Blog

May 29, 2012

The Wife goes to Chicago and attends an important historical event that you didn’t hear about

Because The Wife took so many pictures, this report is in two parts.
This is Part One.
Click here to read Part Two.

The Wife was in Chicago on May 20, a hot humid Sunday, to support some 40 or so Veterans of the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. These brave soldiers had come to America’s heartland to march in formation along the downtown streets. Then, at the end of the march each one of these men and women who had served their country well, or once believed that they had, one by one ripped their own medals from their chests and threw them away in disgust.

US Veterans Marching In Formation On Michigan Avenue In Chicago, May 20, 2012

This ceremony was organized primarily by Veterans For Peace. A long time ago Veterans were represented by organizations like American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, which politically and socially tended to promote militarism. No more. The premier Veteran’s organization of today looks for alternatives to profitable destruction, the typical Veteran of today has graduated from the idea of war.

The Wife had an assignment for the day, to follow the marching Veterans and take as many photos as she could. She came home to Albany with a lot of really good pictures, many of which are a unique record of an important and influential event that was frantically suppressed by the corporate media and by our government. She did good work as a citizen journalist, I want to show you what she saw.

Terrorist Assassin Directs Fellow Suicide Bombers To The Jihad, Note The "Security Barriers"

For the past week the streets of Chicago had been mostly emptied of vehicles because of the Lock Down for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO.) The Lock Down encompassed some five square miles of downtown Chicago, meaning that inside this special zone the Bill of Rights was suspended for the duration of the declaration. In other words, this was a zone of martial law. These Lock Downs, of course, are unconstitutional, but hardly anyone in power cares about the US Constitution anymore.

Now, in case anyone doesn’t know, the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq are being conducted by NATO, not the United States. The USA is merely a part of an international coalition of concerned nations who only want what’s best for the world. Got that? So these important people meeting at the nearby McCormick Center, said to be the largest summit in NATO’s history with delegates from 63 nations, are technically the leaders responsible for sending these US Veterans into war.

The Five Square Mile Lock Down was advertised as a special security zone meant to protect the foreign ministers and heads of state attending the NATO conference from terrorists and assassins. But The Wife reported that she did not see any threatening violent people with weapons other than the cops. There were lots of cops. That’s how powerful people display fear of the public that supports them, by hiding behind walls and throwing cops at the world.

Peace Groups And Justice Groups Rallied Before The Veteran’s March, "Free Bradley Manning" Was Heard Throughout The Day

I expect these Lock Down Zones will become more common, eventually they may extend permanently over all of America’s major population centers. But this particular “temporary” Lock Down Zone attracted a lot of patriotic citizens who converged on Chicago for the week. This convergence of concerned citizens turned into a national conference of liberal patriots who have not given up on their country like the right wingers have.

In public places these patriotic activists played that strange peace dance with the violent cops, asserting their right to demonstrate while the police threatened and intimidated. Between public events, in meeting rooms and church basements around the City the activists met and conferenced and learned from each other. It was a convention without a convention center, the entire City was their venue. The authorities didn’t like that but there was little they could do about it.

Riot Cops At White Vans Dressing In Armor

Did the protests, particularly the Medal Hurling ceremony have a positive effect? Well let’s see. That cabal of rich white northern hemisphere nations called the Group Of Eight, or the G8, was supposed to meet in nearby the same time as NATO but left town in a hurry to avoid the protesters. They ended up meeting in California. As for NATO up the street, President Obama came out of that meeting with a firm promise to start winding down the corporate land wars in Asia. And of course, look all those cops they put on the street. Oh yeah, the big boys got the Veteran’s message loud and clear before they even delivered it.

You see, this Medal Hurling event on the street demonstrated to the leaders of NATO that the men and women who do the actual fighting are becoming tired of dying in their pointless wars. That is the historical reason why the war against Vietnam ended in the early 1970s, the soldiers refused to fight anymore. The high and mighty NATO leaders meeting behind closed doors and deploying threatening cops appear to have good memories. They haven’t yet forgotten the lessons of Vietnam.

As for NATO, this public event raised a long overdue question, why does NATO still exist? NATO was created after World War 2 to promote the military aims of “The West” during the Cold War against the old Soviet Union. But the Soviet Union has been gone for more than two decades, why is NATO today overseeing corporate wars in Asia? And why are Americans dying in those wars?

The Wife, who had arrived in Chicago more than a week earlier, is certainly no veteran but she very much participated in this City-wide activist networking convention. As part of her ongoing work bringing attention to how the extra-legal prosecutions of Muslims are being used to destroy every American’s right to a fair trial, she ran a workshop and sat on several panels and contributed to others. But according to her, the real reason she took the train to Chicago was to visit Sue The Dinosaur at the Field Museum of Natural History:

Sue The Dinosaur Contemplates The Wife And Her Camera

What can I say, she likes dinosaurs. She absolutely had to go look at the biggest and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex in the world, 42 feet long and 13 feet tall with teeth the size of bananas. At 28 years of age Sue is also the eldest Tyrannosaur known, and was the object of a very expensive privatization controversy back in the 1990s. The Wife was fascinated to learn about FBI interference in the case, she has been wondering if and how the secret police ultimately caused Sue to be brought to Chicago.

The Wife was out in the streets of Chicago early Sunday morning, she said she was terrified that she wouldn’t get enough good pictures and disappoint her horrible husband who was languishing back in Albany. My goodness, she was more afraid of me than the Chicago police. She started the morning by looking for the very front of the procession on Michigan Avenue and discovered what she called “Critical Mass Police:”

Critical Mass: Chicago Bicycle Cops Assembled In Front

A cop she talked to told her tersely, “Every officer in the City is out here this morning.” Looking through her 250 or so photos, I have to say that I have never seen so many tense cops assembled ready for action for no particular reason. Really, the cops were there merely to scare and impress the citizens, there was precious little police work to be done other than routine crowd control.

But after looking over her accounts and listening to her stories, it became clear to me that there really was a compelling reason for all this police overtime pay. The US government and the foreign corporations that own our elected officials desperately wanted to restrict access to public information about the Medal Hurling ceremony. They wanted to keep it as secret as possible from the American people and from the world that American soldiers are tired of fighting.

Indeed, the police cordon successfully kept the news out of the corporate media. Their content providers, you see, were not allowed to wander around and talk to people. They were strictly confined to a tour bus:

Corporate Media Content Providers Imbedded On The Bus

I can never decide if I should laugh or cry when I see such things. The corporate content providers on the bus could only see what the bus operator let them see. After a quick view of the march in progress, the bus was spirited far away from the Medal Hurling ceremony. The last word was that the bus went off to point cameras at some rally of black shirt anarchists, probably hoping those kids could be provoked into doing something crazy that they could exploit.

This is why you most likely didn’t hear about this landmark act of defiance by our Veteran Soldiers. Other than a few citizen journalists, Democracy Now! was the only professional national media to document the Medal Hurling ceremony. This is one more reason why I have such deep contempt for the corporate media and their content providers.

*UPDATE* The bozos on the corporate media bus put out a report for the day that naturally has little connection to what actually happened, but functions as adequate propaganda. Again, this is why I have pure contempt for the Associated Press (AP) monopoly.

The March Begins

I would like to know the compelling law enforcement reason why it was necessary to pay these cops to line the street shoulder to shoulder to separate the people on the sidewalk from the people on the street. There were no crimes being committed that day on the street or on the sidewalk. These cops were sent here to intimidate, to create tension.

The march was tightly surrounded by cops to isolate it as much as possible from the rest of America, and from the world at large. But with so much recording equipment all over the street the cops didn’t dare attack anyone, and the crowd composed mostly of activists were too savvy to get provoked. A strange dance indeed.

Veterans March In Chicago, May 2012

The Veterans marched in a square formation defined by a yellow rope. Various national and local peace groups and justice organizations and of course Occupy Chicago marched with them in solidarity. Labor unions are lately showing up in force more frequently at such events, most prominent at this one were the National Nurses Association and the Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU.)

The Veterans chanted in parade cadence, “No NATO, no war, we don’t work for you no more.” The Wife was impressed by how they marched in sync, their 40 or so pairs of legs moving in unison. That’s how you know they’re soldiers, I told her. “En Ay Tee Oh, we don’t kill for you no more,” delivered like flat statements of fact. These folks knew exactly what they were doing and why.

Marching inside the yellow rope with the veterans was a contingent of Afghan women representing Afghans For Peace, carrying the flag of Afghanistan. No, they were not wearing burkhas, these exiles living in Canada wore white t-shirts and fashionable formfitting black pants. They were to share the podium with the veterans and later become part of an innovative experiment in international relations.

Afghan Women March Alongside
The US Veterans Inside The Rope

The procession ended at a flatbed trailer at the 100 block of S. Michigan Avenue which was used as a podium for the event. The Vets took the stage along with the Afghan women, both displaying the flags of their respective countries. Former Army Sergeant Alejandro Villatoro, who served in Iraq in 2003 and in Afghanistan in 2011, acted as emcee.

Members of Veterans For Peace who were not there to hurl medals, wearing identifying black shirts, lined the stage in front like bouncers at a rock concert. They did this to keep the police from crowding the stage. Baffled, the cops stalked back and forth while the Veterans For Peace stood firm and refused to be challenged.

Sgt. Villatoro Reads While Police Officers Are Momentarily Baffled By Veterans For Peace Guarding The Podium.

Unable to line up next to the podium, the cops set up a second line in front of the Veterans For Peace. This managed to keep the crowd from watching the action too closely, which is apparently what the cops intended.

Afghan Women For Peace And Veterans For Peace Announce The Beginning Of A Joint Dialogue. Meanwhile The Cops Have Settled Into A Double Line In Front Of The Veterans Guarding The Podium

The Wife got as close as she could. Then she put her little camera on full zoom and on automatic focus, held it high over her head with both hands and snapped away.

Retired US Flag Presented To A Grieving Mother

The US flag was treated with great respect, as is customary among Veterans. This particular flag was “retired” accompanied by the playing of Taps. Then the flag was carefully folded and presented to Mary Kirkland. Her son Derrick had returned from his latest tour of duty in Iraq, and the very next day he hung himself. She later told an interviewer, “He was home, I thought he was safe.”

A Grateful Mother Recognized At Last

At this point The Wife swung her camera over and caught the Veterans waiting to one side for their chance to dispose of the medals that they had earned. Most of them were flashing the traditional peace signal.

Veterans Of Iraq And Afghanistan Show Approval Of Reconciliation

It’s hard for older folks to understand the significance of this event, partly because it has not appeared in any of the corporate information channels that older folks identify with legitimacy. That is, if it didn’t flash across the TV or merit a few lines in a dead tree newspaper then as far as they’re concerned it didn’t happen. Oh but it did happen. Look at how much effort went into suppressing the event.

Shameful Chicago Surveillance Cop Peeping At Our Brave Soldiers As They March

Back in 1971 a group of Vietnam Veterans held a similar Medal Hurling ceremony outside the US Capitol. That event actually made it into what was then called the Mainstream Media, albeit as a negative story. But despite the negative spin the country was informed that the Veterans were tired of the war against Vietnam, I saw the effect this news had on the adults around me.

Soon all those smug people loudly sneering at “hippies” and “peaceniks” protesting that war were stunned into silence. After all, how can you argue with the Vets who got shot at? I’ve never forgotten how the testimony of those soldiers, appearing at protests and events like this, quickly ended knee-jerk support for that particular stupid pointless war.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the corporate media suppressed news of this Medal Hurling ceremony in 2012, and that is why the authorities sent all those cops out in the street to scare away observers like The Wife.

Click here for Part 2 to see the Medal Hurling ceremony.

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May 8, 2012

The regional transit authorities are pushed into doing the right thing, and a local hero goes national

A month or so back my neighborhood made national news, this time for something worth talking about. This outstanding development merited a National Public Radio (NPR) segment that was picked up by local corporate media outlets across the nation and was distributed to print media via the Associated Press (AP.) This is a story that started, and now stops over and over almost in front of my house every single day.

What is this amazing bit of news? It seems that the Capital District Transportation Agency (CDTA,) the regional overseers of bus service for our region, felt compelled by public opinion to break with long tradition and tentatively provide bus service where it was needed the most, on Morton Avenue. And now for the first time we have a useful bus, one that encircles downtown Albany, connects neighborhoods and links to outgoing routes.

According to CDTA the new 100 Mid-City Belt, which was introduced this past November, has been picking up an average of eight new riders per day. Apparently this was completely unexpected. Today the 100 is the single most successful route in the entire regional system. Last I’ve heard the CDTA board members are still in a state of shock.

Commuters Catch The 100 Bus On A Rainy Morning In May, Morton Avenue

With all this positive national publicity about my neighborhood, I decided it’s time I rode the bus just to see where it goes and to say I did it. So on a fine spring morning with the apple blossoms blooming I caught the new bus at the corner of Morton Avenue and South Swan Street just to go for a ride.

I have to admit that I hadn’t ridden a CDTA bus in many years. When I first settled in my house in the mid 1980s I tried to use the nearby available busses. So did The Wife, who at the time was holding down a regular nine to five job out in the suburbs. For me using the bus was a necessity and a habit from having lived in other Cities, while The Wife wanted to ride the bus so that she didn’t have to navigate bad weather in our one vehicle.

Apple Blossoms Blooming At The South Swan And Morton Avenue Bus Stop, April 2012

Eventually we both gave up. The Wife’s half hour driving commute was, at best, an hour and forty five minute public transit nightmare involving three transfers and prolonged exposure to the elements waiting for busses that didn’t necessarily show up. As for me, I was jobbing around at various locations and quickly found that CDTA busses were almost useless for what I needed.

As the years passed bus service in downtown Albany continued to get worse. Routes were eliminated, and more devastatingly the frequency of busses plying these routes were steadily cut back, so that the downtown routes eventually become nearly useless for working commuters. Service became rare and often nonexistent on Sundays, holidays and evenings, and as a result ridership declined.

By the turn of the century people in my neighborhood had become all too aware that CDTA was engaging in a kind of Demolition by Neglect. That is, by deliberately providing lousy bus service which inevitably lost bus riders they could justify the eventual cessation of bus service in downtown Albany altogether. They came close to their goal.

Exiting At The Bottom Of Morton Avenue

I caught the new 100 Mid-City Belt a block from my house at 9:30 on a Monday morning. Since I was playing tourist I didn’t want to get in the way of serious commuters, so I chose what I figured to be the slow time. But even at midmorning the bus was comfortably full.

This was one of the new hybrid busses which are standard on this new route. They use an electric motor to supplement the engine, which uses ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) as now required by law. I’ve been worrying about increased diesel emissions from improved bus service, this pollution shows up as fine black dirt coating the neighborhood buildings and collecting in windowsills. Perhaps these new busses that meet the new standards will mitigate the problem, we’ll see during high summer.

The new busses feel small on the inside, but can actually pack in the bodies. The passengers sit higher in the back than in the front, on the outside you can see the raised roof in the rear. From the low humming that I felt I would guess the engines are back there beneath the floor. My one complaint is that the seats are oddly small, I’m glad I didn’t have to squeeze in next to a fat person.

We rolled down the Morton Avenue hill much more quietly than the old diesel busses did, stopping at every corner that required a stop or pickup. Hearst hack Paul Grondahl, who often lavishly expresses in print his utter contempt for the South End, reported in the Times Union that the 100 bus made only eight stops on its entire route! Later I noticed the CDTA schedule listed arrival times for only eight stops, Grondahl’s laziness explains that foolishness.

Guy With The Motorized Wheelchair Gets On

At the bottom of the hill we dropped off several guys who were “going to work at Green Street” and then we made a left on to South Pearl Street. At the first stop in front of the Department of Motor Vehicles we picked up a fellow in a motorized wheelchair. At the front door the hydraulic lift brought him up smoothly while a mechanical voice advised caution. (Our neighborhood now hears that voice all day long.)

The seats in the very front of the bus are sideways, several people got up from them and moved elsewhere without being asked. Driver 1699, who later wouldn’t let me snap her photo, gladly lifted the three seats on one side so the guy could park there. Then she fastened straps to each corner of the wheelchair and dropped a safety bar. The whole process took about a minute.

We followed South Pearl Street across downtown to North Pearl. Along this narrow corridor there are fewer designated stops, but I didn’t see any of those brand new bus shelters with solar powered lights. This is a smart fiscal idea that I hope shows up along the 100 route. For those who don’t know, putting a solar collector next to your lights is almost magically efficient, after the installation is paid for all electricity used is utterly and completely free of charge and lasts all night long.

The Bus Empties Out

While we were crossing downtown and had finally turned left on Lark Drive the bus was pretty full. But at Whitney Young Medical Center most everyone got off, including the guy in the wheelchair. We continued mostly empty, winding uphill past newer houses and we didn’t pick up anybody until we turned right at Livingston Avenue.

We turned left onto Quail Street and traveled a ways, and soon pulled up to a stop right behind the Linda Norris Auditorium on Central Avenue. This was the end of the line. A CDTA supervisor lady with a clipboard (yes, a dead tree device) engaged the attention of Driver 1699 and everybody had to exit the bus.

Quite a few of us waited out the ten or fifteen minute break, some smoking butts or poking at devices. Several people stalked off to get coffee, as did the driver after the supervisor was gone. But first she shut down the bus, I was happy to note that she didn’t leave it idling as is often done with older diesel busses and trucks. I’ve never understood the compelling justification for that, all I can say is thank you.

Waiting On Quail Street Near Central Avenue

Driver 1699 came back with a coffee and a small bag of goodies and we all got on again. Since I hadn’t bought a $4 day pass I had to pay another $1.50 for the second half of the trip. Tourism can get expensive.

We continued on Quail across Central. At Western Avenue the same guy in the motorized wheelchair got back on! Apparently he had outraced us while we were waiting to get going again. We continued on Quail filling up with passengers again, crossed Madison Avenue and finally turned left at New Scotland Avenue.

Of course we had a big stop at Albany Medical Center, and then turned right onto Holland Avenue making frequent stops. Soon Holland turned into Morton Avenue and here I was getting off where I started, at the corner of South Swan Street. At 10:30 AM the bus was moderately full. The whole trip, including the break, took a little less than an hour. I thanked Driver 1699.

Mr. Willie White On Morton Avenue

It’s important to note that this wonderful new bus didn’t happen by accident, and it sure didn’t happen because of the farseeing benevolence of our public officials, elected or otherwise. I would be remiss and totally lame if I did not give prime credit to dynamic neighborhood activist Willie White, who saw the opportunity and organized effectively around this issue. Mr. White, of course, is the star of the NPR segment. Yet others have fought for decades to create this bus route, but without success.

Back in July 2008 I sat in a meeting where I watched my Common Council member Dominick Calsolaro confront Kristina Younger, who at the time was the Director of Planning at CDTA. Eventually she was promoted to Vice President of Business Development but resigned from CDTA in February. (I took extensive notes of the meeting.)

Ms. Younger was totally dismissive of a bus that ran all the way from the bottom of Morton Avenue up to Albany Medical Center at New Scotland Avenue. Indeed, she loudly repeated the same tired justifications for anti-urban ideology. I realize she was merely conveying the prevailing attitude at CDTA toward my neighborhood… but still.

First. in reply to Dominick’s entirely correct observation that CDTA was serving suburban municipalities at the expense of urban communities like the South End, Ms. Younger proclaimed that the majority of bus riders in dense urban areas are already getting the most service. “I believe you are misaligning a suburban bias to CDTA that does not exist,” she shouted at Dom. Yes shouted, although to be fair Dominick was raising his voice.

Kristina Younger At A Public Meeting Last Year
(Best Photo I Could Find)

That’s not all she said. “CDTA does not have the staff or funding to implement a rerouting plan like you want. Besides,” she added triumphantly, “we can’t implement a bus on Morton Avenue because the revenue is simply not there to justify the expense.”

The Revenue Is Not There. That’s what CEO David Brown of the Capital District YMCA said to us when he shut down our YMCA building on Washington Avenue. That’s what the Postal Corporation bureaucrats sneered at us when they started closing our Albany post offices and told us to drive a half hour or more to their suburbs if we wanted to buy a stamp or mail a package. The phrase is actually code for “You People Are Not Worth The Trouble So Screw You.”

Good Old Dominick Calsolaro

Dominick was giving voice to his constituents, this was the highest level meeting to date between the neighborhood and CDTA. What prompted our request and generated this official rebuff was the recent implementation of the “Walmart Bus,” probably the first new public transit route to serve the South End in at least half a century. Probably more like a century.

A new Walmart had just been built down Route 9W in Selkirk, several miles south of the City of Albany. The problem was that hardly anybody in Selkirk needed Walmart’s low paid exploitative jobs. To this day the majority of people who work at that Walmart live in the South End and most had no reliable way to get back and forth to work. This problem was affecting Walmart’s bottom line.

So Walmart asked CDTA for a bus and instantly they got one. And instantly the new 7 bus became one of the most heavily used. So some of us folks in the neighborhood thought that maybe if we got Albany Medical Center to ask for a bus then CDTA would at least listen.

Kristina Younger was dismissive of the notion. “We’ve been trying to get Albany Med into the transit system,” she told us but so far they had refused. Other hospitals such as St. Peter’s, she told us, were enthusiastic about encouraging their personnel to take public transit, but supposedly Albany Med refused their “outreach.” Ms. Younger suggested that perhaps we who were present could help CDTA talk to Albany Med. Hmph.

"Downtown" Clifton Park, N.Y.

CDTA had big plans, but not for us in the South End. In May of 2009 they acquired a $1 million grant, which they used to implement a new bus on Route 9 in Clifton Park. One year later they reluctantly felt compelled to eliminate this new route. Surprise. It seems that there was no demand for busses in this suburban wasteland, so what were they thinking? The Daily Gazette reported on a CDTA board meeting in September, 2010:

The Route 409 pilot was an effort to increase service in Saratoga County, which has less service than Albany, Schenectady and Rensellaer Counties… The hope was to attract an average of 15 riders per hour, but [CDTA Executive Director Carm] Basile said the actual average has been about two riders. “It just doesn’t appear there is a critical mass in Clifton Park,” he said. However, he said the pilot service has raised awareness in the Clifton Park – Halfmoon area about the availability of public transit, which could lead to success at some point in the future.

April 26, 2012

The Albany City government shamefacedly tries to hide the looting of our forcibly abandoned treasure.

Okay, I’m really angry, pissed off, about ready to do something bug ugly. I’m almost mad enough to set myself on fire and go hug the mayor. And it looks like I’m not the only one burning up with rage.

This past Easter weekend, April 7 and 8, three large U-Haul rental trucks were seen parked in the gas station parking lot next to Bathhouse #2 down on Fourth Avenue. Over those two days several still unknown persons broke into our forcibly vacated architectural treasure and filled those trucks with copper pipes and wires that they systematically ripped out of the building. Apparently the scumbag thieves were in no hurry, no worries, they took their time and did a very thorough job.

Bathhouse #2 Today After The Looting

What makes this DOUBLEY disgusting is that the copper piping was itself a unique historical treasure dating back to 1905 when Bathhouse #2 opened. I’ve heard the pipes under and behind the swimming pool described as an amazing tangle, now I wish I’d had an opportunity to see them for myself. All that thick-walled high quality copper tubing was functioning reliably up to the day the Bathhouse was forcibly closed by Mayor Jerry Jennings at the end of December 2010.

What makes this TRIPLEY disgusting is that the Albany Police did not inform the neighborhood or any media of this crime. But they did tell Jerry. No one else was able to discover news of the looting for ten days. Ten days.

The Swimming Pool Inside Bathhouse #2 Before It Was Shut down and Destroyed (Camera Lens Steaming Up)

Now, before anyone starts accusing me of paranoid conspiracy theorizing, let me say that all the usual red flags that indicate clumsy manipulation by our public officials are too visible. We all know how much Jerry hates the Bathhouse, and it’s a matter of public record that He personally condemned the building to Demolition By Neglect. It’s not a far stretch to consider that He must be very pleased by the looting, which effectively ruins the building as a swimming facility.

It is no exaggeration to say that Jerry has a pathological hatred of Bathhouse #2, ever since at least the 1990s when the late Elfrieda Textores publicly humiliated Him into keeping the Bathhouse open. Old timers still remember how Elfrieda recruited some elderly Catholic nuns to berate Him during His call-in radio show. He meekly promised the pious ladies that He would keep it open for them, perhaps the only time He has displayed public humility in His political career.

City Of Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings This Past January

As is usual with His Majesty, His lingering shame over that broadcast incident appears to have transferred to the actual bricks and mortar building itself. Not to mention the copper pipes. Remember, this is a guy who likes to destroy Albany’s old buildings. We know that all too well.

If Jennings or one of His minions had, shall we say, encouraged somebody to loot the copper out of Bathhouse #2, well, I can’t prove that. But somebody sure felt safe enough to take their time and do the job thoroughly and very visibly. That sure is making a lot of people think these scumbags had some kind of protection while they looted.

Right next door to the Bathhouse are the offices of the clumsily named St. John’s/St. Ann’s Institute. This important and worthy community service center suddenly lost their water, right in the middle of Easter Sunday. It seems the municipal water supply ran through Bathhouse #2 before it reached the Institute, a former fire house. This sort of series connection of water lines is not unheard of for older buildings in the South End.

For ten days the Institute building had no water, and the City pointedly ignored the cries for help from the Institute and from the Catholic Church across the street. Apparently all the City told them was that the water problem was their fault and their responsibility, and that if they wanted water again they would have to pony up $7000 that they didn’t have ($8000 according to Hearst.) The City made absolutely no offers of assistance to the Institute until the bad publicity about the Bathhouse looting circulated in the community.

St. John’s/St. Ann’s Institute, Bathhouse #2 At Right

The St.John’s/St.Ann’s Institute and the recently renamed St. Francis Church across the street are basically the same entity run by the same people, all of whom are part of the Albany Catholic Diocese. The magnificent former firehouse contains the offices of the Institute, several income producing office rentals, and an important food pantry on the ground floor for the forgotten poor in the neighborhood.

Basically the lack of water to the building was shutting down the Institute. You can’t rent office spaces without providing water, and you certainly can’t run a food pantry. If this situation had continued for another ten days we would have had another vacant building on this incredible historic block. One can’t help but wonder if that’s what Jerry had in mind.

Albany county Legislator
Luci McKnight

Actually, I don’t think He or His minions thought it out that far. I strongly suspect that Jennings deliberately left the Church and the Institute dangling in ignorance for ten days because He did not want to draw attention to Bathhouse #2. He knew how people would react to the unintended consequences of His applied neglect.

Let’s back up a bit. Let me tell you how everybody found out about this shameful looting of this municipal treasure, despite efforts by Jennings to suppress this information. Early Friday morning, April 19, I opened an email from my Albany County Legislator, Luci McKnight, that she had sent out late the night before:

This City of Albany Crime was committed over the Easter Sunday weekend! Apparently 2 large trucks were parked on the South Pearl Street Gas Station lot where thieves broke in and stole all or most of the copper wire and pipes. The APD did not report this incident. I just heard about it today. The St. John’s/St. Ann’s Catholic Church has been affected because by some crazy means their water system is connected from the bathhouse plumbing system. Pastor Sullivan is so concerned because he has stopped serving food and services to over 200 poor residents. Could the City Reps find out what happened and see if you can get the church’s $7,000 dollar water bill reduced.

March 31, 2012

After decades of deliberate neglect the authorities confront gun violence and the entire South End is rocked

*Second Update* Apparently Denial of Service by the Albany Police has not ended.

February 20, 2012

Mayor Jerry Jennings is ripe for an electoral takedown and there is one woman who can do the job

*Update* An Albanyweblog exclusive:
Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin makes a statement about running

Whether you want to think about it or not, the 2013 campaign for the next mayor of the City of Albany has already begun. You probably haven’t heard much about that yet. But the prime challenger to current incumbent mayor Jerry Jennings is already laying the groundwork for an upset victory.

…Did you catch that? I did not say “challengers,” it’s not going to be like last time. The array of pro-Albany political forces are quietly lining up behind a unified candidate, so it doesn’t look like we’re going to have another miserable three way campaign like we did in 2009.

It looks like incumbent mayor Jerry Jennings is going to face a solid, competent challenger who has both the ability and the support to drop Him like a wounded elephant.

Ladies and gentlemen, readers of this blog, allow me to be the first to introduce to you City of Albany Treasurer Kathy Sheehan as The Next Mayor of the City of Albany:

Kathy Sheehan… Mayor Of Albany?

Okay, the September 2013 primary is a long ways away, but that’s how you have to play the game to win. We didn’t see this kind of long-range planning among the two challengers to the incumbent back in 2009, rather both challengers waited to announce their campaigns until the last possible moment. Some say they both waited until too late.

That’s not going to happen this time, not with Kathy Sheehan. Everyone can instantly see that the Treasurer is not waiting for chimeras and she’s not kidding about becoming mayor. Anybody who is planning to announce a run for mayor will be arriving after Kathy, and that includes the incumbent.

Of course it’s too early for her to officially announce. This past December, after watching Kathy give an all too fast and detailed presentation of the City annual budget for the amount of time allotted to her at a public meeting, I asked her one final question. “I keep hearing rumors” I said, “from certain people that you are going to run for mayor. Is there any truth to these rumors?”

Kathy Sheehan On January 22

Caught her by surprise I did. She hadn’t settled on a pat answer at that point and after some hesitation replied, “Who are these people you’ve been talking to? You’ve got to stop listening to rumors.” Which was funny, because she knew exactly which people I’d been talking to.

So, how can the first term Treasurer who is holding her first elected office even presume to run for mayor? Why exactly would a voter choose her rather than choose one of the experienced Old Boys who are currently still imbedded in City Hall?

I’ll mention one good reason that pretty much says it all. After only one year in the Treasurer’s office after ousting Jerry’s creature Betty Barnette, Ms. Sheehan was able to report good news to the Common Council, as related in these excerpts from the Hearst Times Union report:

A year after a parking-ticket scandal roiled City Hall, Albany has collected nearly $1 million more in parking fines and surcharges so far this year — despite the fact that its parking enforcement officers are writing fewer tickets, Treasurer Kathy Sheehan said… Overall, collections were up 36 percent, or $915,540, through Sept. 30 of this year, Sheehan told city lawmakers…

"It’s the benefit of having a 21st century computer system," said Sheehan, who took office in January and immediately oversaw the implementations of the changes… Through July, the total number of tickets written was down about 4,000, or seven percent over last year, and the total dollar value of those tickets was down 27 percent, Sheehan said.

January 26, 2012

Our politicians betray us big time, and Brighter Choice marches a vision of the corporate future to my neighborhood

*Update* From Salon: "Once the President accuses you of being a Terrorist, a decision made in secret and with no checks or due process, we can do anything we want to you, including executing you."

Would Martin Luther King Jr. approve of Barack Obama? If the great man were alive today, 39 years old, just as he was when unknown forces presumed by most people to be elements of the US federal government shot him down in a motel parking lot, would he take kindly to the current President of the United States?

Most people and media organizations appear to assume that Martin would automatically approve of Barack because they both have dark skin. But Dr. King did not believe in race. In his most famous speech he declared, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin.”

Dr. King lived, fought and died to protect the Bill of Rights and demand that it be applied equally to all. What would he think of a black president who is already going down in history as the man who finally destroyed the Bill of Rights? How would Dr. King feel to learn that Obama’s corporate betrayal of all the American people is the sad culmination of his own life’s work, and of his death?

Marchers Gathering To Honor Dr. King In My Neighborhood

At the end of every year the sitting president presents a bill to the US Congress to provide funds for the military called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA.) This 49th annual budget bill, like most federal budget bills, contains “riders” or extra legislation that is irrelevant to the budget being authorized. The federal politicians do this so that the public does not notice what they’re trying to pull, to sneak their little crimes and thefts into “law.”

This year’s 2012 NDAA contains a little rider called Section 1021. This new “law” gives the US military the power to snatch people off the streets of our country and “detain them indefinitely,” that is, disappear them. No warrants are necessary, and a fair public trial to determine guilt or innocence is not required.

Under Section 1021 an anonymous government bureaucrat can “make a determination” that you, for example, are a “threat to national security.” Upon that random bureaucrat’s “determination” whim the US military is now required (not allowed, but required) to snatch you off the street and disappear you into “indefinite detention.” And like with credit reports, with which most of us are all too familiar, there is no standard procedure to erase that anonymous “determination” of guilt.

Cold Cops On Horses Leading The March

You didn’t hear about this? You say that Fox and NPR didn’t quite explain “the rider to the 2012 NDAA” so that you could understand what it was really about? You say all you’ve heard from the corporate media and the corporate elected officials is positive spin about Section 1021, how it will “protect” America?

The politicians and the media announcers have been telling us that our fears of a communist style corporate political purge are overblown, that Section 1021 only applies to “foreigners.” American citizens who are not “committing acts of terrorism” have nothing to fear, they say. The anonymous government bureaucrats won’t disappear you as long as you stay home, watch TV and voluntarily disappear yourself.

“Besides,” the corporate traitors say with a smirk, “that’s all covered in the next rider, Section 1022.” This part says that although the US military is required to snatch and disappear foreigners they are NOT required to snatch proper US citizens off the streets and drag them out of their homes. That has been reserved for future legislation.

Albany Police Honor Guard

But really, as a practical matter, suppose the military (or the secret police, the FBI) decides to snatch you off your living couch, right in front of your TV set. “But I’m a citizen!” you’ll scream. “Born and raised in America!” Doesn’t matter. The soldiers and the secret police are only doing their job. They’re simply following orders from an anonymous bureaucrat.

So next thing you know, you are housed in a secret detention center, either in the general population or, if they don’t like your attitude, in solitary confinement. You have no access to the outside world and certainly not to a lawyer. A fine pickle! How are you ever going to get out of this sticky situation and set things right?

There’s only one way out. Section 1022 allows the President of the United States to intervene and pardon you for the crime you’ve never been charged with and jailed for. Of course while you’re in the secret detention center there’s no way for you to contact the president. And of course, the president doesn’t listen to “terrorists” like you.

But don’t worry! All these things will work themselves out somehow because the President is our big brother who only wants what’s best for the fatherland.

Marchers Approaching My Neighborhood, Including Police Chiefs Krokoff And Reilly

Who is responsible for Sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA? What sort of anti-american terrorists would create and codify into law a directive that nullifies our Natural Rights, rights which we have had since the 1700s? Rights our ancestors won through violent revolution?

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the two terrorists who have delivered a devastating body blow against American freedom, an attack that makes Nine Eleven look like a relatively small but spectacular sideshow. They are servants of the corporate elite. These two vicious America haters have successfully stabbed America in the guts:

Corporate Comrades Obama And McCain Are Personally Responsible For NDAA Rider 1021

That’s right folks. The Manchurian Candidate himself, Senator John McCain had Sections 1021 and 1022 written at his command, after which he introduced the budget bill riders into the Senate. Meanwhile, Barack Obama vigorously pressured the Compliant Dumbass Democrats to obey the Gop Traitors and pass the riders. And then Obama signed a piece of paper on the last day of the last year and the Bill of Rights became effectively obsolete.

Yes, we have all lived through this profound world altering event which has passed with hardly any notice. The terrorists have won, the corporations have won, China has won. America has been defeated. The quiet shut down of the Bill of Rights is a fabulous victory for the One Percent, or rather what some more accurately call the Point Oh One Percent.

Some of you may recall that about three years ago Obama and that scary bastard McCain were paired against each other in some kind of bogus sporting event, something akin to professional wrestling. The hyped up contest involved massive amounts of money and endless advertisements in the corporate media. The sporting event, you my remember, was called “presidential election.”

Most people were fooled into thinking that the two corporatist “candidates” had differences, that one contender was good for the country and the other was bad for us. Actually, both work for the same foreign corporations (Fact: all corporations are foreign, no corporation is loyal to the US Constitution.) Both McCain and Obama have revealed themselves to be conjoined twins separated at birth, brothers in arms, virtual lovers, comrades dedicated to the cause of American Dictatorship.

For example, I recently learned that during the presidential campaign both candidates worked together to create a campaign staff that either one would use if elected. Get that? The same exact people. Months before the November election Timothy Geithner of Goldman Sachs was already in position to dictate policy to either corporate tool.

Like professional wrestling the 2008 presidential “contest” was a prearranged carnival show made for TV, this time featuring the The White Knight versus The Black Avenger. Their ideological sameness was neatly obscured by their contrasting shades of skin color. At the end of the presidential wrestling broadcast the voters, sick and tired of the sheer idiocy of that elite drunken cokehead George W. Bush, chose the obviously more competent of the two competitors.

Mayor Jerry Jennings Defers
To Our Patriotic Congressman Paul Tonko

This matter of contrasting skin color deceived almost everybody, most voters assumed that surely the two candidates must be profoundly different from each other. Even the Nobel Committee gave Obama their highest award merely because of his dark skin and for no other reason. I have no doubt that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King would be very profoundly appalled by Obama’s Nobel.

Even though I knew better at the time, that once again we were being told to choose the lesser of two evils, during that 2008 election I could not help but get caught up in the excitement for Obama. So many wonderful, enthusiastic young people were successfully manipulated by the declining corporate media into thinking that Obama was going to save the country and the world from evil people like McCain. Especially from McCain, apparently still carrying out the instructions planted in his head so many decades ago by his North Korean captors.

Mayor Jennings At The Mic

But it took a lot more than race to fool the voters. There are Obama’s statements on the campaign trail. For example, early in his campaign the future president made these criticisms of the Bush Junior administration, then currently in power, these during a major speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, August 2007:

As President, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Our Constitution and our Uniform Code of Military Justice provide a framework for dealing with the terrorists. …This [Bush Jr.] Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom.

December 23, 2011

The blogger deconstructs the jolly fat god of Christmas and takes great joy in the desecration of bogus tradition

*Update* Black Pete, the racist caricature, is still with us because he is a symbol of patriotic nationalism in Holland

This year I feel a little bit different about Christmas. No, I haven’t exactly found the spirit of Christmas in my heart or anything like that. The feeling I’m feeling comes from a funny, unsubstantiated thought squatting in the back of my head at the base of my skull. The odd irrational thought is that this may be my last Christmas.

No, I’m not expecting to die. I’m suspecting that Christmas is about to die. I think that in the next few years a lot of things that all of us expect and take for granted are going to pass away, never to be seen again by any of us. If that happens, then Christmas as we know it will be one of those things. At least I hope so.

Dutch Children Greet Sinterklaas And Zwarte Piet

Enough of that. I want to tell you about Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet. That’s the Dutch Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of old New Amsterdam (that is, old New York) who is said to be the origin of the modern American Santa Claus. He is always accompanied by Zwarte Piet or “Black Pete” his black African slave, a demon compelled to do manual tasks for his master.

Back in Holland the Catholic saint and his black slave are still very much alive. The celebrations begin every November with the arrival by boat of the pair from Spain of all places. The master parades through the towns and cities of Holland on a white horse while the slave obediently walks beside the horse handing out valencia oranges to the children.

There can only be one Sinterklaas for each of these parades, a fellow with a long white beard dressed in ecclesiastic robes, a bishop’s miter and an elaborate staff. But there are often multiple Piets in these parades. It seems that there are usually plenty of folks ready to cosplay the demon slave by putting on black face and a frizzy wig.

There’s Always Lots Of Zwarte Pieten In Blackface

Finally on Saint Nicholas Day, November 6 in Western Europe, the pair are said to visit each house in Holland to deliver presents. The Saint sits outside in his sleigh while the lowborn black demon slave climbs up to the roof of the house and drops down the chimney to deliver the loot. Then the underclass manual laborer climbs back up the chimney and trots behind the sleigh to the next house to deliver more presents.

In old Dutch Beverwick (the original name of Albany, NY in the 1600s, for those who don’t know local history) the probable annual arrival of the saint and his slave would have been a cause for enthusiastic celebration. Records are sketchy, but along with references to the public celebration indirect evidence survives such as big bakery orders for the holiday. The large Dutch Catholic community in Beverwick considered Sinterklass their patron.

There is argument among the scholars whether Sinterklass and Zwarte Piet ever visited Beverwick for December festivities. I’ll have to say that I like the idea of the bishop with the long white beard arriving by the Hudson river in a Dutch caravelle like the Halfmoon. The white saint and his black slave would have landed at a wharf in what is now the South End, where the old Dutch fort sat on the flood plain.

Sinterklaas With Two Black Petes

When the English conquered the colony of New Amsterdam they frowned upon public celebration of the feast of Sinterklaas, apparently for both political and for religious reasons. But the English wanted no trouble from their new acquisition, so in the Articles of Capitulation of 1664 they granted the conquered population religious freedom as long as they kept it low key and private. Dutch homes in and around Albany continued the Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet traditions which eventually began to fade away.

During the English occupation of New York public celebration of Christmas almost disappeared, and in some of the 13 Colonies public celebration of he holiday was outlawed. The reason was that back in medievel England Christmas was the day that the lower classes would show up at the manor houses of the aristocrats and demand “wassail,” that is, sweets and booze. The resident aristocrats would provide in exchange for a song, which is the origin of Christmas carols.

It was the one day that the social order turned upside down. Then for the other 364 days of the year the peasants would obediently work like animals for their owners and slowly starve. But life was good because they got one day off got to go inside the manor house.

But by the 1600s the holiday had degenerated into a wild and often violent party (a sort of precursor to New Year’s eve.) Respect for the old feudal caste system was gone and the Christmas holidays had become a time for spontaneous underclass rebellion, i.e. pointless riots. The upper classes had every reason to feel threatened by all the carrying on, their orderly world truly turned upside down.

Inventors Of Modern Christmas Charles Clement Moore And Washington Irving

But Christmas did not die. By the early 1800s the upper classes of Western Europe had begun a practice of observing Christmas as a family holiday surrounded by a set of brand new “old fashioned traditions.” During this time some of the young aristocrats of New York City proposed bringing this new genteel version of Christmas to the US. This was part of a larger effort to establish a European style feudal social order in the US, an effort that aristocrats are continuing in earnest to this day.

