten millions of dollars for construction work in Schenectady’s nearby downtown. The expansion of Proctors theater, construction of Bow Tie Cinemas and addition of dozens of restaurants added vibrancy to the city’s heart. But for years, critics have said downtown development had little impact on Hamilton Hill and other struggling neighborhoods to the east.

Violent crime often involving guns and drugs has plagued the community.

“People think of Hamilton Hill as the place where all the crime happens, but if you look at the statistics, the percentage may be higher here, but it’s not like it’s only here,” Porterfield said.

Police Chief Eric Clifford said that as of late last week, the city had two homicides in 2017, and none in Hamilton Hill. By comparison, four people were killed in the neighborhood last year. Violent crimes like rapes, assaults and arson are down in both Hamilton Hill and neighboring Mont Pleasant.

“We acknowledge there is still work to do as it relates to that neighborhood, but the redevelopment efforts underway have transformed certain areas in a positive way,” he said, noting many of he building projects feature “environmental design” such as clear sight lines and improved lighting which can enhance safety.

He also credited police work and crime mapping that pinpoints “hot-spot activity,” and intelligence gathering that identifies those likely to be involved in criminal activity and steering them toward diversionary programs.

Huff said The Community Builders is already working with the service agency Schenectady Community Action Program, the Electric City Barn, and the Boys & Girls Club. They are also involved with Capital Roots to have fresh food deliveries once a week to the Hillside View apartments. Modelled after the Albany Barn, the Electric City Barn maker space will feature space for woodworking, digital media and textile and fashion design and production. Local woodworkers, crafters and so called “makers” will have a venue to help train others work on their own projects.

Gillen said the city is looking to improve public transportation along the Craig Street corridor.

At the Allen apartments, roughly half of the 51 units have tenants who use services provided by Schenectady Community Action Program, an organization down the block from the apartments that helps people combat poverty.

“We’re a provider first and a developer second so it’s important ... that we have nice places that people want to be in and that we’re good neighbors and part of the community so we want to have something that’s always going to be nice looking,” said Chris Tolhurst with DePaul.

Howard said projects need to employee more local residents.

“I want to know how many actual residents from Schenectady are working on working on these Schenectady projects that can benefit from this development long term,” added Howard, who currently lives on Paige Street.

Porterfield said three minority contractors and a business owned by a woman did work on the Joseph Allen Apartments.

Back at the Platinum Kutz barbershop, Beria, who lives in Schenectady and owns a second shop on Eastern Parkway, said he has spoken with friends interested in opening businesses on Albany Street, a main Hamilton Hill thoroughfare.

He said he’s worked hard to build a positive reputation for his shop.

“Now I want the location to match our name, and I think that will happen because people are feeling a little more comfortable, which is a good thing for us and for business,” he said.

• pnelson@timesunion.com • 518-454-5347 • @apaulnelson