ZIP Code 12306

As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New York, near the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers. It is in the same metropolitan area as the state capital, Albany, which is about 15 miles (24 km) southeast. In the 19th century, nationally influential companies and industries developed in Schenectady, including General Electric and American Locomotive Company (ALCO), which were powers into the mid-20th century. The name is derived from the Mohawks' word skahnéhtati, meaning "beyond the pines" and used for the area around Albany, New York. It was founded by Dutch colonists in the 17th century and is now the county seat of SchenECTady County, of which it is the county's largest city, with a population of more than 67,000. In 1824, more people worked in manufacturing than agriculture or trade; like many New York cities, it had a cotton mill that processed cotton from the Deep South. The town was part of emerging technologies, with GE collaborating in the production of nuclear-powered submarines and, in the 21st century, working on other forms of renewable energy. It has been the site of the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, which was founded in 1916. The museum is located in the former home of the former owner of Fort Orange.

History

Schenectady is the primary city name, but also Niskayuna are acceptable city names or spellings, Schdy, Upper Union on the other hand no longer accepted or obsolete and are no longer used as a designation. The official name is Schenectady. The Mohawk Valley was the territory of the Mohawk nation, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee. The Mohawk had occupied territory in the region since at least 1100 AD. When Dutch settlers developed Fort Orange (present-day Albany, New York) in the Hudson Valley beginning in 1614, the Mohawks called their settlement skahnéhtati, meaning "beyond the pines," referring to a large area of pine barrens. About 3,200 acres of this unique ecosystem are now protected as the Albany Pine Bush. In 1661, Arendt van Corlaer, (later Van Curler), a Dutch immigrant, bought a large piece of land on theMohawk River's south side. Some Euro-Indian descendants, such as Jacques Cornelissen Van Slyck and his sister Hilletie van Olinda, became interpreters and intermarried with Dutch colonists. They were among the few métis who seemed to move from Mohawk to Dutch society, as they were described as "former Indians", although they did not always have an easy time of it. The settlers here turned to farming. Their 50-acre lots were unique for the colony, "laid out in strips along the Moh Hawk River", with the narrow edges fronting the river, as in French colonial style. They relied on rearing livestock and wheat. The proprietors and their descendants controlled all the land of the town for generations, essentially acting as government until after the Revolutionary War, when representative government was established.

Geography

Schenectady has a humid continental climate. It is part of the Capital District, the metropolitan area surrounding Albany. Interstate 890 runs through the city, and the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) is nearby. ZIP code 12345, which is used by the GE plant, has attracted media attention on account of its simplicity. The city has a total area of 11.0 square miles (28.49 km²), of which 10.9 square miles [28.23 km²] of it is land and 0.1 sq mi (0.26 km²) of it (1.27%) is water. It has a hot-summer (Dfa) bordering upon warm-sum summer (Dfb) climate. Average monthly temperatures range from 22.9 °F in January to 71.8 °f in July. The nearest commercial airport is Albany International Airport; Amtrak has a station in the city. It's one of the three principal population and industrial centers in the region. Along with Albany and Troy, it is the third largest city in the state of New York, after Albany and Albany. It also has a population of 1.2 million. It was the site of the U.S. Civil War Battle of Saratoga Springs, which took place in 1864. The Battle was followed by the Battle of Gettysburg, which occurred in 1875 and 1876. The battle was the first to be fought in the Mohawk River.

Economy

Schenectady was a manufacturing center known as "The City that Lights and Hauls the World" In the late 20th century, due to industrial restructuring, the city lost many jobs and suffered difficult financial times. The city is part of a metropolitan area with improving economic health, and a number of buildings have been renovated for new uses. The Rivers Casino & Resort opened with 66 table games and 1,150 slot machines on a 50,000-square-foot gambling floor with a steakhouse and a restaurant lounge in February 2017. In December 2014, the state announced that the city was one of three sites selected for development of off-reservation casino gambling, under terms of a 2013 state constitutional amendment. The project would redevelop an ALCO brownfield site in the city along the waterfront, with hotels, housing and a marina in addition to the casino.Price Chopper Supermarkets and the New York Lottery are based in Scenectady. For confidential support, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or visit http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/. For support in the U.S., call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 or visit a local Samaritans branch or click here. For confidential support on suicide matters in the United States, call the National suicide Prevention Line on 1-877-457-9255 or  visit the National Suicide Prevention Line on Line.

Demographics

In the census of 2010, there were 66,135 people, 26,265 (2000 data) households, and 14,051 (2000 data) families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 59.38% (52.31% Non-Hispanic) (7.07 White-Hispanic), 24.19% African American, 14.47% Hispanic or Latin of any race, 8.24% from other races, 5.74% from two or more races, 2.62% Asian American, 0.69% Native American, and 0.14% Pacific Islander. The top ancestries self-identified by people on the census are Italian (13.6%), Guyanese (12.3%), Irish (12,1%), Puerto Rican (10.1%), German (8.7%), English (6.0%), Polish (5.4%), French (4.4%). These reflect historic and early 20th-century immigration, as well as that since the late 20th century. The largest religious body is the Catholic church, with 44,000 adherents, followed by Islam, with 6,000 followers, and the Reformed Church in America, with 3,600 members. The fourth is the United Methodist denomination, with 2,800 members. notable congregations are the First Presbyterian Church (Schenectady, New York), which is affiliated with the PCA. St George's Episcopal Church dates back to 1735, one of the oldest churches in the town.