These NY aristocrats put out some very effective propaganda, notably Washington Irving’s “Sketchbook” of 1819, a still popular depiction of a fantasy Christmas in England where all the economic classes celebrate the holiday together in harmony, each in his own place. This, as Irving pointed out, was in contrast to the ever increasingly violent class confrontations of early industrial America.

Also notable for the development of the modern Santa Claus and the attendant “traditions” is Irving’s lesser known political satire “Knickerbocker’s History of New York” of 1809. And of course there was Charles Clement Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas” of 1823, which was first published in Troy, NY.

These books draw heavily on the image and traditions that were still surviving of the old Dutch Sinterklass, celebration of which by their time had become confined to a few upper class Dutch manor houses. Thus these “homegrown traditions” leftover from the Dutch served as a ready justification for bringing the new genteel European Christmas across the Atlantic.

Black Pete Works While The Bishop Supervises

But what happened to Zwarte Piet? Irving and Moore carefully excised Santa’s Black Slave from the new ancient legends. In pre-Civil War America slavery was a divisive issue that nice people avoided during polite gatherings such as Christmas, like today the way one avoids mentioning Abortion or Gay Marriage when your crazy Dittohead uncle comes to visit. The new improved Santa Claus not only lost his helper, the generous saint actually assumed manual tasks such as climbing down the chimney.

Irving and Moore thought it best to depict the New Saint Nick implausibly as working alone, possible because a “magical elf” does not need to use a servant. But think about it. What sort of person could these propagandizing authors have used as a successful substitute for Black Pete? A liveried butler? An Irish laborer? A washerwoman?

The mere existence of a master and servant would have instantly suggested class relationships to Americans. And as we all know, Americans absolutely do not like to think about or discuss class and class conflicts at all. In fact, I’ve found that the typical Baby Boomer of today often insists that class as a concept does not exist and anyone who discusses economic disparity is a terrorist.

So Christmas became a classless holiday. The new cleaner Christmas fantasy appealed to Americans on an instinctive level and almost instantly became regarded as ancient and traditional. By the end of the 1800s this new Christmas had become widely popular.

Krampus In Austria, 2010

But something essential was lost with the eviction of Black Pete from the Christmas myths. Yes, the character is offensive, for white Europeans to suggest that black Africans are little more than demons that need to be enslaved for their own good, well, that don’t work no more. Obviously Black Pete is not the kind of primal role model that we want to present to our children.

But consider that Dutch Black Pete has a relative next door in Germany and Austria, Grus Vom Krampus the anti-Santa who punishes bad children. His day is December 6 which is still called Krampusnacht, a pre-Christian festival that paid homage to the child-stealing demon of winter. On that day he comes to collect all the naughty children, which he then beats and tears apart with his claws, then transports the bits of flesh to the underworld for dinner.

It’s probably no accident that Krampusnacht is the same day as Saint Nicholas Day, indeed Saint Nick and Krampus arrive at German household celebrations together on that day to scare and please the children in turn. Each has his own job to do, Saint Nick rewards the good children and Krampus snatches the bad (or pretends to.) Neither interferes with the other’s duties and neither has control over the other.

Good Little Children Have Nothing To Fear From Krampus

Despite a heavy German influence early in our country’s history, Krampus never caught on even for a moment. I think it interesting that Americans who love to watch authoritarians pump bullets into scapegoats accompanied by car wrecks and explosions could not stand even a hint of moralistic violence in their year end holiday. Christmas is an escape from cold reality, the world turned upside down for a day, and for us Americans today that means a day at home without economic classes or violence.

This German duo appears to be derived from the dualistic pre-Christian high god Woden (or Odin) to whom peasants gave thanks for their harvests. At the same time Woden was the one who carried souls to the underworld, “The Traveler.” Woden encapsulated the random events of the universe, he was as likely provide for your children’s health and wealth as he was likely to suddenly spirit your precious child away to the land of the dead.

Woden The Traveller

One of the central myths about Woden is how he hung on a gallows for nine days and was pierced in his side by a spear. He then gave up his left eye to attain universal knowledge. No doubt the rural pagans of Germany noticed the similarity to the Jesus myth, who only hung for three days, was also pierced in the side by a spear and then attained godhood. And Jesus didn’t have to lose an eye.

Leave it to the German Catholics to surreptitiously preserve the old religion during the Christian interregnum. That includes trappings such as decorated trees, mistletoe, and all that other stuff that the Protestants decry as pagan. The rural folk even managed to preserve their highest deity, albeit divided in two and watered down to a story for children.

The Dutch Catholics also split Woden into two parts, light and dark, but they went further. They gave the good generous white Christian authority figure complete control over the bad demonic black pagan underclass caricature. This subordination of the “baser urges” is a Christian notion, as is the splitting of every individual into two halves good and bad. I call it “divide and conquer.”

Thus the young NYC aristocrats of the early 1800s hacked apart the old high god Woden and discarded his darker parts altogether. Woden became a genteel aristocrat who provides material goods to the worthy. Santa is, as was said of Woden, magical. He is “self made,” a fat jolly successful elderly businessman who can afford to be occasionally generous with his wealth.

This is hardly the first time that a group of persons have created a god in their own self image. Like the Wall Street aristocrats of today, the One Percent of 200 years ago lived off the backs of the underclass but believed that they owed the rest of society nothing in return. The world exists simply for their pleasure, and the god Santa will reward them with nice things because they are the right sort of people.

For the first half of the 1800s this new genteel Saint Nick was worshipped mostly by exclusive households in New York City. But as we all know, the poor ape the mannerisms of the rich. Therefore in the decades after the Civil War, this safe for the family Christmas caught on first among the then rising independent middle class, and later was enthusiastically adopted by the lower classes.

By the mid 20th Century after World War Two, this manufactured Christmas had frozen into an allegedly ancient set of traditions and rituals that no one ever questioned. During this time of unprecedented wealth and expansion of the middle class (thanks to the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt) the celebration of Christmas became, as was commonly said at the time, “increasingly commercial.” That is, the obligatory rituals of Christmas began to be openly exploited by retailers and charities.

Corporate TV Ad, 2011: Would Woden Have Put Up With This?

Eventually the commercialism of Christmas became so bad that fleecing the rubes turned into the main focus of the holiday. By the 1980s international corporations had taken control of the US economy. Random commercialism by small and medium sized businesses was replaced with systematic exploitation by the corporations.

By the end of the 20th Century the Christmas holiday had degenerated into an obligatory consumer spending event. You are required to shop. The selling of small luxury items to benefit the parasitic corporate economy has become the one and only reason for Christmas. Captured and raped by corporations, the genteel year end family holiday turned into the filthy degenerate scam operation that it is today.

Besides required shopping, all that is left of Christmas today in the 21st Century is a few corny decorations and bad music leftover from a forgotten recent past. And of course, all that Christmas crap made in China is for sale.

Some Folks In Holland Object To Black Pete

Why did this happen to Christmas? Why is the year end holiday with the thin veneer of Christianity so vulnerable to first commercial and then corporate exploitation? That’s compared to, say, Martin Luther King’s Birthday which doesn’t even get a Storewide Mattress Sale. Or the openly materialistic holiday Thanksgiving, which is actually being shoved aside by Xmas exploitation (Black Friday.)

Perhaps Woden is getting his revenge for being sliced into two pieces and and having one part sent to the landfill. Or to put it another way, perhaps to deny the darkness and ignore the other half of the world is a lousy idea. Perhaps denial of reality leads to unfamiliarity with reality which leads to fear which leads to isolation which leads to insanity. Merry Christmas.

Sooner or later the darkness catches up to everyone and the fantasies become unsustainable. That’s the reason, you see, that I think Santa Claus needs to bring back Black Pete as his companion. Yes, I’m serious.

Christmas Images For Sale In Holland

Only this time I’d like to make Black Pete an equal partner to Santa. Together the man of light and the man of dark can bring oranges and geegaws and sweetmeats to the children, dividing up the manual delivery tasks between them. As equals their class differences would disappear and working shoulder to shoulder on Christmas they could accomplish more good than ever before.

The lesson for children would be that darkness and unfamiliar things are not scary, they just are. Another lesson would be that true happiness and prosperity need both light and dark to be sustainable. Another is that equal partners can accomplish much more good than an idle master with an unwilling servant.

The City of Albany can take the lead. Every once in a while someone proposes that Albany revive the public Sinterklass traditions, arrival by boat and a parade, etc. Such an annual event prior to Christmas would attract tourists and put Albany on the year-end vacationer’s map.

But the proposals dangle and get shelved because of Black Pete. No one knows how to handle him. Reviving the traditional Dutch Zwarte Piet would put Albany on the map all right. We’d become a mecca for white supremacists and righteous lawyers.

But suppose Black Pete was a real black guy, perhaps a community leader who can play the part with dignity. Imagine the pair side by side arriving on the Half Moon to disembark at… well, Albany would have to build a dock since we have none worth mentioning. But everyone could see that Sinterklaas and Black Pete are equals who respect each other. That’s the kind of role models we ought to have for our children.

A Boatload Of Zwarte Pieten

The point behind this rant is that Christmas has been many things to many people and is whatever we want it to be. Some folks celebrate by getting loaded and destroying property, others like to hide in their houses and fawn over corporate geegaws. Some even go so far as to consider the pagan festival some sort of Christian event, or so I’ve been told. Seriously, some people do that.

I see that there’s a lot of shopping this year, the malls are crowded and the suburban trunk roads are clogged all day long. I do not think that’s because “the economy is recovering” like the corporate media keeps babbling, it’s not. I’m not hearing that a lot of people have found good jobs, nor do I see ostentatious displays of plenty.

I strongly suspect that this year’s holiday buying frenzy has been fueled by credit card corporations. This fall they quietly began offering more unsecured credit to average Americans because their share of the credit market has been shrinking alarmingly since the economic collapse in 2008. Perhaps what we are seeing this holiday season is an uptick in consumer debt, not an outpouring of wealth.

Clearly people need that year end holiday as an antidote to the darkness of the Northern Hemisphere in December. That will probably always be so. But surely we can do better than this ugly distressing Corporate Christmas sustained by bogus traditions. We can make our holidays whatever we want them to be if we so choose.

Prior Post

 

November 28, 2011

The big local politicians are forced by the public to restore funding for a successful effort to stop random shootings in Albany’s neighborhoods

The other day I was doing some repair work to a house at the bottom of Third Avenue in the South End. It seems that the problem tenant on the first floor had torn the front door of his apartment off the hinges and was loudly complaining that someone needs to fix it right now. Such tenants with an appetite for destruction are all too common in a City where the top politicians have been hot to destroy the very community that they govern.

This repair work was not for myself, mind you. This house was acquired and renovated years ago by the South End Improvement Corporation (SEIC,) which is a neighborhood agency that desperately tries to keep South End houses from disintegrating. Since the Albany City government is slowly strangling SEIC by “diverting” funding, there was currently no money available to fix this door. Thus, as a member of the board of SEIC, I was down on Third Avenue to do a little free of charge emergency repair work.

Bottom Of Third Avenue, Sunday Morning

I had just gotten started replacing the top hinge when I heard a shotgun blast. My first thought was No, it couldn’t be, who the hell has a shotgun around here? Sandra Obiedo, the director of SEIC, who was more or less assisting me with the door, said “That’s sounded like a shotgun.” She peered out the open front door of the building.

I peered out behind her, and noticed a police car blocking the top of the block that we were on. I heard another cop car engine roar past on the next block over beyond the houses across the street. No sirens, they were approaching a Situation. That’s when we heard the next shotgun blast.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard a shotgun fired among a dense collection of buildings. It is intensely loud, like artillery or perhaps what a “drone air strike” sounds like. (Perhaps those are coming to the South End soon.) A teenaged fellow walking on the other side of the street ducked down behind a parked car, like us he looked around for the source of the blast.

The one thing we knew for sure was that the shotgun was not fired on this block, a sound like that would have made us drop flat to the ground or scramble for cover inside the house. I prudently stepped inside and remained alert. But after a few moments Sandra stepped down the front stoop saying, “I’ll go see what I can find out.”

New Houses On Catherine Street Across From The SEIC Offices

I don’t know if that was a dumb thing for her to do or smart, but she returned several minutes later. “I couldn’t find anybody who knows what’s going on, but it happened around the corner on Tuenis Street.” I noticed the cop car at the top of the block was moving away without hurrying.

I never found out what happened, why someone would fire a shotgun in such a densely populated neighborhood. I saw nothing in the daily dead tree rags, and the cops I mentioned this to looked puzzled. Such incidents don’t stand out in their minds unless the Situation involves something like a killing.

Well I hung the door to the apartment and it worked fine, but we didn’t quite leave before the problem tenant came home. Naturally the jerk started in on Sandra for taking so long to fix the door that he busted, calling her every vile curse and phrase that his little brain could think of at the top of his lungs. Sandra reacted by getting in his face which only escalated the situation, I had to push her three times into my truck before we could get away. But you don’t need to hear about that.

But I think you do need to hear that gunshots in the South End are nothing new. What’s new is that the Albany Police are responding to these incidents. And what I saw the other day is that they are responding quickly and effectively. I still barely believe that denial of service has ended.

South End Improvement Corporation (SEIC) Offices On Catherine Street

Back at the SEIC offices next to Schuyler Mansion (rent: $1 per year) I talked to Sandra’s assistant Yolanda. She told me this incident is not at all unusual. “We hear gunshots around here all the time,” she said.

I said to her, “I live three blocks in that direction and we never hear gunshots.” Yolanda nodded, she didn’t need me to tell her that. Granted those are three long blocks all uphill, but still. This is one of those things that are literally right next door but might as well be on the other side of the world.

There are two matters going on here, the first I’ll mention briefly. The City government created this situation where a few dozen buttholes with guns terrorize this neighborhood in the heart of the South End. And until a few years ago the City actively maintained and protected these few dozen buttholes and their right to terrorize the neighborhood.

Seriously, that’s been City policy, but that policy is currently changing. Mayor Jerry Jennings no longer has the power to suppress redevelopment and law enforcement here in the South End. Responsible people are taking over from the mayor and we are beginning to see positive results all over the City.

Gubernatorial Candidate Andrew Cuomo At The Capital In 2010 Taking Credit For a Gun And Drug Bust In Downtown Albany

The other matter, a big one, is gun policy. We all know how for decades the corporate media has used the gun rights issue as a way to divide people into two opposing camps. This descent into idiocy, now endorsed by the anti-American idiots who control the US Supreme Court, has created confusion about the rights of gun ownership and of enforcement, confusion that is felt in our South End neighborhoods.

About four years ago I made a study of the Second Amendment, that flawed part of the Bill of Rights that deals very poorly with guns. After wading through piles of bullcrap I discovered an amazing little fact that rarely gets mentioned. You see, the actual wording of the Second Amendment was created as a compromise by a closed committee of Congress, a meeting of which there is no record, official or otherwise.

Whatever ideas and phrases apparently went into that committee, and that part of the process has been well examined, what came out is verbal garbage. This badly written sentence meant absolutely nothing back in 1791, and it means even less today (if that’s possible.) But you have to hand it to those guys, their meaningless “compromise wording” was not seriously challenged for nearly two hundred years.

To put it plainly, the Second Amendment makes no sense. Anyone who says otherwise is bullcrapping. Try this exercise, read the sentence without ideology. Pretend that you’re seeing it for the first time:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

October 28, 2011

The Occupy Wall Street encampments in New York City and in Albany are terrifying the corporate parasites and their politicians

*Update* Noam Chomsky gets it right when he addresses the Boston encampment by human megaphone.

*Update* The Hearst-owned Times Union is trying to set up a local attorney as the media face of Occupy Albany so that they can use him to discredit the movement.

 

I am a conservative and thus disposed to find antidotes for the suicidal tendencies of the financial system – a disposition which, by an oft-noted inversion of language, earns a reputation as a radical.

Economist John Kenneth Gailbraith, 1961

October 3, 2011

Albany’s walled-off waterfront offers a boat launch, some casual tourism and raw sewage

The City of Albany was once the inland terminus for intercontinental water travel north into Canada or west into the heart of North America. But not anymore. The water highways that cross our City are still in place, neglected and barely maintained. But Albany itself has almost divorced itself from the Hudson River and denied itself almost any sort of benefits from water commerce.

Sure, there’s a few tourist boats, and a few tourist attractions. But a little bit of tourism is a sad substitute for real economic activity, that is, wealth creation. Besides, tourists are fickle, they don’t have to come see our hidden and neglected river if they have no desire to do so.

And as long as Albany continues to dump raw sewage into the Hudson River along the downstream parts of the waterfront, the South End can never reap even the minor benefits of tourism. How do I know the City is dumping raw sewage on my part of town? The Wife and I went to see… and smell… for ourselves.

Turntable Rail Bridge Opens For The Captain JP Tourist Boat From Troy

In the middle of September we got into our boats for a light paddle on the river. It was a warm sunny Saturday and The Wife needed exercise and the water was a tolerable temperature. So after we contemplated the Albany boat launch and the sunshine for a bit, we sped home to fetch our personal watercraft. Then we raced back and launched our boats into the brown, muddy Hudson.

From the shore everything looked tolerably well. Signs of the recent flooding were evident but most everything seemed back to normal. But as often happens when we go boating, when we got down to the water and paddled around things looked a whole lot different.

City Of Albany Municipal Boat Launch, After Hurricane Irene

The City of Albany municipal boat launch is much overused, barely adequate and hard to find. It’s a nice concrete ramp that is pitched at too steep of an angle, a common design mistake when building launches. The approach to the launch sits across the Corning Trail so that autos with boat trailers often have to jockey with runners and bicyclists trying to pass by.

Still, we are grateful that the City has something decent that the public can use to access the river. The problem is that on a warm calm weather weekend you have everybody lined up waiting to launch, including speed boats, ski do’s, small yachts, bass boats, kayaks and canoes. In addition several colleges use the launch for their long, narrow crew boats which are stored and maintained under the highway overpass on the other side of the running trail.

Short Trip: Albany Aqua Duck Turns Around At The Dunn Memorial Bridge

Plus, everybody has to fight with that stupid Albany Aqua Duck aquatic tourist bus. I call it stupid because during summer months it comes through my neighborhood about a dozen times a day, pauses at the ML King statue to regale the whole neighborhood with their megaphone, and then speeds off toward the Capital in a cloud of burnt diesel. And don’t get me started on the nasty jerk who started that enterprise.

The Wife has another view. “Isn’t it nice,” she told me, “that people come from far away to see our City?” Yeah yeah sure grumble. My objection is that this commercial boat/truck has to keep a tight schedule, so when they use the public boat launch they rudely push everyone else aside who are trying to launch or come ashore. And they never apologize or say thank you. I say that Albany Duck should find or build their own boat launch so as not to inconvenience and endanger the rest of us.

Rail Bridge Pier Sheath

After we launched our boats we first took a close look at the turntable railroad bridge located a short ways north of the boat launch. With all the recent excessively high water the bridge operators have been quite busy. For a while they had to open the bridge for almost every craft bigger than a canoe.

The piers supporting the bridge have these big wooden sheaths made of thick wooden planks with telephone poles for studs. They resemble wooden ship prows tipped with iron. I’ve always assumed that this was done by the rail company that owns the bridge to protect the piers from the current. The bridge dates back to the 1800s and has endured quite a bit of battering from floods and ice.

From the shore the pier sheaths look fine, just the usual slow decay along the waterline. But if you paddle out to the other side…

Bridge Sheath From The Unseen Side

…you can see that the far side is near collapse. Some of this damage is several years old, but we could see it is now worse and the pier itself inside is crumbling. Too bad our government prefers to subsidize foreign auto manufacturers and foreign oil producers instead of our domestic rail system.

Most Of Albany’s Waterfront Looks Like This

Sometime in the middle of the 20th Century our City of Albany leaders decided that Albany should ignore the Hudson waterfront as much as possible. Real water commerce was confined to the Port of Albany which is located on the far southern part of the City. Yet until a few years ago, the Port of Albany itself was neglected and encouraged to decline.

Once upon a time the entire waterfront was a teeming commercial zone, the reason why Albany exists. The old waterfront was also smelly crowded and dangerous and horridly polluted, a virtual unregulated free zone. But instead of fixing the problems, the City chose to kill the waterfront. so that no one can use it except passive tourists.

Today downtown is completely walled off from the river south of the boat launch. With the exception of passive tourism no one can use the river in Albany anymore. You may look at the river, maybe spend a little money if you want, then you may go home.

The Forbidding Concrete Dock

Look at this thing located a short ways below the launch. It must have cost a fortune to build. It’s a dock for large boats, but why would anyone want to tie up here on that thing unless they had to? There are absolutely no boat related facilities behind it, not even a parking lot. Nor is there easy access to the City from there.

But this ugly concrete platform does indeed get used now and then, mainly because there are so few docking facilities left downtown. The other week the replica of the Half Moon was gingerly docked there, I hear they were giving tours again. To inspect this odd looking historical wooden ship when it’s tied up here, visitors have to clutch their way uneasily down the too steep stairway and gingerly pick along the narrow concrete platform.

Probably someone objected to walling off the waterfront back when they were making plans to do so. Thus this “docking facility” was added as a “mitigation measure.” Note the floating wooden dock, I guess that helps make the concrete more useful.

Continuing past that concrete dock thing there are more concrete walls with these mysterious doors, some of which dangle open. If you peer through one of the open doors with some light behind you, you can see the place where the water meets the land, tucked safely out of sight. No doubt this concrete wall was built to complement the almost constantly crumbling elevated highway 787 that squats behind it.

Tourists Inspect The USS Slater

Then we arrived at one of the few real substantial reasons why anyone would come down to the Albany waterfront, the USS Slater. This is probably the last functioning World War 2 Destroyer Escort ship left in the world. People come to Albany from all over specifically to see and tour this now unique artifact, which is listed on the Register of National Historic Places. (A boat is a place?)

Except that there is no way to safely moor the Slater permanently along here. In the icy months or when hurricanes approach, the Slater and the other tourist boats scoot across the river to Rensellaer, which has the harboring facilities that Albany does not bother to provide. As a result the Slater always has a temporary air about it, this despite returning to Albany every year for more than a decade.

USS Slater Waterline: Looking Good

We noticed that the Slater’s waterline was looking pretty good. Several years ago The Wife and I had a conversation from our boats with one of the chief volunteers for the floating museum, who looked down at us from the deck rail. While talking with him we could see all too well from our vantage point that the ship’s waterline was dangerously decayed, so bad that The Wife wondered why the Slater was still afloat.

He explained to us that they were vigorously fundraising nationally and chasing grants to pay some incredible amount of money to affect repairs. He also explained how hard it was to find facilities willing to take on the project in a timely fashion, none of which were anywhere near Albany. It’s always great when citizen volunteers successfully carry out their planned improvements, but too bad they couldn’t be accomplished locally.

Just past the USS Slater is the seasonal berth for the Dutch Apple Cruise boat, a triple decker barge that gives regular river tours. While we were drifting about inspecting the Slater, we could hear a female voice over the Dutch Apple boat’s sound system repeatedly warn us “kayakers” to “watch out.” Eventually The Wife figured out that she was asking us to move out of their way, so we did. They took off past us without so much as a thank you. Of course.

The Big C Pipe, Mouth Of The Beaverkill

A short ways past the Dutch Apple we came to the South End of Albany and the river became very unpleasant. Sticking out from under the parking lot of the U-Haul building is the so-called “Big C Pipe,” or “combined overflow.” This is the mouth of the Beaverkill, which except for a couple of manholes and one aeration grate is completely buried underground between the Hudson and that exposed part of the Beaverkill that we call Washington Park Lake.

But as I’ve explained before, the Beaverkill is regularly used to dump raw untreated sewage into the Hudson that appears to originate from or near Albany Medical Center. The Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDRPC) refuses to acknowledge this long time disgusting problem. I understand that these people, who effectively determine planning initiatives for the Capital region, don’t even show the Beaverkill on their maps of sewer lines and drains in the City of Albany.

But the Big C Pipe sticking out into the Hudson is real, so is the raw sewage. Approaching from the north upstream the air was okay. But as soon as we passed the pipe the terrible stink hit us like a wall of bricks.

Then, as we continued past the remains of wooden piers that probably date back to the 1800s, I noticed these odd things floating in the water. As we pulled up to Island Creek Park, the small heavily used waterfront park in the South End, these odd floating things began to coalesce into mats. The Wife, who has a better nose than I, had no trouble identifying this phenomenon.

Floating Mats Of Human Waste Near Island Creek Park

“It’s poop!” she gasped and started paddling quickly away from the shore. I looked a little closer and sure enough this was half-fermented shit rocking gently in place atop the current. I’ve cleaned out enough blocked sewer lines to know all too well what I was looking at.

When confronted with such observed evidence of sewage pouring out of the Big C Pipe, the CDRPC officials airily claim that sewage collects along the South End waterfront from somewhere way upriver and, in their own words of explanation, “swirls around by The Port.” But we are not yet at The Port. And the stink that begins at the Big C pipe demonstrates clearly and without a doubt from where the floating shit originates.

We saw big mats of shit floating in front of the Island Creek Park fishing deck, which was oddly empty of people on a sunny Saturday. I can’t imagine anyone would have wanted to lean over the rail with a fishing pole for any length of time. It was such a distressing sight that I couldn’t take any more pictures of the floating mats of shit, and I hastily followed The Wife out of there.

The other line that CDRPC officials like to deliver is that the Big C Pipe is indeed a combination of pipes. I’m told that two other storm drains combine with the Beaverkill a short distance before it reaches the river. This, they like to claim, refutes the assertion that the Beaverkill is used to dump raw sewage into the Hudson. Problem solved.

The Stinking Aeration Grate For The Beaverkill In Lincoln Park

But the Beaverkill is always badly contaminated with raw sewage way inland when it passes the aeration grate located in Lincoln Park across the street from Hackett Middle School. So you can’t plausibly blame the two extra underground storm drains for poisoning the Hudson along the South End. Nor can you blame the hurricanes, the raw sewage has poured out of the Big C Pipe unchecked for decades.

True, the recent spell of bad weather seems to have worsened the problem. But bad weather comes by now and then as a matter of course. The problem is always there and the occasional bad storm makes it dangerously worse.

By dangerous I mean cholera, typhoid fever and other waterborne diseases that are common in backward parts of the world where human waste is routinely dumped into waterways and into drinking water. A hundred years ago Albany was also ravaged by occasional epidemics, usually as a result of regular flooding. But because of modern sewage treatment facilities demanded by generations of 20th Century environmentalists, such diseases have become rare to nonexistent today.

A short ways downstream from here the Town of Bethlehem has the intake for it’s municipal drinking water. I hear they have to “treat” their water a lot. There’s good reasons why Bethlehem tap water tastes like dog spit.

Water Pours Out Of A Pipe From Under The U-Haul Building

A few years back I discovered exactly how the Big C pipe does indeed stifle development of the South End waterfront. City of Albany planners had, at that time, put out a call for suggestions from the public on how to improve the South End. This was part of the ongoing rebuilding of the wrecked parts of the South End, such as the building and renovations on lower Morton Avenue and the Jared Holt development.

Sure, I had suggestions. One of them was very simple, to put in a concrete ramp for launching only non-motorized boats on top of the mud flats at Island Creek Park. The City planners, to my absolute surprise, were delighted with my idea! “This is exactly the kind of low cost improvement that we are looking for,” I was told.

The Wife and I were all excited about the City building a launching ramp practically in our back yard… and then nothing. The planners who were thrilled with the idea went silent. Puzzled, I asked them what’s up with the non-motorized launch, and suddenly their attention spans were too short to focus on such things. I was silently kicked out of the loop again. Story of my life.

Old Dock Piers Left From When Boat Parking Was Scarce Along The Albany Waterfront

At the time I assumed the usual happened, that Albany mayor Jerry Jennings vetoed the idea partly because He doesn’t want visitors and tourists to discover the South End and start admiring the potential of our part of town. And I also assumed He’d vetoed the idea because it came from me. But it looks like much more than Jerry’s pettiness is at play here.

Threat of liability, I’ve observed, is the usual reason why public workers mysteriously go silent. I think the City planners were told by CDRPC officials to not encourage use of the Hudson River south of the U-Haul building because someone is bound to get sick from the polluted water. The resulting lawsuits and bad publicity would force the City to deal with the raw sewage pouring out of the Big C pipe… and with the sources of the pollution up on New Scotland Avenue. That would be unacceptable.

Floating Restaurant Near The Boat Launch

After we pulled our boats out of the water we decided to get something to eat at the floating restaurant located near the boat launch. That was nice, sitting up there looking down on where we were a moment ago. I’ll have to say the food wasn’t exactly superb, but it was better than I expected and not too overpriced.

We both had tried not to touch the water while entering and exiting the river, but inevitably our hands and feet got wet. Can’t avoid that. But when we got out we both noticed that our hands and feet were tingling. My ankles were itching something fierce.

We washed off in the restaurant bathroom immediately. By the way The Wife, who has had some medical problems this year, was specifically told to not go near the Hudson because of the risk of infection. The doctors would kill The Wife if they found out what she just did. Fortunately, the doctors didn’t see her paddling that day so she’s still with us.

The Only Tug We Saw That Day Had Nothing To Tow

Clearly there was something other than poop floating on the brown muddy water that day. The Hudson always has a layer of petroleum floating on it which you can’t see because of agitation caused by the current. But this was more than oil, this was chemicals.

Boating around the waterways of the region, we often encounter pipes without State permits that are surreptitiously flushing industrial waste into the river. Sunday morning is a favorite time to dump pollution. In fact, on this trip we encountered one of these polluting flush pipes a short ways north of the Big C Pipe underneath the U-Haul building.

Apparently, the South End doesn’t matter. That’s why everybody dumps on us. There didn’t seem to be any sewage spewing out of this particular pipe at that particular moment, but this was obviously an illegal Sunday flush. Apparently someone decided to take advantage of the recent hurricane flooding to lose their expensive to dispose of toxic waste.

The USS Slater And Albany As Seen From Rensselaer Across The Hudson River

It seems to me that if more people could see the pollution along Albany’s waterfront then more people would care. The poisons that we routinely throw into our waterways have a way of eventually finding their way back to us, sort of like karma. Or to put it another way, the sins of our fathers will visit us unto the third or fourth generation. At least.

But it also seems to me that the sins of our fathers become our own much bigger sins because we accept them as inevitable. But as long as the river is walled off from our community, who cares? Our ongoing sins floating in the river are usually out of our sight so we don’t have to worry about them. Right?

Prior Post * * * Next Post

 

September 15, 2011

How the late summer floods in the Hudson Valley were greatly exacerbated by mismanagement, and how the blogger found religion in the middle of Great Lake Sacandaga

You might recall that before we got all these recent hurricanes and floods we had Summer. The sun was shining, the air was warm and our waterways were reasonably calm and predictable. It was vacation time before all the waters of hell broke loose.

I’m happy to say that before the weather went extreme The Wife and I got in our two weeks in August up at Great Lake Sacandaga. We had been contemplating adding a third week of vacation this year, but that didn’t work out. Which was fine, because if we had stayed at Sacandaga one more week we would have experienced the Great Flood of 2011 during our vacation, and that would have been no fun.

Storm Over Broadalbin, Great Lake Sacandaga

Believe me, Lake Sacandaga has plenty of interesting weather all its own. The big artificial lake, five miles wide in the middle, strongly affects the local weather and by extension the weather of surrounding areas. I have to say that after many summers of quietly observing how this big feat of hydraulic engineering affects the local weather patterns, I’ve decided that anyone who repeats the claim that human activity does not affect the weather of our planet is an idiot.

Twice before on this blog I’ve attempted to explain the significance of this lake and the bizarre politics around it. Sad to say, all I managed to do was write two long, rambling, nearly unreadable essays that tried to explain too much. The pictures I used were pretty good, though.

Briefly, Great Sacandaga was created in 1930 to control the volume of water flowing down the Hudson River. Some forty percent of the water that ends up in the Hudson passes through this lake. Storing the water in this reservoir and allowing it to pass through the dam nice and evenly keeps the Hudson River levels steady, and helps prevent salt from moving upriver during dry spells.

Hudson River Black River Regulating District Offices,
Managers Of Great Lake Sacandaga

For decades the system worked very well, but in 1999 disaster struck. The electric generating turbine at the Conklingville Dam, along with a second turbine at the Hadley Dam farther downstream, were privatized. To serve the speculators who now control the turbines, the startlingly corrupt managers of the lake stopped emptying out the lake when they were supposed to. In effect, for the last ten or twelve years Great Lake Sacandaga has been rendered useless as a flood control reservoir.

You see, the managers of the lake signed a contract. They guaranteed the privateers that water would fall over the dam to spin their turbines, or else the State of New York would have to pay the privateers for every day that their turbines do not turn.

Today the managers of the lake deliberately keep the water level of the lake much too high all year round. They are so terrified of having to pay money to the turbine privateers that the lake can no longer hold flash flood waters when it needs to. That’s why the City of Albany waterfront and those of all the other communities of the Hudson Valley flooded in 2006, and again in 2011.

Boats Parked At Lock 3 On the Waterford Flight
While The Canal Is Closedd

I listened to the corporate media explanations for the Flood of 2011 with grim amusement. I didn’t hear one word about Great Sacandaga being overfilled. The problem, they said, was too much water coming from the west, from the Mohawk River. The flood water, they told us, came from the Schoharie Valley to the west, which indeed was a disaster all by itself.

Sure, record amounts of water came to the Capital District from the west. But that shouldn’t have mattered much to us. The flooding disaster happened because the system that is supposed to control flooding from the north has stopped functioning altogether.

The truth is that only 18 percent of the water that goes into the Mohawk River comes from the Schoharie Creek. (The Mohawk flows into the Hudson north of Troy.) According to experts the amount of Schoharie water that flows into the Mohawk is increasing. But that still means the water from the Schoharie Creek only constitutes a small part of the water in the Hudson River.

No, you can’t blame the Schoharie for wrecking the Hudson Valley this year. Like I said, the Great Lake Sacandaga was built to control the Sacandaga River but now flood control has become an afterthought. Today the prime function of the lake is to provide revenue for the turbine operators.

The Blogger’s Kayak Parked In The Little Kenyon Islands,
Great Lake Sacandaga

The other complaint I have about mismanagement of Great Lake Sacandaga is personal. See, when they don’t empty out the lake in the summer like they’re supposed to, then the beach at the place where we stay becomes narrow. We find this very inconvenient when we’re trying to do vacation stuff.

Okay, so that’s a trivial complaint compared to other problems caused this year alone by privatization of the Sacandaga turbines, such as destroyed houses, several deaths and billions of dollars of damage. But hey, narrow beaches loom large for me. Somehow the drowned parks and streets in the City of Albany are all tied up in my mind with our undersized stretch of vacation beach in August.

However, our narrow beach is actually a small symptom of another problem caused by too high water in the lake. The too high water is eating away the shoreline and destroying the islands. In addition docks, boats and other property are at greater and more frequent risk of damage and destruction.

Windstorm On Great Sacandaga, August 2011

For example, one evening near the end of the first week of our vacation in the early part of August we had a serious windstorm on the over filled lake, winds of 60 to 70 miles per hour. The rain was minimal so I went down to the shore to take photos of our neighbor’s docks and boats being wrecked by the waves.

I’ve got to say it’s grand fun to watch somebody else’s property get wrecked by out of control forces of nature. Our collection of human powered boats (ours and those of the other family we vacation with) were safely settled up the too small beach. The Wife’s ultra light canoe, which tends to blow away in high winds, was jammed safely under the back of the cabin.

Docks Tossed By Waves On Great Sacandaga, 2011

The place where we stay has a little dock in the water that rocked about in the wind and waves, but it was safely lashed to the rocks so it only drifted a bit. But the neighbor’s offshore diving dock broke loose from its mooring and for a moment threatened to crash into our dock. The neighbor and I waded out to the loose dock and guided it safely to shore.

In the middle of this crisis I ordered The Wife to go driving into the furious gale to go buy ketchup for dinner. Yes, I am that sort of imperious chauvinistic heartless male that would send his (sickly) woman into a near hurricane to buy condiments. I wished her luck and sincerely hoped that despite the raging storm she could make it back with the ketchup.

But as soon as The Wife got out onto the main road she could feel no wind whatsoever. She reported that the air was hot, humid and stifling. This is what, a thousand feet from the lake or something like that? Like with a hurricane, those tremendous winds had everything to do with the water and nothing to do with the land.

The Five And Dime In Northville, NY

This vacation I spent a lot of time in my kayak observing and contemplating the lake. (I always wear my life vest.) I made one major journey to Northville, about two and a half hours each way (ten minutes by car.) And one day around Noon three of us paddled in our boats to the nearest lakeside eatery for lunch, a half hour or an hour depending on the strength and direction of the currents at the moment.

Drifting by myself in my kayak in the middle of the lake, I have observed that there is usually a great dome of warm air sitting on top of the water. The walls of the air dome rise up along the shoreline, and the roof of the dome rises way high into the sky but not as high as the stratosphere. The dome is often surprisingly resilient, with different weather inside the dome from the outside.

Many’s the time I’ve watched dark, threatening clouds march down from the Adirondack Mountains to the north. When the clouds hit the dome of air they usually slide either to one side of the lake or the other, sometimes pouring rain on the shore while the middle of the lake remains sunny and blue. Sometimes the clouds squeeze way up over the top of the dome and sprinkle warm rain on me in my kayak, which is usually quite refreshing.

Clouds Over The Northville Bridge

Every so often a big fast-moving dark mass of clouds will tear right into the dome of air protecting the lake and drop a serious storm on the water. If you think about it, the lake was built because of this frequent procession of clouds descending down the Sacandaga River Valley. It’s the moisture from these mountain clouds that makes the Hudson River deep and navigable all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to Troy.

One early afternoon I was drifting lazily around Big Kenyon Island, about an hour from our camp. I turned my boat, looked north and saw a giant thick storm advancing fast over the Northville Bridge like the winds of Mordor. In horror I watched it tear into the air dome and come right at me.

I said something a whole lot earthier than “oh my goodness” and started paddling like my life depended on it. That’s only a slight exaggeration. I wasn’t all that afraid of the wind and rains (not too much) but my real fear was lightning. I couldn’t see any thunderhead clouds or hear any thunder (which is why I didn’t notice the storm advancing) but that didn’t necessarily mean no sudden massive electric discharges across my sorry boat bound butt.

Ducks Attack On Great Lake Sacandaga

As I frantically paddled I kept glancing back as the storm barreled toward me over the water. But just before it caught me the storm mass suddenly veered west and passed to my right. It seems that the air dome over the lake had become resilient again, reasserting itself so to speak.

The storm settled next to me. There was now a perfect line of demarcation across the water. On one side of the line was darkness, wind, boiling lashing waves and a sprinkle of rain. On the other side of the line was blue sky, relatively calm water and a light breeze.

By strange chance the line of demarcation ran ahead of me in the direction of our camp, my destination. I followed the line on the sunny left side, me paddling hard almost nonstop on my right so as not to be sucked over the line into the storm. If I rested even for a few seconds the boat would slide sideways and backwards into the chaos.

How long did I madly paddle along that line, twenty minutes? I followed the line in the water so long that I began to feel hopeful for the future. My future. That’s about when the air dome gave way and suddenly the storm rolled right over me. Oh my goodness.

Blue Heron Watches Me . . .

So this was it, no fooling around now. The waves came at me mainly from two directions, which made it almost impossible to predict the whitecaps that smashed over the boat. Normally if one is alert one can ride over the waves and stay dry, but all I could do was try to react and keep the kayak tracking straight through the swells.

. . . Then Strolls Into The Brush

The rain came down so hard I was effectively blinded. I could see only dark and light through the water washing across my face. The thick dark line in front of me, I knew, was the shore. My plan was to keep the boat moving toward the thick dark line. To get the most out of this experience, with each stroke of my paddle I screamed. I rather enjoyed doing that, strange to say.

My thought was no lightning. Please, no lightning. I called for help from everybody I could think of. “Jesus! Buddha! Allah! Yahweh! Krishna! Earth Mother! Zeus! Thor! The Bottom Line! The Invisible Hand of the Market Place!” I really did that. I prayed to the Invisible Hand of the Marketplace to save me from electrocution.

Under the circumstances that was all the gods I could think of. Interestingly, I didn’t call on Satan, probably out of habit. Nor did I call on Baal, Mammon or the Golden Calf. I figure I covered all those guys when I prayed to The Bottom Line.

Well, one of those gods must have been the right one (Zeus with the thunderbolts?) because gradually the rain lightened, the veils of water parted and behold! our camp was right there in front of me. Absolutely amazing. The rain ceased as I approached the shore. As I pulled my kayak up the beach in the sunshine I could see the storm blowing across the lake toward Broadalbin.

The Wife and our friend Lucy were on the shore, excited. “You just missed it!” they shouted. “One half of the beach was pouring rain, and the other half was sunny! It went on forever! It stopped raining just before you arrived!” I agreed that was rather something and a real shame that I’d missed out.

Normanskill, August 2011

So when we left vacation behind and got back to reality we thought we’d been done with wild water for the summer, but then came the hurricanes. The morning after hurricane Irene left Albany and headed to Canada I defied the general order to stay home and checked out the flooding along the Albany waterfront. But first I went to the end of Delaware Avenue to see the Normanskill.

At the end of the Yellow Brick Road a number of other people had come to gawk at the raging river. I stood on the old concrete footbridge and took pictures and even a movie. But my little camera could not even begin to capture the sheer power of the Normanskill unleashed.

The Beaverkill Emerges Again At South Pearl And Arch Streets

Back in town, the manhole I call Old Faithful was spouting at the intersection of Arch Street and South Pearl. As usual. I believe this is part of the Beaverkill, the only above ground opening of the submerged river between the grate in Lincoln Park and the Hudson River. This underground river is supposed to function as an overflow storm drain, but actually is used to dump raw sewage into the Hudson. That day the spouting water looked and smelled clean.

Island Creek Park Monday Morning After Hurricane Irene

Island Creek Park, the only waterfront park in the South End, was drowned. I stood on on the edge of the parking lot and watched about 30 geese pick along the water’s edge.

