I live nearby and visit often for the shops, garden tour, Yaddo, and Caffe Lena. Times are a changin' in good old Saratoga and they are having a difficult time dealing with it. The wealthy, white crowd can no longer live in their little bubble. All kinds of fights at city council meetings as to how to handle the homeless, panhandlers, guns and fights at bars, having BLM members arrested.
https://www.hillcountryobserver.com/2016news/june2016panhandle.htm
https://q1057.com/saratoga-bar-that-was-shut-down-earlier-this-year-finally-reopens/#:~:text=Just%20in%20time%20for%20track,were%20linked%20to%20the%20bar.
https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/crime/2022/11/21/saratoga-springs-ny-shooting-caroline-street-vermont-sheriff-deputy-wounded/69666295007/
https://ground.news/article/correction-officer-allegedly-found-with-ghost-gun-at-saratoga-springs-bar-works-for-schoharie-county
https://www.news10.com/news/saratoga-county/saratoga-city-leaders-activists-at-odds-over-charges-against-local-blm-leader/
Anecdotally, a friend and I were walking around town on a Tuesday around 11 a.m. during the week of ChowderFest. A man passed us, yelling, ranting, and threatening. A bunch of us cleared the sidewalk. The young man was obviously unwell. When I was at the traffic light at the Route 29 intersection where Stewarts is on the left, I saw a shirtless man wrapped in a sleeping bag standing in front of Stewarts doors.
My friend's sister owns an expensive Italian restaurant in Saratoga. She keeps complaining that old trope "no one wants to work". I asked where someone is supposed to live in or near Saratoga to work a part time job for minimum wage. Most of the former apartments/rental properties are now AirBnBs because the homeowners can make more money that way, especially during track season.
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