Metrofix

The Combative Comeback of a Company Town

By: William B. Patrick

Narrated by: Richard Lovrich

Cities are about living with other people; suburbs are about isolate happiness.

Metrofix: The Combative Comeback of a Company Town shows what went right and what went wrong when General Electric moved most of its businesses out of Schenectady, New York. Once known as “The City That Lights and Hauls the World” because of its electrical and railroad industries, the Electric City enjoyed decades of dizzying, enviable success. Like other river towns upstate, it was a 20th-century economic powerhouse that fueled the wealth and reputation of the Empire State.

But between 1960 and 2000, this company town would lose 30,000 residents--a third of its population--mainly through aggressive layoffs by GE. Schenectady, like so many other cities in post-industrial America, faced overwhelming forces that pushed it toward imminent ruin: flight to the suburbs; a diminished tax base; a corrupt police department; relentless political warfare; gang and drug problems in decaying neighborhoods; a burgeoning surplus of zombie houses; and mounting deficits. In spite of it all, though, Schenectady’s business leaders and arts lovers, politicians and volunteers, non-profit organizations and philanthropic foundations, and neighborhood associations and volunteers, all found innovative ways to rebuild their city, and this riveting audiobook chronicles those efforts.

With deeply researched details of the city’s successes and failures and thought-provoking portraits of some of its most dynamic citizens, Metrofix is an inspirational story that shows how an acclaimed theater (Proctor’s), a business-led volunteer revitalization organization (Schenectady 2000), a unique public authority (Metroplex), and hundreds of dedicated citizens pulled their city back from the brink of disaster and did, in fact, change their world.

©2021 William B. Patrick (P)2023 William B. Patrick