The following Saturday The Wife and I checked out the park again. We could see that the City had plowed some six to eight inches of black mud off the walkways. You know that mud was loaded with General Electric PCBs that washed down from Stillwater. No one wants to talk about that. What a mess.

Mud In Island Creek Park

Before Noon I checked out the underpass near the Dutch Apple cruise ship. The water was slowly advancing inland. I talked to some City DGS guys posted nearby, like what could they do? “The water came over the wall after eleven,” I was told. “High tide is at 6 PM tonight. It’s gonna keep rising.”

787 Underpass Near The Dutch Apple Boat

Fire Chief Robert Forezzi pulled up in his big white SUV to survey the situation. He told me he’d had about six hours of sleep over the last 48 hours, but he looked ready and alert. In fact, the City workers I’d talked to had knocked off at 1 AM the night before and had been back on the job at 5 AM.

All this mess, all this destruction. Sure, bad storms are more or less “an act of god” and inevitable. But a lot of the bad effects of hurricane Irene and the repeat flooding caused by hurricane Lee a week later should have been a lot less and more manageable. The Schoharie Valley drowned twice and the Mohawk river had record volume of water, but that shouldn’t have caused the wreckage of the Hudson Valley.

The top of the dam at Conklingville is 771 feet. This means that Great Lake Sacandaga can’t get any higher than that, although back in the summer of 2006 the lake held steady at three feet higher than the dam for three days. That caused the 2006 flood that drowned the Albany waterfront.

As Of September 14 Great Lake Sacandaga
Is Still Filled To Capacity (USGS Data)

This summer the corrupt and incompetent managers of the lake hardly bothered to lower the water levels, in effect taking the flood control system off-line. On August 10 the lake was at 764 feet, leaving only seven feet of capacity to deal with flooding. Two days before Irene hit our region on august 28, the lake managers desperately tried to empty the lake but it was too late.

Great Sacandaga was too full to stop the flooding. After the lake level rose to 766 feet they simply opened the dam and let water pour unimpeded into the Hudson River. Well, at least the kids tried to do their homework at the last minute.

But when hurricane Lee hit on September 6, the lake managers didn’t even bother to try to increase Great Sacandaga’s holding capacity. They let the lake fill up nearly to the top of the dam, and as of September 12 there was only a foot and a half capacity left in the lake. Hope it doesn’t rain much soon.

On Great Lake Sacandaga At Dawn

So expect more flooding of the Hudson Valley in the near future. Sporadic, out of control record floods will periodically drown the Albany waterfront until somebody files a lawsuit against the State of New York for neglecting and mismanaging our flood control system, that is, for refusing to empty out Great Lake Sacandaga.

So what is the solution? The State has to take back possession of the electric turbines on the Great Lake Sacandaga dams. Buy them, seize them, whatever. If the taxpayers own the turbines then the taxpayers won’t have to pay compensation money to privateers and the lake can be used for flood control once again. But until that happens, we are all at the mercy of the water gods.

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August 6, 2011

The President and the Republicans continue to compromise the economy, but our Congressional representative stands firm

The other week I received a form letter from my Congressman, Paul Tonko, thanking me for contacting his staff over the phone “with my concerns.” I get these impersonal mailings from politicians fairly often. Usually I rip them open, scan the words quickly, laugh or snarl or shrug. Then I very carefully file them away for immediate recycling.

Congressman Paul Tonko, NY 21

This doesn’t mean I don’t take these politician form letters seriously. But all too often our elected officials, particularly the big State and Federal politicians, have nothing to say to us voters other than to justify their latest lies and corporate giveaways. As such I’ve noted that the quality of the words contained in a politician form letter corelates directly to the quality of the sender.

Once in a while I get a politician form letter that is worth reading. Usually I consider these letters notable because I consider them Evidence. I show them to other people so I can rant at my victims about politics. Sometimes the letters end up on this blog so I can rant about local politics to people on the other side of the world.

This particular letter from Mr. Tonko was actually an email that looked exactly like one of those official Congressional dead tree letters delivered by mail carrier. Of all the taxpayer funded constituent letters that I regularly recieve, Mr. Tonko’s is the only one who uses email in such a cost saving way. Quite unusual for a Baby Boomer in his early sixties.

This is what Mr. Tonko had to say in his form letter, right at top:

Medicare and Social Security are two of the most successful government programs in U.S. history, and I am committed to ensuring their success well into the future. It is because of programs like these that we are living better, longer, and healthier lives than in the past. I pledge to do all I can to preserve these essential social safety nets. This is a time to ensure a strong future for Social Security and Medicare, not the time to cut benefits, as many in Washington are proposing.

July 28, 2011

Dear Mr. Van Riper,

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about Social Security and Medicare. I appreciate hearing from you on these important matters.

Medicare and Social Security are two of the most successful government programs in U.S. history, and I am committed to ensuring their success well into the future. It is because of programs like these that we are living better, longer, and healthier lives than in the past. I pledge to do all I can to preserve these essential social safety nets. This is a time to ensure a strong future for Social Security and Medicare, not the time to cut benefits, as many in Washington are proposing.

Contrary to the claims of some, Social Security benefit levels are modest – only $1,167 per month for the average retiree. The median income for senior households is less than $25,000, reflecting just how much Social Security means to most elderly Americans. Six in ten seniors rely on Social Security for more than half of their income, and about a third of retirees have little other than Social Security on which to live. The lingering effects of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression have made the situation even more precarious for many seniors.

Over the last two years, the lack of a cost of living adjustment (COLA) has greatly affected seniors in our community. As the price of necessities such as gas, heating oil, food, and prescription drugs rise, seniors on fixed incomes are feeling the pinch. Since I arrived in Congress, I have been fighting to provide seniors with an alternative $250 payment in years where there was no COLA. Currently, I am a cosponsor of H.R. 456, the Preserving Our Promise to Seniors Act, which would provide a $250 payment to Social Security recipients in any year without a COLA.

As you may know, Medicare serves as the only source of health care for many of our nation’s seniors. Republicans in Congress have introduced a Budget to ration Medicare and turn it into a voucher program. Rather than guaranteed benefits, seniors would be left with a limited voucher that would not increase to keep pace with rising health care costs. When it takes effect, this plan would double the out-of-pocket expenses that an average senior pays for health care. We all know that seniors who rely on Medicare cannot afford twice the cost and this plan would force American citizens into life and death decisions. As your representative in Congress and the only New Yorker on the House Budget Committee, which oversaw the legislative review of this plan, I authored an amendment to block this drastic cut in benefits and to prevent Medicare from being dismantled. Unfortunately, this amendment failed when every single Republican on the committee voted to end Medicare. Please be assured that I will continue to lead the fight against privatizing Medicare in the coming days months and will continue to support plans that extend the life of the Medicare Trust fund without harming beneficiaries.

Rather than stripping seniors and the disabled of their health and economic security, we must strengthen Medicare to fulfill its promise to future generations. This is why I supported legislation passed last year which provides seniors on Medicare Part D with discounts on prescription drugs, and will eventually eliminate the Medicare "donut hole."

As Republicans in Congress present plans to privatize Social Security, decrease benefits, and risk the dependability of payments on the whims of Wall Street and the fluctuations of the stock market, I remain committed to fighting against these proposals. Our seniors, who have paid into Social Security and Medicare their entire lives, deserve to see the security of their monthly payments continue. I am committed to ensuring that these programs remain stable for years to come.

Again, thank you for your correspondence. I am most appreciative. As your representative in Congress, I will continue to prioritize policies that create jobs, grow our economy, and protect the middle class while responsibly reducing the federal deficit. Should you have additional comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. My door is always open.

For up-to-date news and information about our district, please visit my website athttp://tonko.house.gov and sign up for my E-Newsletter. Additionally, please consider using my social media tools: http://www.facebook.com/reppaultonko, http://twitter.com/paultonko, andhttp://www.youtube.com/reppaultonko.

June 30, 2011

The City is sending signals that it wants to shut down Lincoln Park Pool, so go swimming right now this summer while you can

Lincoln Park Pool has opened for the summer. This unique City of Albany treasure is one of the largest outdoor public swimming pools in the world, so big that Google Maps erroneously labels it “Lincoln Park Pond.”

Lincoln Park Pool, Albany NY, June 2011

The doors to the pool house are opened the day after the public schools close for the summer, and they close the day before the public schools resume at the end of August. Presumably this is to give the South End kids on vacation a place to go, but doesn’t give the kids a reason to play hooky when school is in session. That’s what I’ve always been told.

The pool is one of the last public places left for our local kids to congregate outside of school. But unfortunately the City of Albany government apparently does not consider bored unengaged teenagers roaming the streets as a problem. It is only with the greatest reluctance that the City continues to maintain and keep the pool open.

Our fabulous swimming pool remains terribly underused. Once upon the time the pool remained open longer and was even used regularly in the winter. Check out this photo that I bought from Dennis Holtzman Antiques of an ice skating race on the Pool, dated February 3 1938:

Lincoln Park Pool, Albany NY, February 1938
[Click on photo for larger size]

Penciled on the back is the information that that the fellow in the lead won the race, his name was Ed Ray. The fellow at far right, Frank Begliu, came in second. The cryptic notations at the bottom elude my understanding, perhaps readers can help interpret.

Perhaps this modern underuse of the Pool reflects the inherent laziness of children today, they’d rather hide indoors and play video games than swim. Or maybe the kids prefer to hang on the street corner and sell crack to suburbanites. Then again, maybe there might be some other reasons.

A few weeks ago I had a conversation outside Howe Library with Officer Ben Sturges, who is a beat cop assigned to the South End. At the beginning of this year the new independent administration of the Albany Police Department instituted a system of regular foot patrolling of City neighborhoods. The taxpayers have been literally crying for this sort of effective police protection for decades.

Officer Sturges told me, “I get complaints almost every day about groups of teenagers hanging outside of people’s houses. The kids are loud and carry on because they have nothing to do. Sure, people are scared of the kids and want me to do something.

“But what can I do? I chase the kids away and they congregate on the next corner in front of somebody else’s house. The kids need someplace to go or they’re going to get in trouble. We need to find something for these kids to do.”

Lifeguards Inside The Fence, 3 Days Before The Pool Opens

I checked out the pool a few days before the official opening on Friday, June 24. This was a sunny warm Tuesday afternoon, a perfect day for swimming in Lincoln Park. But only the lifeguards preparing for their summer employment got to hang inside the fence as the last maintenance preparations were being made.

More than a few observers have noted that the typical Lincoln Park Pool lifeguard hired by the City of Albany is a white kid imported from outside the City. This follows the traditional practice of forcing Albany taxpayers to provide jobs for suburbanites, which has always been a cornerstone policy of the administration of Albany mayor Jerry Jennings.

While standing around poking my camera through the chain link fence, several groups of teens and adults showed up with towels to use the pool. I took it upon myself to explain that the pool opened on Friday. They all seemed baffled why an outdoor swimming pool would be closed on a sunny hot day at the beginning of Summer.

NYC Taxis Parked Near The Pool House

Looking around, I couldn’t help but notice several dozen NYC taxis parked near the pool house. I asked one of the cabbies and he said, “You shoulda been here earlier, we had over 200 cabs parked.” Oy. It was near the end of the State legislative session, the cabbies were protesting a proposed increase in the number of NYC cabs, which apparently needs State approval. Whatever.

Lincoln Park is regularly used as an overflow State parking lot. When it’s budget time a few blocks away at the Capitol, it’s not unusual to see dozens of diesel busses from downstate lined up nose to butt idling their diesel engines. Idling for hours. I guess it’s all right to pump diesel engine waste into a City park shaped like a bowl, that is, as long as the pumping engines are mostly out of sight and the people living nearby don’t matter.

Waiting For The Doors To Open

So I came back to the Pool on Friday which, sad to say, was one of those cool on-and-off rainy days that we’ve had so much of this spring. But other than the weather plus the fact that it was opening day, it all looked the same as on Tuesday. The lifeguards were milling around inside and the entrance door was locked.

Most years we’ve had ceremonies on opening day, ever since the public stopped Mayor Jennings from privatizing the Pool back in 2003. An elected office holder or two would give a speech praising the Pool, some years Jerry Jennings himself. Ranking City officials would use this event as an excuse to escape from the office, and a few corporate media workers would circle around looking for camera angles. Like I was doing today all by myself.

Plus a fair sized gaggle of kids were brought to the Pool to serve as photo props for the opening event. But not this year. Nobody and nothing. It’s as if the Jennings administration was sending a signal to the surrounding neighborhoods that they don’t care any more. Or at the very least, that they no longer want to draw attention to Lincoln Park Pool.

The sky looked like a deluge was on the way, but a small number of people showed up and waited for the doors to open. And waited. For no particular reason that I could determine (I asked several people) the public was not allowed to enter the pool house until 12:30, a half hour late. Meanwhile, the lifeguards inside tossed frisbees and looked bored.

Front Door Finally Opens

The woman working the front desk inside the door next to the turnstile was decidedly unfriendly and unhelpful. She made me feel unwelcome in my own neighborhood pool. But that wasn’t all. You see, all I wanted to do is step out to the pool area and snap a few pictures. But I was barred from entry.

A fellow sat in a chair by the far wall with his arms folded and his legs crossed in front. “Whoa whoa whoa you can’t go in there like that,” he commanded. “And you’re not allowed to take pictures.” And he watched me carefully for a reaction.

First off, I can’t exactly put on appropriate attire for the pool unless I pass through the changing area. But more to the point, this fellow not only has no right to order me not to take photos, he is breaking the law by doing so. Over the last decade it has become clear that not even a police officer can censor photography of public places. Not everyone knows that.

I looked at this self-important fool against the wall and decided he wasn’t worth fighting with. I realized as I looked at him that he and the woman at the desk were reflecting with their unwelcoming behavior the attitudes of their bosses, the City officials. That would be appointed officials of the Department of General Services (DGS) and ultimately their boss, the mayor.

So I said okay and left. So no inside pictures of opening day for this blog. I do wonder if this goof would have thrown out a picture snapper for say, the Hearst Times Union or a TV “news” camera. Bet you he’d be afraid to exercise his authority with such important people.

Early Opening Day Seen Through The Fence

Older folks who live around Lincoln Park will tell you that when they were kids there was a vibrant network of South End based swimming programs sponsored by churches and schools and other institutions. The City provided support and also provided facilities such as Lincoln Park and Bath House #2 down on Fourth Avenue. There was also a program to bring kids out of the City by bus to places like Thatcher Park, which until recently had a popular big swimming pool.

Too bad the last of these programs was dumped in the 1990s after Jerry Jennings assumed office. Learning to swim or to at least develop a familiarity with water is an essential part of everybody’s education. Not giving kids a chance to learn to swim is certainly not as critical as preventing kids from learning to read (another ongoing problem imposed on the South End.)

Learning to swim is the kind of thing that might prove to be decisive at a critical moment. Like so many other potentially dangerous problems, the possibility of drowning can be mostly avoided with a little early education.

Later In The Day More Swimmers Showed Up

Recent studies have shown that inner City kids are less likely to know how to swim than suburbanites, and that in general black kids drown at three times the rate as white kids. The problem is that in urban areas we have no natural swimming holes where kids can learn about water on their own.

We in the South End no longer have easy access to private swimming facilities such as the ones located way uptown and out in the suburbs. The only swimming facility we have left is the Lincoln Park Pool, which unfortunately is only open in the summer and only for part of the day. These restricted hours are an annoying hardship for many people, particularly those who are under doctor’s orders to swim as therapy, morning being the best time to hit the water for health.

Also, in August first one half then later three quarters of the Pool is closed off, which makes it impossible to swim circular laps. Where else in the world can you swim circular laps? You gotta come to Albany’s South End in July or the last week of June.

Unnecessarily Crumbling Steps In Front Of The Pool House

The red line painted on the bottom of the pool is about 220 yards. The Wife, who only started to learn to swim about ten years ago, has actually followed this circle afloat 6 times without stopping, about seven tenths of a mile. However, trying to swim the circle on a hot day when the Pool is crowded with hundreds of kids, she has indeed been known to receive a stray juvenile elbow in the eye.

She learned to swim in Lincoln Park. She also learned at Bath House #2 and at the Washington Avenue YMCA, both of which have been shut down recently against the strong objections by the community.

The usual given reason for first starving and then closing our swimming facilities in and near the South End has been “We can’t afford to keep community centers open.” Like most wads of spittle that crawl out of the mouths of politicians and CEOs, this phrase conceals the real reason. The translation is “We can’t afford to keep the swimming pools open for the people who use these facilities. Those people are not worth it.”

That category of Not Worth It includes The Wife, me, my neighbors and everybody else who lives and pays taxes in the South End. (Rule #1: If you live you pay taxes.) As far as the Mayor is concerned, if we were all white enough to deserve a swimming pool then we would move to Guilderland. But we aren’t and we don’t so in return for our taxes we get nothing but occasional humoring from City Hall.

Eight years ago Jerry Jennings tried to shut down Lincoln Park Pool, or rather he tried to sell it for peanuts to a privateer. If He had succeeded in His plan then the Pool would have briefly become a for-profit business charging admission. After a few seasons the privateer would have declared bankruptcy and today Lincoln Park Pool would be a fenced-off crumbling pit.

Bath House #2 On Fourth Avenue

Judging by the reluctant and unfriendly opening day this year, I suspect that old Jerry is hoping to lock that fence tight and turn our swimming pool into another example of demolition by neglect. Like He’s doing to Bath House #2 over on Fourth Avenue.

Until six months ago Bath #2 was our own small indoor swimming pool that was open all year round. But thanks to invaluable assistance from Second Ward common Council Member Lester Freeman, the Mayor succeeded in turning our beautiful indoor pool into another south End vacant building.

The other day I heard Lester tell a group of City officials and community activists, “No one wants Bath House #2 open more than I do.” This from a guy who stood up in the Common Council chambers and passionately declaimed against our indoor pool.

Lester Freeman Declaims Against Bath House #2 At The Common Council, Dec. 20 2010 (from ACT)

Now, some folks might say that Lester is just being a politician by pretending he had no part in the shameful takedown of our indoor pool. A master politician like Barack Obama or a clever psychopath like Dick Cheney can tell even the most outrageous lies and get away with them. But a first-term amateur part timer like Lester hasn’t got the skills.

“If the Bath House remains open, 200 workers will be laid off by the City,” he told the Common Council. He couldn’t explain that one, but the prospect of suburbanites losing their jobs certainly sounded ominous. Then he said, “I see groups of people hang out by the Bath House, and I ask them if they use the pool and not one – not one! – has ever used the pool.”

Lester Freeman Stands Behind Jerry Jennings

At that time Lester told a newspaper, “I’’m the only true conservative on the Council.” A few months ago he showed us what he meant by that when he once again stood up in the Common Council chambers and demanded that the City give extra unearned money to the Capital District Young Men’s Christian Association Corporation (YMCA.) They’re the organization that abandoned the Y building on Washington Avenue last year, thus shutting that facility.

So Lester Freeman believes in rewarding corporations who withdraw services from our community, but personally wants to starve and destroy our own community centers because “there’s no money” and because the people of the South End apparently don’t deserve an indoor pool. That’s not conservatism by the way, that’s radical corporatism.

Remember folks, if it weren’t for Lester Freeman Bath House #2 would be open today. His vote in support of the Mayor he admires so much was effectively the deciding vote. Lester helped Jerry close Bath House #2 and anything he says otherwise just ain’t true.

Lincoln Park Pool, Albany NY. Endangered Again?

Fortunately the Lincoln Park Pool is not in Lester Freeman’s Ward, that’s a ray of sunshine. But Lester has loudly committed himself to supporting the random shutdown of South End amenities and necessities. You can be sure that if old Jerry Jennings decides on another all-out blitz to terminate Lincoln Park Pool, Lester will be ready to do dirty work for the boss.

If you love Lincoln Park Pool you ought to make time to swim while you still can. It’s summer, it’s not August yet, so look for the first hot day and jump in. See how far you can follow the red line. And don’t be too put out by the rude reception by the folks at the entrance. Remember, they’re only doing like they’re told.

 

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May 22, 2011

Don’t worry folks, no conspiracy theories here, just questions. Besides, our politicians never lie.

Who knows if he’s hiding in some cave or not. We haven’t heard from him in a long time. The idea of focusing on one person really indicates to me people don’t understand the scope of the mission. Terror is bigger than one person. He’s just a person who’s been marginalized… I don’t know where he is. I really just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you.

-Former President George W. Bush, March 13, 2002

May 8, 2011

The whole world is being sent to hell but finally it’s Spring and the flowers are out

Saturday morning I checked out the tulips in Washington Park on the day of the Albany Tulip Festival. My goodness gracious they were the best I’ve ever seen them.

Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me so I went back sunday morning to take pictures. The tulips were no longer perfect but they were still pretty good. Anyway, I have yet to see any pictures by anyone that sufficiently capture the the absolute delightfulness of this annual horticultural display.

Not that people don’t try to take The Perfect Picture. Every family group walking around admiring the flowers has at least one camera, ranging from phones to serious equipment and everything in between. And every family with small children must squat and smile in front of the flowers while usually the alpha male carefully composes the shot for posterity.

Who caused this damage to these healthy tulips (in the photo above?) Gangbangers from Colonie? Irresponsible vandals from Clifton Park? Well, sort of. This was caused by a succession of families with young children posing for Dad’s camera, so busy posing that they gave no thought to the pretty backdrop they were crushing. Today (Sunday) no one wants to pose here anymore.

The designs made out of flowers were very precisely planted with great care. There was a whole set of what I would call medallions with very clean designs. It’s a shame I couldn’t seem to point my camera straight that morning, I keep cutting off the edges of the medallions. But you get the idea from the pictures.

Not all of the medallions were round. I guess this one (above) is probably the Liberty Bell, that symbol of our great liberal traditions upon which our nation lives or dies.

Some of the medallions were composed entirely of tulips, like in the photo above. Don’t ask me what are the names of the tulip varieties because I don’t give a rat’s patootie. But there were other species of flowers that work well with the tulips.

The gardeners like these purple flowers that resemble blue lupine from the Pine Bush, which is ironic because Washington Park was once Pine Bush covered with blue lupine and swarming with clouds of karner blue butterflies. I thought the little signs poked into the soil next to the flowers called these purple flowers muscaria. But I must be mistaken because muscaria is a mushroom, the kind that poisons you a little bit.

The Tulip Festival is a cleaned up version of the dark and lowborn Pinxter Festival, which was sort of social outlet for the black slaves that dates back to the Dutch occupation of the Hudson Valley. Pinxter was an alternate name for Whitsuntide or the Day of the Ascension. This marks the day in early May when Jesus of Nazareth is said to have ascended to heaven.

But pinxter (or pinkster) is also a kind of pink azalea which blooms all at once at whitsuntide throughout the northeast US, Back in the day it covered open fields and hilltops on the edge of town. Like all azaleas it’s poisonous, but only in large quantities. I have heard that the slaves celebrating Whitsuntide would add the leaves of the pinxter plant to their celebratory hootch to give it extra kick. If that is true, then surely the slaves looked at the blooming of the pinxter flowers with joy and anticipation.

While underclass whites participated in large numbers, the old time Pinxter Festival was clearly an affair run and created by the black slaves. Check out this description based on a written newspaper report from 1803:

In the week preceding Pinkster there was a gradual buildup to the festival "during which, the negroes patrol the streets in the evening more than usual, and begin to practice a little upon the Guinea drum." The slaves also set up an encampment on Pinkster Hill which was to become the "theater of action [emphasis in original]." A series of arbors were constructed by setting stakes in the ground and then weaving through them branches rom a shrub growing on the adjoining plain to create a series of "airy cottages" that were "impervious to solar rays." These shelters, arranged to form an amphitheater in front of the royal arbor, were filled with fruit, cakes, beer, and liquor.

April 24, 2011

Other than money, there’s exactly one very horrible reason why we may end up with a nuke power plant on the outskirts of Albany

*UPDATE* A NY Times article confirms that leading nuke corporations like Exelon are following a strict policy of milking profit out of dying nuke plants near meltdown.

Like most members of his party, freshman Congressman Chris Gibson (NY-20) believes in Big Government and massive public spending. The Republican, newly installed in the gerrymandered district that curls around the City of Albany like the letter C, is loudly calling for at least $10 Billion in federal taxpayer subsidies for a project he wants to locate in his new district.

Nuke Spokesman Wannabe Chris Gibson, Re-pub NY-20

Or, to be more precise, Gibson wants someone to use his district to collect federal money for themselves. But he’s not like the mayor of Albany, angling for penny-ante stuff like a convention center or a discount garbage dump that takes toxic waste. No, Gibson is a congressman now. He’s going for the radioactive gold.

Gibson wants some big corporations to build a nuclear power plant in the Washington County town of Easton. The elected officials of Easton are supportive of his idea, it usually doesn’t cost much to persuade small town politicians to sign on to cash funneling schemes. Dumps, prisons, garbage burn plants, nuclear waste storage facilities, it doesn’t matter what as long as some of that incoming money falls in their direction.

Here’s the problem. Easton is less than three miles east of Saratoga National Park. Easton is about 12 miles from the City of Saratoga Springs. Easton is about 19 miles from downtown Albany,, which is where I live.

If that Big Government nuke money does indeed get funneled through the Town of Easton, you can be sure that Gibson will be standing very close to the falling rain of cash. Very close. After all, taxpayer dollars is what the nuke industry is all about. But what are the chances that such a deadly radioactive time bomb will actually end up being planted 19 miles from our homes in the South End?

Vermont Yankee Nuke Plant Outside Brattleboro, Vermont

In a minute I’ll get back to Chris Gibson and his hoped-for trickle down from the nuke corporations. But first a quiz question. Which currently operating public nuclear power generating plant is located closest to our homes in Albany?

If you said “Indian Point” then you are wrong. If that’s your answer, then you’ve been listening to the corporate media. That particular well-known ominous threat to the Hudson Valley is 97 miles from Albany, outside the tiny village of Buchanan, across the Hudson River from Bear Mountain State Park.

The correct answer, which someday your life may depend on knowing, is the “Vermont Yankee” nuke reactor in Brattleboro, Vermont is the closest public nuke plant to our homes in Albany. That old, overworked, broken down and very leaky pile of contamination is a mere 66 miles from Albany. That’s 31 miles closer than Indian Point. Both are owned by the same holding corporation, which calls itself Entergy.

KAPL In Niskayuna, Operated By Bechtel

(Of course there are a number of private nuclear research facilities located closer to Albany, such as the Knolls site (KAPL) east of Schenectady, and other sites connected to General Electric and Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy. Some of them, I’m told, generate power. But unlike the corporate owned public power plants, these secretive sites try to maintain their anonymity. Thus their owners are usually careful not to draw attention by dumping waste in the communities where they’ve been planted.)

After Vermont Yankee Nuke in Brattleboro melts down – note I did not say “if” I said “after” – then very soon after the disaster the international nuclear regulatory bodies will demand an 80 kilometer evacuation zone around the plant. That’s standard. For example, that’s the size of the dead zone that the Japanese government at last reports is reluctantly extending around Fukushima. This is in response to international pressure… from many nations but not from the United States.

80 kilometers is about 50 miles. When Brattleboro goes up, Boston will be evacuated along with most of Connecticut and New Hampshire and all of Massachusetts. The Vermont Yankee Dead Zone will extend into New York State right up past the village of Easton, the site of Gibson’s proposed nuke plant. This zone of permanent evacuation will extend almost to the Hudson River. Much of Gibson’s Congressional district will be abandoned.

Fukushima Daiichi Reactor #3 On April 10, 2011

Will Vermont Yankee go Fukushima? Former nuke industry executive Arnie Gundersen had this to say on Democracy Now on April 19:

Well, the plants at Fukushima are identical to Vermont Yankee… I was a senior vice president of a company that provided services throughout the industry, including Vermont Yankee, and actually provided the nuclear fuel racks that were used in this design. So, that’s one of the problems at Fukushima, is this Mark I design has its nuclear fuel racks way up in the very top of the building. And it creates an earthquake problem and also a fire and terrorist hazard. And all of those can occur, as well, at Vermont Yankee.

March 31, 2011

The blogger explains why he has developed such a bad attitude toward City of Albany officials, why his attitude is very much justified, and why he may soon have to change his opinion

Several weeks ago, in the middle of a day in the middle of week, a couple of jerks tried to steal copper pipes out of an empty building in my neighborhood. The building is empty because the owner, an outfit located at the end of my street called Jake’s Towing, is subjecting the building to Demolition By Neglect. They want to demolish the building, petition to change the property’s zoning to industrial and park their trucks on this residential plot. But first, they have to let the building disintegrate.

Jake’s, of course, didn’t call the police. I’ve noticed that they carefully leave a few back windows open at 226 S. Swan Street so that no one will have trouble breaking in. This is standard procedure with Demo By Neglect. It was the neighbors living in the house located on the other side of 226 who called the cops. They are new to the neighborhood, you see. That’s why they called the police.

226 South. Swan Street Next To Jake’s Towing:
Demolition By Neglect

That’s when something astonishing happened. The City of Albany Police showed up fast. Seriously, they did. They hauled out the two thieves and arrested them. Me and another person watched the whole thing. A cop stood at the front door of the house restraining a german shepherd dog and called inside, “Come on out or the dog WILL bite you.” The guy came out.

Copper Thief
Charles Moore II

I’m sure the owner of Jake’s Towing was disappointed by the police response. But I was delighted and astonished. The police responded in a timely fashion and did their job! Could this be because of the new command down at police headquarters? Has Denial of Service ended?

At this point you may wonder why I am saying such awful things all the time, why I have such a skeptical bad attitude toward our City governmental officials, including the police. Particularly the police. I want you to know that I don’t develop such extreme attitudes suddenly or on a whim. It takes a lot to get me permanently pissed. So I’ll give you a little bit of an explanation why I have such a bad attitude toward our “leaders.”.

Albany Police Compound On Morton Avenue:
Exactly Three Blocks From 216

On September 1st 1999, a little before seven in the evening, I discovered an elderly neighbor lying prone amid debris on her living room floor. She was 70 years old and had multiple health problems including diabetes. By all appearances she had had a debilitating stroke. When I found her she was conscious enough to tell me she had been lying there helpless since the morning.

This older lady was living in a second floor apartment in a building which I had purchased in 1994, located diagonally across the street from my own home. This was a monthly ritual we had established, I would be sure to visit her on the first and she would give me a rent check right on time. I was one of several people who dropped in on her regularly for one reason or another to make sure she was okay.

A stroke was way more than my slim medical skills could handle. So I quickly made her as comfortable as I could and called Albany City Emergency Services. That is, I talked to an Albany Police dispatcher. I will never forget this conversation which is burned into my memory:

DISPATCHER: What’s your emergency?

ME: I just found one of my neighbors lying on the floor of her apartment. She appears to have had a stroke. She’s been there since at least ten this morning. Can you send the EMS?

DIS: Where are you calling from? [They always ask this first.]

ME: I’m calling from my house across the street. She’s at 216 Morton Avenue, corner of South Swan.

DIS: [Pause, followed by a simpering chuckle.] Did YOU say ‘Morton Avenue?” [Loud and mocking.]

ME: Yes, 216 Morton Avenue. Two blocks downhill from Delaware Avenue.

DIS: [Long pause filled with more simpering.] All right. We’ll send somebody along. [Click off abruptly.]

February 26, 2011

The fastest growing established church in Albany gives The Wife an award, and she neglects to mention her infirmities

What does it take to drag a heathen apostate like myself into a church, any church? On a Sunday morning no less, when the very last thing I want to do is dress up and go socialize. With people. Plus I have to waste a perfectly good morning standing up and sitting down and chanting on cue in honor of one more unconvincing and unnecessary version of the sky-god mythology. I guess you could say I’m religiously incorrect.

Such a bad attitude towards organized religion is guaranteed to get me kicked out of any church, mosque or synagogue the moment I open my mouth. Except for one church that is. Only one mainstream respectable church will put up with my blatant blasphemy. The Wife calls it “the one true church.” It’s located in Albany at 405 Washington Avenue.

The New Sanctuary At The First Unitarian Universalist Society Of Albany, The Light Well At Left

The Wife, you see, is a third generation Unitarian with Universalist ancestors here and there. Members of these two very American churches, which arose from the same colonial New England protestant traditions, had a lot of trouble explaining the difference between the two churches. So in 1961 these two venerable religious institutions merged to become our present Unitarian Universalist Church.

Having been raised Catholic, I felt very uneasy almost with a touch of panic the first time that The Wife dragged me into the old sanctuary of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany (FUUSA, or the UUs.) Surprisingly, this was actually the first time I’d sat through a Protestant ceremony. I enjoyed sitting in this lovely old urban religious building kept in top condition, and the ceremony was straightforward and easy to understand. But I still felt uneasy.

The Old Albany UU Sanctuary, Now A Large Chapel

Then I realized the sanctuary was, for me, disturbingly stark and bare. Churches, I thought as I sat upright ready to bolt out the door, are supposed to be full of stuff. This post-Calvinism was going to take me some getting used to.

Instead of a proper altar up front there was a simple lectern. Instead of several guys dressed like Medieval European princes raising their arms and swishing their robes we had one guy wearing a dark suit. There were absolutely no brass objects to mysteriously move around and bless, no candles to light and snuff out, no incense burners to wave. Anyway, there was no place to put all this stuff. Instead, the guy in the suit stood on the bare stage and lectured us about philosophy.

Where was the blue and white plaster statue of Mary, the ancient Earth Mother incorporated into the new Christian order, with the racks of votive candles and the old ladies dressed in black kneeling in front of her? (Where would God be without his mother?) Where’s the holy water font or the giant cross with the big bloody Jesus? And how about the stained glass? Where was that?

Visiting Minister Chris Anstal Tells The Story Of Sadako And The Thousand Paper Cranes

The old UU sanctuary where I sat had (and still has) the proper big “wall of light” windows. Almost every damn Christian church built since the 1200s AD until the collapse of architectural understanding in the late 20th Century has had these or similar windows. Letting the light enter and fill the sanctuary has always been one of the most positive aspects of organized Christianity, indeed of Western civilization. I’ve always been puzzled why anyone would want to go to church if the church building they were sitting in didn’t have these windows.

As I sat there in the pew I admired the natural sunlight pouring in gloriously and decided that the stained glass was unnecessary. Studying the light I couldn’t help but notice these magnificent jade plants in big pots, one in each deep window well. They’re still there in good health. I keep asking but no one seems to know the origin of these much admired plants. I wonder if they are older than the building, which dates to 1925.

A Famous FUUSA Jade Plant In The Old Sanctuary

We grimly girdled our loins and went to church because they wanted to present The Wife with an award during the service. And a t-shirt. That’s what it takes to get us to go to church. The Wife considers herself A Devout Unitarian, and at her urging we certainly have contributed a fair amount to the church building fund. But the sad fact is that we two heathens have not attended a Sunday morning service since before they started building the new addition to the church, which was completed in 2007. We are surely going to UU hell.

While most mainstream Christian churches in the City of Albany have had steadily falling attendance for decades, the Albany UU Church has been faced with astounding growth. Even at that first service I attended more than two decades ago seating was tight. Through the 1990s they had to hold two services every Sunday morning, and after the turn of the millennium they were even talking about having a third service.

Interestingly, the UUs considered this sign of success a problem that needed to be solved. I mean, at the immigrant Polish Catholic Church that I attended religiously as a child there were always three masses on Sunday mornings. If we didn’t get ready in time to attend the 10 o’clock mass then we would have to go to the 12 Noon “Mass for the Dead,” which I can assure you was far and away the most excruciatingly tedious of the three masses. Plus it cut horribly into Sunday afternoon.

Sam Trumbore

As best as I can figure the Albany UUs considered being forced to have two services to be “divisive to the church community,” a phrase I heard several times. Also, I would guess that minister Sam Trumbore was tired of repeating his sermon word for word every week. Not that I’ve ever heard of Sam shirking work, quite the contrary, but it’s hard enough to be bright and engaging once on a Sunday morning, let alone twice. Even if you’re a minister and used to it.

Thus the only practical solution to this problem of an ever expanding flock was to build more space. But where and how? There were no recent local precedents in our City for expanding an established church, and of course there would be no support from the Albany City government. The congregation had to collectively solve this problem on their own with their own resources.

It was the agreed upon solution to this problem (after much debate) that reflected the strong values and engagement of the Albany UU congregation. First, and most fundamentally, they decided to not abandon the City of Albany. This alone is almost unprecedented, for decades mainstream churches have been hot to follow the money extraction routes out of Albany and exchange their often beautiful urban church buildings for isolated suburban boxes that resemble institutional cafeterias.

Second, the Albany UUs decided not to build a new church building at a different location in the City. They realized (I followed this at a distance while it was being discussed) that the Albany congregation’s identity is very much tied up with the location of their church and with the surrounding neighborhood. The thought, as I understand it, was that a move would irrevocably alter the congregation, probably not for the better.

Finally, they quickly saw that expanding the old sanctuary would destroy it, so there was only one option left. They had to build a big accommodating addition to the building, and relegate the old sanctuary to the status of chapel.

Recycled Chairs And Oak Floorboards In The Balcony

We arrived about a half hour before the 10 AM service. I ran into Board President Chuck Manning, who immediately took me on a tour of the new addition after I told him I hadn’t seen it yet. The new sanctuary is quite impressive, reflecting the collective will of the congregation rather than the personal preferences of some closed minded CEO and foolish board of directors, as is the norm elsewhere. Just about every detail of the new construction was hashed out and settled more or less to everyone’s satisfaction, I understand they burned through three architects before they settled on a final design.

The oak floorboards in the public areas are downright stunning. Chuck made a point of informing me that these floorboards were scavenged from the old public school on South Allen Street, which was being torn down and replaced at the same time the UU addition was being built. Again, what better way to show long term commitment to the community than to save top quality building materials from being piled onto the bloated and unnecessary Rapp Road Dump located in the Pine Bush.

And there’s a balcony way up above the main sitting area. The wooden seats up there were also scavenged from the public school, along with more of the floorboards. I noticed during the service that people sat up there, some leaning over the rail like vultures. I naively asked Chuck if the choir sat up there like in the old Polish church of my youth, but no, the choir, for better or worse, is stationed up front stage left.

View From The Balcony

The new sanctuary is high ceilinged with plenty of seating, very open and not confining. Indeed, the place filled up for the service but did not at all feel crowded. And there was plenty of natural light… a contentious issue that, as far as I could see, was not perfectly resolved.

As I’ve already mentioned, almost all modern designs for new church buildings abandon the walls of light in favor of the mockery of electric light. But apparently a fair and vocal number of Albany UUs not only attended Art History 101 at some college or other, they also paid attention in class.

Practical Christianity is intertwined with natural light. The light is considered the physical evidence of the spiritual realm. Without natural light streaming onto your lap as you sit in a pew and listen, redemption is a hard sell at best. Seriously. But instead of having walls of light on either side of the congregation, the new sanctuary has a big skylight above. And there’s a floor to ceiling window well located in front stage right.

We have to be modern, I suppose. But during the service the skylight was, of course, mostly shaded, and the monumental window well up front collected intense light into the eyes of the assembled congregation. Certainly into my eyes. I found this unnecessarily annoying.

Yes, having the big windows are the prime difference between the structure being a religious building rather than a a cafeteria, thus they are absolutely necessary. But as we can clearly see, the right way to manage light in such a setting is to place the portals on either side of the congregation, not in front and on top. While the Albany UUs are much to be commended for preserving the important tradition of collecting natural light into their sanctuary, it’s a sad shame that basic common sense architecture has been discarded and forgotten and has to be relearned.

FUUSA Board President Chuck Manning Presents The Wife With The Standing On The Side Of Love Award… And A T-shirt

This year was the first time the Albany UUs handed out this award, called Standing on the Side of Love, which is celebrated on the Sunday closest to Valentine’s Day. This project of the national UU congregations began in 2008 in response to the violent political attack against the Tennessee Valley UU Church carried out by a 58 year old terrorist named Jim D. Adkisson. According to CNN:

Police said Adkisson, 58, of Powell, Tennessee, walked into the church’s sanctuary during a children’s musical performance and fired a shotgun before being overpowered by congregants and arrested… According to the affidavit requesting to search Adkisson’s home, the suspect told investigators liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country. Adkisson also blamed Democrats for the country’s decline, according to the affidavit.

January 10, 2011

A sit-in protest at Bath #2 reveals that Mayor Jennings is becoming politically isolated

For the November article on Bath #2 go here.

City of Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings finally managed to shut down our South End swimming pool. Bath House #2. But we didn’t let Him deprive us of our pool without a fight.

We neighborhood taxpayers announced that for the last scheduled day of Bath #2 there would be a pool party open to all. Our plans had one little complication, though. The Albany City government planned to unofficially shut down a day and a half early before the New Year’s holiday like it usually does before holidays. Thus the pool was to be barred from access early at 1 PM on Thursday Dec 30 so the City employees could get an extra day off with pay.

So we announced our pool party for Thursday morning anyway. But that’s not all we did. We planned to stay inside Bath #2 and not let them close it. We weren’t gonna leave! If old Jerry wanted to hurt our neighborhood again so He can have a chuckle over drinks down at the golf course that we all heavily subsidize for Him and His cronies, well, He was going to have to endure some public embarrassment. from us.

Albany’s Bath #2 In The Camera Sights

For well more than ten years the City administration has been keeping the existence of Bath #2 a virtual secret, performing minimal maintenance while quietly discouraging both individuals and institutions from using the pool. The idea has been the usual one. If people slowly stop using the pool because it is so neglected, then eventually no one will notice when the beautiful registered historic building is bulldozed and the land sold to speculators. This is quite profitable to certain elected officials. It’s called Demolition By Neglect.

Swimmers Cavort While The Wife Gives An Interview

Considering that this action was planned for a weekday morning a fair number of people showed up to occupy the pool. Of course we would have had more taxpayers show up if the pool had been scheduled to close in the evening like it usually does. And if this were next week when school was in session we would have had a big crowd of kids from the Free School, which is over in the Mansion neighborhood.

