things a little bit different in terms of government's role in the sistine the sale of real estate or command staff of the police and fire department our office of general services how we've shifted that to make them available to answer people's questions and deal with any issues that people may perceive that the city should deal with and their choice when they're making decision of where to live or less than we did at the schenectady city high school and talked about it and so impressive programs their opportunities that are really an equal in this region in terms of educational opportunities for children again attending municipal school systems and today we're at proctor's and we see again a joining us the highly successful schenectady green market and we see proctors in what i call another proctors arcade because they're the proctors campus because at one time bikers really was just the main stage of this great theater but now you have the black box theater you have this whole arts and entertainment venue that philip morris and his team has crafted to make it not only a regional draw but really a nationally recognized facility and model of how to build arts and entertainment well good afternoon everyone on the part of the school district we're really pleased to be a partner in this program and have been supportive right from the beginning i want to work knowledge so some of the other school officials that are here today we have sending over there somewhere i can't seem but ron lindsey who is the vice president our board of education and riley who is i think over there to one of our board members and diane wilkinson who is a house principal at the high school and karen corona who is our public information officer all of us have been excited about participating in this program we recognize that schools are an important part of any community and that's the case of course right here in schenectady we believe in our schools and our school system and i know most people just frilly expect me to stand up and brag about our schools and boy i sure can do that because i've learned a lot about them but i think a much better way to hear about our schools is directly from one of our students we have here today with us the key but james and i want to walk up and losses coming up on to tell you just a little bit about this young lady she's a senior an outstanding student who has benefited from the wide range of programs that we have available at the high school as manufacturers telling me a few minutes ago that she's down to really trying to decide between two colleges both of whom have offered her a full scholarship for ride reflecting their outstanding achievement i'm going to tell you this either one of those schools are going to benefit from this young lady beaner she is an outstanding outstanding student and would add to any university should go to and i know she's going to be successful rochester my friends have gotten full scholarships to university i myself have gotten scholarship offers from university of rochester and lawrence and i'm down to deciding by the end of this week but it's you don't really think about it when the for your first two years there because you don't start to get into looking for codgers until like your junior year when you start to work really hard and you don't realize how much being there pays pays off because when you do your resume to send in to your college you're like oh my gosh i've done so much to all these years i myself since i started high school i've been a member of the voluble team the track and field team i'm a member of the national honor society there i'm also international back baccalaureate something that no one really realizes because we always focus on the negative aspects of there are so much more going on we have different different clubs we have so much to do in our school i think some kids like me are overloaded with stuff to do like you have to don't know how to balance your time because you like oh i'll do this and i'll do this and there's so much to do we have robotics club and that's for more of our technological science kids we have masterminds and that's basically where you go in and these are the real questions  it's really good because we have the sports teams and cross their track their soccer there's basketball of course then we have more of our academic things there's masterminds there's robotics there mock trial and what i like the most is that high school brings you well rounded student so lead time you're ready for college i think everyone's basically prepared you know you're in a school that's basically the size of a small liberal college we have about three thousand kids in our school and the school one of the schools i'm going to ask about two thousand kids for their undergraduate and so i feel really prepared like i'm used to being in such a big vast community we have good teacher relationship i spend most of my to i am a senior so i don't have a full schedule but i spend most of my time in the guidance office not because i need guidance but mostly because i have great guidance counselors and you stay there and you get to meet new people you have i think and i think that while everyone's like you see the headlines for something bad to happen in schenectady but we as a school like we are we are stuart we are human we are teenagers so we have our flaws but overall it's it's a good community my thigh came here the summer of my junior year and i when i walked in the school i went to previously it wasn't as big we didn't have that much students in there and i think right and the teachers help the staff there is very helpful from your house principal to your assistant principal your guidance counselor your teachers everyone is really helpful you and they're friendly faces everywhere and i feel if i like most about the school overall it's just  that it is a friendly community and again everyone focuses on the negative aspects but there's so much more positive things going on and so when i graduate here in june i know i'm deathly going to be sad to go because it's it's a great place and i maybe in a couple of places so make sure everybody picks one up and takes advantage of all the coupons and flyers that are in there started out to originally was some conversations with jay christiane and prevent shoals manner homes and how could we markets connect a little bit better how we could make it more attractive in terms of home ownership in buying property here and that we there was a while ago we had that conversation and jay is here today to update us to see just what we have