Bleecker Street to get a facelift

UTICA, N.Y. -- It stretches from downtown to the East side. Utica's Bleecker Street is part of the city's history and cultural diversity. "We have beautiful restaurants on this street, we have beautiful cafes and we hope that the city endeavors to focus to keep it like it is," said Maugeri's Auto Repair co-owner Tom Maugeri. Maugeri's family has had this auto shop on Bleecker for 80 years. And he has seen firsthand the many changes this part of the city has gone through. "We've lost a lot of big industry in Utica, General Electric, of course that brought our area down a lot. A lot of smaller businesses in the area have moved because of it," said Maugeri. And once those businesses moved out, the spaces became vacant. All along Utica you can see the emptiness where businesses and residences once stood, creating eye sores along... [read full story]