Bath #2 is the Free School’s only accessible indoor pool now that the Washington Avenue YMCA has been abandoned by its’ corporation. One day last month a herd of little kids from the Free School showed up at Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings’ office in City Hall to ask Him to please not close our pool. Jennings hid inside His office for over two hours, only coming out when it became clear that the kids would not go away.

That’s what it takes in this town. It’s always been the Mayor and His minions versus the taxpayers. No wonder so many unthinking people hate the government, it’s the one part of planned systemic failure that is visible to the public.

Milling Around The Lobby, Making Posters

As for Jerry Jennings, He is determined to destroy this public amenity that He hates so much, that caused him so much humiliation by the late Alfrieda Textores back in the 1990s. As was well reported by the corporate media, this past month Jennings vetoed the Common Council amendment to the budget that would have kept Bath #2 open, and the Council failed to override His veto.

His Majesty managed to buy off certain members of the Common Council who should have known better. Most notable is Lester Freeman (2nd Ward) who has been using radical right wing rhetoric to insist that Bath #2 be shuttered. “We can’t coddle people with the nanny state,” is his standard public line about our pool. “We can’t continue to afford to subsidize these kinds of money pits,” I’ve heard him say.

Lester Freeman "Embarrassed" By Bath #2

I think Lester, who is not exactly a genius, wants to offer himself to the Republican Party. For cash, of course. That’s why he’s practicing their phrases. I hear the Re-pubs are looking for guys like him to show to the media, you know, to give the impression that they are more than a bunch of white bigots. I believe Lester is going for the gold.

Despite the early hour people were already arriving at 11 AM when I showed up on Fourth Avenue with The Wife. South End citizen Jacqui Williams was already there, she has been the major organizer of neighborhood resistance to Jerry’s pool closing. A fair number of supporters greeted us when we walked into the lobby, and people continued to arrive and join the protest.

i wandered into the pool area and found Common Council member Jim Sano (Ward 9) was just getting out of the water. To everyone’s astonishment Mr. Sano, who is very concerned about physical health and education, has broken with the Mayor over destroying Bath #2. Gaining courage from Mr. Sano’s defiance, council members Mike O’Brien (Ward 12) and John Rosenzweig (Ward 8,) have also defied the Mayor for the first time over this issue.

Willie White And Common Council Member James Sano
By The Pool

I had an interesting conversation with Mr. Sano, he wants to see more institutional use of the pool, such as by churches and schools. And he would like to see some private support for the pool, such as from the local health clinics that send elderly folks down to Bath #2 for hydrotherapy. Bath #2, which is shallow and warm, has proven perfect for the old folks who have trouble with their limbs.

Mr. Sano said to me, “The nearby ‘charter’ schools could incorporate the pool into their programs.” Then he glanced at me with alarm, suddenly remembering my stand on privatizing the school system. But I said to him, “Sure, Brighter Choice has sucked so much money out of the community, I’d like to see them put a little tiny bit of our money back into it.” That was not quite what Mr. Sano wanted to hear.

After Mr. Sano left the pool area, Willie White of Avillage (and Trinity Institution) stared into the water and said to me, “This is a tragedy. Closing this pool is a real tragedy.” I said to him, “It’s more than a tragedy. It’s a crime and the people closing it are criminals.” Yeah, I have a way of ruining perfectly good conversations. It’s my super power.

Dominick Calsolaro (1st Ward) Talks TV
In The Hallway Of Bath #2

The one advantage of holding this defiant action in the middle of a weekday before a holiday is that not much else was going on in the City. The corporate media showed up in force and camped out with us hoping for a riot or at least a police beating. Unfortunately for the content providers there were too many respectable community members present and we the people weren’t interested in random violence that they could use.

I got the impression that the content providers preferred to hang around the pool rather than go back and sit in their cubicles sipping bad coffee hoping for some nearby house to catch fire. It was clear to me they were not sympathetic to us when they arrived, but during our occupation of Bath #2 I could see that their withered suburban souls could not help but be impressed by our obvious passion for our urban pool. These corporate foot soldiers probably don’t encounter much genuine sincerity in their line of work.

TV Content Providers By The Pool

The prevailing line that has been running through the corporate media reports is that the majority of Bath #2 supporters live outside of the City of Albany. This is a downright lie. The majority of the taxpayers who were present at this action live in or near the South End and they use the pool… or would if we all knew about it.

Hearst Content Provider Stephanie Lee

I talked to one fellow who has lived maybe a five minute walk from the pool for more than 20 years. He told me that he was using the pool for the first time that day! “I wish somebody had told me about it,” he said. Now, exactly whose fault is it that people in the neighborhood who wanted to use the pool didn’t even know that it existed?

Hearst Times Union content provider Stephanie Lee stayed for the entire occupation doing interviews and taking notes. Yet I noticed that she was carefully selecting people to interview who did not live in the South End. Her resulting lame report, accompanied by a couple of deliberately bad photos, demonstrates that she was instructed by her managers to go negative and push that falsehood about us not living in our own neighborhood.

I shouldn’t be so hard on Ms. Lee, if her bosses at the Hearst Rag tell her to write lousy misleading copy it’s really not her fault. After all, do you blame the kid who flips hamburgers at McDonalds for the poor quality of the burger? Perhaps Ms. Lee will eventually decide to leave her job at Hearst and instead pursue a career in journalism.

Setting Up For The Media Event

About quarter after Noon people got out of the pool, changed clothes and drifted outside to put on a display for the content providers. We lined up on the entrance ramp at the front doors and held signs for the cameras. And as is usual in these choreographed displays, there was a lot of standing around waiting for the content providers to start recording.

Front and center on the ramp with all eyes and ears on her, clutching a bouquet of red carnations, Jacqui Williams held up a phone and called Mayor Jerry Jennings’ office. We had a list of demands for him with which we expected the City administration to comply. They are quite reasonable:

We, the People of the Community and Swimmers, Demand:

1) A meeting with Mayor Gerald Jennings to discuss keeping the pool open

2) The Mayor use his power as a member of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to fund Bath #2 for 2011.

3) An engineering and architectural assessment be conducted on Bath #2 to determine the costs of repairs and renovations.

4) The City research and access historical and community center grants to fund Bath #2 into the future

5) That the Mayor and the Common Council should listen to the community

Okay, perhaps #5 is pure fantasy. But the other four are more than reasonable, including #3 which sounds expensive but doesn’t have to be. Back in 2002 when Jennings tried to shut down (and privatize) our Lincoln Park Pool, members of the South End community conducted an engineering assessment on their own at no cost to the City. (Jennings, I recall, was visibly not pleased by the community taking charge from Him like that and saving tax dollars.)

From Left, Barbara Smith (Ward 4) Mike O’Brien (Ward 12) Dominick Calsolaro (Ward 1) Leah Golby (Ward 10) The Wife, Jacqui Williams With Red Carnations

Now remember, like almost everybody else Jerry Jennings has a mobile phone pressed to His ear and can be reached anytime. But His secretary told Jacqui, predictably, that the Mayor was not available and could not be reached. No, she did not know when He might be available.

Jacqui then repeated out loud to everyone what the secretary had just told her. And for good measure she repeated to the secretary what she had just told the crowd and the media arrayed before her, that the Mayor was not available and never would be. Everyone listened carefully with anticipation.

The secretary caught on that this was “political,” so she handed off the call to Bob Van Amburgh, who functions as Jennings’ personal assistant. No, he told us, he couldn’t reach the Mayor either. “But,” said Van Amburgh, “If you send a representative to City Hall next week we can schedule an appointment for some time in the future.”

He really said that. I’m sure that Van Amburgh could hear the laughter and groans over the phone. Jacqui, who doesn’t take any guff, continued to demand an audience with His Majesty. Finally Van Amburgh, perhaps with Jennings standing right there making gestures at him, agreed to an audience with us within the next two weeks.

Jacqui Williams (Right) Talks To Mayor Jennings’ Assistants

As 1 PM approached I could see people in the lobby becoming nervous, and sure enough some people left rather than be beaten and trampled by riot police. Well, okay, that was unlikely in the extreme, but we were very deliberately breaking acceptable social behavior, i.e. not leaving when we were supposed to. It’s funny how such mild misbehaviors, if done right, can cause such massive consternation by the authorities.

Sue Cerniglia, Last Person To Use The Pool: "I Feel Like A Prune!"

A young fellow named Joe was in charge of Bath #2 on this last day, working as both a lifeguard and as a dollar taker (the pool cost all of one dollar to use.) Now, Joe is a real nice guy and wanted no trouble with anyone, but we couldn’t clue him in to our real intentions ahead of time because, after all, he represented the authorities. When 1 PM passed and a crowd of us refused to let him close the building, he became very upset.

Poor Joe called his bosses over at the City Recreation Department but suddenly none of them could be reached. That’s right, they left Joe hanging on the clothesline during a hurricane. (For those of you who are not familiar with working class jobs, this is pretty typical. The middle class supervisors demand total allegiance from their employees, but at the first sign of trouble they behave like their own bosses and take no personal responsibility for anything.)

Left dangling and completely isolated, left in charge of a part of the world that had gone crazy without warning, Joe called the Albany police. I wish I knew exactly what Joe said over the phone in order to get a response from the police dispatcher. I’ll use it next time I need to call the police. In short order a squad car arrived and was left parked in the middle of the street, the way the cops park when they are approaching a Situation.

The two young officers entered the building and took a good look at these angry people being led by respectable community elders and elected officials. They quite wisely decided to call for backup rather than start confronting people who were about the same age as their parents. And grandparents. While they waited the two boys stayed behind the counter and refrained from giving anybody dirty looks.

Joe Talks To The Cops

Before we started the occupation of Bath #2 a lot of people were concerned that there were going to be mass arrests and assaults by bloodthirsty Albany police SWAT teams. Folks in the South End, in particular, know all too well that the traditional law enforcement technique practiced by the Albany Police has been to either shoot it or ignore it. In other words, the fear was that if the cops are forced to show up and do police work, they are going to be angry and will hurt anybody they can get their hands on.

It was a little hard to convince folks ahead of time that this was unlikely and that sort of thing may become less likely as time goes on. Except for a few detectives and union guys, the bad lazy Old Boy baby boomer cops are all retired. There is a younger new order in charge down at the Albany police headquarters which is making sweeping fundamental changes. In fact, Albany’s Chief of Police Steven Krokoff just turned 40 this past year.

Jerry Jennings no longer controls the Albany Police, a matter which distresses Him greatly. No, the police were not going to beat heads and tase bodies for a Mayor who is visibly losing His control of the City. Besides, a fair number of us occupying Bath #2 have been enthusiastically supporting the new police administration. The cops were not likely to beat up their own constituency without lots of provocation.

Recreation Department Officials Show Up

After the police arrived at Bath #2, a couple of Joe’s bosses found the courage to show up. I haven’t been able to confirm this, but I’ve heard that the police phoned the Recreation Department and told these clowns to get their butts down to the pool. The two of them had enough sense to stay behind the counter, where they both looked stern and glared at us a lot.

A little before 2 PM Assistant Chief of Police Tony Bruno arrived to deal with the Situation. Okay, this was what we wanted, a little respect here. Neither Jerry Jennings nor any of His appointed minions had the courage to face us on our terms, so the police had to do their political work. I’m happy to say that the new police administration handled this “crisis” way much better than the Mayor did.

(BTW, anyone who is thinking of a similar type mildly defiant action like this should understand that no elected or appointed official has the right or authority to physically eject you from the place that you occupy. Not even the Mayor. If He lays one finger on anyone He has committed a felony. Only a police officer has the legal authority to forcibly eject you. For more details on how this works, read the main body of the US Constitution.)

Assistant Police Chief Tony "No Relation To Joe" Bruno
And The Wife

Chief Bruno kept it low key and friendly. Holding a red carnation, he told me that he grew up “on a street off Second Avenue” in the South End and that he swam in Bath #2 as a kid. I took this to mean that he understood what we were about and that he sympathized. “Hey, we’re all on the same side here,” he said to me.

It turns out that Chief Bruno is not a Baby Boomer as I’d written on this blog last summer, it turns out that he is 44 years old. “I missed it by a few years. I know I look older,” he added, and then for my benefit claimed that his receding hairline was caused by repeatedly slapping his hands against his forehead. (I’ve heard him say that before, which makes me think that might be more than a jest.)

Efficiently and almost imperceptibly Chief Bruno herded us out of the pool area and got us to start moving out of the lobby. Jacqui Williams commanded me to take down the posters that we had hung along one wall and people started packing up. One of the Recreation Department guys still standing behind the counter bellowed, “Everyone has to leave the building NOW.” No one paid him any attention.

Jacqui Williams Announces The End Of The Occupation

We all filed out by 2:30 and Bath #2 was closed, at least for now. If our cold resentful Mayor Jerry Jennings has His way, and if our self-serving neighborhood representative Lester Freeman gets his way, the taxpayers will be barred from the pool forever. We, the people of the South End, do not intend to let this happen. That’s where things stand at the beginning of the new year.

Oh yeah, the red carnations. One lady brought a bouquet of them, the plan was to toss them into the pool when it was closing time as a sort of funereal goodbye. But we found out that Joe the lifeguard, as the guy in charge, would have had to pick them out of the water. So we gave them to the City officials instead. That’s how bad we were.

 

Read here for Leah Golby’s Twitter feed texted during the Bath #2 action!

Prior Post * * * Next Post

 

July 31, 2010

Construction begins in earnest on and near the bottom of Morton Avenue in the South End

Groundbreaking ceremonies tend to be silly, forgettable affairs. A bunch of elected officials and a smattering of obscure bureaucrats take turns congratulating each other in front of the corporate media. The leaders of society then line up with shovels in front of a pile of dirt and for a few seconds pretend to work like real people while the cameras roll.

Admittedly such events often serve a purpose other than to massage political egos. They can help to focus public attention on a project or series of projects that need to be noticed. Without question, an essential component of the Phase 2 reconstruction of the downhill parts of Morton Avenue in the South End of Albany is public visibility.

This little $10 million dollar project is also meant to begin to meet the tremendous demand for housing in downtown Albany. But in terms of overall strategy, the idea is to “kick start” responsible private investment in the South End by showing investors that the City is behind their potential investments and will not abandon the neighborhood on a political whim.

So let the politicians pose and gabble for their 15 second sound bites on the evening TV “news.“ Let them in turn advertise their official approval of the reconstruction. That’s their job.

Our Leaders Agitate The Dirt For The Cameras

There was a well attended groundbreaking ceremony on July 14 at 90 Morton Avenue, an empty lot wedged between the recently rebuilt Eagle Court Apartments building and another vacant building half suspended in legal limbo. There will be two 3-story homes built on the site for a total of six 2-bedroom apartments. Overall, a mere 43 living units are being constructed in the surrounding neighborhood, but to the casual observer the project looks a whole lot bigger.

There used to be a multiunit apartment building at 90 Morton Avenue, owned by Bruce Ploof, brother of the notorious slumlord Roger. One Friday around ten years ago the building caught fire, by Monday morning the big brick structure had been carted away to the Rapp Road “Landfill” and nothing was left on the site except dirt. I’ve always wished we could see this kind of miraculous efficiency when it comes to preserving Albany’s buildings and enforcing building codes.

I would talk to Bruce every so often. He hated owning the building and paying his brother Roger an exorbitant mortgage, he hated dealing with the less than ideal tenants that his brother sent him. “I’d get out from under it if I could,” he told me. The fire and the quick efficient demolition solved his problem.

Since then 90 Morton has been a vacant, grassy lot. I considered it a good sign that somebody, presumably the City, mowed the grass and picked up debris for the past ten years.

Corporate Media Points Cameras

On the downhill east side of 90 Morton are two attached vacant buildings, 84 and 86 Morton Avenue. AHA has acquired 86 and will be renovating it as part of this Phase 2 project. (Eight phases are planned.) But 84 is still owned by a downstate “investor” named Martha Hobbs, who is going through some sort of bankruptcy. The City has been applying pressure, Steve Longo really wants to renovate that boarded up mess.

This whole project is Steve Longo’s baby. The head of Albany Housing Authority (AHA) has worked long and hard to make this happen, drawing up plans and “cobbling together” funding from a variety of sources. I know for a fact that he has put in at least 11 years of work on rebuilding the South End, I first heard him describe his plans in 1999.

Steve Longo At The Podium

So it was perfectly appropriate that Mr. Longo act as the master of ceremonies for the groundbreaking. After all, without him few of these politicians and bureaucrats would normally have any reason whatsoever to descend into the unglamorous South End. But now that Mr. Longo’s efforts are showing spectacular results, they all want to be seen with the success.

Most of the speeches for the TV cameras were vapid fluff but thankfully all were short. His Majesty Jerry Jennings the Mayor of Albany was of course first to speak. We learned from Him that 30 percent of the construction jobs for the project are supposed to be filled by City of Albany residents. Totally unprecedented.

This sensible new policy is partly due to efforts by activist Tom McPheeters, and also by Carolyn McLaughlin, back when she was a mere Common Council member and not The President. From what I could see, Tom did the basic dirty work that brought this issue to the public. Carolyn, meanwhile, used her “seat at the table” to introduce this new attitude toward City employment into City Hall.

And of course, Treasurer Kathy Sheehan’s recent explosive report on employment in the City has had an effect. In general, City employees who are suburbanites are paid more, receive more benefits and have more job security than City employees who actually live within the City limits. Even the Common Council has focused on this serious inequity. Ms. Sheehan’s report makes official what everybody already knows.

Mayor Jerry Jennings At The Podium

This is a huge problem, one that has been quite characteristic of the Jennings administration. Almost all City sponsored construction jobs have traditionally been reserved for suburbanites, and most of the higher paying City jobs have also been given to people who don’t pay taxes in the City. Because of this bizarre employment policy, City of Albany taxpayers have been paying a large portion of their taxes to suburban municipalities via City employees.

And you wonder why the City has a budget crisis. The fact that Jennings himself announced this major change to His employment policy indicates that this issue has taken on a life of it’s own. The Mayor would never even think to recycle some employee wages back into the City economy unless He felt compelled to do so by public opinion.

This new revised employment policy gives some hiring preference to City residents, but not necessarily to people who live in the South End. All too many people who live in this part of town have been unemployed for so long that they have no idea how to find and hold a “real job.” That’s what happens to people when you systematically loot their community and deliberately isolate it from investment for more than half a century.

Contrary to standard suburbanite propaganda, folks around here desperately want to work and bring a little dignity to their lives. Almost every time I do any work to the outside of my buildings on upper Morton Avenue, cleaning up or painting or whatever, I get approached by people asking me for work. “Hey, you need a painter I can paint. Lemme mow your grass. I can fix stuff, too.”

I have a few folks I trust to do occasional work for me, but most of these guys who accost me on the street usually turn out to be more trouble than they are worth paying. Not that most of them are untrustworthy, but usually I’ll have to closely supervise these folks and carefully instruct them how to do the job. I don’t have the time or money to train people.

Three Homes Under Construction On Catherine Street Behind Morton Avenue

I chatted with the foreman for the Phase 2 construction project early one Saturday morning, a guy named Gary. He also deals with folks looking for work. “I had a fellow come to me the other day, said he wanted work. But he said he was only available between ten and two a couple of days a week. I told him to go talk to Albany Housing.”

For those of you who are not familiar with construction jobs, and I know there are a lot of you out there, it is essential that the employee be available when the work needs to be done. I see these guys on this project out working on the buildings at 7 AM every day until late afternoon. And mainly because the project started late for the season I see them working Saturdays. too.

Once again, Steve Longo to the rescue. AHA has a program that begins by teaching the applicants how to find and hold a job. If that makes you snort with derision, sittng in your cubicle reading this instead of “working,” please consider your younger years and the long learning curve you followed reluctantly when you first went out to work for The Man. Now consider what would have happened to your “career” if you grew up in a place where there were no jobs and you never had an opportunity to learn to obey a boss for money.

The program also teaches job skills, particularly construction. There are supposed to be eight phases of development for these South end projects so there will be plenty of work in the future. The idea is that by investing in training AHA will create a pool of local workers who are ready to lend their skills to the later phases of construction.

Construction Of Homes Along Morton Avenue

Not too long ago there was an undisputed understanding among our elected officials that Cities, such as Albany, have become outmoded. Our chosen leaders of society sincerely believed that “no one” wanted to live in a comfortably efficient urban environment with convenient goods and services. Instead, they imagined, “everyone” wants to reside in an isolated housing unit located nowhere at all and only accessible by automobile.

So throughout the second half of the violent and wasteful 20th Century and into our own century, all too many of our elected officials have worked steadily to ruin and ultimately flatten our urban environments, obliterate our Cities. Through an interlocking set of subsidies and tax laws, our politicians have seen to it that wealth has been drained from our sustainable Cities and squandered by the disposable suburbs.

Current Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings is one of these enthusiastic anti-urban politicians. His is actually the third City administration in a row that has worked to ruin Albany beginning with the ascension of Erastus “The Mayor” Corning in 1942 and continuing through Jerry’s alcoholic predecessor Thomas Whalen.

Corning and Whalen are gone forever, I’m happy to report. Jennings continues in office as an anti-urban relic of the last century. But He no longer has a free hand to do whatever He wants to Albany. In order to stay in office and continue to collect His share of the pie He has been forced to accede to public demands and reluctantly start rebuilding the City that He and His predecessors have worked so hard to destroy.

Construction Of Homes Nearby On Clinton Street

You see, hating Cities is rapidly going out of style in the face of reality. Marking time in the suburbs, depending on cars, buying lots of gasoline and paying high taxes is becoming an unreasonable burden for more and more people. And let’s not forget the numbing dullness of suburbia, the isolation caused by lack of public space limits an individual’s options and opportunities.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard suburbanites say to me, “I don’t like the suburbs but the City is so run down, the schools are terrible, the police don’t respond to calls etc.” It’s hard to argue with that. Who wants to live in a place where the people in charge don’t want you to live there?

Over the years I’ve heard many people ask rhetorically, “Why is Morton Avenue so run down? You’ve got sturdy 150 year old houses overlooking the park, a short walk from downtown and from neighborhoods like Lark Street and Delaware Avenue. Who wouldn’t want to live there?”

Brick House On Morton Avenue To Be Renovated

Well, for a while no one in their right minds wanted to live here except nuts like me. Meanwhile, those of us who prefer to live here have been considered “undesirables” (a broad category that includes among others criminals, lunatics, working class black people and nuts like me) and we were treated accordingly by City officials and police.

Decades of warfare by the Albany City government against our neighborhood had left much of Morton Avenue a depopulated shambles. The “lower end of Morton Avenue,” down the hill across from the police station reminded the casual observer of a war zone, like a neighborhood in Port-Au-Prince after the earthquake or Gaza after the shelling.

In the 1990s when things hit their lowest point, it looked like the City politicians would succeed in their plan of leveling lower Morton, presumably with the idea of eventually selling off the vacant land and lining their pockets. And there were signs that the City was looking at the rest of Morton Avenue the same way, as ripe for Urban Removal.

But some of us who live on or near the “upper end of Morton” had other ideas. We started to rebuild our houses and try to take care of our neighborhood. I personally made a huge difference by defiantly moving garbage cans out of the alleyways and by picking up trash on the street. It took a while but eventually my neighbors started to pick up trash. I recommend that everyone do the same in their own neighborhoods.

By the early 2000s people who drove cars through our neighborhood began to notice and say, “You know, the upper part of Morton isn’t so bad, it’s starting to look okay.” I have to say that I enjoyed hearing that. Maybe soon people will start saying the same about the lower part of Morton Avenue.

Our defiance of City anti-urban policy initially did not sit well with the authorities, they retaliated heavily against our neighborhood. But things are different today, their retaliation did not have the desired effect on us like it used to. Personally, I just got angrier. City Hall has been forced to respond positively to our defiance. And that’s why we were out at the groundbreaking for 90 Morton listening to the politicians congratulate each other.

Former Scavo’s Market On Morton Avenue To Be Replaced By Housing

Steve Longo was the host but this was, naturally, Mayor Jennings’ show. He got to determine who could speak and who got to agitate the dirt pile with shovels spray painted gold. Understand that politicians live for these kinds of events, the chance to be seen and heard on TV. If you understand that then you can see how His Majesty uses events like this to dole out favors and punishments to lesser City politicians.

For example, City of Albany Treasurer Kathy Sheehan showed up, but Jennings did not even acknowledge her presence let alone let her participate. You know that if former Treasurer Betty Barnette had shown up He would have cast His benevolent light upon her. Barnette, you see, was a loyal Jennings minion who never issued any embarrassing reports about City finances.

I spotted our new Chief of Police Stephen Krokoff along with Assistant Chief Tony Bruno standing off to the fringes, but again Jennings made not the slightest indication that they were present. Former Chief James Tuffey often showed up at these kinds of events and was usually made visible by the Mayor. Just one more public snub of Chief Krokoff by His Majesty, who didn’t even call a press conference last month to announce his selection as Chief.

Albany County Executive Mike Breslin

Most of the speeches were like the wind, impossible to catch and gone in a moment. An exception was a comment made by Albany County Executive Mike Breslin. Mr. Breslin is not noted for his speech making abilities, but I’ve found that when he does stand at the podium he usually has at least one interesting thing to say.

I didn’t record the exact quote but this is what I jotted down in the margins of my official program of the event. We at the County, Mr. Breslin said, give millions of dollars to people who are looking for a better life. But the people we give that money to cannot convert that money into a decent life unless they have decent housing.

The more I consider that statement the more profound it becomes. What good is a family and a job if you don’t have a place you can call home, a place you want to call home? One could argue that housing is more than a fundamental individual right, it is an essential component that keeps our society from falling apart and collapsing one neighborhood at a time.

Then there was my County Legislator Luci McKnight. She has an occasional habit of saying out loud what other people present don’t want to hear. (I have the same problem, only worse.) Standing at the podium she declared, “People are going to see the new streetscape and not know about the drugs and crime we’ve had to live with for decades.”

There followed several seconds of embarrassed silence under the tent, made heavier by the presence of all those big politicians and TV cameras. How dare she mention the past! You see, the last thing most politicians and media types want is for the public to remember the past, public memory cuts deeply into their ability to control public opinion.

That’s my prime fear about all this. Once the ugliness has been repaired, people will forget that the government imposed blight upon the South End almost destroying it. They will forget that the neighbors, sick of blight, refused to be intimidated into silence and demanded that their government fix the problems it caused. People will forget that the people are ultimately responsible for the upkeep of the community, and upkeep includes making sure that the government is working for us.

90 Morton Avenue One Week Later, 7:15 AM

But here’s the funny thing. This media event resulted in almost no media coverage. I found hardly any corporate media reports via google. I did hear someone say that Ken Screven from channel 10 served up some of his usual negative sound bites about the South End, but that’s all. I wonder why the suburbanite corporate media managers felt compelled to kill this story of success in the South End.

All those big politicians and all those big TV cameras. But inside the corporate media bubble it was like nothing ever happened at 90 Morton Avenue. If the point of this event was to get media exposure then the event was a near failure. Thank goodness a blogger was present.

*** EXAMINE some of the documents that made this reconstruction project possible. ***

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June 22, 2010

Congratulations to Albany’s new Chief of Police Steven Krokoff, let’s see if he can keep the promises that got him the job

The room was packed, corporate TV camera crews lined the walls getting in everybody’s way. It was an extraordinary, jaw-dropping event and we sat there stunned and amazed, wondering if this could really be happening. It was January 2010, the first Wednesday of the new decade, and the top brass of the Albany Police Department stood before us at the Council of Albany Neighborhood meeting (CANA) at the main library.

We had four chiefs in full dress uniform, all in a row, come to make peace with the taxpayers. There was Assistant Chief Steven Krokoff, Deputy Chief Steven Reilly, Deputy Chief Brendan Cox, and Assistant Chief Anthony Bruno. There was no Chief of Police in front of us because the last Chief of Police, James Tuffey, resigned in September of last year just before the elections.

And I almost immediately noted that all four of these chiefs were much younger than me. Only Chief Bruno could be called a baby boomer. The other three were too young to be identified as Old Boys, this was the new generation. I’ll get back to that.

The Four Chiefs At CANA, January 2010. From Left, Steven Krokoff, Steven Reilly, Brendan Cox And Anthony Bruno.
(From ACT)

Chief Krokoff and company had come to tell us that there has been a lack of communication between the police and the taxpayers who support the police. That’s putting it mildly. And he stated that despite a recent drop in official crime statistics the public still has the perception that the police are not doing an adequate job. Now, where could that have come from?

I can’t speak authoritatively about other parts of the City, but I can speak about my own. Since I moved to my South End neighborhood in 1985, I’ve observed that until very recently the Albany police department has been engaged in open warfare against my neighborhood. This policy by the police department has worked very nicely with the anti-urban policies of the Albany City government, thus the police enjoyed no public oversight for a long time.

What do I mean by open warfare? I’m referring to cops coming to the doors of white homeowners (only the white ones) and telling them to move out of the City. I’m talking about cops who openly treat respectable hard working citizens (such as myself) the same way they treat repeat offenders. I’m talking about cops who practice Denial of Service, refusing to respond to emergency calls, or even do routine police work.

That’s for starters. I want to start ranting here, detailing one example after another how over the years in my neighborhood the Albany Police have effectively protected criminals and worked to downgrade my neighborhood. instead of interrupting the narrative flow, I’ll say that police pressure against my neighborhood is nowhere near as bad as it was, say, five or ten years ago. There has been a change toward the positive, slow in progress, but steadily better.

Future Chief Of Police Krokoff Choosing His Words Carefully At CANA (From ACT)

So to sit at the CANA meeting at the main library and hear the police top brass say that “there have been problems in the past” and that the police “need to work closer with the community” was like being part of an unreal dream. A good dream, not the continuation of the lingering nightmare. Chief Krokoff humbly proposed calling off the police war against the community once and for all:

We have gotten away from community oriented policing, the police have gone in one direction and the community another. We have had some successes, but the problem is we’re not working together… What we are hoping to do is bring a real community policing policy to the Albany Police Department.

June 2, 2010

A routine backroom tax hike becomes controversial and reveals some of the forces at work inside the new Common Council

For the first time in living memory, a City of Albany Common Council has openly defied a sitting mayor on a matter of substance. It began when Jerry Jennings demanded money from the taxpayers, as usual, this time in the form of interest bearing bonds to pay for expanding Jerry Jennings’ Memorial Dump, officially known as the Rapp Road “Landfill.” This is Jennings’ personal permanent legacy, a mountain of leaking garbage rippled with toxic sludge that He has dumped upon the City that He despises.

Rather than dumbly and stupidly agree to carry out Mayor Jerry Jennings orders without question like they almost always do, some of the Common Council members actually demanded for a little while that the Mayor explain why He “needs” to force City of Albany taxpayers to subsidize corporate waste haulers with this bond. Of course no explanations for this subsidy were forthcoming from the Mayor, that was not an option.

No one is allowed to know anything about the City of Albany budget. Secrecy, you see, is a method of control. An open budget would mean final loss of control by Jennings, and possibly public exposure of criminal activities that His Majesty desperately needs to conceal. The Mayor is raising our taxes to pay for His Dump, why is not our concern.

Part Of The Rapp Road "Landfill," Note How Waste Is Encroaching Upon The Green "Restored" Part Of The Dump {Photo Bert Schou}

This Dump Fee Bond vote was one of four Dump bonds that Jennings had ordered the Common Council to approve. The Mayor’s majority minions on the Council were easily able to saddle the taxpayers with three of these bonds without any trouble. The one particular act of bonding that was temporarily held up by the Council is an $18 million dollar bond issue for “restoration of the Pine Bush,” actually a temporary dirt cap for one part of The Dump.

Jerry Jennings

Yes, that’s right. Never mind that this sort of “restoration” on top of Jennings’ mountain of garbage and toxic sludge is utterly bogus and a complete waste of money. No pitch pine trees or karner blue butterflies will ever live there again. This phony “restoration” is meant to do nothing more than conceal the sight and smell of the “landfill” mountain of crap for a little while… until more garbage is dropped on top of the “restoration.”

The State of New York, you see, has mandated that an extra ten dollars must be charged for each ton of crap dumped onto the new expanded part of The Dump. Now if the State followed it’s own rules it would shut down Jerry’s Dump today. But rather than set an example by obeying it’s own laws, the State once again came up with some sort of lame-o “mitigation,” this includes the extra fee that is supposed to be paid by the corporate waste haulers.

If the City does not collect the fee, the State won’t let Jennings expand His Dump. But Jerry Jennings cannot bring Himself to charge His corporate waste hauler buddies this extra fee as the State intended. Instead, He is demanding that Albany taxpayers pay the fee, plus interest.

His justification for urinating on the taxpayers instead of charging the corporate haulers has been to point out that there is indeed a massive glut of available landfill space locally, and that the Jennings Memorial Dump, which already charges half what other dumps charge, “must remain competitive.” But the corporate haulers have already said that if they have to pay the extra ten bucks a ton they will do so. The existing fees for dumping on Albany are so cheap that they don’t really mind.

What it comes down to is that Jennings loves and admires corporate waste haulers and He despises the City taxpayers. I know that sounds crass but unfortunately that’s the sad truth. Our Mayor is working through His own mental problems by destroying “His” own community. If you don’t believe that, then take a ride out Washington Avenue Extension and look up at the sky. You come up with a better explanation for why He piled all that shit on top of the Pine Bush.

Plastic Bags Constantly Blow Off The Rapp Road "Landfill" And Kill Pine Bush Vegetation {Photo Bert Schou}

The trouble started when the Dump Fee Bond vote came up for the first time. Freshman Council member Lester Freeman (Ward 2) suddenly and dramatically joined with the responsible minority and voted “no.” You see, there are fifteen members of the Council. Bonding away our future needs a super-majority of two thirds, ten votes. Mr. Freeman’s unanticipated no vote added number six to the minority of five and brought Jennings’ Dump Bond Fee to a standstill.

What made his vote a real shocker for regular observers of the Albany political scene is that Mr. Freeman has previously had a reputation for pandering to the Mayor. Indeed, the initial reactions that I heard were pretty much wondering what the 2nd Ward member was trying to pull. I have to admit that after a moment of cognitive dissonance (“Who? Lester? You sure about that?”) I shared the same opinion.

Lester Freeman

Several days after the vote I had an opportunity to chat with Mr. Freeman, I asked him why the no vote. To my surprise he told me that he couldn’t vote for a bonding measure without seeing some sort of financial justification for issuing more bonds. “The administration has to provide the Council with an accounting of the costs associated with the Landfill,” he said. “I can’t vote for something I don’t understand.”

Another moment of cognitive dissonance, I’m not used to hearing Council members other than my own representative Mr. Calsolaro making statements like that. I then informed Mr. Freeman that Save the Pine Bush has been repeatedly asking the City for a full cost accounting of The Dump every year for over ten years without any success. His reaction to this bit of information was to stare at me with his mouth open for about five seconds, his own moment of cognitive dissonance.

Very interesting! I have two interpretations of Mr. Freeman’s reaction to my news. First, up until that point he must have assumed that of course the City has had at least some sort of accounting available and that the Mayor simply chose to withhold it from the Council. Any reasonable person would assume that. Not only was I telling him that no accounting has ever been available, the Mayor has no intention of providing any sort of accounting anytime ever unless He is forced to do so, perhaps at gunpoint.

Second, Mr. Freeman appeared to me sincere in his desire to have basic financial information that has traditionally been denied to the Common Council and to the taxpayers. “My constituents (mostly in the South End) are the least able to pay if costs for garbage removal go up,” he said. “I owe it them to find out as much as I can.”

So I asked Mr. Freeman about his current employment. He proceeded to make sure I understood that he is no longer beholden to the City or the county and owes nothing political to anybody. That’s certainly encouraging, but as I like to say with all elected officials, we’ll eventually see if that is true.

Increasingly Rare Karner Blue Butterflies {Photo Grace Nichols}

Dominick Calsolaro (1st Ward) is of course at the center of the Council’s responsible minority that demands cost accounting, at one time he was the only representative displaying financial integrity. Right from the beginning of his first four year term (he’s in his third) he has consistently annoyed the Mayor’s minions by opposing the City’s out of control habit of bonding for everything, including office supplies. At one point Jerry Jennings’ response was to publicly call Dominick nasty names and to order all City departments to ignore his requests on behalf of his constituents.

Dominick Calsolaro

During his first term in the early part of the last decade I sat in a Common Council meeting and watched Dominick stand alone in opposition to an uneccessarry bond issue, this was unprecedented. No one was allowed to defy the Mayor! These votes that quietly screw us taxpayers were supposed to be unanimous. This was because, in those pre-internet days, no one in City government was supposed to call attention to these kind of gross financial rip-offs. This was understood by everybody, so what was Dominick’s problem? Not a team player?

When it came time to vote, I watched one Common Council member after another stand up and nastily berate Dominick for daring to do the right thing. I sat disgusted, thinking to myself what a bunch of spineless braindead scumballs, how dare they. Dominick looked battered and distressed at the ritual abuse and even became apologetic, but he didn’t back down and he cast the lone vote in opposition to the bond.

Dominick doesn’t like me to tell that story, but I consider it one of his finest moments. I know exactly what he went through, I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’ve had to sit and listen to a group of idiots take turns telling me what a jerk I am. That evening Dominick stood tall before the idiots, sustained solely by the firm conviction that he was the only one in the chamber who was right. And he was.

A month after the first Dump Fee Bond vote the Mayor found a defector among the responsible minority and ordered his minions to call for a second vote. I couldn’t begin to explain why Cathy Fahey (7th Ward) has always been so undecided on “landfill” issues, for me it’s all black and white yes or no. I can tell you that because of her chronic fence sitting Cathy has had to endure quite a bit of pressure from both sides.

Jackie Jenkins-Cox

Sad to say, Ms. Fahey defected to the irresponsible majority as expected. But then without any warning whatsoever Jackie Jenkins-Cox (5th Ward) joined the responsible side, voting no to the bonding. From the Hearst Times Union:

Jenkins-Cox… said she changed her vote after hearing from three constituents Friday about the increasingly heavy tax burden the City is foisting on them. "If we keep voting to pass bond after bond, it’s only going to increase their taxes," she said. "I think my constituents are going to be happy that I did this for them." The turnabout prompted Councilman Lester Freeman, who opposes the borrowing, to openly celebrate with a fist pump and broad smile as Jenkins-Cox registered her vote, which clearly stunned others.

May 12, 2010

Why Brighter Choice is so hot to impose even more unwanted charter school buildings on the City of Albany and soak the taxpayers

Last week a major story about corruption in the City of Albany broke nationally, but the story has been completely suppressed here in the Capital District. As of the date of this posting, not one media outlet in our region, corporate or otherwise, has seen fit to so much as mention in passing this explosive expose. Consider it regional censorship, even though it adversely affects every taxpayer in the City of Albany.

Juan Gonzalez is that rarest of creatures, a real actual journalist working regularly for the corporate media. How a real journalist like Mr. Gonzalez has ended up writing a column for a worthless rag like the Daily News is just one of life’s mysteries. But for some reason his employers let him write groundbreaking investigative articles, he does not merely provide content.

Friday morning (May 7) I was kinda half listening to Democracy Now! on WRPI FM (91.5) and lingering over a late breakfast when I suddenly heard Mr. Gonzalez say, “I have focused on Albany, New York, which in New York state, is the [school] district with the highest percentage of children in charter schools, twenty percent of the schoolchildren in Albany are now attending charter schools.” I nearly spilled my coffee.

Cash Cow: Brighter Choice Charter School Building At Krank Park

Sometimes a blog post writes itself because, well, someone else wrote it for me. Rather than paraphrase Mr. Gonzalez’ explanation, I have chosen to reprint his Democracy Now! report, which in itself is a concise summary of his May 7 column for the Daily News. Juan Gonzalez often co-hosts on Democracy Now!, here he is with Amy Goodman:

AMY GOODMAN: Juan, before we move on to the Gulf, you have a very interesting column in the “New York Daily News” today, an exposé around big banks and charter schools.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes, Amy, one of the things I’ve been trying now for a couple of years is to try to figure out why is it that so many hedge fund managers, wealthy Americans, and big banks, Wall Street banks- executives of Wall Street banks, have all lined-up supporting and getting involved in the development of charter schools. I think I may have come across one of the reasons.

There’s a lot of money to be made in charter schools, and I’m not talking just about the for-profit management companies that run a lot of these charter schools. It turns out that at the tail end of the Clinton administration in 2000, Congress passed a new kind of tax credit called a New Markets tax credit. What this allows is it gives enormous federal tax credit to banks and equity funds that invest in community projects in under served communities and it’s been used heavily now for the last several years for charter schools.

Journalist Juan Gonzalez

I have focused on Albany, New York, which in New York state, is the district with the highest percentage of children in charter schools, twenty percent of the schoolchildren in Albany are now attending charter schools. I discovered that quite a few of the charter schools there have been built using these New Markets tax credits.

What happens is the investors who put up the money to build charter schools get to basically or virtually double their money in seven years through a thirty-nine percent tax credit from the federal government. In addition, this is a tax credit on money that their lending, so they’re also collecting interest on the loans as well as getting the thirty-nine percent tax credit. They piggyback the tax credit on other kinds of federal tax credits like historic preservation or job creation or brownfields credits.

The result is, you can put in ten million dollars and in seven years double your money. The problem is, that the charter schools end up paying [with] rents the debt service on these loans and so now, a lot of the charter schools in Albany are straining paying their debt service- their rent has gone up from $170,000 to $500,000 in a year or- huge increases in their rents as they strain to pay off these loans, these construction loans.

The rents are eating-up huge portions of their total cost. And, of course, the money is coming from the state.

One of the big issues is that so many of these charter schools are not being audited. No one knows who are the people making these huge windfall profits as the investors. Often, there are interlocking relationships between the charter school boards and the nonprofit groups that organize and syndicate the loans.

