Food Shopping in Downtown Schenectady

When I first told a good friend that I planned to live in Schenectady without a car, one of the first questions she asked me is, "Where will you do your food shopping?" Before I could answer, she followed with a second question, "There aren't any grocery stores downtown, are there?" Well, after some time here, the answer to the second question is no -- and yes. I have found many answers to the first question, so if you're new to the area, or think that there just aren't any alternatives to the bigger stores, this article is for you. I might be able to answer another question that many people are asking as the city undergoes revitalization, and that is, "Do we really need a supermarket in downtown Schenectady?"

Zenectady - An Electric City Side Walk

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

These words from Henry David Thoreau fit this new experiment of my life quite aptly. The difference is that I left the woods, or the farmlands rather, of the Helderberg Hilltowns and moved instead deep into the heart of a city. The city is Schenectady, nestled along the banks of the Mohawk River in Upstate New York, and I now reside in its oldest neighborhood, known as The Stockade.