afternoon want to welcome everybody here to our fourth open house connected aid and now we're pleased today to be able to announce our next phase of housing in the city of schenectady i don't want to point out that this phase is still a dynamic process and it's evolutionary because we have the potential of the city to take title to over seven hundred properties and we hope that that doesn't happen that we in fact have people who will step up to the plate in pay their taxes maintain their property but if it doesn't we're prepared to go forward in working with individuals to this community who want to own and maintain property and i should say the owner occupied property this house as we look at it today is a little bit in  distress we're fortunate to have michael marotta here today who his grandfather actually built this house and it's in decline you know it's unfortunate the way it is but what we're going to do is use this is an example we're going to renovate this house bring it up to an all current code standards and we have the rendering there so that it will be an asset to the neighborhood and we want to use this is a model that we will do this across this neighborhood across the city in it's the only way we're going to be able to do that is have everybody working together and i want to now introduce one of our key partners john your gal ski the to tell you that we are really pleased him proud to be partnering this whole key to the city program from my perspective the schools and the city go hand in hand we in the school system while we have many wonderful things happening we know we need to lift our schools to an even higher standard that's the same thing we're trying to do in this city doing it together makes all the difference in the world i was actually talking with the grandfather who actually built the house and it was telling me about how many children have actually lived in this house and gone to our schools so i'm excited about much as we can thank you thank you john really a great leader and one of our key partners of course is key bank we have jo reed hammer here today to again update us and some of the things that are happening and thank you joe for your participation this program thank you it's a pleasure to be here today and thank you everyone for coming out such a wonderful afternoon today is they th to the city comes full circle today a solution to a problem which had begun over many years ago a solution no however had started only a few months ago has finally come to fruition here with key to the city home staged to the homes initiative is a natural progression within the key of the city framework it is the first step to systematically bringing back to life some of the more troubled structures here in schenectady it is often said that from small things big things one day will grow the key to the city partnership is a perfect example of just that over a year ago a fledgling partnership between the city of schenectady keeping and financial manner homes ha begun today this partnership has grown ten fold and is now comprised of many city departments local businesses and citizens spread across all the city who share a common desire to see these great neighborhoods return to their prominence homes as the result of this great partnership just a quick update on some of the numbers just to keep you guys abreast of our progress here in the city of schenectady to this point there have been six hundred inquiries it's just it makes sense when for everybody here we are at the doorstep of being able to bring back some of these depressed neighborhoods rehab these homes and turn them over with one hundred percent financing to responsible new famil program that will enable the city to flourish the energy among all of us is endless really excitement continues to grow we  have got just begun and we have had significant results the statistics for the first quarter in the county and the county is up twenty four point seven and yet in the city itself it is up to thirty n light of the vision of the manner of this city to revitalize these depressed and deteriorating properties we've developed a myriad of programs that today is the  home that is seriously distressed and in need of a lot of how we are going to be putting a program of government rehabilitation together with this one it's it's certainly a home that's valuable being near the school system and on a main corridor we're also announcing a home also up and rankin avenue that will be part of a private rehabilitation program involving private contractors we should have that home available to private contractors and shortly after memorial day and we will be releasing information concerning contractors how they get in touch with us to put in applications to help us with that these operators are going to continue with a host of other programs including green sprays initiatives certainly some demolition of the most deteriorated most distressed properties there's going to be a street initiatives so there's going to be a whole  neighborhood make over programs that are going to be part of this home's program we're very excited about when it lends itself to being here today to start this home and another home also i'm been drinking and shortly to announce areas throughout the city in which we will target great concentration we're looking forward to input we're looking forward to patients and we're looking forward to results thank you thank you eric thank colleagues in government  city the city council members who are here very important field anybody who want to say anything in the comments i've been an advocate in neighborhoods for a long long time and i think programs like this is what the city needs working together with the school district we need all these components together to make it work and i'm really happy that the mayor has put this together with the staff and neighborhoods are so important to the common good of all of schenectady and with a good vibrant school program along with neighborhoods getting young families to move back to schenectady is what we need and i'm very excited also thank you