There needs to be some light on this whole issue and the state legislature right now is considering expanding charter school caps, but one of the things I press for in my column, there has to be the power of the government to independently audit all of these charter schools or we’re not going to know how public dollars are ending up in the coffers of Wall Street investors.

AMY GOODMAN: Congratulations on doing this and we’ll continue to expose it as you do.

May 3, 2010

Checking out the very new and very old
Walkway Over The Hudson State Historic Park

The Wife and I finally made it down to check out the Walkway Over The Hudson State Park, which opened this past October 2009 for the first time. It’s about an hour and twenty minutes driving south from Albany, located just north of the Mid-Hudson Bridge.

Almost the entire park consists of a pedestrian walkway built on top of an 1889 railroad trestle that spans the Hudson River. At 212 feet above the river it is currently the highest pedestrian walkway in the entire world. The Hudson is about half a mile wide at this point, so including the high up in the air landward approaches, maybe the entire park is a mile long.

View From Mid-Walkway, Looking North Toward Albany

We had a hell of a time trying to find the entrance on the west side of the river. Since I hate to follow orders or directions, I didn’t bother to download a map. I know where to find the Mid-Hudson Bridge, so how hard could it be?

It turns out that there is absolutely no signage of any sort on the mostly uninhabited west side of the river. The entrance to the walkway turns out to be at the end of a small local road, you can’t possibly find it without precise directions. We could see the damn walkway like over there somewhere, but no way to get there by legally traveling on the blacktop.

So next thing you know I made a wrong turn and we found ourselves crossing the Mid-Hudson Bridge into the heart of downtown Poughkeepsie. Again, above the rooftops of the City we could see the entrance to the east side of the bridge like up over there. This time we careened around on the urban back streets until The Wife spotted some signs pointing in the right direction.

Gate On The Poughkeepsie Side

For future reference, if you can find the Poughkeepsie train station, it’s a short uphill walk to the entrance and parking lot of the walkway. Later I heard stories of people coming up from NY City for the day on the Metro North or the Amtrak to walk across the river. Presumably when they are through walking across the river these folks go looking for lunch or whatever else they can buy in downtown Poughkeepsie.

It’s a sad shame that our backward Albany City government officials cannot comprehend the importance of public transit to our local economy. Past Albany civic leaders sent our train station across the river to Rensselaer, our current Mayor Jerry Jennings wants to send our miserable little bus station over there too. We can’t even get a train link built that goes to the Rensselaer station, let alone extend the Metro North to Albany.

Rooftops Of Poughkeepsie, Between The Train Station And The Walkway

On the landward part of the walkway we could look down at the thriving Poughkeepsie neighborhoods around the train station. The railroad trestle had not been crossed by trains since a spectacular fire in 1974, so until last year it sat rotting above it all like a rusty hazardous spike pointing into the heart of downtown Poughkeepsie. This once magnificent iron structure, at one time the highest cantilevered bridge in the world, had become a very visible eyesore and safety hazard.

Leaning Over The Edge,Showing The Old Trestle Under The New Walkway

And yet, the neighborhoods between the train station and the south side of the new walkway appeared to be well kept and thriving. In contrast, the river front property on the north side of the walkway was typical burned out industrial, we could see the telltale round concrete slabs that once supported oil tanks. Probably now that the old rail bridge has become a focus of pride, we will see new urban neighborhoods built over this old tank yard… after it’s cleaned up.

From the entrance to the walkway, we noticed a clean up crew working right up next to the fence down below. It looked to me like the last of the neglected lots filled with junk, visible from the walkway but not from the ground. When the walkway was an abandoned rail trestle no one could see or care about all the crap piled up underneath, but no doubt the urban survivor who collected all that junk will find another piece of property that is out of public view.

The State of New York vastly underestimated the number of people who would use the walkway. The State expected 70 to 80 thousand people to use it during a typical year but according to volunteers that we met, well more than half a million have traversed the span since it opened last October! This according to the automatic counters installed at the gates, and the very visible fact that on a sunny day like this particular Saturday both parking lots on either end of the walkway appeared to be way much too small to accommodate the cars.

Industrial Burnout North Of The Poughkeepsie Entrance

Despite all this, there are some who consider this renovation a waste of money. But consider this. The State had estimated the cost of taking down the rail trestle, which had turned into a serious attractive nuisance along with being an eyesore, to come in at $45 million. That’s big money to wreck a serviceable bridge.

It turned out to be cheaper to turn the bridge into a walkway than to take it down. The final cost for the conversion was $38.8 million, the State of New York spent $22.5 million, the Feds kicked in about $3.5 million. Most of the rest came from foundation grants, including a million from Scenic Hudson.

In Case Of Suicidal Tendencies

It should go without saying that our State officials didn’t come up with this idea that saves the taxpayers money and boosts the economy of the Hudson Valley. After all, reusing this walkway runs contrary to the principles of corporate socialism, it does not directly enhance some foreign corporation’s bottom line. Therefore, in the minds of most of our elected and appointed officials, if a project only benefits people and not a corporation it’s a waste of money.

It took years of organized work by local activists (they prefer to be called “volunteers”) to convince the politicians to plow some of our money back into the State for a change. The first group organized back in 1992 in response to the first proposal to wreck the bridge. The Wife and I encountered these original volunteers manning a table at a fair or flea market or something like that.

We talked quite a bit with them and we were very sympathetic to their cause, but it sounded hopeless to me at the time. For one thing, the guy we talked to told us that he planned to finance the walkway by selling the railway ties and tracks as, I guess, souvenirs. Clearly this first group of folks were full of enthusiasm but did not have a practical plan.

Around 1995 the group reorganized. Some of the old volunteers dropped out because of the funding issue, it seems that they were ideologically opposed to accepting government funding for the project. (I wonder if they would have accepted corporate money.) The new group was more practical, they realized such public projects don’t get done at all without government cooperation.

View South From Mid Walkway

After that the ball got rolling. It probably helped that the bridge was a highly visible eyesore hanging above a populated urban center, an ugly beast hanging over everyone’s heads. It turned out that the volunteers, by calling for the rail bridge to become a walkway, were giving voice to an idea that had already half-formed in a lot of peoples’ minds. Why destroy this perfectly usable thing, this thing that is always in front of us and is a part of our lives? Why not find a new use for it?

So support for the project quickly became broad and popular in and around the City of Poughkeepsie. This gave the new group of volunteers the clout to begin leaning on the elected officials, who were beginning to see the popular walkway idea as a source of votes. Very rapidly the proposal went from crazy and hopeless to practical and inevitable.

The Wife Points To The Joints Along The Rail

One of the objections to the proposal had to do with engineering, how can you put a stationary platform on top of a cantilevered bridge, which is designed to move? Won’t the added top surface crack and slough off when the iron structure underneath sways in the wind? As it turned out, there was a simple solution to this problem.

The walkway itself is a series of interlocking slabs of concrete that are connected together by movable joints. The rails on rails sides of the walkway are also jointed at short intervals, connected by a smaller tube bolted inside a larger outer tube. This simple design allows the rail to move ever so slightly and imperceptibly up and down and also left and right.

Joint At The Bottom Of The Raill

At this time there is absolutely no destination worth mentioning on the west side of the walkway, I expect that will change. The walkway is on track to host more than a million visitors in it’s first year of operation, such foot traffic is bound to raise real estate prices, particularly on the mostly uninhabited west side. We could have used some coffee after our grueling half mile stroll, but alas there wasn’t even an ice cream wagon to greet us.

The volunteers had a table on that end, it was great to talk to successful activists who had achieved their main goal. It gives one hope for the system in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, apparently the corporations haven’t destroyed liberal democracy quite yet. The volunteers that we talked to were still full of enthusiasm for their baby.

One thing they told us is that an elevator will be constructed on the west side. I suppose this will meet handicapped requirements, but I haven’t the slightest idea why such a thing is needed or where it will go. Perhaps an elevator will allow construction of more parking lots downhill and will be used mostly by fat lazy people who can’t climb a short rise without feeling faint.

Approaching The Western End

We arrived pretty early on a warm beautiful Saturday, so we missed the big crowds. We shared the bridge with a fair number of people, but we had plenty of space to move around and take pictures. The real hordes were only showing up as we were leaving in early afternoon.

When we walked back to the parking lot in Poughkeepsie, it looked like a major “special event” in progress. Our little paved parking lot, which was nearly full when we arrived was now guarded by a young lady wearing a safety vest. She was directing cars across the street to a big dirt lot, from what we could see that lot was nearly full.

Clearly a planning initiative is needed for both ends of the walkway, it would not benefit anyone to let the land around both ends descend into ugly sprawl. Now that the project is done, and more spectacularly successful than anyone expected, the new walkway will transform the nearby landscape. Whether that transformation is positive or harmful will depend upon the plans or lack of plans that will be put forth by the municipalities on either end.

No doubt this is the kind of problem the volunteers were hoping to achieve almost twenty years ago, back when a few kooks and nuts looked up at the rusty abandoned rail bridge and first imagined that it could be put to better use.

Tanker Under The Mid Hudson Bridge

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April 17, 2010

Albany’s new Common Council leads the nation by
once again asking that the US Constitution be respected

It all started with The Wife’s involvement with the obviously bogus entrapment and convictions of Albany residents Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI.) Soon she found herself writing to the men in prison and visiting regularly with their widowed families here in town. Next thing you know she’s been visiting and talking with families of other Muslim men in places like Newburgh and Philadelphia who have also fallen victim to the machinations of the secret police.

So earlier this year The Wife, along with her co-conspirators at Project SALAM (Support And Legal Advocacy for Muslims) came up with the idea of asking the City of Albany Common Council to pass a resolution asking President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to open an investigation into the ongoing entrapments and prosecutions of Muslims. Project Salam has uncovered hundreds of these phony baloney “terrorism” cases, every single one of which brought convictions without physical evidence, on hearsay alone. They have yet to find one convincing “terrorism” conviction.

And it is starting to look like there are hundreds more cases of entrapped Muslim scapegoats out there that hardly anyone has heard about. “They’re coming out of the woodwork,” she says. As far as she knows, such a resolution passed by the Albany Common Council is the first one of it’s kind, another first for our City.

Common Council Members Barbara Smith And Dominick Calsolaro In Front Of Little Italy

To get this thing off the ground, the first thing she had to do was to talk our representative Dominick Calsolaro into introducing the resolution into the Common Council. “Oooh,” the man groaned, clutching his head. “You’re trying to get me in trouble.”

Dom’s long suffering and neglected spouse Mary overheard him. “What’s the problem,” she asked him, “Are you afraid you’re going to lose votes in the next election? Maybe I’ll get to see you more often.”

Dominick Interviewed By Channel 10 Before The Rally

Let me stop right here and clarify an important point. If there was any actual evidence that any of these Muslim men were actually plotting to kill fellow Americans and destroy public property – you know, recorded conversations, credible witnesses, recovered weapons, documents, fingerprints, DNA, that sort of thing – then I would be the first to demand that they all be hung from a lamppost and fed to pigs. I mean that literally.

So far, it looks like I’m not going to get the opportunity to make that demand. It looks to me like the real terrorists are operating out of the FBI fortress on McCarty Avenue. If the secret police consistently get away with perjuring hapless Muslims into political prison, then where and when will they stop? Who among us is safe from the lawless FBI?

The Dukas Arrive From New Jersey

The Wife lobbied the Common Council representatives for weeks, meeting with them at odd times like 7 in the morning and in various public places. By the Common Council meeting on April 5 it looked like the resolution had enough votes. But The Wife knows better than to count her legislative chickens before they cast votes, she’s learned the hard way that legislators routinely leave their voting options open right up until the last moment.

All true politicians, whether we’re talking about legislators, mayors or judges, only do what someone tells them to do. Ideally, they listen most closely to the bosses who can fire them from their jobs, the voters. But all too often the voter bosses are absent or passive or scared or too lazy to pay attention, so the politicians end up listening to corporate exploiters or to more local crooks and gangsters.

The Wife is well aware of this fact, she knows better than to depend upon politician’s promises. Thus, immediately before the vote in the Common Council, she organized some concerned citizens into a march upon City Hall.

The Crowd Begins To Gather In Front Of The Armory

People began to gather before 6 PM in front of the Armory at Lark Street and Washington Avenue. Actually, some folks had already started meeting at Little Italy Pizza on the other side of Lark Street, the take-out shop run by Fatima, wife of imprisoned scapegoat Mohammed Hossain. (Italian pizza made and sold by a woman from Bangladesh. That’s America buddy… love it or leave it.)

Fatima is traditional, at all times she wears a full length black gown and hajib that only reveals her eyes and part of her forehead. Thus I can’t tell you what she looks like, I usually recognize her by the flour and paint stains at the bottom of her gown. The Wife tells me, “I don’t understand how she stays in business, selling pizza at $1.50 a slice.” Like her imprisoned husband was, she is much in the habit of giving away her food to the neighborhood indigents.

This Decorated Veteran Of Desert Storm Kept Silent. He Has "End War" Tattooed On His Left Arm

During the march Fatima stayed back at the shop working like she always does, but she joined with everyone later at City Hall. Eventually I counted about 120 people who marched down Washington Avenue. This included a core group of the usual activists and troublemakers, along with visitors from far away. I observed a fair number of passersby stop, ask what this was all about, and then enthusiastically join the crowd.

The Wife received invaluable help from Albany County Legislator Doug Bullock and his famous “Tax The Rich” bullhorn. I don’t think she could have pulled this off without Doug, who selflessly offered his extensive organizing skills to Project SALAM. He’s a labor organizer who has instigated and coordinated thousand of rallies and demonstrations, plus he has a real knack for bringing the right people together at the right time.

Now, Doug is not a natural politician, he’s a real basic guy. He’s helped organize so many rallies that when he’s out on the street in front of a crowd he tends to behave like he’s at home in his living room. For instance, I spotted a potentially great photo of Doug, The Wife and Alicia McWilliams from Newburgh, and behind them the two mounted cops. By the way, these bored cops were the only ones assigned to this event, that’s how respectable all this stuff has become.

I elbowed aside several people holding the big yellow banner, and then realized I’d taken a photo of Doug adjusting his drawstring pants:

Doug Bullock, The Wife, Alicia McWilliams From Newburgh

Here we were, listening to these solemn stories of entrapment and persecution, the media in attendance, and at the very center of attention here is the Honorable Doug Bullock grimacing and apparently trying to untwist his underpants. I swear I stood there for five minutes waiting for him to stop, I wanted to throw a rock at his head. I never did get that great snapshot.

Alicia McWilliams "I’m A Veteran!" (Not Really)

Alicia McWilliams was one of our house guests the night before, she is aunt to one of the Newburgh Four, probably their only friend right now. The first and earliest Muslim entrapment cases that The Wife and Project Salam had originally heard about were mostly of prominent men, such as doctors, heads of non-profits or imams. But the Newburgh Four are little more than street characters, easy to manipulate by the FBI and hardly capable of engaging in “international terrorism.”

Alicia is very upfront about her own past, which, she told us over breakfast that morning, is why she is not ashamed or afraid to stand up for these young men. Her nominally Muslim nephew, she tells us, was scamming around for money when an FBI agent provocateur lured him with a promise of ten thousand dollars if he performed some sort of scheme. At one crucial point he was instructed to meet someone and say the code word “jihad” several times, this moment was duly recorded and blown up into an act of “terrorism” for the media.

This poor sap and his codefendants are a far cry from the clean living young folks from suburban NJ called the Fort Dix Five, or the very respectable and much admired Dr. Rafil Dhafir of Syracuse. But I say, labeling ex-cons living on the margins of society “terrorists” and parading them through kangaroo show trials does not help us more respectable citizens sleep safer at night, on the contrary.

Common Council Members Ron Bailey And Barbara Smith Talk To The Wife

Besides the honorable Doug Bullock we had four members of the Albany Common Council at the rally. Besides Mr. Calsolaro of the 1st Ward there was Barbara Smith of the 4th, who has taken a deep interest in the cases of Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain since the beginning. From what I understand, Ms. Smith has been frustrated by the apparent lack of action on this issue, she is one of many people who have “come out of the woodwork” to support The Wife’s initiative and help carry it further.

The Wife was surprised and delighted when Ron Bailey of the 3rd Ward enthusiastically lent support to the pending resolution. “Oh yeah, I’m with you on that,” was his immediate reply when The Wife brought it up with him. It turns out that he represents the growing Muslim community settling behind the south side of Central Avenue, and his ward includes Little Italy Pizza. Like most people in the neighborhood, he knows Fatima well and respected her husband before he was entrapped and incarcerated.

South End Based Film Maker Ellie Bernstein, Common Council Member Anton Konev, Doug Bullock, The Wife, Mauri’ Saalakhan From Maryland Speaks

Anton Konev of the 11th Ward showed up with his trademark suit and backpack. Mr. Konev has a keen interest in the plight of immigrants, having himself emigrated to this country as a teenager from Russia. Thus he was also easy to convince, like Ms. Smith and Mr. Bailey he is a cosponsor of Dominick’s resolution.

Lots of media were present, but reportage was spotty. Metroland did the only good print report that I saw, and oddly enough the only TV segment I could find was Channel 13 news. (I’m told that all the jerks who picked on me back in 2003 no longer work there, so I guess I’ll have to stop badmouthing 13.) I’m guessing most of the media managers quietly killed the story of the march and resolution as too politically incorrect, who knows but maybe the FBI gave them all a call. With the secret police I’m ready to believe anything these days.

Marching Past The State Education Building

Right on schedule the crowd formed up and marched down the sidewalk of Washington Avenue to City Hall. The two cops on horses led off to one side in the left lane of the roadway, fortunately traffic gets light after 6 PM. I have to hand it to those guys, they did the absolute minimum to keep access clear and left the organizers to keep the respectable crowd orderly.

Outside City Hall there were more short speeches, more stories told while waiting for the Common Council session to start. This was the moment when the crowd started to get a sense that something historic was happening, that the City of Albany was about to take the lead on an issue that runs silent and deep. We were all here to try to head off a torpedo aimed right at the heart of American freedom.

In Front Of City Hall

Actually this is where I made my exit. I stayed to watch some of the crowd go through the unconstitutional phony baloney “security” checkpoint inside the door, including all the family members of these so-called “terrorists.” A checkpoint, I might add, that does not block access to the Auditor’s office, his staff or half the Treasurer’s staff, the entrance to which is a sharp left before the metal detector.

Aren’t these City financial employees at grave risk of terrorist attack? Or… could it be that the checkpoint serves no security purpose other than to harass and annoy the taxpayers? In any case, all these women wearing hajibs got in with no problem so the checkpoint didn’t do a very good job of filtering out potential terrorists that evening.

The Wife With Fatan Schnewer (mother of one of the Fort Dix 5) In Front Of City Hall

The Common Council members earned their pay that night. There was about four hours of speaking from about thirty or so speakers during the public comment period, much of it gut wrenching testimony from the families of the entrapped men. Council President Carolyn McLaughlin called it “the most emotional atmosphere I’ve experienced in over 12 years in this chamber.”

The idea, you see, was to introduce the measure and vote on it that night. You can do that with resolutions, which are non-binding recommendations. In contrast an ordinance, which becomes an enforceable law, cannot be voted on the same night it is introduced.

There was a flurry of activity around Dominick’s desk during a called recess, while some of the Council members negotiated minor changes to the whereases and the threfores in the resolution. It looked touch and go for a moment, but then the votes materialized and Dominick called for a vote. Here’s the tally:

Voting Yes: Voting Present: Absent: 1 Calsolaro 10 Golby 8 Rosenzweig 2 Freeman 13 Herring   3 Bailey 14 Igoe   4 Smith 15 Commisso   5 Jenkins-Cox     6 Conti     7 Fahey     9 Sano     11 Konev     12 O’Brien    

After that honest testimony none of them, not even old boys Igoe and Herring, could bring themselves to vote “no!” Contrary to my own expectations, we have a whole new ballgame on the Council, it appears to be no longer composed of the Mayor’s minions versus the minority progressives. If this vote is any indication, the new majority votes according to the merits of each measure rather than for or against The Mayor’s will. We’ll see if that continues to hold true.

Okay, so this is the first resolution of it’s kind in the nation, but so what? What’s the big deal?

SUNY Albany Professor Dr. Shamshad Ahmad, President Of The As-Salam Mosque On Central Avenue

First off, various observers agree that this is the first time that American Muslims, both natural citizens and immigrants, have dared to publicly protest the ongoing FBI campaign of terror being conducted against them. Up until now the FBI campaign, which has been designed to isolate American Muslims and make them feel powerless, has been very successful. This public display directly undermines the scheming of the secret police, whose political power over the citizens depends upon secrecy and misinformation.

Second, this could be the start of something big. Attorney Steve Downs has been suggesting that this could be the beginning of a national movement to get local municipalities to pass similar resolutions. He wants to start with some nearby Cities and suburban towns, and continue from there.

This is not far-fetched, we did it once before in open defiance of the obnoxious “PATRIOT” Act, the anti-American statute that “legalizes” clandestine surveillance of citizens, does away with effective warrants, and allows indefinite detentions instead o proper arrests. In other words. it is an attempt to legislate away the US Constitution, an attempt that almost succeeded.

The “PATRIOT” Act is still on the books, still enthusiastically maintained by the Republicans and their subservient Democrats. However, 414 anti-PATRIOT Act resolutions have so far been passed nationwide including several states and New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. This incredible campaign defied and shattered the corporate media censorship, educating millions of Americans about this attempt by our idiot federal politicians to overthrow our Constitution.

Filing Through The Unconstitutional Search And Seizure Checkpoint

By the way, it’s no coincidence that Dominick Calsolaro introduced the original “PATRIOT” Act resolution into the Albany Common Council. The latest word is that Project Salam is establishing close ties with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) with the object of launching a new campaign of local resolutions.

Like the old song from World War Two says, “We did it before, we can do it again.” As long as we are all breathing we can and will do our part to keep the US Constitution alive. We will not sit quiet and scared and alone waiting for the secret police to disappear American Muslims… and then come for the rest of us.

 

Watch the two part video of the April 5, 2010 Common Council session, courtesy of Albany Community Television (ACT) and read the text of the resolution here.

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April 4, 2010

Howe Library becomes the new cultural and community center of the South End, inside is near perfect but outside problems remain

* * UPDATE * * See the old Howe Library desk in action on a Friday night!

Inside The Building:

The “Grand Opening Celebration” of the John A. Howe branch library was held on March 27, a Saturday. Actually, the library had been open for more than a week and was already seeing heavy use. Folks sat reading and using the computer terminals while more than a thousand people filed through the building inspecting the renovations.

Howe Library Was Packed With Visitors

The interior of Howe Library is filled with natural light that pours through the giant wooden windows and thoroughly illuminates every corner. In effect the outer walls are made of light, sort of like an old fashioned gothic church without the stained glass. Indeed the the place brings up a feeling of awe as soon as one walks through the front door, a religious urge for learning and open communication.

Before the renovations the place looked old, dismal and worn out, so bad that the library administration originally planned to tear down the building. As I wrote two years ago, that was not acceptable to those of us who live here and pay taxes. Since the library managers needed South End votes to pass the facilities bond act, they granted a stay of execution and promised to upgrade the building while preserving architectural integrity.

We were all pretty skeptical of their promises, and some of us fought them over details, particularly the fate of the wooden windows. Bur overall, I’d have to say we have a success here, a public facility that will serve the community as a center of cohesion for at least the next hundred years.

"Teen Room" Off To One Side Of The Main Floor

The main floor of the library is now divided by wood and glass partitions that allow light to circulate, that give a sense of privacy without making the library user feel isolated. Tim Burke, who was acting director of the library system when the big decisions were made, told me that the original design for Howe called for these partitions but they were never installed. He seemed very pleased to have had them installed, I have to say that they work very, very well. This is an interior design for other libraries to copy.

The New Modern Desk In Action

The librarians are proud of the new custom made front counter, a marvel of ergonomic efficiency that wraps around the center of the floor. The old oak desk that sat next to the front door was lovely but not very useful, having numerous file card drawers and mysterious openings. I happen to know that the old desk is enjoying retirement as an occasional food and drink bar located just inside the entrance of a former church that is now a private residence on Delaware Avenue.

One Panel From The Fireplace,
The Bowling Dutchmen From Rip Van Winkle

The restored fireplace tells the story of Rip Van Winkle with raised relief ceramic tiles, a unique marvel. Library Board president Dennis Gaffney told us that he pushed for working fireplaces in each of the new library branches around the City, but was outvoted every time. “The only one I got was this one,” he said, “but that was already here. And this fireplace had to be restored.”

Board President Dennis Gaffney Speaks
While Library Officials And Politicians Listen

The officials gathered in front of the fireplace to do the dedication, the speechifying didn’t go on too long. Of course Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings was in attendance, but interestingly He was not the star of the show. He waited quietly in the background as the library people congratulated each other, several speakers apologizing for preceding The Mayor at the podium.

Mayor Jennings Takes His Turn At The Podium

This was more or less appropriate protocol since Jerry Jennings has had little direct involvement with the Library Facilities plan and the reestablishment of neighborhood library branches. This is generally a good thing, the most successful projects which Jennings has initiated are the ones in which He has personally interfered as little as possible. An excellent example of that is the South End Action Committee (SEAC) which is showing spectacular results in the immediate neighborhoods surrounding Howe Library.

But it is a fact that we wouldn’t be celebrating the renovation of Howe Library without The Mayor. It was Jennings who removed the library system from the regular City budget and allowed the creation of an independent elected board. Like the elected public school board, the library board has the power to levy taxes and bond for construction projects, all subject to voter approval of course.

At the time many people assumed He had “offloaded the libraries” merely to balance the budget. Whatever His original intentions, a number of passionate citizens saw this offloading as an opportunity to rebuild our libraries and expand our library system. Consequently the citizens and taxpayers became aware of the importance of our neglected branch libraries, particularly during the give and take with the public that preceded implementation of the plan.

I really couldn’t say if The Mayor intended this kind of result, whether or not He had a long term strategy in mind. But here we all were inspecting the new Howe Library because of The Mayor’’s policies. See? I’ll bark at The Mayor and snap at His ankles all day long, but when the man does something right, intentionally or not, I’ll give credit where credit is due.

In His remarks, Jennings seemed anxious to assure the audience that He cared about the South End and very much supported it’s revival. This seems to be a theme lately in His South End speeches, certainly good to hear. But with politicians words are cheap, it’s the results that count.

Kids Cut The Ribbon

At the end of the speechifying a whole bunch of kids emerged from one of the side rooms to cut a symbolic ribbon in front of the podium. Scissors in hand, they lined up and counted down “three. two, one…” and cut the ribbon to, um, ribbons. Thus the library officially opened.

The TV crews dropped in for the dedication, the media reports were brief but positive, with one exception. The Hearst-owned Times Union sent one of their best photographers, the guy who wears the hats, and he took lots of photos. But the editors, true to form, selected from this fellow two cold, distant unappealing photos that managed to make the building look shabby, along with the flat caption, “Howe Library Opens.” How very typical of the Hearst Rag and their attitude toward the South End of Albany.

The Larger Community Room In The Basement

The basement of the building used to be a dismal cavern, but now it has two very attractive community center rooms, one large the other small. The rooms are designed so that they can be used after regular library hours by community groups, with a separate entrance to the outside. During the event the smaller room was being occupied by a group of children busily cutting up and pasting construction paper at a long table.

The larger room had all the food and drink. The library managers went all out, there was plenty of good edibles such as cut up melon, and there was sweet stuff. I watched several parental units wag their fingers at children grabbing too much cake, there was plenty for all.

Outside The Building:

The next day I returned to inspect the exterior of the building. When plans for the building were being discussed, there was grudging acceptance all around that an exterior addition needed to be built to provide handicap access, elevators, fire escape, and after hours access to the community rooms. And bathrooms, let’s not forget that. Only a few activists mourned the loss of the shabby little park upon which the addition is built.

The original 1929 Howe building is such an architectural masterpiece, why must the addition look so astoundingly ugly and out of place? Looking at the graphic depiction of the proposed addition two years ago, I commented that it looked like a suburban dentist office from the 1970s. And indeed, that is what we have:

The Retro Dentist Office Addition

I’m convinced that the precipitous decline of architectural beauty in America these last 70 years is due to table tops. You see, architects have gotten into the habit of designing their buildings to look good as scale models sitting on tabletops, which is where the point of sale occurs. Inevitably, these tabletop models look horrible as real buildings in the real world. Sad to say, these rathole boxes are everywhere.

Well, no point in complaining about it anymore. At least the blocks from which the addition is constructed are higher quality than standard cinder blocks, and the interior is much nicer than I thought it would be. Also, blogger NY Cowboy has told me that additions to historic buildings in NY State are not supposed to match the original too closely, why I’m not sure. Is this true?

One Of Howe Library’s Magnificent Windows

The big success is the preservation and refurbishing of Howe Library’s magnificent wooden windows. The wooden windows have been stripped of paint and glazing, repaired where necessary and set back into place without the ugly iron grates. Inside each window has a sheet of plexiglass (or possibly lexan) for climate control and security.

Two years ago the citizens of the South End (and beyond) rose up to defend these windows after library officials announced that they planned to throw them in the dump and replace them with aluminum windows. We told the planners that this was not acceptable. As far as we were concerned, if you trash the wooden windows you might as well turn Howe Library into a hamburger stand.

At first glance this seems an esoteric matter hardly worth the bother. But as was plainly evident to all who attended the Library’s grand opening on March 27, the interior of the building is defined and made unique by the light that pours in through these windows. We all understood that the quality of the light is defined by the quality of the portals through which it passes.

This celebration of natural light goes back to the 12th century in our civilization, but somehow this aesthetic concern mysteriously disappeared during the course of the 20th century. Certainly this comes from a growing reliance on artificial light and cheap energy to illuminate interiors, perhaps an over-reliance. And of course naturally illuminated interiors do not come across on table tops.

More simply for many of us the issue is one of communication between the inside of the library and the community outside. To turn Howe into a typical tabletop rathole, or even to move in that direction by degrading the windows, would be to continue to reject the surrounding neighborhood as unworthy. That, you see, is precisely what we are battling against.

Before After

It’s amazing what a change in basic attitude followed by a little basic maintenance can achieve. At the grand opening I talked to a young lady library volunteer who told me with a grand flourish, “The community wanted wooden windows and we listened to the community.” I gazed at a window and said, “Yes, we did. Thank you for listening to us.”

The Parking Lot

In my opinion, there wasn’t enough controversy over the creation of the 10 space parking lot. Originally two buildings, one vacant the other owned and occupied, were supposed to be demolished for to make room for this layer of asphalt. The architects and planners and library officials, almost all of whom were suburbanites, couldn’t even conceive of a building that did not have at least a token parking lot.

And like all typical suburbanites they were fired up and hot to destroy as many urban buildings as they could. They managed to destroy the vacant two story mid 19th century wooden house. But the owned and occupied brick house hard up next the the library building survived.

The owner of that building, who angrily refused a buyout offer, told me that the City has been coming down hard on him. “The City impounded my dogs,” he said, “because I tied them up outside and the workers didn’t like ‘em.” Admittedly, he is not an easy person to deal with. The City continues to fight with this fellow to clean up the exterior of his building, he continues to be angry and defiant.

The Mysterious Dead Lot, The Block Addition At Rear

What’s the story with this lot, wedged between the parking lot and this fellow’s building? He told me in no uncertain terms that he did not own this lot. So where comes this nasty patch of dirt lined with shrubbery?

I asked several library officials to clue me in here, but the response was deafening silence. This suggests to me that the story here may be very, very ugly and fraught with disputed legalities. If anybody knows some of the facts please pass it along to me. I’ve suddenly become very curious.

The truth is that such friction around the exterior of the library building is inevitable. Naturally much of this unpleasantness could have been avoided by not trying to spread asphalt for suburbanites and destroy buildings. But this is an issue that is coming up repeatedly as revitalization projects begin to transform the South End.

After some 70 years of planned decay and neglect by the City government, the people of the surrounding neighborhoods have become accustomed to living in decay and neglect. Naturally, they resist renovation and revitalization of their own neighborhoods as impositions by a belligerent government that they stopped trusting many decades ago.

For example, this fellow who owns this building doesn’t seem to understand why the City suddenly wants him to clear off the highly visible pile of crap on his front porch. The City never cared before. I don’t know how to solve this ongoing problem of conflicts caused by revitalization, but I would guess that a heavy handed threatening approach by the government would consistently strike these urban survivors the wrong way.

Howe Library And Schuyler Mansion, March 2010

These ongoing exterior problems aside, the renovation of Howe Library can be declared a stunning success, a major event in the rebuilding of our community. The general expectation is that Howe will become a major defining center of the South End, an important portal through which outsiders will connect with our neighborhoods.

Is the renovation of Howe all done with, or is it the start of positive influences on the surrounding neighborhoods? That, of course, depends upon the future attitude of the government. But we the people ultimately call the shots, if we continue to fight for our community and our architectural treasures then we can look forward to a South End that fills us with unqualified pride.

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March 25, 2010

In the name of profit the CEO of the Capital District YMCA is waging war against the City of Albany

* * UPDATE * *: Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings has announced that He wants to take over the Washington Avenue building from David Brown, who appears to be going along with Jerry’s idea to salvage his PR disaster. We’ll see how that goes.

David Brown, the President and CEO of the Capital District Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) has big plans. He wants to update his organization’s sport and exercise facilities and provide them with more parking spaces. And he has repeatedly stated that he wants, more that anything else, to enhance the Y’s bottom line.

Unfortunately, the Guilderland resident wants to do what suburbanites are always trying to do. Last December 20 he announced to the media that he has joined the crowd of speculators and interlopers who hate our urban community. He declared that he wants to demolish the downtown Albany YMCA building on Washington Avenue and replace it with a parking lot, or a parking garage.

Oh, and he added that someday he’d like to put a pared down little YMCA next to the parking lot, something a lot like those storefront exercise facilities for office workers. Yes, he wants to suburbanize Albany and turn the Capital District YMCA into a clone of Curves or Gold’s. But it appears that he has a second personal agenda. He wants to eliminate the YMCA’s swimming pools as much as he can.

Albany YMCA Building On Washington Avenue

Brown’s proclamation came on the heels of the Fort Orange Club Republicans who want to tear down a perfectly good, upscale ready for immediate occupation brick building built in 1855 located a short walk down Washington Avenue. Yes, they want to turn it into a parking lot. That’s all suburbanites ever want to do, tear down our City and replace it with parking lots.

The problem with these suburbanites is that they think that buildings are disposable, like coffee cups, plastic bags or immigrant workers. They are incapable of seeing the difference between a 150 year old brick building that helps define an urban streetscape, and a worthless cinder block strip mall squatting in the middle of a parking lot.

Admittedly the Washington Avenue YMCA building is ugly as sin, typical mid 20th century lousy architecture. Ideally the Y building ought to be replaced with one that is attractive and energy efficient, or at least the present building should be upgraded to a minimum standard. But that doesn’t mean Brown has a right to waltz into our City and tell us that we would be better off with fewer buildings and more parking lots. Who the hell does he think he is?

Albany YMCA Closure Protest, March 16, 2010

As if declaring war on our City wasn’t bad enough, Brown announced special offer reduced price memberships in the YMCA for a limited time only. Clearly he was hoping to take advantage of his negative publicity to turn a quick buck. After attacking our City he wants our money. That really made me angry.

So I decided to give this arrogant dumb ass suburbanite a little piece of my mind, a warning shot across his bow, so to speak. Here’s the email I carefully composed in a fit of rage on December 30 and fired off to him:

Mr. Brown:

So why should we take advantage of your special offers? You people have already decided to shut down our deliberately starved urban YMCA on Washington Avenue so you can pocket more money with your suburban outlets.

This issue of making money was so important to you when you built the Guilderland YMCA that you demanded that Pine Bush Preserve be sacrificed for your bottom line. As far as you were concerned nothing stood in the way of your new Guilderland Y, not even dedicated preserve land. You only caved in and dropped the drive to take Pine Bush Preserve because you finally realized that Save the Pine Bush was ready willing and able to tie you up in court for a decade.

So Mr. Brown, why don’t you show similar dedication to keeping open our urban YMCA? Are we in Albany are not good enough for you?

I am am sick and tired of people like you, Mr. Brown. Suburbanites like you mismanage the US Postal Service, people like you occupy the Fort Orange Club. You people imagine yourselves as warriors out to destroy our urban community, as apostles of sprawl and crusaders for suburbanization.

This is our City, this is our YMCA. You are the caretaker of our YMCA. We do not give you permission to destroy our YMCA. Put that thought in your mind and keep it there.

-Daniel W. Van Riper

March 11, 2010

David Paterson stands firm against the corporate media and
the public approves

I have a friend who manages a hair salon. She’s a busy woman with three kids and little time to spare, so she doesn’t follow the news and figure out what’s really going on as much as she’d like to. Since she knows that I have the time in my life to ponder current events, she often asks for my take on the news.

“What’s up with Governor Paterson?” she asked me a few weeks ago. “I did ten customers yesterday, and nine of them said the exact same thing, ‘Paterson has to resign.’ What’s up with that?”

They said the exact same thing? I told my friend, If you go out in public and almost everyone you meet repeats the exact same phrase, then you know the corporate media is conducting a propaganda blitz. I told her that all nine of her hair customers probably had “Paterson has to resign” rammed into their heads the night before by their own TV sets.

My friend nodded. She’s one of the smarter people I know, and her bullstuff detector is always in good working order. “That’s what I thought,” she said. “So why are they attacking him?”

Governor David Paterson In My Neighborhood Last Year

Well, that’s a very good question. Almost all media scandals have no real substance, they depend entirely upon constant repetition to maintain the illusion of substance. This scandal is no exception. After all, if an actual crime had been committed, the repetition wouldn’t be necessary. All the media would have to do is report facts.

Every single day for the past month, the Hearst-owned Times Union has plastered anti-Paterson headlines on their front page. Every day. Often the Times Union headlines have been big type, bold, screaming at the reader in a manner which is usually reserved for sudden disasters and terrorist attacks.

Most of these daily Hearst stories have been repeating old details and adding unfounded allegations, they contain very little actual news. The Daily Gazette has been behaving in a similar fashion. I don’t watch TV or listen to the AM radio dittohead shows, but I’m told that those corporate outlets are conducting the same mind numbing nonfactual repetition, all in a coordinated action. “Paterson has to resign, resign, resign.”

But somebody is behind this corporate media blitz. Exactly which power brokers are trying to drive Mr. Paterson out of the Governor’s office, and why? That’s what’s puzzling me.

Respected Publications Working Together

As any scam artist can tell you, the best lies are based on a little bit of truth. A little bit of truth gives the lies legs and staying power, while at the same time a little bit of truth discourages otherwise discerning people from asking probing questions. The technical term for such well proportioned lies is “bulls–t.”

The Scandal is based on Mr. Paterson’s relationship with his closest personal aide, a fellow named David W. Johnson. It seems that this fellow Johnson has been known to act like John Sweeney and smack around his wife. As we all know, heterosexual men are not allowed to hit women, so Johnson’s domestic behavior has become a criminal matter.

Too bad for Johnson, he should have known better. Lock him up in the Wifebeater’s Hotel where he can share a room with Sweeney. Both their ex-wives can visit and administer electroshock therapy for, say, an hour a week. Be sure to tell Johnson to resign his state job as they drag him out the door, case closed. Right?

No. The Governor, inexplicably, personally intervened in the case. According to corporate news reports, he directly contacted the abused woman twice and had some of his office staff contact her several times. Apparently some State Police from the Governor’s security staff also talked to the woman. Indeed those are the main facts, almost everything else you’ve heard is speculation and or innuendo.

David Paterson At Right In 1970 With His Father Senator Basil Paterson, His Mother Portia And Brother Daniel

So the pertinent question is whether or not Mr. Paterson made these contacts with a view to influencing the case, that is, intentionally obstructing justice. Or, did he merely commit a foolish impropriety by contacting the abused woman and trying to “sort things out,” an impropriety he should have known better than to commit?

Funny how the corporate media has pretty much skipped over this question. The NY Times, which appears to be coordinating the smear campaign, has set the tone by presuming guilt. “These accounts,” said the NY Times on March 1, referring to the calls and visits, “provide the first evidence that Mr. Paterson helped direct an effort to influence the accuser.”

That’s called “shaping information.” Indeed, the very same two NY Times content providers who conducted the smear campaign against former Governor Eliot Spitzer are creating the smear job on Mr. Paterson. Their names are William K. Rashbaum and Danny Hakim. Think of them as The New Judith Millers.

The Governor had a very special relationship with this guy Johnson, one that most of us will never have with another person. Mr. Paterson, as we all know, is blinder than a bat and, as far as I know, has no sonar. To hold down a job like Governor of New York State He needs to compensate for his poor eyesight, he needs alternative eyes close by at all times.

I got a chance last year to briefly watch the interaction between Mr. Paterson and David Johnson. Last May on this blog I published a photo I’d snapped of the two of them at work on Morton Avenue in my neighborhood:

David Johnson At Left, Guiding The Governor Through My Neighborhood Last Year

I watched as Johnson, large and imposing, directed the Governor through the crowd and provided for him a precise running commentary on what was directly in front of them. From what I saw I have to say that Johnson did his job with impressive efficiency and accuracy.

For sure that’s why Mr. Paterson retained Johnson as an employee even after Johnson’s domestic abuse crimes came to be known. I don’t think the Governor could tolerate some screwup giving him false information minute to minute. “Turn left here Governor… oops, didn’t see that tree, didja? Ha ha…” I think Mr. Paterson would be very reluctant to lose a valuable and reliable employee like Johnson.

And yet, while watching the two of them interact at that public event, I was immediately hit with an uneasy thought that I had to quickly examine and dispose of.

They looked like a master and servant. Most Americans, despite having their heads crammed with corporatist propaganda, are instinctively repelled by such relationships. I strongly suspect that many other persons who have watched them working together have have had the same momentary crisis that I had.

One or two hundred years ago every rich man and woman had factotums at their sides (or two steps behind) as a sign of their superior power and prosperity. Today’s elected officials wouldn’t dare display personal servants to advertise their status. Instead they have “security personnel” for their traveling entourages and security theater checkpoints outside their offices to underscore their own personal importance for a gaping easily deceived public.

