Source: The New York Times

On July 26, 2002 The New York Times reported that the Mayor of Schenectady, New York is actively encouraging Guyanese immigrants "to move to his struggling city of 62,000 people... The mayor's effort began after he received a telephone call last year from... a Guyanese immigrant who settled here 15 years earlier and was looking for a place to build a Hindu temple. There were only 200 Guyanese immigrants living here, but the mayor helped them find a vacant Catholic church to house the temple, and in the process he learned a few things about the Guyanese." Within the last year, "some 2,000 have moved here, according to Schenectady officials, with each weekly bus tour bringing more."