Rail transportation

Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides regular service to Schenectady. The city also has freight rail service from Canadian Pacific Railway and Norfolk Southern Railway. In the early 20th century, the city had an extensive streetcar system that provided both local and interurban passenger service. There was also a line from Gloversville, Johnstown, Amsterdam, and Scotia into Downtown Scenectady operated by the Fonda,Johnstown, and Glover's Railroad. In 1938 the state of New York condemned the line's bridge over the Mohawk River at SchenECTady. When the state condemned the bridge for interurban use, the line abandoned passenger service, and the bullet cars were sold. The FJ&G bought the cars believing that there would be continuing strong passenger business from a prosperous glove and leather industry, as well as legacy tourism traffic to Lake Sacandaga. Instead, roads were improved, automobiles became cheaper and were purchased more widely, tourists traveled greater distances by car. The Great Depression decreased business overall. In 1932, the FJ & G purchased five lightweight "bullet cars" (#125 through 129) from the J. G. Brill Company. These interurbans represented state-of-the-art design. The bright orange FJ and G interurbANS were scheduled to meet every daylight New York Central train that stopped at ScenECTady, and connected to trains to New York City, Chicago and points between. The line was abandoned in 1938.

Places of interest

The Stockade Historic District features dozens of Dutch and English Colonial houses from the 18th and 19th centuries. Schenectady's Municipal Golf Course is an 18-hole championship facility sited among oaks and pines. Central Park is the crown jewel of the city's parks, occupying the highest elevation point in the city. Union College, adjacent to the GE Realty Plot, is the oldest planned college campus in the United States. The city is home to the African-American Burying Ground, where residents annually celebrate the anniversaries of Juneteenth and Emancipation. The Edison Tech Center exhibits and promotes the physical development of engineering and technology from Scenectady and elsewhere. It provides online and on-site displays that promote learning about electricity and its applications in technology. It also contains the Suits-Bueche Planetarium, which displays exhibits on the development of science and technology. The SchenECTady Museum features exhibits on a variety of subjects, including the Erie Canal, the Yates Doll House, the Glen-Sanders Collection, etc. It is located at 32 Washington Avenue in the Stockade District, near the General Electric Realty plot. It has a History Museum and the Grems-Doolittle research library. It welcomes people doing local and genealogical research. It was the site of one of the first public demonstrations of television, projecting an image from a studio at the GE plant a mile [1.6 km] away. It hosts an annual House and Garden Tour.

Education

The city is served by the Schenectady City School District, which operates 16 elementary schools, three middle schools and the main high school. Catholic schools are administered by the Diocese of Albany. Union College, a private liberal arts college, and Scenectady County Community College are the city's tertiary educational institutions. The city is also home to the New York State Museum of Natural History, which was founded in 1872. The museum is located in the town's historic center, which dates back to the 17th century. The Museum is now a museum of natural history, with a collection of more than 2,000 pieces of art and sculpture. The SchenECTady City Museum was established in 1876 and is the oldest museum in New York state. It is also the only museum in the state to be located in a town. The City Museum's collection of art includes works by Picasso, Mathewson, and other artists, as well as other works of art from the 19th and 20th centuries. It also includes a large collection of photographs of the city, including the city in the 1920s and 30s, and a large section of the original cityscape from the 1930s and 1940s. It was the first city to be included in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, which is now listed as part of the National Park Service. The town is home to a number of museums, such as the Museum of New York History, the Sculpture Museum, and the New Museum of Nature and Science, which opened in the 1950s.

Representation in popular culture

Due to its early importance in national history and the economy, Schenectady figured in popular culture. Author Henry James gave his lead character Daisy Miller, in his 1878 novella of the same name, an origin in the city. Hocus Pocus is referred to or the setting for several of Kurt Vonnegut's books, most notably Player Piano. The Time Machine (2002), the remake starring Guy Pearce, features the city's ice skating scenes, standing in for New York City's Central Park. In the ABC-TV series Ugly Betty, Marc St. James (played by Michael Urie) is said to be from Scenectady. The song "Someone to Love" by Fountains of Wayne refers to fictional character Seth Shapiro moving from SchenECTady in 1993 to Brooklyn. The 1996 made-for-TV film Unabomber: The True Story starring Robert Hays as David Kaczynski, refers to Schenctady, where David and his wife were living when they figured out his brother's involvement in the bombings. The music video for the song "Hero" by Mariah Carey was filmed at Proctors Theatre in Schenectedady. It plays on the aural similarity between the figure of speech synecdoche, New York, and the name of the city in the song. The Way We Were (1973) was filmed on location at Union College, and in nearby Ballston Spa. The 1980s film Heart Like a Wheel is mostly set in ScenECTady.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Schenectady, Schenectady County, New York = 95. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 79. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 99. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Schenectady = 3.3 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 67,047 individuals with a median age of 35.6 age the population dropped by -0.11% in Schenectady, Schenectady County, New York population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 6,203.46 residents per square mile of area (2,395.24/km²). There are average 2.27 people per household in the 25,622 households with an average household income of $35,729 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 9.50% of the available work force and has dropped -3.77% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 22.96%. The number of physicians in Schenectady per 100,000 population = 272.3.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Schenectady = 37.8 inches and the annual snowfall = 61.5 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 125. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 177. 83 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 13.8 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 51, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Schenectady, Schenectady County, New York which are owned by the occupant = 39.13%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 22.8 years with median home cost = $87,020 and home appreciation of 2.17%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $28.44 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $8,426 per student. There are 14.8 students for each teacher in the school, 489 students for each Librarian and 454 students for each Counselor. 8.52% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 11.45% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 7.86% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).