David Johnson Working With Governor Paterson

Naturally, I quickly reminded myself that the Governor needs a reliable set of eyes next to him at all times, it would be quite silly for him to rely on the kindness of strangers. Like at this event last year in my neighborhood, if Mr. Paterson had relied on Jerry Jennings and Jack McEneny to guide him, the man would have ended up rotating in the middle of Morton Avenue while getting clipped by suburban SUVs.

I am, however, accustomed to watching my own thought processes, so I noted that my uneasy feeling about their close relationship lingered in the back of my mind. I strongly suspect that most people who observed Johnson and Mr. Paterson working together also stuffed this thought into the backs of their brains, perhaps unconsciously.

It is this collective lingering uneasy feeling that is being exploited by these two propagandists Rashbaum and Hakim. The copy from their NY Times articles plays directly on this fleeting attitude that no one talks about. These excerpts are from their masterpiece of smear propaganda printed on February 16:

Mr. Johnson’s increasing prominence, and Mr. Paterson’s reliance on him, have worried some veteran aides to the governor . . . Some heads of significant government agencies have said they feel they have to go through Mr. Johnson, often known as D. J., to get to the governor… Mr. Johnson, [an] official said, started to manage administration press conferences, dictating the order and seating of speakers and calling agencies to request they draft statements on particular issues…

February 28, 2010

The flood control system for the Hudson River is being badly mismanaged, bringing threats of
damage, disease and higher taxes to Albany

Talk about an unpleasant surprise, a lightning bolt from a clear blue sky or a meteorite through the roof of your car. An obscure State regulatory agency located somewhere up north arbitrarily announced on January 12 that Albany County and the taxpayers of four other counties have to pony up millions of dollars in assessment costs. Yes, it’s extortion, but the obscure agency may very well be able to go to court and shake down the counties to cover their own spectacular mismanagement.

The agency is called…. are you ready for this?… the Hudson River Black River Regulating District, or the HRBRRD for short. The State workers back in the 1920s who came up with that acronym were thinking about springtime floods and deadly epidemics and relocating angry farmers from their river valley home. They were probably not thinking about how clunky HRBRRD would sound in the 21st Century.

The primary responsibility of the HRBRRD is to prevent flooding by the Hudson River. For most of the 20th century they did their job just fine. But now because of a combination of patronage, “privatization” and sheer incompetence, Albany can look forward to damage from recurring floods and the possibility of the outbreak of waterborne disease. And higher taxes.

South Pearl Street In Albany’s South End, 1913

Some Forgotten History

Basically, the HRBRRD was created in response to the now mostly forgotten Great Flood of 1913 that ravaged the Northeast US. More specifically, the Flood caused the Typhus Epidemic of 1913 here in the South End of Albany, an epidemic that climbed up the State Street hill and gravely sickened some of our State and City leaders along with their families.

What was called “typhus” at the time is today called typhoid fever, two different diseases. This causes lots of confusion. Typhus is transmitted by lice, typhoid fever comes from drinking contaminated water although it can also be transmitted by contact with an infected carrier. Technically, the “1913 typhus epidemic” was actually an outbreak of typhoid fever.

At that time the Hudson River was an open sewer and would remain so until the rise of the environmental movement in the late 20th century. In 1913 the filthy river water overwhelmed a filtration plant on the waterfront, thus contaminating much of the City’s drinking water.

As epidemics go it was minor, less than 200 cases of typhoid fever in the City of Albany were reported to the authorities although the real figure was certainly much higher. The South End, poor, crowded and partially immersed in water, proved to be a breeding ground for the disease. If you were in good health and received good nutrition your chances of full recovery were good, much less if you were a poor slum dweller in the South End.

According to a Health Bulletin issued in May of 1913 at the end of the epidemic, exactly 75 percent of the reported cases of typhoid fever in Albany occurred in children. Strange to say, I can’t find any mortality statistics available for this epidemic. But it was understood at the time that typhoid fever had about a ten percent fatality rate. One out of ten victims were expected to die.

The Famous Typhoid Mary (front left) quarantined in NYC 1909

In response, our elected officials from a hundred years ago decided that they would never let a flood and epidemic strike the South End and find their families ever again. Partly this was a concession to activists who were demanding that the government promote public sanitation, a policy that we all take for granted today. Certainly, in the spring of 1913 our civic leaders found out the hard way that conditions that affect the poor will eventually affect them and their families.

Thus Great Sacandaga Lake was created as the centerpiece of the State’s flood control system for the Hudson River. The Lake is a reservoir not for drinking but for storing water. The system is a beautiful piece of hydrology that works excellently when it is run by competent people. In fact it has worked so well until recently that most people don’t even know that the flood control system exists.

If you take a stroll down to Island Creek Park in the South End and stare into the Hudson, you should know that about forty percent of the water that you are looking at came down from the Adirondack Mountains via the Sacandaga River. The State engineers in the 1920s observed that the Sacandaga River was wildly erratic, varying from a raging torrent in spring to an unnavigable trickle by November. They understood that controlling the Sacandaga River is the key to controlling the Hudson.

In 1930 the dam up north at Conklingville was closed and the Sacandaga River valley flooded, creating a lake covering some 42 square miles with 125 miles of shoreline. At its widest part it takes me about two hours to cross by kayak. This is the Great Sacandaga Lake. The main task of the HRBRRD is to maintain the Lake and use the Lake to prevent flooding downstream in places like Albany.

Ideological Corruption

Lately the HRBRRD hasn’t been doing a very good job of maintaining the Lake. Okay, let’s not mince words here. For the past 15 years the persons running the regulating district have displayed such utter incompetence that the HRBRRD and the flood control system is on the verge of complete collapse. And the Lake itself is suffering from this incompetence along with the local communities.

HRBRRD’s Assessment Notice Sent To The Counties
(Thanks Luci McKnight)

Thanks to these incompetent boobs now in charge, the HRBRRD has become detested by everyone who lives near or around the Lake. For example, currently the lakeside villages of Northville, Mayfield and Broadalbin are jointly suing the District. Everyone hates the HRBRRD. Even the Sacandaga bass fishing association has become angry and politicized over the arrogance and incompetence of the Lake managers.

And now the District is starting to earn hatred from people who live far away from Great Sacandaga and have never heard of them, in places like the South End. You see, Albany County (along with four other counties) has been paying a fixed amount to the HRBRRD since 1925, an assessment for preventing flooding downstream. Until recently this cash trickling upstream has been more than adequate to keep the Lake functioning as intended.

HRBRRD director Glenn LaFave has managed to completely bankrupt the district. Faced with looming collapse, incompetent LaFave has arbitrarily chosen higher assessment figures for the downstream counties based on, well, whatever is inside his little head at this moment. Even Governor Paterson has condemned the assessment as being arbitrary.

It wasn’t always like this. From 1930 until about 1995 Great Sacandaga was run by competent technocrats who managed finances well and used a low key approach to work peacefully with the communities, businesses and vacationers along the shoreline. Although the HRBRRD had been awarded vast regulatory powers back in the 1920s, the managers before 1995 were usually smart enough to not use these extraordinary powers to annoy or upset the locals.

Spineless George Pataki

Back then, disputes between the District and the Lake communities were usually about water levels. In dry years when rainfall is light, the Lake is supposed to be emptied to keep the water level of the Hudson River high enough for navigation, and prevent ocean salt from traveling upstream and affecting drinking water downstate. In wet years the Lake is supposed to be filled to the top of the dam to prevent the Hudson from overflowing and immersing scenic spots like South Pearl Street.

But then spineless George Pataki was placed in the Governor’s office in 1995, initiating 12 years of engineered economic decline across upstate New York. In pursuit of the stated goal of “eliminating big government,” Pataki’s handlers began using the District as a patronage mill. The HRBRRD became a paid retirement home for loyal Republican Party hacks, many of whom collected paychecks without even bothering to set foot in the District offices.

Typically Stupid Privatization

For several years the party hacks did nothing and let the Lake run itself. Then in 1999 they engaged in an ideological form of corruption known as “privatization.” They sold the two hydroelectric turbines located at the dam to speculators, and signed a contract guaranteeing that water will fall over the dam and spin the privatized rotors on the privatized turbines a certain number of days per year so the owners will have electricity to sell.

And if the water does not fall over the dam as promised, the District has to pay the privateers out of their own budget for every day that the privateers have no electricity to sell. What a deal. That’s how the current problems started.

Conklingville Dam And Hydroelectric Station

Clearly, the HRBRRD managers did not engage in very much thinking before they signed this stupid contract. Terrified of the prospect of being forced to pay tax dollars to the speculators who own the turbines, the party hacks in charge of the HRBRRD began a policy of deliberately keeping the water level of Great Sacandaga much too high throughout the year. That way they could guarantee that the privateers who own the turbines on the dam will never have a reason to complain to the party bosses.

Now, if you happen to be a fat butted neocon ideologue who never goes outdoors except to waddle across a parking lot, then all this makes perfect sense. “Privatization” is always good and the whole world has to bend to the privateers. Anything that paralyzes elected government and brings us all closer to a corporate dictatorship is good. And if back in the real world the lake shore is destroyed and the property owners and business owners are screwed, who’s gonna care?

It was beginning in the spring of 2000 that lakeside dwellers noticed that lake levels were higher than anyone could remember. The winter snows melted and came roaring down the Sacandaga River and stayed locked in the Lake. Docks were wrecked, water lapped onto lawns and sandy shorelines were ripped by the pounding waves. (Having been caught many times out on the Lake on my kayak during a storm, I can tell you all about those powerful waves.)

Well, the same thing happened next year, and the next year, and the next. The water was kept at absurdly high levels for months at a time. The ideological destruction of the shoreline has become an acute problem that continues to outrage property owners around the Lake.

Deer Island, Great Sacandaga Lake, 2009, Stripped By High Water. This Island Was Covered With Trees In 1999

In response to growing complaints of mismanagement the HRBRRD has stonewalled arrogantly. They even lie about the water levels in their official reports, regularly reporting that the new higher levels of the Lake are consistent with the historic average levels. And they keep issuing decrees and threats to the local population.

The Inevitable Flood

In July of 2006 the inevitable happened. Despite the usual low rainfall for most of the season the Lake was being kept filled at near capacity, dozens of feet higher than the average historic water levels for high summer. That’s when our region was hit with several days of “once in a century” record breaking torrential rainstorms.

By keeping the water levels unseasonably high for the benefit of the speculators who own the turbines on the dam, the district officials had managed to destroy the ability of Lake Sacandaga to control water levels downstream. For at least three days the average water level of the Lake was more than two feet higher than the dam! The District nitwits stood by helplessly as water poured down from the mountains and roared directly into the Hudson River without stopping.

Remember that summer five years ago? The entire City of Albany waterfront was drowned. The Corning Preserve was covered in a layer of PCB laden mud. Water filled the underpass at the bottom of Madison Avenue and lapped onto Broadway. Damage estimates were in the millions.

Albany, 1913

As far as I know, there is no record of a naturally occurring flood of this magnitude having hit the City of Albany in high summer. It takes a combination of sophisticated hydrology and ideologically inspired incompetence to negatively subvert nature so spectacularly.

None of the causes of the 2006 flood were reported in the local corporate media. Indeed, few people have made the obvious connection between the incompetent actions by the managers of Great Sacandaga and the flooding downstream. I recall standing on Broadway contemplating the dirty lapping water, suddenly realizing that I may have been the only person in Albany at that moment who understood exactly why the Hudson River was covering the City streets.

I don’t recall that anyone has suggested that the HRBRRD should compensate the City of Albany for the arbitrary damage that they caused to our City waterfront in 2006. No compensation was offered by the district to any of the municipalities that were damaged by Glenn LaFave’s 2006 flood. No surprise that the District didn’t acknowledge their errors, incompetent people almost never display personal responsibility.

But here’s my suggestion for the Albany County legislators who are right now attempting to deal with the HRBRRD’s panic and unreasonable demands. Ask the District managers to compensate Albany County and the City of Albany for the 2006 flood that didn’t have to happen. Tell them the taxpayers of Albany County will gladly pay their higher assessment as soon as that multi million dollar compensation check arrives and clears.

Yeah, a creative lawyer could use that, not to mention the Governor’s condemnation of the assessment. The joint lawsuit about to be filed by the five counties doesn’t have to be successful. Right now Glenn LaFave is panicking. All the suit has to do is delay payment of the higher assessment for what, a year? Six months? And the District is screwed. Hah.

Corporate Manipulation

The HRBRRD needs that money like right now, or rather yesterday. They owe payments to the school districts around Great Sacandaga. Word has been that the District’s bills have been piling up unpaid. So how the hell did LaFave and his minions manage to bankrupt the District with their incompetence?

Front Moving Over Great Sacandaga Lake

Earlier this past decade LaFave tried to do what Republicans are always fond of doing: they tried to raise taxes on those who can least afford it. Specifically, they pulled out some of the District’s dormant extraordinary powers to massively hike “permit access fees,” in some cases by as much as one hundred times. What used to be a moderate fee suddenly became a burdensome regressive tax that hit regular folks the hardest.

I’ve always called these regressive taxes disguised as user fees Pataki Taxes, after the former Governor who was so fond of imposing these kinds of tax hikes. District officials were shocked when the locals organized and fought back with dogged persistence. The locals used to be so obedient, who knew they would be so vocal about being exploited?

In response to popular resistance Glenn LaFave revealed to one and all that the HRBRRD had, on the books, basically dictatorial powers over the inhabitants around Great Sacandaga Lake and over their property. Indeed, according to regulations no one has property rights around the Lake except at the pleasure of the district. And LaFave made it very clear that he and his minions could and would impose any sort of tax for no reason and with no discussion. He is the dictator so get used to it.

That’s when the lawsuits started to fly. Obviously, such corporate style application of the Fuhrer Principle runs contrary to the NY State Constitution. To exercise such arbitrary power is a direct repudiation of the Liberal Revolution of 1776, an assault upon the American freedoms and rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights that we all too often take for granted.

The judges in the State courts, observing the widespread popular anger, have been forced to take these challenges to the HRBRRD’s dictatorial powers very seriously. Meanwhile, the plan to arbitrarily raise taxes around the Lake has been put on hold. As a result, the projected revenue stream from that direction has dried up for the foreseeable future.

Former Niagara Mohawk Building In Syracuse, Now Regional HQ For Foreign Corporation National Grid

So why did LaFave panic and send out bogus tax hikes to the downstream counties, a maneuver that was guaranteed to create a legal nightmare and a public relations disaster? Well, these days whenever chaos occurs, either from natural causes or from an artificially induced breakdown of systems as in this case, there always seems to be a major corporation hovering nearby waiting to swoop down and take advantage of the disaster. It’s called Disaster Capitalism.

In this case the predatory corporation is the foreign based power monopoly National Grid. When National Grid bought and absorbed the smaller domestic monopoly corporation Niagara-Mohawk, they also acquired Ni-Mo’s debts and obligations. One of these obligations is annual payments to the HRBRRD for flood control, exactly like the downstream counties. This is because the power corporations traditionally have used the River for power generation.

Last year the English lawyers sent here by National Grid were successful in NY State courts, they managed to overturn their corporate owner’s assessments. That finished off the district’s income, and bills are due. The unimaginative incompetents at the HRBRRD could come up with nothing better than to squeal and squeak for more money from the downstream counties that owe them nothing.

Fixing This Unnecessary Mess

What can be done about this administrative collapse? Some people who live around Great Sacandaga would like to get rid of the HRBRRD altogether as a useless layer of bureaucracy. In contrast Republican State Senator Hugh Farley, a committed corporate socialist, appears to want the HRBRRD to have more power and more independence from oversight, and be answerable directly to the Governor.

Both notions are, of course, ridiculous. Someone who knows hydrology and basic ecology has to run the flood control system on a daily basis. We have all found out the hard way that flood control cannot be left to the politicians. And giving power-abusing nincompoops even more power may make ideological sense to Farley, but not to anyone with any common sense.

Last year the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC,) which has the power to oversee actions by the HRBRRD, stepped in to the ongoing controversies around the Lake. All they managed to do is make more problems. For example, the DEC decreed that from now on property owners around Lake Sacandaga no longer had rights to use or even to maintain the Lake shoreline. Believe it or not, the DEC attempted to outlaw mowing the grass and setting up picnic tables along the shore, a move which would utterly devastate the local economy.

The justification for this nonsense is that the DEC wants to “restore the natural conditions.” Um excuse me, but isn’t this an artificial lake? To “restore the natural conditions” they would have to drain the lake, reconstruct the hamlets and restore the farms. Great Sacandaga may be located just inside the Adirondack Park, but it is not a natural Adirondack lake. It needs to be maintained.

Last year the board of the HRBRRD was purged of several members who objected to LaFave’s policies and to the meddling by the DEC. This act makes me seriously wonder about Glenn LaFave’s sanity. But then he’s a Republican, no one expects him to be connected to reality.

Crossing Great Sacandaga In My Kayak

A few weeks ago Governor Paterson decided it was his turn to meddle. He introduced a bill into the State legislature that removes DEC oversight from the HRBRRD. It seems the Governor is holding the DEC responsible for allowing and approving LaFave’s foolish tax hikes and interference with property rights. Apparently he thinks that by removing oversight LaFave will suddenly turn competent and all the problems he created will go away.

The Adirondack Council is firmly opposed to this bill. Spokesman John Sheehan points out how the HRBRRD consistently comes up with “the worst suggestions” and refuses to accept public input. He says that the District “has proposed things that [have] made it clear that it requires some level of oversight. It’s also an agency that is prone to political patronage and does not always act in the best interests of the public.” Mr. Sheehan is much too polite.

That’s where things stand now. Political diddling and casual meddling will not repair this problem, we need a comprehensive solution to the problem of running and maintaining the Hudson River flood control system. We need to recapture the political will that built the system back in the early 20th Century, a political will that for a time put an end to waterborne diseases that kill.

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February 9, 2010

The blogger begs for money for the South End and partially solves the State budget crisis

Believe it or not, for the past few years I’ve belonged to the board of directors of a corporation. I’m quite pleased about this, I never thought a working class man like myself would ever be allowed near the upper echelons of corporate control. Such positions, I’ve always been told, are reserved for elite members of the master race, a category which most decidedly does not include me.

Okay, we’re not talking about Goldman Sachs or Monsanto or China here, we’re talking about our venerable neighborhood nonprofit South End Improvement Corporation (SEIC.) Our primary job is to step in as the agency of last resort for owned and occupied South End houses that are in urgent need of repair. Thus, by repairing the buildings and keeping them livable, we prevent long time homeowners from losing their homes and becoming homeless.

38 Catherine St., Note The Typically Neglected South End Sidewalk

To me, keeping both the buildings and their inhabitants alive and healthy is the most important thing that the South End needs right now. The City of Albany has long pursued a policy of applied neglect to the South End, with an ultimate goal of vacating our neighborhoods and selling off the land to suburban “developers.” So don’t worry, folks. I may be revealed as a hypocritical corporate cog by beonging to a corporate board of directors, but I’m still acting contrary to long-standing public policy.

Our organization is not exactly raking in the cash, our funding has always been rather precarious. For instance, the month that I joined the board of SEIC I couldn’t help but notice, while standing in the office at 38 Catherine Street, I could barely see my hand in front of face… in the middle of the day. So immediately I was able to affect a positive boost to productivity of the working environment by buying a bag of light bulbs, an essential item for which funding was not available at that time.

Truth to tell, when I was invited to join the board of SEIC the first thought that popped into my mind was the old Groucho Marx line, “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” I quickly learned that SEIC did not particularly need me. It is a humble honor for me to be able to contribute to this organization’s work in some small way.

The Director of SEIC is Sandra Obiedo, hired by the board. I’ve sat at monthly board meetings and watched with wonder and admiration as Sandra has not only held together the funding for our programs, she has demonstrated an ability to anticipate problems and a knack for finding sources of money. She has actually expanded our programs to help more people and preserve more buildings.

Sandra Obiedo

Sandra came to SEIC after many years working in the office of Albany County Comptroller Mike Connors. Now, Mr. Conners’ occasional stabs at playing politics have left an unpleasant aftertaste in some mouths. I know one local Democratic Party activist who persistently and vehemently spits his name and calls him “crazy.”

But even Mr. Conners’ detractors admit that the Comptroller runs a tight competent ship and does his job very well. His staff reflects his priorities, I’m sure he was sorry to lose Sandra as an employee. I’m still waiting for an opportunity to thank him for sending us a top notch director.

Around the time Ms. Obiedo first took the Director’s job at SEIC, I observed that Morris Morton, the long time president of the SEIC board of directors, had on his face a look that I would describe as resigned exhaustion. After a couple of years with Sandra in charge I can report that his visage shows something more like… cautious optimism. Lately I’ve seen him smile, and at the last board meeting I swear I heard him chuckle.

As we all know the State of New York is currently undergoing a particularly acute financial crisis, the result of 40 years worth of neoconservative applied looting at the Federal level of government. Governor Paterson is looking for big cuts to recipients of necessary State aid, and SEIC is no exception. Thus, Sandra is asking us members of the board to write letters to Governor Paterson.

Before, Ceiling On Alexander Street

Of course everybody is writing to the Governor these days. “Our program,” these letters all say, “is the most important program to come along since 1609. You cannot cut our budgets, if you do then we will stage riots on your doorstep and starve to death in front of cameras.” Yeah. I’ve been seeing lots of downstate buses parked in Lincoln Park lately, a sure sign of ongoing rallies and lobbies at the Capitol.

After, Alexander Street

So who are we to ask for money when so many others are begging for scraps from the same bucket? Well, I have an idea that I didn’t put in my letter to the Governor, although I thought of doing so. I know of an ongoing unnecessary massive expenditure of cash that needs to be terminated pronto, which could free up funds that could be put to better use.

One one side of the South End, down by the river, Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings wants to cut off a big chunk of land and plant a convention center. No one who lives and pays taxes in the City of Albany wants His convention center. No one that is, except certain elected officials, their dependent minions, and a few select personages along with suburban contractors who stand to benefit personally from this boondoggle.

So far, this Convention Center Authority has managed to funnel quite a bit of State money directly into certain select pockets. Like, a lot of money. Albany County even levied a special tax for a while to help enrich The Mayor’s friends. And let’s not forget all of the City taxpayer funded time and materials that have been sunk into the Con Center.

Proposed Unwanted Convention Center

So here’s my suggestion for the Governor. Why not strangle to death the Convention Center Authority? Drown it in a bucket? This would save the taxpayers from spending what in the end will probably amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. There are so many better things that land could be used for that would generate jobs for City residents and tax revenue for City Hall. The current proposed Con Center will provide neither.

The bulk of the millions of dollars saved by the taxpayers could be used to reconstruct the South End from one end to another. Such an investment would not come near to fully compensating the South End for the untold hundreds of millions extracted from our neighborhoods by the City government over the last 60 years or so. But surely such an investment, similar to the amounts routinely plowed into unsustainable suburban hellholes, would bring the South End back to life in a big way.

Then after we free up all that money, how about tossing several tens of thousands of dollars in the direction of South End Improvement Corporation to make up the projected shortfall in our budget? You see, a reconstruction project that costs several hundred million dollars will take a while to get off the ground. Meanwhile, homeowners will still need roofs, furnaces and windows that can open.

But I didn’t say any of that to the Governor. Actually, I said more than enough to him. When I joined the board o SEIC I told Sandra and Morris and the rest of the board that I might not exactly turn out to be a political asset. I’m very much a loose cannon, you never know what I’m going to say or do next.

BTW, I plagiarized some boilerplate from Sandra’s letter to Mr. Paterson. Her letter was much more polite and, shall we say, not as expressive as mine. Here’s what I wrote, it’s not too long:

February 5, 2010

Governor David Paterson
State Capitol
Albany, New York 12224

Re: Neighborhood Preservation and Rural Preservation Program Funding (N/RPP) And The South End Improvement Corporation (SEIC) In The City Of Albany

Dear Governor Paterson:

As I’m sure you’re aware, the Cities of upstate New York have been devastated by 60 years of government policies designed to destroy and eventually obliterate our sustainable urban communities. All across our state we can see the blight and ruination caused by these abhorrent government policies, dying Cities surrounded by unsustainable suburban wastelands that suck the lifeblood out of our Cities like bloated deer ticks.

All levels of government are to blame for creating and sustaining this massive set of policy failures. Certainly the counties, the local municipalities and the feds have all worked for decades to draw the wealth out of our Cities and leave the remaining urban population to scrabble as best they can in the ruined cityscape. But the State of New York takes a large chunk of responsibility for this imposed urban blight.

If our governments destroy a viable community for no reason, as our past elected officials have come close to systematically obliterating the South End of Albany, then our government has a responsibility to repair what it has irresponsibly destroyed.

NYS Governor David Paterson On Morton Avenue Last Year

 

Mr. Paterson, since you assumed office as Governor I have been greatly encouraged by your commitment to providing funds to reconstruct our upstate urban communities. I fully understand that this economic war against our Cities is even written into the New York State Constitution, a system of subsidies and tax breaks designed to encourage the sprawl of suburbs at the expense of Cities and farmland. Thus, the problems are deeply imbedded into the system and beyond the ability of any one person to repair.

However, as Governor you have the power to compensate for these systemic failures, and I thank you for having done so as much as you have. In the months before you took office, your predecessor had deeply slashed the operating budget for the South End Improvement Corporation (SEIC,) an organization of which I am a member of the board of directors. As we board members were all preparing for disaster with the coming new year, you assumed office and almost immediately restored most of our funding, literally just in time.

Before, Second Avenue Furnace

Right now the government of the City of Albany is in the midst of a small and belated effort to reconstruct the South End of Albany from the ground up, and our venerable nonprofit SEIC is an essential part of this project. Besides SEIC, various agencies and City of Albany departments are working together to reconstruct the South End, particularly Albany Housing Authority, Habitat for Humanity, Trinity Institute, the Albany City Planning Department and others. All of these groups are under the umbrella of the South End Action Committee (SEAC, please don’t be confused by the similar acronyms.)

SEIC provides housing rehabilitation grants to folks primarily in the South End of Albany and to senior citizens in the City of Albany. Our mission is to improve the housing conditions and the quality of life for our community, thereby preserving the residential character of our unique neighborhoods and encouraging City living. We provide assistance to those most in need such as the elderly, disabled and low-income homeowners and tenants of our community.

For example, when it came to our attention last fall that an 85 year old woman was about to face this particularly cold winter without heating equipment in her home, we provided her with a working furnace and radiators. I cannot tell you how many roofs we have replaced, rotting windows and steps, wet moldy basement floors and unusable bathrooms. In addition, we participate in residential building renovation projects through careful application of funds from the Homeowner Rehabilitation Program (HARP.)

After, Second Avenue Furnace

As we work to preserve the quality of life for South End residents who cannot maintain their own homes, simultaneously we are preserving our priceless well-built older housing stock that is the first and foremost asset that distinguishes our South End community. It is plain to see that SEIC successfully and efficiently provides for an important niche at the end of the funding chain, a niche that more conventional agencies cannot fill.

I see the homeowners of the South End, made indigent by government policy, slowly sliding down a gradual slope toward a sheer cliff. It is our job at SEIC to grab these folks as they dangle about to drop off the edge. We don’t affect miracles, but usually we can move folks back up the slope a bit so they can regain their footholds.

The proposed Executive Budget for 2010-2011 is calling for deep cuts of 27 % or more to the Neighborhood Preservation Program and 29% or more to the Rural Preservation Program. The cuts would devastate our organization, create a tremendous hardship and force us to lay off much of our meager staff and mostly abandon the neediest population of people we serve. With an already modest annual investment of less than $85,000 per NPP per fiscal year, cutting funding by 27% could most likely force our small organization to close our doors.

Governor, you are faced with the onerous task of imposing large cutbacks to all sectors funded by the State, and I would guess that you have more than enough letters like this asking you to please make an exception. I am certainly not in a position to tell you how best to carry out your job. It is clear, however, that you are being forced to decide what kinds of programs need to be prioritized by the State, and what sorts of programs are unnecessary.

What I ask is that as you make your hard and unpopular decisions, please remember that urban reconstruction was a priority when you first took office. And while wasteful and ineffective programs should be dropped, the South End Improvement Corporation does not fall into that category and must not be defunded. Our community has suffered long enough under hostile public policy, we must continue this effort to reconstruct the South End before all of us who live and work here slide over that precipice.

Sincerely,

Daniel W. Van Riper

Member, Board of Directors South End Improvement Corporation

President, Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association

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January 24, 2010

Lots of citizens but few politicians at this year’s Martin Luther King event in Lincoln Park

This year the annual march from the State Plaza to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King statue started late, getting going around noontime. As usual there was no public notice of the march, so I came out of my house around 10 AM and discovered that I had a lot of time to kill. So I watched the lone City Department of General Services (DGS) guy clear from the monument the six inches of snow and slush that came down last night.

I wanted to ask him why he was clearing off the patch of ground next to the monument, but our brief conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a supervisor lady who announced, ”I’m from DGS.” The guy had to stop working to smile and nod while the lady from the managing class ritualistically established hierarchical control over the working class man. I’m sure this guy never saw her before, but working jobs often require public acts of obeisance to middle class supervisors and he was clearly no fool.

DGS Guy With The Supervisor Lady

Although this exchange was grimly amusing, I decided to wander across Lincoln Park to the State Plaza to see if anyone was yet assembling to march. The road was closed off but deserted, so I wandered down into the Plaza to keep warm. It was sunny and warming up a bit outside, but this is January and the temperature was barely above freezing.

Army Guy From Watervliet Arsenal Who Waited An Hour For The Marchers

No way that I was going to walk all that distance underground across the Plaza to sit miserably in the auditorium under The Egg and listen to politicians dish out slop while I’m being eyeballed by the amateur cops who work under the Capitol. Been there, done that, I try to avoid abuse when I can. Instead I hung close to the entrance and watched the program for a bit on one of the three big TV screens on the marble wall.

The program looked pretty entertaining this year. I watched one outrageously talented lady belt out some top notch gospel tunes, and all I could think about while watching her was issues of separation of church and state. One or two other people passing by stopped to watch while I did, I left when the keynote speaker took the podium.

I wandered back to my neighborhood and talked to the Parking Enforcement guys in charge of securing the parade route. There were no expensive police officers this year, the parking supervisor sat in his SUV at the end of the route at Morton Avenue instead of a cop. He was friendly but he didn’t seem to know anything about the event.

Blocking The Parade Route

The guy stationed at Park Avenue had placed his saw horses across the parade route. So I told him about how last year the guy doing his job also put his horses across the parade route exactly like he did and got yelled at by the supervisor. “Really? From that direction?” he asked. “What’s this all about, anyway?” I briefly explained about the march and he thanked me. “They didn’t tell me anything,” he said.

This time I walked over to the Plaza and found the parade assembling under the overhang.

Assembling In Front Of The State Museum

Pretty good attendance this year, I figure about 300 people came out to follow behind the instruments of state control. I don’t recall hearing that Dr. King was supported on any of his great historic marches by a contingent of cops and politicians. On the contrary, these were the kinds of authorities who opposed and tried to destroy him and the suppress the people who followed him.

Not a lot of politicians this year, the wimps. Once again I’ve got to hand it to Mayor Jerry Jennings, he certainly marched shoulder to shoulder all the way with NY State Office of General Services Commissioner John Egan and City Court Judge Helena Heath-Roland. Common Council member Cathy Fahey kept a little distance from His Majesty. Marching behind Him I spotted Assistant Chief of Police Steven Krokoff, who is probably the acting head of the Albany Police. As far as I could see that was it for the politicians.

Along Park Avenue, State Museum In Background

Earlier I was killing time shoveling slush off the sidewalk on the other side of Morton Avenue. My Common Council representative Dominick Calsolaro, who was sitting in a parked car waiting for the parade, rolled down his window and critiqued my shoveling technique. He also accused me of roundly condemning him on this blog for never attending the ceremonies, which I don’t believe I’ve ever done… even though I can’t remember the last time I saw Dom out here in January at this event.

This year I have photographic proof that he did indeed participate in the ceremonies, even if he didn’t join the grueling quarter mile downhill stroll. Okay, with that leg of his I wonder how he manages to get up and down all those First Ward front stoops. At least he showed up.

In Lincoln Park

I ran alongside the march slipping and sliding on the slush taking photos. I nearly fell several times, I’m sure I provided a bit of amusement to the marchers. As I slipped on the slush I imagined His Majesty muttering to His buddies John and Helena, “I hope that son of a b—h lands face down.” If so, then I disappointed Him. Maybe next time.

Some of the marchers carried preprinted signs that said lame things like “Health Care For All” and “End Segregation Now.” I mean like okay, no one’s going to argue with those slogans, but that’s the problem. These signs were lowest common denominator, only unpatriotic idiots would argue with them.

C’mon, I could think up better signs. How about “Single Payer Medicare For All” or “Equality Is Self Evident.” Or to be really up to date and relevant, how about “Corporations Are Not Citizens.” And to get to the heart of all of our social problems, “Restore The Bill Of Rights.”

Politicians Move To The Cleared Patch Of Ground

I think it’s pretty obvious that this event is not widely advertised on purpose. The Mayor and the State persons involved want to control the event and keep it bland. The last thing they want is real marchers and real protesters really demanding equality and health care. Even Congressman Paul Tonko’s comprehensive calendar of events that his office sent around by email neglected to mention the march out to the statue.

All right, this is supposed to be a feel good event, a place where the government publicly ritualistically agrees to adhere to equality and justice for all Americans. We’re supposed to be above conflicts here. And yet, I don’t see the bland agreeable crowd assembled in front of the statue putting the government’s resolve to the test. I mean, who’s really in charge here?

After we arrived The Mayor led the politicians and pastors, etc. to the patch of cleared ground off to stage left that the lone DGS guy had provided for them. This is where all the speaking and invocating took place. I suspect that this year Jerry decided not to hide behind the monument wall and wave over the top at us peoples down in the road. Other years the dignitaries all looked like they were reviewing a military display in Red Square.

Jerry Was Brief

There was hardly any media this year. I kept bumping into a woman from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as we both snapped photos. Channel 9 was the only TV, I saw one print reporter and of course bloggers. A Hearst Times Union employee pointed a camera, but I don’t believe the daily rag used any of the photos of the event.

How strange. After everything was done and some of us were standing around chatting, a TV camera operator from channel 13 decided to show up. I politely asked the fellow if there was another big story that morning, and using a voice dripping with contempt he replied that there was “a fire in Troy.” Of course there was no such thing. I hope all the equipment operators and content providers at channel 13 get downsized by their corporate owner and spend the rest of their snotty little lives dipping french fries.

Politicians Looking Down On Their Employers

Everyone commented about the weather, it was actually pretty pleasant for January. For us winter bound locals, that is. If Dr. King were alive and present here in Lincoln Park he would no doubt be suffering mightily with a look of frozen horror on his face. After all he was a Southerner. He was a great man who stood up to authority, but he probably couldn’t handle slush and 35 degrees fahrenheit.

Jennings, State Commissioner John Egan And City Court Judge Helena Heath-Roland Pledge Allegiance To Martin.

This was Jerry’s show, and He kept it short and sweet. As usual, the weather was fine but not good enough to encourage rhetoric. The wreath got laid at the base of the statue followed by the moment of silence, and bam! everyone started to scatter. That’s what I like about this event. No fooling around.

DEC Officers Prepare To Furl The Flags

So I walked over to Hackett Middle School on the north side of Lincoln Park to see the big indoor show. If you haven’t seen the interior of Hackett since the Facilities Plan renovations then you ought to. I wish the schools I went to looked gorgeous like that. I keep hearing that The Mayor and the corporate media now want to sell off the public high schools to “charter” school corporations, so check out the building while you still can.

In the auditorium the kids put on one fine performance up on the stage, lots of gospel songs accompanied by a keyboardist and a hot drummer. Here’s where all the politicians were, inside where it was warm and entertaining. About half of the Common Council was in attendance, along with at least three City Court judges, and officials of every description.

Congressman Paul Tonko was right up front by the two man band, on his feet clapping and swaying to the music. Mr. Tonko has been very visible, I’ve seen him and talked to him more times in his first year in office than I did his predecessor over 20 years. I guess that’s because Mr. Tonko likes to be visible… and he’s got nothing to be ashamed of. I’m sure Dr. King would approve.

Congressman Paul Tonko Clapping With The Kids

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January 10, 2010

Our elected officials get sworn into office, and the next day the blogger meets the Governor

Welcome to Jerryville. Everything in Albany has changed but everything is the same. Jerry Jennings is now officially into His fifth term, and people are talking about Him as Mayor For Life. Some of the bodies occupying the seats in the Common Council chambers are new, but everyone I’ve talked to is sure that His Majesty has retained solid control of the City legislature.

On the last day of 2009 The Wife and I headed down to Albany City Hall to watch our elected public servants begin their new terms in office with a solemn oath. This ceremony of assumption of office was the culmination of the desperately hard-fought and all too often nasty Democratic Primary campaigns of last summer. As usual the general election served to rubber-stamp the victories of the Primary winners, there were no surprises in November this time.

And of course I had to go to City Hall for all the swearing. Goodness gracious, my very first post on this blog four years ago was all about the last City inauguration. I called that report “A Great Day For Terrorism,” a reasonable sounding title which firmly established the prevailing tone of this blog for the next four years.

Albany City Hall Lobby Ready For Action

Jerry Jennings is not the all powerful dictator that He was back in the 1990s. Almost every regular day the Mayor for Life publicly displays His fear and weakness right at the front door of City Hall for all the world to see. But today, for a few hours, Jennings reluctantly hid His personal and political insecurity in honor of the inauguration.

You see, once again the unconstitutional search and seizure checkpoint at the entrance of City Hall was dismantled for the duration of the ceremonies. Literally anyone could have walked into City Hall with a bomb or a machine pistol or a hatchet or lord knows what else. How did the government survive the morning of the last day of the decade without harassing and humiliating the taxpayers?

At 10 AM we had the entire City government, from The Mayor on down to the assistant clerks, visiting elected dignitaries such as congressman Paul Tonko, all upstairs packed into the Common Council chambers. Spectating in front of the chamber was a tight mass composed of leading members of the community, various kinds of media and a smattering of big nobodies like me. Thanks to the Wife we were lucky to find seats in the back corner.

What a perfect opportunity for mayhem, one that happens only once every four years! A right wing terrorist or an over enthusiastic teabagger or a mentally unstable suburbanite could have murdered the entire City of Albany government and more in a matter of seconds. But gee, nothing happened. Talk about a missed opportunity by the radical right.

Entrance To The Common Council Chambers

During a normal work week the entire government is never gathered in one place, the elected officials are scattered around City Hall or not present. Any act of terrorism during a weekday could not possibly have the same devastating effect as on inauguration day. And yet, the weekday “security” at the front door is extremely tight… if your clothes are poor or your face is black. White guys in suits usually get waved through.

This proves that the checkpoint at the door of City Hall is nothing but theater. Indeed, this recent “underwear bomber” on an airliner acutely emphasizes the uselessness of all these checkpoints. Not only are every single one of these checkpoints by necessity as porous as a cheesecloth, this incident proved that the most effective kind of security is provided by active citizens who refuse to sit tight and wait for some “authority” to give them orders.

It’s no coincidence that up the street Republican George Pataki, the most spineless State politician of the last 20 years, was the one who introduced intrusive security theater all in and around the Capitol in 1995. In sharp contrast, Schenectady City Hall does not have checkpoints at the entrances, anyone can walk in no matter how dark skinned or badly dressed. Apparently Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton does not tremble uncontrollably with fear of the voters like Pataki and Jennings.

Carolyn McLaughlin

Carolyn McLaughlin was the first to be sworn in as President of the Common Council by Justice Randolph Treece, boy did she look happy. Not only does she have that “seat at the table” that she’s been talking about all these years, now she’s sitting at the head of the table. Let’s not forget that if Jerry Jennings gets blown to bits by a suicide bomber or suddenly leaves the country hours before a financial report on the Rapp Road “Landfill” is made public, then Carolyn automatically assumes His job.

Over and over I heard expressions of relief that Carolyn was standing up there with a big grin and not Leonard Ricchiuti, her opponent in the Common Council president race last summer. The most astonishing comment along these lines I heard later that day was from a City employee who told me that he/she would have quit if Ricchiuti had won. “The more I learned during the campaign about what kind of person he is,” he/she said, “ the more I realized I couldn’t work with him.”

Thanks to the new City Charter which kicks in January 1st, Carolyn has more power than previous presidents. Like her predecessors she sits on the controversial Board of Estimate and Apportionment, usually called the E&A. This board controls transfers of cash within the City government that are outside the annual budget, and approves job titles, clearly a real political plum for whoever controls it.

In the past, The Mayor sat on the board and filled the rest of the seats with His own obedient supporters. He still sits on the board, but now He has one obedient and two hostile seats, the new Treasurer and the new Auditor. Carolyn McLaughlin is the swing seat, how will she behave? I have a feeling that in the next few years some interesting conflicts are going to make the obscure E&A more well known.

We will also see if President McLaughlin learns to be punctual. As her swearing-in was about to start, I turned to The Wife and said, “At least Carolyn’s on time for her first gig.” Almost everyone around us within earshot turned and said, “Uh huh.”

Common Council Chambers Before The Swearing

I learned something new that morning, anybody empowered to witness a contract can swear in an elected official. Any sitting politician can swear in any other politician, as can a lawyer or a licensed notary. I always thought you needed a judge or at least a mayor.

The members of the Common Council were under a lot of pressure to agree to be sworn in by Jennings. My own representative Dominick Calsolaro told me later that originally six members were going to display their independence by choosing their own personages to administer their oaths. But in the end, four caved in to The Mayor and only Dominick and Barbara Smith chose their own.