done and what we can do in the future but jay christiana good afternoon i have some very exciting statistics to share with you about homeownership in schenectady according to the greater capital association of realtors written business is up twenty four point seven percent in schenectady county for the first quarter of two thousand and twelve this is compared to the first quarter of two thousand and eleven within the city of schenectady written business is up an impressive thirty nine percent over last year new listings are also on the rise in these are all very very positive signs for the real estate community here and schenectady new york once again potential manor homes is proud to be a part of today's open house tour invite you all to join  those mediately falling here we've got some terrific homes they're going to be held open today for a complete list of all available inventory you can certainly download a mobile application called potential in a mobile on your smartphone this will guide you where to go today and show you everything that's available representatives will also be available today throughout the city to answer any real estate questions that you may have so they can very much discussion over the last few months of talked about some of the negative issues with housing in the city of schenectady in that we are dealing with that in a comprehensive and coordinated manner broad eric shilling and recently is our new building inspector and while some of that focus is dealt with some of the problems really the exciting things is the benefits that are going to occur because of that coordinated approach that the city is using to deal with some of the problems but also to create an opportunity where people want to come here want to buy a house want to buy a building want to be able to fix it up i want schenectady to be the most user friendly in the most responsive community that is in the capital district and also across the state in america setting that agenda creating that atmosphere that really what makes the community attractive and where people want to come here wan buy a house want to buy property and want to do business showing the chief building inspector for the city of schenectady that's not going to be here and i'd like to thank everyone for their interest and participation and the key to the city program and a lot of the initiatives that were embarking on i'd also like to add that i'm a recent part of the statistics that jay just mentioned i just bought a home here in schenectady and come to schenectady from twenty five years of private practice in the construction industry construction management and i could not be more excited about where i have finally landed th opportunity that's afforded to me by mary mccarthy and his administration is unprecedented with regard to the resources that they are allowing the building department in conjunction with property maintenance o services all of the agencies throughout the city now to be able to be coordinated and concert with each other we have embarked upon several exciting initiatives that are based on one thing and that's communication  one of the things i've committed to doing and all of my staff is to communicate with the city this is something that i believe would be a vast improvement to the initiatives that we're trying to do and their own right create issues for our neighbors and residents and businesses we've committed an aggressive amount of resources toward addressing this you're going to see movement and positive directions on several fronts with regard to vacant properties we've also embarked upon a very coordinated program called n c c eyes which are neighborhood code community reviews and what we're doing is where biking through neighborhoods in a systematic allow us to as a group and as a as a as a government communicate to the citizens so many people are really unaware of a lot of the issues that are in fact code issues or life safety issues that are related to their property or residence or structure and what we do is we go out and a large group effort come through neighborhoods make ourselves available for questions and answers we supply residen with courtesy notices with regard to repairs and or maintenance is that are needed to their properties and structures that allows them with a phone number to give us a call to have any of this explain really creating a communication rather than a penalty right off adoption this is again an awful lot of positive feedback from the residents of the city i made a commitment to this administration and to man mccarthy that when i came aboard and i had a very short tenure here that i was going to make every effort to make a department and the effective departments within the city that act on behalf of the residents and out there with the residents that we are going to be a user friendly department that we are going to respond to people we're going to communicate we're going to educate we're going to really partner with you this is something that i find very very important i spent twenty five years on the other side of the table so to speak and i'm well aware of you know how i how i would prefer to be treated given the fact that most people are really just unaware of most of the issues that confront them or you know how our department works and how we can work in concert w citizens that's a dedication that i more than willing to put forth and it's an energy i bring into the office and it will not diminish we have really set the framework moving forward with all the other departments and work throughout the city to address a lot of the current issues and it's setting the table for a very very exciting rehabilitation program that will be announcing later this summer on several fronts where we are targeting to rehabilitate on several fronts and forms many many many homes throughout the city you're going to hopefully get some details coming forward that will provide you with an excitement and excitement at least that i have and i'm trying to share and i think we are with everybody working in the forms of fashions that they are right now you will see a significant difference in a short time to come and for that i thank you and i think mccarthyism ministration for the opportunity thank everybody for being here today our partners are available for any questions key bank is available and there's information up here listing of the open houses that are open today and  wish everybody a happy and healthy weekend get out before we get a little bit of rain this afternoon but and we'll see everybody back in a month thank you