Jennings presided heavily over the 15 oaths. I decided to attach great significance to The Mayor’s behavior toward each swearing member, and I’ve drawn up a handy chart. The names are in the order that the oaths were administered:

Common Council Member & Ward Jerry’s Physical Signals Further Observations Lester Freeman 2 Big hug Very welcoming to Lester Ron Bailey 3 Quick hug   Jackie Jenkins-Cox 5 Solid hug   Richard Conti 6 Quick pat on arm Immediately turned away and stepped back Cathy Fahey 7 Quick hug   John Rosenzwieg 8 Big long hug Actually hugged twice with a quick pause in between James Sano 9 Grabbed shoulder, shook hand warmly, long hug One of the old boys Leah Golby 10 2 handed shake, peck on cheek The only kiss Anton Konev 11 Hug followed by a handshake 2nd hug after oath Michael O’Brien 12 Shake Formal, distant Daniel Herring 13 Words of praise Absent, sworn in later Joe Igoe 14 Big hug Several back pats Frank Commisso Jr. 15 Quick formal hug Respectful Dominick Calsolaro 1 Hovered, looked left out County Legislator Chris Higgins gave oath Barabara Smith 4 Stepped back to wall Notary Beverly Pageant gave oath

All the City officials swore to uphold both the US Constitution and the NY State Constitution, but they did not swear to uphold the City Charter. But being Democrats they all looked and sounded like they really did want to uphold both constitutions. I mean, when some of these big federal politicians do a swear they often look to me like they’re suppressing a bout of giggling when they get to the part about upholding the Constitution.

Frank Commisso Jr. took the oath with Frank Sr. by his side. Father and son have the same size and build, both marched to the front with the exact same power strut. Dad beamed with pride, but after the oath both he and Jerry quickly acknowledged each with perfunctory nods and what looked to me like mutual disgust. Dad immediately went back to grinning as he and Junior sat down.

Frank Commisso Jr.

Make no mistake about it, Jerry Jennings and Frank Commisso Sr. hate each other’s guts and each would love to destroy the other. But both are experienced practical power brokers swimming in the same political cesspool, an overlapping intricate network of cash disbursements and back room arrangements. Neither office holder for life is likely to let their personal grudges disturb the poop floating on the surface of the pit.

After the ceremony I found Frank Senior at the entrance to the Common Council chamber practically dancing with pride and joy. I asked him if his son would be independent on the Council, or would he follow his father’s lead? “The kid has his own mind,” Dad said, “He’s going to do things the way he wants to.”

Somewhat later I told Frank Junior what his Dad had said about him, and if it was true. He told me that of course he would follow Dad’s advice and defer to his experience, but he planned to chart his own course.

I got the impression that Frank Jr. is surprisingly strong willed for a 25 year old, he is certainly appears capable of defying Dad. The Wife managed to corner him in the hallway outside the chamber and harangue him about the Pine Bush and the Rapp Road Dump, both which are inside his 15th ward. And yes, he promised The Wife on the spot to meet with Save the Pine Bush at the first opportunity to learn about the issues. [Update: Junior kept his promise to The Wife.]

I wonder how this will play out. Frank Jr.’s predecessor in the Common Council, a zero not even worth naming, had been placed in the seat by Dad (as had her predecessor.) But in four years I don’t believe she ever voted against The Mayor on anything. Will Frank Jr. defy Jennings, and if he does will he do it on his own initiative or because his old man wants him to? I think "the kid" is worth watching, we’ll see.

The Book Waiting On The Podium

At Noontime we went downstairs to watch the inauguration of the Citywide officials other than Carolyn. State Appellate Presiding Justice Anthony Cardona, a former Albany City judge performed his fourth City swearing ceremony for his old crony Jennings. Justice Cardona, wearing his black robes, sat on the fancy chairs behind the podium before the swearing began, the three Citywide officials sitting next to him in descending order of importance.

First to swear was Auditor Lief Engstrom, whose new office is on the first floor directly across from The Mayor’s office. As a well dressed white guy he could waltz through the front door checkpoint with a hand held rocket launcher, fire it from his office door and take out Jennings and his receptionist. I’m surprised the new Auditor’s office is not up in the carillon tower or deep in the basement at the end of a corridor like Judge Tom Keefe’s office was for a while.

I forgot to mention The Book which was sitting on the podium. Apparently, in order to become a City elected official you not only have to swear but you then have to sign The Book. All throughout the morning Jerry Jennings treated The Book as His own possession, opening and holding and hovering over The Book as each newly sworn public servant signed.

Justice Anthony Cardona

Something very interesting happened immediately after Justice Cardona administered the oath to our new Treasurer, Kathy Sheehan, and then sat down, leaving Ms. Sheehan alone at the podium to give a speech. But first Ms. Sheehan picked up The Book on her own initiative and started flipping through the pages.

Jennings shot out of His chair and charged the podium. Justice Cardona, black robes flowing, was right behind His Majesty’s shoulder. Auditor Engstrom, who could not possibly have known at that moment why the other two were so alarmed and upset, also jumped up so as to be part of the emergency.

Newly anointed Treasurer Sheehan was taken aback by this three man attack and let Jennings deftly pull The Book from her hands and place it carefully back down on the podium. It was time for her to sign but apparently it was not her Book to touch. (Unfortunately at this crucial moment Joe Cunniff, who was standing next to me by the elevators operating the camera for Albany Community Television (ACT) decided that this would be a great moment to pan the crowd. So except for my description the moment is mostly lost to history.)

What I like about this incident is how Ms. Sheehan simply as a matter of course grabbed The Book without waiting for permission. And instead of sitting quietly, Auditor Engstrom instantly barreled into the “crisis” without stopping to wonder if he had any business doing so. Jerry has plenty to worry about these next four years.

Treasurer Sheehan Holds And Signs The Book With Three Supervisors (From ACT)

At last The Mayor got up and swore, then He signed “His” book. And at that point He asked Carolyn McLaughlin to come up to the podium and speak “a few words” before He did. Oh boy, is He trying to rope her in or what. She pledged cooperation etc. while His Majesty solemnly hovered.

The only remarkable thing to come out of The Mayor’s mouth that day was His announcement that the money that had been set aside for refreshments during the inauguration (there were none this time) had been at His direction donated to Albany High School to buy “Smart Boards” for the classrooms. This is the mayor who has done so much to undermine Albany’s public schools, who tried to sabotage the school facilities plan, who has diverted so much taxpayer money into the dirty pockets of “charter” school operators.

Nice of Him to throw a little bone to His former employers. But then, I understand that some of His stalwart minions on the Common Council are kicking off the new year by calling for a “cap” on new “charter” schools in Albany. Did Jennings have a falling out with Tom Caroll, the CEO of Brighter Choice? Or is this a political dig at Carolyn McLaughlin, who is known as a big supporter of “charter” schools?

Well, we didn’t miss the refreshments. I ended up at two celebratory house parties that afternoon, one at Bob and Kathy Sheehan’s house, and the other at Carolyn’s. Both parties had very impressive spreads for the guests. And of course I kept running into the same herd of politicians and political junkies moving from one party to the next.

Rolling Out The Security Theater Apparatus While Officers Carefully Watch Kathy Sheehan, The Wife And Jack McEneny For Suspicious Behavior

The next day was New Years, thanks to The Wife she and I were two of only three hundred people who won a lottery to tour the Governor’s Mansion over on Eagle Street. She’d been applying for several years now, this year we got lucky.

Actually, we didn’t tour the mansion, we got herded quickly through the first floor. I’ve been hearing crazy rumors for many years about police surveillance equipment piled up in the upper floors of the Mansion. After experiencing this tour I’m more inclined to believe these stories.

The State Police set up an illegal search and seizure checkpoint at the gate on Eagle Street. We lined up on the sidewalk like obedient Soviet Citizens while a couple of plainclothes “security” personnel smiled and made friends with us and asked intrusive questions. And they demanded that we produce photo ID to gain entrance.

Governor’s Mansion On Eagle Street

Yeah, nothing puts me in a holiday mood better than being threatened and humiliated. Do you know those goons made The Wife walk through their scanner three times? Like, what is she going to do to The Mansion, pee on the carpet? That’s been known to happen, but so what?

Then we had to go through a second checkpoint at the doorway. Every inch of the way we were monitored by goons. And of course they paid special attention to me. Understand that real cops rarely bother to glance at me, but glorified security guards tend to jump all over me an give me a hard time. That’s how I can tell ‘em apart, the experienced professionals from the phonies.

The Wife neglected to mention to me that we would be meeting… Michelle and David Paterson, in that order! Yes, there they stood, greeting and shaking hands with all of us untrustworthy common scum who need to be watched by dozens of “security personnel” at all times.

Unfortunately I was taken by surprise and had nothing to say to the Governor. Later I thought I would have thanked him for keeping the urban housing money flowing into our South End despite the budget crisis. Unlike Eliot Spitzer, Mr. Paterson puts rebuilding Cities like Albany as a priority.

Fortunately The Wife started chattering about how we live in the neighborhood and walked over, which got a positive response, especially from the First Lady. And while we spoke to them a woman snapped photos, which were sent to us by email free of charge. All very nice, since for some completely unexplained “security” reason we proles were not allowed to bring cameras into The Mansion.

The Wife Chats Up David And Michelle Paterson While The Blogger Goes Duh Behind Her. Note All The Security Goons In The Background

Actually, I went on this tour because I wanted to look over the building, but we could do very little of that. We stopped to admire an old painting near the back entrance as we were being herded out. While we studied it, out of the corner of my eye I could see all the nearby “security personnel” tightening up their bladders and fidgeting.

In the back yard a row of nervous goons sporting headsets stared at us in a threatening manner. Undaunted, The Wife peppered them with questions about the grounds, forcing them to behave like tour guides. Ain’t she somethin’. Did you know that The Mansion covers some 9 acres, has two swimming pools, and an unused golfing green?

We finally strolled down past several antique oversized security cameras pointed straight at my armpits. At the exit gate was a ranking plainclothes goon and a Trooper in full smoky regalia, hat and all. They looked at us and spoke to us with a tone like we were lucky they didn’t detain us indefinitely under an unconstitutional “terrorism” statute right then and there. I pointedly ignored them both.

Such a display of weakness. Our politicians at every level of government are shaking with fear and uncertainty, hiding behind these illegal phony baloney checkpoints. And no, of course they’re not scared of “terrorists” or even criminals. They’re scared half to death of us plain folks, you and me. As well they should be.

Prior Post

 

December 20, 2009

Now we know why Albany’s Yassin Aref And Mohhamed Hossain have been perjured into prison

The Wife knows why the President of the United States recently made the biggest and most fatal political error of his presidency, one so big it will not only destroy his career but may eventually destroy the United States itself. Or, to be more accurate I should say that she knows exactly what massive piece of misinformation that Barack Obama has used to justify his open ended escalation of the War Against Afghanistan.

The day that Mr. Obama gave his war justification speech at West Point, The Wife had a grim look on her face. “Did you hear his speech?” she asked me. “Did you hear the most important part?” She meant this:

So no – I do not make this decision lightly. I make this decision because I am convinced that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al Qaeda. It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak. This is no idle danger; no hypothetical threat. In the last few months alone, we have apprehended extremists within our borders who were sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror. This danger will only grow if the region slides backwards, and al Qaeda can operate with impunity.

November 30, 2009

A warm weather Sunday visit to remind everybody that our nation is built upon Liberal values and that winter will not last forever

Now that the weather is finally getting cold, I want to tell you about a trip The Wife and I made this past September to Fort Ticonderoga.  This was back when the days were full of sunshine and happiness. Ticonderoga is about a two hour drive from Albany, up the Northway to Exit 28 and another 20 miles straight east to the Vermont border.  The fort sits on the three and a half mile La Chute River, the waterway that connects Lake George to Lake Champlain.

If you’ve never been to Fort Ticonderoga, I’ll go so far as to say that if you presume to call yourself a patriotic American then you need to go up there.  In these late days of our rapidly declining republic, we fat lazy ignorant descendants of the real patriots desperately need to be reminded why we still have some of the rights and freedoms that are laid out for all to see in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, rights that we are happily allowing to be taken away from us.

Fort Ticonderoga is the site of the very first victory by the rebels in the American Revolution.  This little local action was initiated by the local people without authorization by distant command, yet it led to several victories that put the Revolution on solid ground, which in turn led to our freedom from foreign nations and from their corporations. 

Approaching Fort Ticonderoga, Note The Roof Above The Wall

The Fort Ticonderoga that The Wife and I visited is a reproduction of the original, except for a few foundation stones the old fort is long gone.  It seems that the original fort was badly built and poorly designed, and fell apart long ago.  When I first heard this I felt cheated, why the hell were we wasting time looking at a cheap knockoff of a mistake?  But after I learned about the fort’s history, I realized that the mistakes in construction and the attempts to rebuild it are all very much a part of Ticonderoga’s significance.

The fort was begun in 1755 by the French.  The British and the French fought over it and the two world empires exchanged control of the fort several times before the British took control of most of North America after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1763.  Later in the 1770s the fort was captured twice by the American revolutionaries, both times without serious fighting.  But both captures were very central to the success of the revolution.

After the Revolutionary War the fort lost it’s military significance and was allowed to fall into ruin.  The harsh weather of the area, the freezing and thawing rapidly tore apart the stone and masonry.  Actually, the original masonry and construction techniques were considered substandard back even in the 1700s.  The guys who built and designed the fort were punished for their incompetence. This makes accurate historical reproduction a frustrating continuation of original error.  

Ruins Of Fort Ticonderoga In The 1800s, Photographed Off The Wall

The ruination was assisted by local farmers who regularly helped themselves to what they saw as ready building materials.  By the 1820s the fort had become a romantic rubble beloved of the Hudson River school of art.  About this time, fortunately for us today, the land around the fort fell to a private owner who sought to preserve the remains as a tourist destination.  Finally in the early 20th Century work was begun to restore the fort as authentically as possible according to extensive surviving records, a century’s worth of effort that is only approaching completion today.

After the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 the revolutionaries laid siege to the British army in Boston.  The only communication the British had with the outside world was by water. (Follow me here, this is important.) Word of the siege quickly spread inland to the free farmers of Vermont.  Without hesitation the great and glorious hero Ethan Allen led these Vermont farmers, who called themselves the Green Mountain Boys, on an expedition to capture Fort Ticonderoga.

At The Entrance, Bottom Rounded
Stones Are Original, Square Stones
At Top Are New

Ah, Ethan Allen.  Many people know that during the Revolution he led Vermont as an independent republic.  But few folks know that as a nation Vermont militarily invaded New York, conquering a 90 mile strip running north from the Massachusetts border including part of Rensselaer County.  At the same time Vermont forcibly annexed the east bank of the Connecticut River from New Hampshire  Both conquests were enthusiastically supported by the local populations of the occupied territories.

The elite feudal Patroons of Albany sent an army composed mostly of poor tenant farmers to repel the invaders from New York and conquer Vermont, which they claimed as their own personal possession.  The two armies exchanged shots across the Hoosick River, the ‘battle’ produced no serious casualties. After this exchange the tenant farmers of New York refused to fight anymore and returned to Albany, leaving the occupied land to the invaders. 

George Washington himself negotiated a withdrawal from the occupied territories, in exchange he promised to do all he could to allow Vermont to become a state in the new union.  But General Washington could not counter the influence of the Albany Patroons in the Continental Congress and his efforts failed.  Despite providing an important contingent to the Continental Army throughout the Revolution, Vermont was not admitted as the 14th state until 1793 after the Albany Patroons grudgingly gave up their claims.

Rebel Soldier In Action, One Of The Realistic Figures On Display
At The Museum

All that came later.  In May of 1775 Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys (with a fuming and furious Benedict Arnold in tow) approached Fort Ticonderoga.  They found the isolated fort already half in ruins from the weather, which has been hard on the substandard construction throughout the fort’s history.  Most of the 48 British manning the fort were ‘invalides,’ old or disabled soldiers assigned to light duty.  The fort had lost it’s strategic importance after 1763, that spring its commander had not yet heard about the outbreak of revolution in Boston.

It’s hard for us moderns with our instantaneous communication techniques to understand how the occupants of Ticonderoga, at little more than 200 miles away, could not have heard about the Earth shaking popular uprising in Boston.  

You see, the British had lost control of the American countryside, the same way centuries later first the British then the Soviets and now the US lost control of the rebellious countryside of Afghanistan.  To send word to Ticonderoga, the British commander in Boston, General Gage, had to send a ship to Canada that carried specific orders to fortify the isolated outpost at Ticonderoga.  This communiqué arrived in Quebec several weeks after the wilderness outpost down south had fallen to the rebel farmers.

The Wife With A Mortar

It was this long standing problem of ineffective misrule from an absurd distance that had originally caused the American ‘colonists’ to chafe under British domination. As a matter of strict policy the English monarchy had no intention of granting the Colonies any sort of local autonomy.  This was because the English considered the Colonies nothing more than a source of raw materials, thus they refused to cede any control that might cut into their apparent profits.

London’s attempted solution to this problem was to award local control of the Colonies to the East India Company, a monopolistic international corporation structured very much like the corporations we all chafe under today.  Like all modern transnational corporations East India existed for one purpose and one purpose only: to secure a profit for itself and it’s shareholders by any means necessary.  Almost all of these shareholders were upper class elite nobility, London’s equivalent of Albany’s elite Patroons.

The British government granted the East India Company effective control of commerce in North America along with the power to enforce this control anyway it saw fit.  It was the further attempts by London to transfer the power of taxation to the East India Company that sparked the Boston Tea Party and the riots against the Stamp Act.  Attempts by the government to enforce the corporate decrees ultimately led to armed resistance, which after much fighting and deprivation led to freedom from corporate power.

A Stylized Painting Of Ethan Allen Demanding The Fort’s Surrender

Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys barged into Fort Ticonderoga and captured it without causing any casualties or even firing a shot.  It really wasn’t much of a battle, but then, Ethan Allen was known for achieving victory with little or no bloodshed.  With drawn sword he personally rousted out the sleeping British commander from his quarters.  Official accounts have Allen calling for the Captain to surrender ‘In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress’ which has a real nice ring to it.  But the more likely account is that he hollered through the door, ‘Come out you damned old rat!’

What made this apparent comical scene an event of world changing importance was an idea floated a few months later by a former bookstore clerk in his twenties named Henry Knox.  Impressed with his knowledge of artillery, George Washington had made Knox a Colonel in the Continental Army.  After Washington took command of the siege of Boston, Colonel Knox suggested bringing the captured cannons from Ticonderoga to Boston.  As Wikipedia put it:

Knox was eventually given the assignment to transport weapons from Ticonderoga to Cambridge. Knox went to Ticonderoga in November 1775, and, over the course of 3 winter months, moved 60 tons of cannons and other armaments by boat, horse and ox-drawn sledges, and manpower, along poor-quality roads, across two semi-frozen rivers, and through the forests and swamps of the lightly-inhabited Berkshires to the Boston area. Historian Victor Brooks has called Knox’s feat "one of the most stupendous feats of logistics" of the entire war. 

November 15, 2009

The US Postal Corporation wants to shut down our urban post office stations . . . because they aren’t located in the suburbs

What a rude, arrogant bunch of clowns. I’m talking about the collection of Albany Postal Service officials and bureaucrats who conducted a required public hearing at 4 PM on a Thursday with only minimal public notice. Despite their best efforts to keep us away, at least 120 of us showed up at the Elks Club Hall at 25 S. Allen St.reet last November 4. We came out to support the Delaware Avenue PO and the Pine Hills PO, both of which are marked for extinction by the US Postal Corporation.

And the politicians showed up. Observers were sent from the offices of Congressional Representatives Paul Tonko and Kirsten Gillibrand. City of Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings Himself showed up vowing to fight the closures, a politically safe commitment for Him. We had several Common Council members, both current and elect. And more. I’ll bet the politicians who didn’t show up are kicking themselves for missing this show.

After the Postal Clowns displayed their arrogance for several minutes the audience lost all semblance of respect for them. The more they tried to manipulate us and feed us horsecrap the angrier we got. Openly defiant of procedure, at least 70 people stood up in turn to speak, every comment intelligent and almost everything said either building upon earlier comments or bringing up new points. By the end of the hearing the Postal Clowns, including the Acting Postmaster of Albany who hardly said a word, looked dazed, exhausted and somewhat terrorized. That’s a sure sign of a successful public hearing.

Delaware Avenue PO

Overall they were a very clumsy bunch of horsecrappers, most of their misleading statements were so transparent to us as to be laughable. But during the hearing there was one very seriously untrue statement that went right by us. It cannot be called anything but an apparent lie. For liability reasons I do not use that word lightly. They apparently lied to us about their recent financial losses.

Starting with their stupid powerpoint, backed up with graphs, they repeatedly stated that last fiscal year the USPS lost $7 billion. But their own official published financial statement says they lost $2.8 billion. (To put this in perspective their total revenue was $75 billion.) Pardon me, perhaps that’s not exactly a lie, shall we call it an exaggeration? A fib? An enhancement of the facts programmed to amplify a decision? And how did they come about this official much smaller figure of $2.8 billion, does it represent real losses due to lower volume of mail, or are these losses . . . apparent?

Like most lies, apparent or otherwise, this one backfired into their faces. Right from the very first comment the audience pointed out repeatedly that if the USPS can lose that much money in a year perhaps they have demonstrated an inability to make intelligent business decisions. Perhaps they are not qualified to decide on the closure of our neighborhood post offices, facilities which we claim as ours, not theirs.

Shawn Morris

I was stunned when the third speaker, Common Council President Shawn Morris forthrightly declared that these closures were discriminatory decisions made by uncomprehending people who did not have any conception of why we have walkable neighborhood post offices in an urban environment. Much applause to that. She said approximately half of what I’d been planning to say, but it turned out that she was saying out loud and eloquently what most everyone in the audience was thinking. If she’d done more speaking like that this past year she’d surely be mayor-elect today.

One recurring line of questioning centered on the Postal Service’s methodology for arriving at this decision, or what little of it that they would reveal to us. “Um, we’ll have to ask first to see if you can look at the report,” they said, and that’s when the audience came close to turning into a lynch mob. Several analysis experts in the audience left the Postal Clowns speechless, and Auditor-Elect Leif Engstrom gestured belligerently and shouted as he accused them of skewing their data.

Brian Levine

Some particularly cogent comments came from Albany Library Trustee Brian Levine. “In the original library facilities plan,” Brian told them, “ the library board wanted to consolidate the Albany Library system ‘suburban style’ the same way the Postal Service is trying to consolidate. But the community wanted neighborhood branches of the library kept open, and we listened.” Voters approved the library bond issue by a two to one margin, he said, showing that they are willing to pay more for improved services.

Brian also suggested that the Postal Service might look hard at cutting energy expenditures like the library did, which resulted in substantial savings. A good place to start would be to cut back on the use of postal vehicles by localizing transfer points for mail, an idea which I’m sure went right over their suburbanite heads. “It’s important to not hurt local businesses by cutting services,” he added, and the best way to do that and to increase revenue for the Postal Service “is to make post offices more visible and more usable.”

Afterwards I overheard the representative from Paul Tonko’s office tell 1st ward Common Council member Dominick Calsolaro that the local postal districts have been told by Washington DC to cut back, which confirms what everyone at the hearing already knew. He was a young kid dressed in a fancy suit. “They’re making money in the suburbs,” the kid said, implying that this alleged fact was all that mattered, much to Dom’s apparent exasperation.

One of the final comments from the 2 and a half hour session (which was only supposed to last an hour) came from a lady of very advanced age who rose unsteadily to her feet and spoke in a quavering voice. She addressed the unreasonable suggestion that from now on we should patronize suburban post offices such as Stuyvesant Plaza and Karner Road. It takes her, she told us, three hours by bus to go to one of these places. “I don’t have three hours,” she said, “I don’t have that much time left to spare.”

Pine Hills PO

The Postal Service was required to take written comments from the public as part of their “Consolidation Study.” We were given a strict time limit of ten days after the public hearing to submit them, but later I discovered that the guy who is collecting the comments was about to go on vacation starting the very next day (the 5th) until the 18th of November.

So who knows if our written comments will become part of the official record. Not that anything we say matters to these Postal Clowns. So for your amusement, here are my own written comments for you to read. And I should add that if anybody else has posted online their interesting or amusing submitted comments for either Delaware Avenue or Pine Hills I will be glad to provide a link through this article.

 

Consolidation Study – Consumer Affairs
Re: The Imminent Closure of the Delaware Avenue PO
30 Karner Road
Albany NY 12288-9631

Attn. David H. Desrosiers, etc.

I realize that your decision to shut down the Delaware Avenue Post Office in Albany NY is a done deal, so this letter will make no difference. Spelling out common sense is wasted on corporate minded suburban fools who are hell bent on destroying our urban community. So I will take this opportunity to explain what any citizen of Albany understands, simple obvious things that you suburbanite corporatists are apparently unable to grasp. And of course, this comment will also be published and archived for all to read.

The US Postal Service is, first and foremost, a communication network. What good is a communication network without access points? Without a telephone I cannot make phone calls, without a computer I cannot use the internet. How can I access the US Postal Service without a Post Office?

Your answer to that question, given during the recent angry and well-attended public hearing that you held on November 4, 2009 here in Albany, was that those of us who live in or near the Delaware Avenue neighborhood [and in the Pine Hills neighborhood] are from now on expected to greatly inconvenience ourselves by using difficult to find and difficult to use access points to your communication network located somewhere in your automobile slum suburbs.

From now on if we want to mail a package we will be required to drive an automobile out to one of your suburban malls. This is pure anti-urban discrimination, which I fully understand comes easily and naturally to you people. I suspect that you were greatly shocked by the unanimous reaction at the Nov. 4 hearing to your suburbanist assault on our community.

This past Columbus Day (Oct.12) which for most people other than Italian nationalists is a bogus holiday devoted to shopping, the post offices were as usual closed. For me, a small business person, this was a work day. Unfortunately, I had a time expedite matter, a letter which needed to be postmarked that day. Since you people have never seen fit to upgrade or update the Delaware Avenue PO with 24 hour automated service, my only option was to take time out of my work day and drive an excessive distance to your Karner Road facility.

Karner Road

This was one hour and thirty five minutes of sheer hell. Suburban traffic is always bad on a weekday due to the poor planning of your suburbs, with your deliberately choked trunk highways which are the only way to get to your stupid curvilinear dead end streets. This day your suburban traffic was excessively bad. Once again I sat stuck in one of your traffic jams and wondered to myself, How can these people choose to live like this? If the Delaware PO had been open, this errand would have taken less than ten minutes and could have been pleasantly combined with several other minor tasks.

It appears that one of your goals in closing the Delaware Avenue PO is to force us to waste time. How dare you impose upon us this massive reduction in quality of life! You suburbanites can’t buy a quart of milk or mail a letter without driving your automobiles an absurd distance. Well, that’s your poor choice of lifestyle, although I must add that I am tired of subsidizing your unsustainable suburban sprawl.

It is plain to see that your drive to exterminate our urban post offices is based upon the assumption that the middle and upper classes will continue to exit the City of Albany for the foreseeable future. This assumption is wrong. The trend is reversing as you read this, a significant number of suburbanites have already begun to develop common sense and have been moving back into Albany. This is in defiance of a City government that is still doing everything it can to drive taxpayers out of the City.

Inside The Delaware Avenue PO

I see this clearly in my own business, which is owning and renting apartments in downtown Albany. Fifteen or so years ago demand was poor, a renter’s market. Starting about ten years ago it became easier and easier for me to rent my apartments. Today the demand is so great that I usually rent my apartments in one day, with one showing.

Why? There are a myriad of reasons, but the most obvious is the rising price of gasoline, which has spiked ever higher these last few years or so. Right now the price of gasoline is depressed, but nobody except delusional persons believe that this is going to last. Certainly the independent experts agree, in the long run the massive government subsidies that keep the price of gas low will not make up for the undeniable fact that the supplies of inexpensive oil are running out.

What this means is that more and more middle class consumers will find it unreasonable to part with a greater and greater portion of their incomes simply to buy a quart of milk or mail a letter. One by one they are coming to realize that there is a better alternative.

Let me spell out what this means. You are closing the Delaware PO at the exact moment when demand for the services at this station are beginning to rise.

So let’s talk environment. I own a vehicle that does not get very good gas mileage, yet I only need to fill the tank every six to eight weeks. I drive it almost every day, yet I don’t believe I take it to the gas station more than eight times a year. How can that be? I live and work in the City, I access shops and services that are local, and I only occasionally venture out of town. I don’t need a “hybrid,” I don’t need to brew ethanol or biodeisel in a barrel in my backyard.

Battery Powered EV Minivan Acquired By USPS This Year

By trying to force me to drive to your malls, you people are trying to force me to consume more gasoline, create more exhaust, put more wear and tear on my vehicle and add me to your constantly backed-up traffic. Why are you doing this to me? What’s in it for you?

Could it be, possibly, maybe, the US Postal Service Corporation wants to bring more business to the big suburban shopping malls? Before we dismiss that thought as far-fetched, consider this. I understand that your corporation pays $250,000 a year on rent for the PO facility at Colonie Center Mall. Hell, I didn’t even know there was a PO at Colonie Center! And consider that the three suburban POs that you people recommended that we go to, Karner Road, Colonie Center and Stuyvesant Plaza are all within a mile of each other. Except none of these pits are accessible to pedestrians or bicyclists, and they are accessible only in the most limited sense of the word by bus.

Meanwhile, you OWN the building that houses the Delaware PO. Tell you what… why don’t you shut down the redundant Colonie Center PO and use the money to pay bills on Delaware Avenue, the Pine Hills PO and on the other local urban POs that you are destroying? That hasn’t occurred to you? I’m starting to see why your corporation lost seven billion dollars last year. [Or actually… oh never mind.]

I could not help but notice that at the public hearing you were careful to not suggest that that the most accessible suburban PO to Delaware Avenue in Albany is actually in Delmar, right on Delaware Avenue as a matter of fact. Over the years you have put a lot of money into upgrading the Delmar facility, indeed it looks mighty nice and has multiple services that we don’t have in our neglected PO in the City. Our Delaware Avenue PO looks the same way it did 50 years ago. In all that time I don’t think you people have invested any money into our PO except to paint the interior once and to add the required handicap ramp.

Delmar PO, A Ten Minute Drive From My House In Light Traffic

That neglect, plus your careful refusal to direct us to Delmar, convincingly reveals your snide suburban anti-urban bias. You have decided without any basis that we who live in Albany are undesirable customers, while those who live in automobile slums and waste time at shopping malls are desirable. Why? Are we not white enough for your taste? Is that the problem?

Then there’s your decision making process, which you did your best to hide from the angry crowd last Thursday. You sure didn’t expect to be dealing with so many people who were intimate with cost analysis and demographic surveys, huh? C’mon, this is a state capital full of universities, what did you expect? We noticed right away that you skewed your data by lumping Albany in with larger Cities, such as that big one at the other end of the Hudson River.

And how about revenue that you will lose by closing the Delaware station and denying postal access to the neighborhood? You go on about how usage has declined, claiming that you factored in the recession and the ongoing reconstruction of Delaware Avenue, which blocks ready access. Pardon me for disbelieving you, but your refusal to provide us with your actual analysis casts grave doubt on your assertion that you considered these factors. But by your puzzled faces it is all too clear that it did not even occur to you that your corporation will be losing revenue from those of us who have been continuing to patronize Delaware PO despite the impediments in our path.

From what you people reluctantly revealed of your methodology, it is clear that your decision making process was conducted very much like how the Cheney – Bush administration started the War Against Iraq. They decided they wanted to conquer the Middle East, and then they manufactured “facts” to back up their decision. Typical corporate mindset.

Try considering this analysis of usage at the Delaware Avenue PO: Unless I catch the right times on the right days, I expect to stand waiting in a line that goes right out to the door. Perhaps this problem could be alleviated by assigning a second clerk to serve the customers. But no, you aren’t going to do that, are you now?

New "Green Roof" On The USPS Main Building In NY City

You’ve been starving our PO to death for years, hoping we would stop using it and go away. Your plan didn’t work very well, did it? While you literally poured money into the suburban POs we continued to use our half starved urban PO because it is convenient. It is accessible. We don’t have to waste half our day driving around in your god forsaken automobile slums just to buy a roll of stamps or mail a package.

But wait, you told us with smirks on your faces, the other option is to do your postal business online, through the internet via your computer! Right. I do not know one single person who has a happy satisfied story about dealing with the US Postal Corporation online. But really, does that make sense? This reminds me of how the Western Union telegraph corporation tried to stay alive by abandoning their own technology and using the telephone.

That brings us to the heart of the matter. It is very evident to me that you people at the US Postal Corporation have decided that your own communication network is outmoded, about to be superseded by newer technology. I say that’s a load of horsecrap. Did the telephone put you out of business? I have yet to observe a single instance of my desktop computer transmitting a package or a paper document. Sure, I can order a package and someone much like yourselves will carry it to my door. But I have yet to figure out how to send a package through my keyboard.

Can Your Mobile Device Send A Package?

I suggest that you learn a lesson from the movie industry. For several decades the proliferation of television sent movies into a slow steady decline. Then in the 1970s VCRs were legalized, which the movie industry fought bitterly. Suddenly accessibility to movies increased massively, anyone could park their butts on their living room couches and become authorities on film. As a result, today there are more movies being made and more movie houses operating than ever before.

Did you catch that? Finding a new and innovative way to increase access to movies caused a massive expansion of the movie industry. I would not presume to be able to tell you how to increase access to your own communications network. But I sure as shoot can tell you that cutting back access is a sure way to kill yourselves.

Or is that what you want? Is that the plan?

I reject your corporate mindset, I spit on your self destructive business model. I am perfectly aware of what college business textbooks teach, that a sure way to enhance the bottom line is to fire employees and cut back on services. That works great for money extraction outfits like Goldman Sachs. For them the customer is nothing but a source of revenue, the sole purpose of their corporation is to extract money from the customer units.

That does not work for you. Your ultimate purpose is to provide communication, your purpose is not to enhance your bottom line. Back in 1970 Tricky Dick Nixon, who resigned the presidency in disgrace, transformed your service into a corporation like Goldman Sachs. This has been an ideological experiment, one that we can see has failed miserably.

It is time to cast off the corporatist ideology that has turned the US Postal service into a financial failure. Don’t kill your communication network by denying access. Don’t close our Delaware Avenue Post Office, leave it alone. You’ll be glad you did. And so will we.

Sincerely,

Daniel W. Van Riper

November 12, 2009

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November 3, 2009

Mayor Jennings finally takes responsibility for the South End,
and slugs The Wife in the jaw

I went deep into the heart of the South End to attend one of those ceremonies at the start of a public project, this one at 19 Odell Street alongside Krank Park. Nothing big and exciting, just another very old abandoned house which is about to be rehabbed. Well, that was important enough for me, so I went down to watch and take pictures.

We only had two elected officials at this short, sweet event, Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings and Albany County Executive Mike Breslin. The crowd was composed mostly of City and nonprofit agency office workers glad to get out of their offices on a nice day, along with several curious neighbors. And the press, which happened to be me. I was The Media. What a weird feeling, I gotta tell you.

Those of us who follow these things understand that this little rehab on Odell Street may actually be the start of some big things… if everything goes right. Which it should. This is a test run, a science experiment if you will.

19 Odell Street, Setting Up For The Ceremony

Habitat for Humanity is in charge of carrying out this project. Executive Director Steve Haggerty told me this is the first rehab that Habitat has attempted in the Capital District since 2002. That surprised me, I’d thought that the last attempted rehab of a vacant building in the City by Habitat was in the 1990s nearby on Osborne Street, a very bad memory for everybody all around.

What makes this Odell Street rehab particularly interesting is that Mayor Jennings not only approves of bringing this vacant house back on line, He has allowed Albany Housing Authority (AHA) to assist with their time and resources. That’s not all. When it looked like the project was about to fall through for lack of cash, He directed Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money to fill the gap, money that originates with the Feds.

The house is a plain, two story two family house probably built around 1870. This is fairly new for the older houses in this neighborhood, many of which were constructed before the Civil War. Over the years more than a few of these modest old treasures along Odell have fallen victim to urban removal and demolition by neglect, leaving plenty of gaps along the streetscape.

Habitat has been aggressively building in the neighborhood, four new houses finished, owned and occupied directly across the street, with three more planned in the empty lots next to number 19. They’ve built and are planning to build several more around the corner on Stephen Street.

These Habitat projects are near the amazing Jared Holt project, which is between Broad and Clinton Streets. All of this is being coordinated by the South End Action Committee (SEAC) which is a partnership between the City, nonprofit agencies and interested members of the community. This is the sensible way to do it, clustering all the new construction together where the rot is greatest and then building outward from the center. That way the neighborhood itself is transformed and made attractive to home buyers and investors.

Four Owner Occupied Habitat Houses
Across Odell Street From #19

Mr. Haggerty explained that this house was chosen not only because of it’s proximity to the new Habitat buildings but also because structurally it was in fair shape, having been empty of inhabitants for only 18 months. A similar plan of rehab under the same sort of conditions has worked for Habitat in other communities, there’s no reason why it couldn’t work here. I can only applaud the decision to save this existing building rather than tear it down, I hope the rehabbing experiment succeeds.

In answer to my question Mr. Haggerty with understandable reluctance told me that the projected cost of the project was around $100,000. “Of course that includes volunteer labor and donated materials,” he added. Yes, I recognized that estimate as very cheap. Keeping costs down is the sort of thing that Habitat does best.

Government sponsored rehab tends to be pricier than the private versions, there are several reasons for this. One is greater oversight every step of the way, some of it admittedly unnecessary but most of it unavoidable. Putting together funding packages, an art at which Steve Longo of AHA is a grandmaster, incurs legal and administrative costs.

But it’s important to understand that the real costs of government funded construction and rehab projects are always up front and visible. Almost all private construction takes advantage of government subsidies, many of which are in the form of services and infrastructure. To give one obvious example, future investors on Odell Street will be building on the back of today’s rehab and construction projects.

Habitat Executive Director Steve Haggarty At The Podium, From Left Albany Housing Authority Director Steve Longo, Mayor Jennings, Albany County Executive Mike Breslin, Habitat Board President Brian Osterhout

At the same time as this lovely little event was going on, one of the most notorious and reportedly the most violent street gangs in Albany were being rounded up en masse, many of them just a few blocks away. The Media tells us that they are known as the OGK or Original Gangsta Killas.

The imminent takedown of the OGK explains why there was a nervous cop with an SUV stationed at the end of Odell Street, who earlier had tried to shoo me away when I pulled up in my pickup truck. I almost never see cops posted at these kinds of events, and if they are assigned to stand guard they usually look bored. This guy looked like he was ready to discharge his weapons if I sneezed.

This big bust was very good news which I heard about later around supper time. I’d been hearing stories for the past few months about several ongoing stakeouts in the neighborhood so I knew something was going down. Still, it is not only surprising that we now have official recognition of the existence of gangs in Albany, but that the police and elected officials are suddenly willing to do something about the problem.

Vacant OGK Crackhouse At Fourth Ave. And Broad Street, Shut Down Last Month By The Fire Department

Consider this: The OGK gangsters appear to have been taken completely by surprise. Despite the recent building and renovation projects in the very center of their territory, the gangsters did not even suspect that the authorities would care enough about the South End to take them down.

This long standing official policy of refusing to acknowledge the existence of gangs in Albany has acted as a protective umbrella that encouraged the OGK to thrive in the South End. First and foremost the OGK was (is?) a money making operation, clever business people who have been taking advantage of the opportunities provided for them by the legal prohibition of a variety of drugs such as cocaine.

Operating their business in a totally unregulated marketplace, the OGK enforced monopolistic control of their territory the same way that corporations maintain control in third world markets. That is, by threats and by violence against the host population. This was Ayn Rand meets the real world, a neocon notion of paradise.

Going down the list of arrested OGK gangsters on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) press release, it is immediately notable that only two of the 24 actually lived in the South End. At first glance that’s surprising, but it makes sense. One does not crap in one’s own nest. This firmly places the OGK in the same category as absentee slumlords, suburbanite land speculators and corporate interlopers like the Picotte Company, who planted the unwanted Walgreens on Holland Avenue.

Or, like that publicly financed and maintained “charter” school building that is now hovering over nearby Krank Park, crouching like a demon about to jump down from it’s mound and devour the neighborhood. The long term ideological purpose of “charter” schools is to destroy public education in America. Their short term purpose is more banal, to siphon up as much cash as quickly as possible from the community. In effect, the “charter” school plan resembles the OGK business model.

The Brighter Choice corporation, which thanks to The Mayor’s indulgence is the dominant “charter” school outfit in Albany, placed this demon on the mound. It would be nice to see the police drag Tom Carroll and his boy Chris Bender out of their lavish suburban mansions and haul their asses into court. But there’s a much simpler and less violent solution to this problem, all we have to do is cut off the taxpayer money and Brighter Choice will vanish instantly.

Taxpayer Funded Brighter Choice Corporation "Charter" School At Krank Park

Oh, am I being too harsh? I think not. For many decades the Albany City government has provided support and protection to a wide variety of exploiters who have grown rich and fat on the backs of City taxpayers. While money extraction outfits like Picotte make a huge profit by exploiting taxpayer funded infrastructures and subsidies, the OGK is in the same category as absentee slumlords and Brighter Choice who make their profit by exploiting the government sponsored decay and neglect of communities like the South End.

Interesting how the federal DEA had to be called in to take down the OGK gang, this appears to have been their operation all the way. Just about every police type agency in the area was given nominal credit in the DEA press release, from the Albany Police to the Rensselaer County DA to the NYS Department of Corrections. I take this comprehensive list of movie credits to mean that these local law enforcement outfits didn’t give the DEA any crap and provided whatever the DEA wanted when they wanted it without complaint.

Gee whiz, what have all these local cop outfits been doing all this time, why didn’t they go after the OGK? Like that suburbanite thug John Pikus, who is a member of that lawless gang holed up in that fortress on McCarty Avenue, the gang known as the FBI or Federal Bureau of Investigation. There he was in the DEA press release taking credit for the operation, where’s he been all this time? Guess Pikus and his fellow gangsters have been too busy cooking up entrapment schemes and “secret evidence” to do any thing useful for the community.

The plain truth is that for decades all of the local police have had the same attitude toward the South End of Albany as has City Hall. Our South End community is a dumpster and those of us who live here are garbage. That’s the way it’s been. But now something fundamental has changed.

Jerry Jennings Speaks

That fundamental something is not Jerry Jennings Himself, but His approach to dealing with the South End has changed profoundly. As always He is very much the guy in charge of the City. What has changed is that Jerry the politician is adapting to a new set of rules, a new way of staying afloat in a stormy sea, you might say.

As this decade of the new century has progressed, Jennings has had to listen to an ever widening and ever louder chorus of angry citizens asking questions He can’t answer. Why are gangs and other criminals tolerated? Where do the illegal guns come from? Why don’t the police respond when we call them?

Why won’t the City enforce building codes, and why does the City encourage the creation of vacant buildings? Why has basic maintenance and repair of our neighborhood infrastructure been suspended? Why does the City routinely make war upon small businesses, but lavishly support big corporate outfits that suck the community dry?

On and on, that’s for starters. The Mayor is getting tired of these valid criticisms that He’s hearing over and over. Politically He survives because He still controls most of the polling booths on election day. But more and more lately, He has to hear what people really think every time He marches down the steps of City Hall. He’s tough, but I know the constant criticism wears Him down.

That’s why The Mayor called in the DEA to get rid of the gangs in the South End. Or maybe former Police Chief James Tuffey used his own connections to bring in the feds, same thing. Either way, Jerry the politician has had no choice but to respond to the voices of the people.

Steve Longo And Mike Breslin Go Over The Numbers

While the big OGK roundup was going down nearby, where I was standing on Odell Street Jerry Jennings presided over the rebirth of number 19 without showing any concern or a hint of nervousness. He was as cool as a cucumber in a crisper drawer. I’ll say it again, whatever else you can say about The Mayor he’s a real pro at what He does.

For sure He knew about the imminent raid, He even had a statement ready for the DEA afternoon press release. Yet He didn’t see fit to cancel the little ceremony on Odell. I suppose that if He did that would have raised a lot of eyebrows and possibly tipped off the targets of the raid.

If the Odell event had been canceled at the last minute for sure The Media would have noticed. After all, these events are put on for the benefit of The Media, and the news crews and content providers were clearly expected. As it was, none of them bothered to show up, the innovative rebuilding of one South End house apparently is not newsworthy.

The only media they had was me. A sweet young thing walked around with an armload of press packets, I asked her if I could have one. “I’m sorry, these are for The Media,” she informed me with polite regret. “I’m a blogger,” I said, “does that count?” She looked around uncertainly and said, “I’ll go ask if you can have one.”

Eventually she handed me a packet, I could have had them all. Simply by showing up I had unintentionally assumed the designated role of The Media. One by one the various officials present walked up to me and exchanged a few words and let me ask a few questions. Most of them were aware that I am genuinely concerned about housing issues and the South End in general, but it still felt odd to be the focus of attention like that.

Checking Out The Plans For #19

The Mayor arrived in his big black chauffeur driven SUV and circulated among the fawning dignitaries. I watched Him for a bit and noticed that He was avoiding looking at me, which I expected. A moment later I was looking down fiddling with my camera and I heard His voice up close, “Dan.”

I started, then shook hands etcetera. He told me that it was important to try and save these houses “if we can. If this goes well I hope to see more like it.” And He wanted me to know that He understood the importance of clustering these projects together to have the maximum positive effect on the neighborhood. I agreed that this was essential and that I was glad that He saw it that way. And He tossed in something about the positive effect of the “charter” school hovering over Krank Park, to which I made no comment. Then He moved on.

See, like it or not I was The Media. And I was very polite, deferential even. This despite His having slugged my wife in the jaw the week before.

Okay, perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration. Earlier in the week The Wife and her co-conspirators had held a press conference on the steps of City Hall, announcing that Save the Pine Bush had the day before filed suit to stop the latest expansion of the Rapp Road “Landfill” in the Pine Bush. Oh yeah, she was in good form. Here’s some of her harangue, from the Hearst Times Union report by Brian Nearing:

The City needs to adopt a rational solid waste policy that does not include destroying 15 acres of rare Pine Bush ecosystem. The landfill causes multiple destructive impacts on rare habitat and species… Why is the DEC permitting more acres of Pine Bush to be destroyed in exchange for remediation of the Pine Bush? You don’t kill something in order to save it.

October 27, 2009

A fleeting moment on a warm sunny day in the
South End at the end of October

I was driving through Lincoln Park in the middle of the day when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Martin Luther King was on fire. I glanced again and this time the great martyred hero seemed to be striding forward with the flames of righteousness rising up behind him.

Every so often I remember to notice how utterly damn beautiful is this park that sits practically outside my front door. Every year when the leaves turn color and fall off the trees I get not exactly sad, more like surly at the prospect of all those months of blinding snow, deadly cold and Christmas. But first, before all that miserableness descends upon us, we can take solace in a few moments of splendor if we can take the time to notice.

Maple Trees Along Morton Avenue

The color yellow seems to predominate around my neighborhood this year. During the day the air around my neighborhood is permeated with a soft, yellow light that my camera cannot seem to capture. At dusk this effect intensifies until the light fades into gray and black.

I was well into my adulthood when I learned to my surprise that this kind of spectacular autumn leaf coloring only occurs in three parts of the world, in our part of North America, parts of Northern Europe and in parts of East Asia. Having grown up with fall leaves they seemed mundane, I could never understand why anyone would travel somewhere to “leaf peep” when they could just look around their own neighborhoods.

About a block from my house across from the Stewarts on Morton Avenue is a great lookout point with a couple of benches from which you can survey the whole park. There in the grass is of all things a plaque dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. It seems to have held up pretty well for the last twenty years, although there’s a few chips along the edges and the dedication is marred by an advertisement for a corporate owned radio station.

Click On Photo To Read The Plaque

The slope of the lookout point is very steep, in winter it becomes famous as Suicide Hill, the sledder’s ultimate thrill. After a serious snowfall parents bring their kids from far and wide to face certain death plunging into the bowl of Lincoln Park. I found it impossible to get a good snapshot of the sheer drop, but here’s a good view of the perspective from the top:

View Down Suicide Hill: Yikes!

At the bottom of the park is a giant bowl where are located several playing fields. Until recently the fields were circumnavigated by a crumbling roadway that had been left to decay. Several years ago the City administration finally became embarrassed by their policy of neglect of the roadway and did some basic maintenance and repair.

The Never Finished Road

One half of the loop road, the southern half closest to my side of the park, was converted into a “multi-use path” which is closed to automobiles. You can see part of the path in the above photo. You can see that the granite curbstones of the old road were left in place, and grass was planted between the old curbs and the new path.

The far side of the loop was left as a road to provide auto access to the playing fields and the pool. However, as can be seen at left, the City never finished paving the remaining roadway, and at this point it looks like the City has no intention of ever finishing the job. This attitude toward the South End is typical, I couldn’t imagine the City applying a similar policy of neglect toward Washington Park.

Lincoln Park does not routinely host large events as does Washington Park, I think the last large musical event was a Ramones concert 20 years ago. But the playing fields are used regularly from early spring to late fall by a variety of amateur sports leagues. The majority of these players are suburbanites who must come to our City because they have no public space or facilities out in their automobile slums.

Part Of The Playing Fields At The Bottom Of The Bowl

The permanently unfinished roadway on the far side is a pleasant hideaway all year round. During the week some folks like to drive their cars down here for a quiet lunch or to walk their dogs. On most days you can watch a steady trickle of runners trot past, both us locals and State workers from the suburbs.

North Side Of The Bowl

The road leads to Lincoln Park Pool, one of the largest outdoor pools in the world. Google Maps erroneously calls it “Lincoln Park Pond.” Earlier this decade the citizens who live around the park came out en masse in the pouring rain to demand that Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings drop His scheme to destroy the pool and privatize the site. That’s why we still have the pool. Right now it’s empty and ready for winter.

Lincoln Park Pool Ready For Winter

I climbed out of the bowl and crossed MLK Boulevard (S. Swan St.) to check out the ravine, the old bed of the Beaverkill. The leaves on the slender trees down there had not turned yet, perhaps this is because of the sheltered location. Despite this, fallen leaves had already drifted down and partially covered the exposed shale walls that made this spot a tourist attraction some one hundred years ago.

The Ravine

It had rained a few days ago so I could hear the Beaverkill roaring underground at the exposed grate and at the manhole cover in the middle of MLK Boulevard. As usual, it stank of sewage. As I wrote earlier this year, the Beaverkill is used today to transport raw untreated sewage from Albany Med and Park South directly into the Hudson River.

The other night I learned that the Beaverkill is effectively used as a sewage overflow as far uptown as the SUNY Albany campus, via pumping station. SUNY is building several sprawl-style expansion projects that will probably dump their toilets into this line. If that happens, their sewage will come up in Washington Park Lake before it arrives in Lincoln Park and overflows into the ravine.

The squirrels that live in and around Lincoln Park are about twice the size of their country cousins, surely that is due to a steady nutritious diet gleaned from the big lunch buckets set outside of all he houses around the park. Due to natural selection these squirrels usually dash straight across the roadways at top speed. The youngsters who act indecisive while crossing roads are rarely seen anymore after early spring.

I walk around Lincoln Park and wonder why the South End has such a bad reputation among outsiders, where does this come from? For instance, the crime rate is much higher in Washington Park. Over the years I’ve sat in plenty of meetings and listened to desultory discussions about what can be done to counter this bad image.

I sit and shake my head, to me the reasons are obvious. Certainly the City’s long standing policy of neglect is to blame, that policy is just beginning to reverse now. But the continuing bad rap is steadily maintained by the corporate media outlets, all of which are based in the suburbs.

This summer I had an opportunity to ask TV news anchor Ken Screven to please stop calling the South End a bad place to live, which I can only hope he has done. And this past week the Hearst-owned Times Union assigned two of their content providers to follow around some chronic alcoholic who apparently spends time wandering the South End. The managers of the rag used this week-long series as an excuse to repeatedly attack our neighborhoods.

Those of us who live here know better. I guess the Hearst managers are afraid that if people “discover” urban places like the South End then the property values in their own unsustainable automobile slums will go down. Why else do they put so much effort into degrading us?

Perhaps their propaganda helps keep rents low and our 150 year old houses affordable. Maybe. But really, enough is enough. We like living here for plenty of reasons. Witness how these suburbanites drive their vehicles so often to our City to experience public spaces and public amenities such as Lincoln Park. Where else can they go?

 

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September 27, 2009

A proven method by which preferred suburban “developers” get around laws designed to protect our urban heritage in Albany

* * * UPDATE * * * Once again I’m wrong about something. It seems that the houses have indeed been occupied on and off for the past 20 years, some as late as last year. I would have sworn on a witness stand otherwise, but oh well. This doesn’t change the main point though, that the houses have been emptied of inhabitants by Picotte, and they are wide open to the world.

 

Up on a rise along Holland Avenue are six large, one family houses. Seen from the street they look attractive, imposing, perhaps a touch exclusive, like they might be a bit pricey. They tend to evoke the reaction from casual observers, “Hey, I wouldn’t mind living there.”

Well, you can’t live there. The houses have been uninhabited for about twenty years. The owner keeps the lawns neatly mowed and the front facades attractive, at least at a distance. But the owner refuses to sell or rent out the houses or perform basic maintenance. They just sit there… rotting.

The owner of these houses is Picotte, the real property corporation so beloved of our newly reelected mayor Jerry Jennings. Yes, the very same Picotte responsible for that highway commercial spot zoned Walgreens across the street, the unwanted Walgreens that Jerry and Picotte worked so hard to impose on the neighborhood. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that Picotte wants to repeat their “success” at the expense of these unique houses across the street.

One Of The Six Leonard Houses On Holland Avenue

The six houses, 108 through 118 Holland Avenue, were built in 1937 and 1938, fairly new by downtown Albany standards. Back then the houses would have been surrounded by farms and fields, I’ve heard old timers talk about orchards and horses along there. Must have been pretty nice around there. Unless I’m mistaken Holland Avenue as we know it did not exist yet, it was laid out as an extension of Morton Avenue later in the 1950s.

The developers were the now long gone and mostly forgotten Leonard Realty, the style of the houses is called Tudor. Normally I detest Tudor architecture, which in present day America is usually a sloppy watered down imitation of the building style that was current 500 years ago in England. The Tudor style usually pops up in overpriced suburban mcmansions and those tourist eateries that serve fish and chips, thus my attitude.

I first noticed these houses years ago, back before Picotte bought them and let them empty out. After I got over my initial instinctive disdain for their style I began to admire them. They really are attractive. They are also well built, witness how well they have held up for two decades with zero maintenance and unsecured for all the world to abuse them.

It was a report by a certain teenager with whom I am acquainted that got me looking at these houses again. It seems that this young person, who shall remain nameless, went on a little exploratory expedition through the houses. I understand that he/she is one of many local youngsters who have recently gone inside to look around, word is out there that the buildings are unsecured.

Three Of The Houses Seen From The Crumbling Back Access Road

I recently walked over there to inspect the buildings for myself. Sure enough, I found open windows and doors ajar. Anybody who has a mind to do so could go inside and then exit any of the houses without causing noticeable exterior damage.

Certain neighbors who are keeping a close watch on the houses have indeed several times asked City Code Enforcement to do their job and tell Picotte to secure the buildings. Not surprisingly Code Enforcement refused to order Picotte to follow the law, or for that matter give a response to the neighbors who filed the complaints. Despite the recent electoral publicity emanating from City Hall, code enforcement in Albany continues to remain at best occasional and selective, used mainly to harass homeowners and small businesses.

The rule of thumb, as I’ve always understood it, is that entering is a misdemeanor while breaking and entering is a felony. As a solid upstanding citizen it would be most unseemly for me to crawl through one of these windows and get busted for trespassing or domestic terrorism or some such nonsense. So I decided that I would not attempt to confirm certain parts of the young explorer’s report. By the way, my amnesia is acting up again and I can’t remember the kid’s name or face so don’t ask me.

But urban lawns are semi-public, as a practical matter one can walk on lawns in the City unless they are fenced off or posted. The only signage I could find was in back at the entrance to the common driveway for the buildings. This sign was clearly directed at automobiles, so I left my truck home and didn’t park there. But I saw no posted sign or legal reason why I couldn’t wander the lawns and look around.

From my vantage points the houses looked to be in fair condition, quite good after being carefully neglected for so long. I say carefully because somebody, most certainly the owner, has meticulously cut the grass and made a tolerable effort to trim the bushes along with maintaining the front facade. If these buildings were merely neglected their abandonment would have become painfully evident to the casual observer within a year.

I could not confirm my teenage informant’s report that some of the ceilings upstairs were falling down from water damage. Peering through the windows I couldn’t see any overt water damage on the ground floors. Actually, the interiors that I saw for the most part looked like they only needed cosmetic work.

Slate Roof, Foliage Growing In The Gutter

Now, what is a building? Basically, it is a roof with a bunch of stuff underneath. As long as you keep the roof intact the walls and floors and windows and doors will last indefinitely. Remove the roof or let it become porous then everything underneath rots away or crumbles in a very short time.

This is how demolition by neglect works. Say for example you happen to be a sleazy suburbanite who wants to make money by destroying an Albany neighborhood. (A very common phenomenon in Albany.) You’ve bought your property and now you want your payday. What do you do?

First step is to tear down any unwanted residential buildings, preferably at taxpayer expense. But unfortunately for you your residential property is probably zoned residential, which means you can’t build nonresidential structures without applying to the zoning board. This application tends to alert the neighbors and the activists to your scheme, which is absolutely the last thing you want.

The other problem is that you can’t get a permit to wreck your perfectly good buildings without a reason. I mean, you can always come to an “arrangement” with The Mayor and get all the permits you want. But it’s not like The Old Days (like, up to ten years ago) when a favored “developer” could wreck any part of the City they wanted and no one would dare raise a peep of objection.

Open Window

So if you want the buildings wrecked and you don’t have the stomach to fight lawsuits and be revealed as a public scumbag from the suburbs there is only one choice open to you. It’s a small scale local version of Disaster Capitalism. Coupled with the cooperative City administration like we have in Albany it works like a charm.

Let the buildings fall into ruin by neglecting the roofs until the structures become public hazards. Wait until water pours down through the floors and into the basement. If the buildings are initially in good shape with decent roofs (like these Holland Avenue buildings had been) then this process can take quite a while. So you have to decide if the eventual payday is worth the wait.

Open Door

But rule number one of demolition by neglect is to never do anything active to hurry along the process, like poke a hole in the roof. Again, too many people are watching, you don’t want to draw attention to your scheme or give even the appearance of anything except the illusion of passive neglect. However, unless the City specifically tells you to secure the buildings there’s no reason to close open doors and lock the windows. Allowing kids and vagabonds to go inside is exactly what you want.

After the ceilings cave in, all you have to do is call City Hall and ask for an inspection. Now that your buildings are “hazardous” the City will declare an “emergency” and hire the preferred demolition company. Their trucks will rumble out at nine PM on a Friday night and by Saturday morning your buildings will be a pile of rubble.

Once the urban buildings are removed and the zoning designation is changed to something more profitable the City will “work with you to develop the site.” Actually, as long as there is no significant public scrutiny you can do whatever you want with your site. A parking lot, a corporate drug store, an office building, anything that makes you a profit, as long as it hurts or wrecks the urban character of the neighborhood.

That last comment is not an exaggeration, by the way. It’s a sad fact that as a rule for the last 50 years or so the three City administrations have actively discouraged the creation of housing and the maintenance of public space. The few recent exceptions to this rule, such as the current ongoing renovations to lower Morton Avenue, have come about mainly to appease angry taxpaying voters on the brink of open rebellion. That’s no exaggeration either.

View Through A Window

If my teenaged informant is correct, the slate roofs of the six houses on Holland Avenue will soon be in leaky enough condition to justify destroying the buildings. The timing couldn’t be better. Picotte appears to be ready, always ready for another payday like they’ve had with their Walgreens across the street.

Back in 2005 I heard Picotte’s hired lawyer, Peter “Hairdo” Lynch, tell the Common Council that Holland Avenue is not a neighborhood, that nobody lives there and that the whole area is nothing but parking lots. Those of us who live nearby were not amused by this suburbanite’s arrogant slanders against our neighborhoods.

Picotte expended an astounding amount of time, money and political capital, and sacrificed an awful lot of good will to plant this suburban style corporate shitbox with its enormous parking lot. Clearly, it was worth the effort for them.

I don’t know the exact amount that the Walgreens Corporation handed to Picotte. But typically when big corporations want to build one of their outlets in controversial locations, they offer the property owners way more money than the land is worth, often many times more. This is judicious use of their corporate muscle, the ridiculous amount of money chases away competition for the site and ensures the enthusiastic cooperation of the owners and developers.

Another Window View, With A Glimpse Of A Kitchen

So it appears that Picotte is ready and willing to pull the same crap again across the street. Apparently it is worthwhile to sit on these houses for twenty years waiting for that big payoff, Picotte’s money shot.

At this point it sure looks like Picotte wants to construct office buildings on the site where the houses stand today. In 2006 Picotte employee Brian Lasch, acting as a spokesman for Picotte, claimed “There is no office space market for that site.” He really said that. He was attempting to justify the spot zoning of the eventual Walgreens site by Jerry’s minions on the Common Council.

I invite anyone to take a five minute inspection tour of the neighborhood today in 2009. Note the numerous large office buildings currently being erected all at once on on either end of Holland Avenue, along Hackett Boulevard and New Scotland Avenue. I’d say that if Brian Lasch is correct and there’s no demand for office space, then we can look forward to these new buildings remaining mostly empty for the foreseeable future.

Now, I’m not going to say that this guy Lasch and his owners at Picotte were being deliberately misleading about the real estate market around Holland Avenue so that they could get their big money shot from the Walgreens Corporation. Oh no, I have no evidence for an assertion like that. I could get in trouble for floating an unfounded statement like that. I’m sure Picotte and their employees would never do something like that.

I’ll say this instead. If Picotte’s reading of the real estate market is so wildly off – no market for office space along Holland Avenue! – then they must not be very competent real estate marketers. Hell, lots of other folks saw the growing demand for office space in the neighborhood years ago. If Picotte couldn’t see that, then they are very, very incompetent and therefore not a good outfit with which to do business.

Let me repeat: we have absolutely no evidence that Picotte was being deliberately misleading in their lousy assessment of the future Walgreens site. But personally, based on this failure by them to read the situation correctly, I wouldn’t trust them to market a virtual dungheap located in Second Life. Should we trust their assessments of the six Tudor Leonard houses across the street?

So what can we do about this? Well, certain taxpaying citizens are monitoring this situation carefully and are prepared to act. I’ve been asked to not reveal details, but I can tell you that these houses will not be sent to the Rapp Road Dump in a political vacuum. At the very least Jerry Jennings and the Picotte Corporation are going to have to eat a mile of butt cakes before they all get their next big payday off of Holland Avenue.

Of course, it all depends upon the level of public awareness and public outrage. The rate of random destruction and urban removal of viable buildings in Albany has somewhat decreased in recent years, but that’s solely because of the efforts of the growing number of angry citizens who are willing to fight to defend our City from Jerry Jennings. The anti-urban policies of City Hall will continue until we someday get rid of the old boys in office who hate Albany.

Yes, we just reelected Jerry Jennings. I hope everyone who assisted Him is proud. The election is over, the war goes on, and the effort to defend these houses will be one of the latest battles. That’s the way things are in Albany.

 

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August 24, 2009

A review of Corey Ellis’ battle to bring Albany into the 21st century, part 2 will be about the ward races and other Citywide races

* * * UPDATE * * * Current mayor Jennings is getting financial assistance from billionaire Republican mayor of NYC Bloomberg

* * * Guest Editorial * * * Tom McPheeters, who is working on the Ellis campaign, presents his take on the obstacles that the campaign is fighting to overcome

The winners of the Democratic Party Primary in the City of Albany are almost always the winners of the general election in November… almost always. The Republicans at most a third party in the City of Albany, that is because the City Re-pubs are actually a powerful faction of the City Democratic Party. This Re-pub faction is usually called “The Machine” although these days it is proper to refer to these subsumed Republicans as “The Jennings Machine.”

For this upcoming Primary on Tuesday, September 15 Current Mayor Jerry Jennings and His machine are up against the wall like never before. Jennings’ bloated ego is not allowing Him to step aside quietly and let someone who cares about Albany and it’s citizens take over the government. Like His role model Erastus Corning The Third who is currently burning in Hell for all of his crimes against the City of Albany, Jennings is out for one last hurrah and damn the City.

Let’s start with the mayoral race, and Corey Ellis’ uphill battle to pry the incumbent out of the now heavily guarded and virtually inaccessible corner office of City Hall. I’ll be posting a review of the ward races and other Citywide races in a week or so. And you’d better believe that this following overview of this election is a guaranteed one hundred percent partisan exposition of my own opinion.

Corey Ellis

It is generally understood that if Corey Ellis wins the mayoral primary then come January there will be a revolution at all levels of City government. By revolution I mean the introduction of pragmatism and common sense in public policy, things that are almost nonexistent in the current regime. We will see a massive shift away from spending City revenues to enrich outside speculators and line political insider’s pockets, and the beginning of a policy of directing taxpayer money toward the citizens of Albany and our small, local businesses.

Even Mr. Ellis’ detractors concede that if he wins The Machine will finally lose political control of the City once and for all. A remnant of The Machine will continue to hold power in some of the uptown wards, but the old machine boys will be rendered hapless without a strong willed dictator to tell them what to do and what to think. Don’t be surprised if they all bolt from the Democratic Party and declare themselves obstructionist Republicans.

But like I said, Mr. Ellis has an uphill battle all the way. His first and possibly biggest problem is that his opponent is an entrenched incumbent who is shamelessly using taxpayer funded City resources to promote His candidacy. And as I’ve pointed out in a recent post, Jennings routinely depends upon naked threats and voter intimidation inside the polling stations to win elections.

I can report that Mr. Ellis and his campaign are totally prepared to fight in the polling stations across the City for voter access, and I mean fight. In Corey’s 2005 3rd ward Common Council campaign, Jennings’ minions used every nasty trick to retain control of the voting stations, from intimidation to physical threats to throwing out poll watchers. Mr. Ellis had anticipated these attempts to block access and that day he fought Jennings’ minions to a standstill.

That primary campaign resulted in the arrest of ward leader and Jennings activist Jamie Gilkey for voting fraud, and also a police investigation that helped clean up voting procedures in the 3rd ward. In short, Corey Ellis is a real nice guy but you don’t want to mess him around. He knows how to fight back. Despite His public posturings, Jennings is well aware of Corey’s strong spine, and He understands very well that the challenger has the personality to effectively handle the office of mayor.

Ken Screvin Confronts The Candidate

Another big problem for the challenger’s campaign is that Jennings has, reportedly, ten times the cash on hand that Mr. Ellis has. Personally, I believe He has a lot more. Of course, a good chunk of this cash has to be spent on ward races and other Citywide contests. However, there is evidence that Jennings’ mountain of money is spreading thin, financing His dependents is the cost of political control.

Where comes this money? Jennings is a hardcore promoter of “privatization,” that is, the selling off of public assets to privateers and pocketing the difference. In this view, government exists merely to keep citizens docile so that they can be robbed peacefully. That’s why I call Jennings a Republican, “privatization” is the defining characteristic of all Re-pub politicos and a depressingly large number of Democratic politicians.

The privateers who benefit from this policy of forced disintegration appear to be terrified of Corey Ellis. Through back channels and through public “campaign contributions” we see outfits like Picotte and Barry Bette Led Duke giving lavishly to the Current Mayor. The favored developers have even set up their own campaign committee to support Jennings.

Clifton Park Resident Thomas Carroll

Of particular note is welfare queen Tom Carroll’s outfit Brighter Choice, a so-called “charter” school corporation that has benefitted lavishly from Jennings’ almost slavish support. Brighter Choice has publicly given back to Jennings quite a pile of cash. And Tom Carroll is running attack ads against Corey Ellis for which, typically, Carroll refuses to take personal responsibility.

I want to know if these “contributions” from Brighter Choice to Jennings come directly from us taxpayers the same way that we pay for their advertising. But despite being 100 percent funded by the taxpayers, Brighter Choice is not required to make their finances public like public schools do so we may never know.

This array of corrupt power and dirty money is not the only problem that Corey Ellis has to overcome. When Common Council President Shawn Morris dropped out of the mayoral race in July, she did not endorse Mr. Ellis. The generally understood reason that she did not endorse is because she is angry at Mr. Ellis for running and interfering with her own chances. This can only be interpreted as a calculated move on her part to throw her support behind Jennings… without seeming to do so.

Shawn Morris

That hurts, but much more damaging is the bizarre behavior of some members of Shawn Morris’ now unemployed campaign staff, a surprising number of whom are openly hostile to Corey Ellis personally. Of particular note is a former senior staffer who calls himself 11thWardDem who has been filling local message boards with reams of personal invective against Mr. Ellis. 11thWardDem has turned into one of Jerry Jennings’ most vocal supporters.

This is beyond sour grapes or mere disappointment, I can only guess what’s in their minds because they aren’t explaining themselves. I’ve listened to certain people who were, early on, spreading nasty rumors about how Mr. Ellis conducts his personal life, and an utterly false rumor that he is homophobic. It seems to me these are the sort of rumors that play very well into certain kinds of stereotypes, and act as convenient excuses for undermining his campaign. That’s as far as I’m going with that.

Indeed, it has become evident that 11thWardDem and the former Shawn Morris staffers are actively encouraging progressively minded voters to passively reject Mr. Ellis. All I can say is that if Mr. Ellis does not win the Primary, the loss will be on the heads of Ms. Morris and her former staff. I hope for their sakes that Jennings rewards them all for their timely support, and perhaps some of them are expecting exactly that.

Here’s one more problem. A week or so back the Hearst-owned Times Union put a phony baloney smear story about Mr. Ellis on the front page of their corporate sheet, complete with a bad photo of the candidate. It has come out that as a member of the Common Council Mr. Ellis was given a placard for his car so that he could park near City Hall or elsewhere when conducting City business. Despite this, he was (accidentally on purpose?) issued some 19 parking tickets, all of which were dismissed as errors. Nothing secret here, this is an open policy.

Well, the Hearst content provider who wrote the article very clumsily connected this bit of nothing to the notorious Ghost Ticket Scandal that has become the defining characteristic of the Jennings regime. Most notably they prominently featured the phrase “no-fine tickets” to describe the erroneous parking violations issued to Mr. Ellis.

The Times Union has been using this same phrase “no-fine tickets” that they invented to describe the Ghost Tickets, so clearly their intent was to confuse and mislead the readers. The impression deliberately conveyed by the title and the lead paragraphs of that article is that Mr. Ellis is supposedly a hypocrite who used and benefitted from the now famous Bullet Stickers just like every one of Jerry’s friends, and minions.

It sure looks like Jerry Jennings and Times Union Publisher George R. Hearst III (yes, you read that right) have been doing a little “horse trading,” the somewhat sanitized phrase used by the Hearst Corporation to describe their dirty deals and shakedowns of elected officials.

George W. Hearst III And Jerry Jennings

I can safely predict that the Times Union will officially endorse Jerry Jennings, I think the reason is obvious. No, I don’t mean skin color, although I’m sure that the lily white editors of the Times Union prefer orange to dark brown. I mean that Jennings is a known quantity, corrupt and easy to manipulate by the guardians of a dying media outlet for the benefit of their corporate masters.

Corey Ellis, on the other hand, is extremely unlikely to cut any horse trading deals with Hearst, and that scares them. He is more likely to follow the example of President Obama, who has openly refused to take orders from Rupert Murdoch’s FOX network, letting them lie and slander and then lie some more to an ever decreasing audience. Besides, Mr. Ellis is young enough to understand that the Times Union can no longer control local politicians the way they controlled the hapless former Congressman Michael McNulty, their bag of air is deflating and soon they will be gone.

It is hard to say if either candidate is helped or hurt by being either smeared or endorsed by the Hearst Rag. I tend to think that the smearing hurts because there are probably a handful of voters in the City who still take the Hearst Rag seriously. Perhaps the endorsement will hurt more than the smear. Who can say for sure?

Finally there is an oft repeated line which has become the mantra of passive opposition to Mr. Ellis’ campaign. “I’m not seeing or hearing much about Corey Ellis’ positions on the issues, he’s not getting his message out.” One former campaigner for Shawn Morris who posted this line during a discussion on Democracy In Albany (DIA) snottily informed me that it was my job “to get his message out!” Apparently, it sure wasn’t her job.

So, like, don’t any of these people have access to the internet? Anybody can read Mr. Ellis’ positions off of his campaign website if they care to look. These are basically the sort of common sense ideas that have been hammered out by various citizens committees over the past few years, common sense ideas that are completely absent from the Jennings regime.

Corey Ellis At The Top Of Morton Avenue Speaking At
Dominick Calsolaro’s Announcement

Here’s a quick summary Corey Ellis’ main positions as I interpret them:

1) Public Safety This is item number one. Corey has correctly identified the short term cause of spiraling crime as the wide chasm and lack of respect between the Albany Police and most of the citizens of the City. His solution is to closely connect the police to the neighborhoods so that they can effectively deal with crime before or as it happens. In addition, he would implement an effective system of police accountability, this is essential to restore confidence in the Albany Police.

2) Opportunity “Ideally, the most positive and productive way to reduce crime is to offer opportunity.” The long-standing problem is that crime is spreading relentlessly uptown, to Pine Hills and beyond. Young people turn to crime because they have no reason to care about themselves or the world around them. We cannot afford to ignore our youth any longer, we need to offer them a stake in society so that they can grow into productive citizens.

3) Education Work with and respect the public school system and the Board of Education. Mr. Ellis has stated that he does not intend to eliminate “charter” schools, but it is clear that he intends to shift public support away from the useless extra layer of bureaucracy imposed upon the taxpayers by “charter” school corporations in the City. It’s time to stop beating on the public schools and give them the support that they need.

4) Buildings and Codes The livability of our neighborhoods depends upon the condition of the buildings in our neighborhoods. The simple and easy way to prevent buildings from decaying and becoming vacant is to enforce existing building codes, and to do so fairly and universally, not occasionally and selectively. Along with fair code enforcement the City needs to promote the restoration and renovation of our many vacant buildings.

5) Promote Growth “Direct investment and development funds toward our neighborhoods to promote the restoration and preservation of residential housing and the growth of small neighborhood businesses instead of giving disproportionate tax breaks [cash subsidies, legal services, etc.] to large commercial interests.” Small businesses create some 80 percent of new jobs. Create decent housing for taxpayers and City revenues go up.

6) Efficiency Conduct an audit of City departments to find out how to eliminate duplication of services and waste. Stop issuing bonds to temporarily balance the budget. Overhaul property tax assessments to be fair and consistent. And take a good hard look at the garbage importation scheme called the Rapp Road “Landfill” which is a big money loser. In other words, bring the conduct of City government out of the 19th century and into the 21st.

7) Transparency Last item, but possibly the most important of all. Without transparency, government exists merely to serve itself. Citizen participation in and citizen oversight of government are absolutely essential not only if we want to eliminate corruption, but also if we want policies that benefit the taxpaying citizens instead of outside speculators and corporations. However, we the people cannot observe and participate without access to the machinations of our public servants. Secrecy is corruption.

Every one of these items listed here and on the Ellis campaign website are straightforward and practical, a common sense approach to good government. None of them merits more than a minor quibble about details. Yet every single one is a radical departure from the policies of the Jennings regime. We have lived with rotten government in the City of Albany for so long that most of us can’t even imagine having an honest administration in City Hall.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that one of the reasons that I am excited about Corey Ellis as Mayor of Albany is that he is a native of the South End. He began life on Alexander Street and grew up in Creighton Story Homes on Third Avenue. A certain fellow about the neighborhood who grew up with Mr. Ellis is fond of proudly telling people that “Corey is the one of us who graduated out of the projects.”

Mr. Ellis left town to earn a college degree and pursue a career in organizing and activism down in NY City. But unlike so many other young people who leave Albany never to return because of the lack of opportunity here, Corey returned home when he got older to apply what he learned to the enormous problems of our community.

Talking To Chet Hardin Of Metroland

Since I’m making predictions I’ll make one more. If Jerry Jennings manages to edge out Corey Ellis in a close contest, look to see Corey continue to campaign vigorously right into the November elections.

This is entirely my own speculation, I don’t have any insider information on this. But hey, he did exactly that back in 2005, and won. Jennings scared away enough voters in the 3rd ward Primary to eke out a win for His two-term incumbent candidate, but the challenger won handily in the general election. Will history repeat? Will Corey go all the way?

Corey Ellis has taken on all of the rot and indifference, not merely the corrupt old boys but the so-called progressives who are secret admirers of Jerry Jennings. There are few people in Albany politics who have the guts and the will to fight the power, most are quite happy to help prop up the status quo by ducking their heads in fear.

My final prediction is that Mr. Ellis is here to stay. His mayoral campaign has revealed the fatal weaknesses of the Jennings Machine and revealed His secret supporters. In or out of office, Corey Ellis is the new and permanent force in Albany politics, and all of you players had better revise your calculations accordingly.

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August 5, 2009

The only independent daily newspaper in the region voluntarily disappears from the internet… and the blogger takes a short break from Albany politics to write an obituary

* * * UPDATE * * * The New York Times makes a similar argument about web access to print newspapers. They even mention the Daily Gazette.

Daily print newspapers have been dying a slow death for decades. If you ask the people who run newspapers why that is, they invariably blame the decline on those of us who read their newspapers. You’ve probably heard it before, that we information consumers watch too much television, our attention spans are shorter than they used to be, we’ve forgotten how to read, and my favorite, that we the readers are not in the least bit interested in keeping informed about important events.

And of course they moan that their old business model is failing because of our enduring interest in using that newfangled internets as an alternate channel for information. Newspaper managers absolutely never blame themselves or the corporations who own them for their long slow decline. Their heavy implication has always been that we the consumers have become too lazy and stupid to appreciate their finely crafted sheets of pulp.

The plain truth is that daily newspapers are dying because their content sucks. The number one reason their content sucks is because their content is dictated to them by the corporations who own them, exactly like the now defunct corporation that called itself the Communist Party did to newspapers in the old Soviet Union. If a newpaper’s content is a pack of lies and not worth remembering, why should we plunk down 75 cents and spend time studying their rag looking for news that’s not there?

The Old Gazette Building In Schenectady, Now Destroyed

I am sorry to see that the locally owned Daily Gazette has decided to kill itself by ending its presence online. Other than a few odd features that the Gazette owners and managers appear to consider worthless, such as blogs, the Gazette will only exist from now on in dead tree form. I figure they will hang on for about a year before they go under, maybe two at most.

Judy Patrick, New General Manager Of The Daily Gazette

Why are they doing this to themselves? It appears that they are all deeply confused and have no idea what they are doing. In an article printed in the Hearst-owned Times Union, the managing editor of the Daily Gazette, Judy Patrick, was quoted as saying that they were cutting themselves off from the internet because “the online revenue wasn’t happening.”

The Gazette is one of the less than ten percent of daily papers nationwide not owned by a corporation. This means that unlike their bigger corporate competitor the Times Union, the Gazette’s editors and writers are not required to twist their content into unreliability by political dictates from their corporate owners. That makes the Gazette valuable.

This is not to say that the Gazette’s content has been free of distortion, far from it. For one thing, the Gazette relies heavily upon the Associated Press (AP) for most of their non-local content. From the early 1980s to about 2005, the AP corporation had a virtual monopoly on news distribution to US newspapers, and like every corporate monopoly they spread disinformation and imposed censorship. The AP still does, as much as they can. For a long time now the Daily Gazette has been printing AP content straight without any discernible editorial oversight.

Art Clayman, Gazette Opinion Editor

Also, judging by the content of their editorial pages, the Gazette editors could best be described as a bunch of laughable throwback reactionaries. They seem to honestly believe and espouse some sort of old-fashioned knee-jerk “conservatism,” that is, an unthinking and uncompromising opposition to popular democracy. I mean, these guys and gals are almost quaint. You almost never see anymore this kind of conservatism that is mostly untainted by corporatism.

In short, I will not miss the Gazette because I agree with their editorial opinions, on the contrary. What’s important to me is that they are locally owned and locally produced, thus they are capable of reporting local news in a straight fashion. They do not need to follow political guidelines laid down by a distant and inhuman corporation.

Here’s an example. Back in 2004 a fellow named Bob Millman bought advertising airtime on radio station WGY AM, a local Clear Channel Corporation outlet. Basically, Mr. Millman used the ads to express his dissatisfaction with the failed policies of the George W. Bush administration.

Why did Mr. Millman go to so much effort? According to Metroland, “I know I’m not the only one who’s disappointed with both the radical right and the Democrats these days,” [said] Millman. “So if this lets some of them know that we’re not all happy about the direction the country is headed, I consider it money well spent.” Remember, this happened shortly before the majority of people had discovered the internet.

WGY originally accepted the ads along with Mr. Millman’s money, but Clear Channel swooped down and ordered WGY to reject the ads.

Clear Channel WGY-AM, Niskayuna

Mr. Millman’s next move was most interesting. Somehow he prevailed upon former Gazette reporter Philip Schwartz to write a short article about this blatant act of corporate political censorship. And somehow the Gazette editors, despite their retrograde anti-populism, despite their profound disagreement with the politics of the copy, could find no reason to not print the article.

I recall spotting the article deep in the back pages of the Gazette, jammed under an advertisement next to the TV listings. I immediately jumped up from my lunch, ranted and raved around the house for a little bit, then proceeded to manually transcribe the article word by word into my computer, this being before optical scanners were affordable. I spent the afternoon emailing this sucker to everyone that I knew and quite a few people whom I didn’t know.

At the same time, Mr. Millman and several other people were doing the exact same thing that I was doing. It was a beautiful early example of a spontaneous and unplanned end-run around corporate media censorship. The story spread around the world and confirmed everyone’s suspicions about Clear Channel.

This important local story also spread the name of the Daily Gazette across the planet. This despite the story having almost not made it into the paper, and the Gazette having absolutely no internet presence at the time. By printing the article the Gazette editors lent an aura of legitimacy to the story that allowed it to be spread easily as a news item. Sadly, the Gazette owners and editors did not appear to understand the opportunity that had opened up for them.

Big corporate information purveyors like NPR and FOX and the NY Times rightly feel threatened by the internet because it challenges their control of information. But for a small podunk outfit like the Daily Gazette the internet is an opportunity to expand, to draw attention to itself. To repeat some outmoded terminology from an outmoded business model, you can’t buy that kind of advertising for any price.

General Manager Daniel Beck, Asst. General Manager James Grandy

All news is local. The power of the internet comes from it’s ability to transmit and retain local information that big news organizations refuse to handle. In general, most of this local news is initially reported by local newspapers. Unfortunately, almost all of that local news dies forgotten when those local papers are tossed into the trash at the end of each day.

But when a small local newspaper plugs itself into the internet it becomes an integral part of a massive network that dwarfs even the biggest news organizations. Indeed, the internet needs local archivers of information, where would the internet be without input? In this way newsprint remains valuable in an electronic world.

The key thing for a local paper to do is to archive all the newspaper’s information and make that information freely available to anyone. This archive functions as a public record and an accessible memory of something that can not be found anywhere else in the world, the local news that is unique to the local paper.

An “online presence” gives people a reason to pay attention to a local paper like the Gazette, a reason to use it and a reason to rely on that paper and it’s unique archive of information that the newspaper itself has created.

Of course, this “online presence” has to be clean of obstructions. The Daily Gazette managers like to say that they “went online” for two years “as an experiment.” But they never really did go online, at least not enough to make their presence widely known and relied upon.

Newsroom Diversity Report For The Daily Gazette

The first thing they did wrong was to write into their web software restrictions on search engine access, which is a trick that the big boys do. If you had tried to find an article in the now defunct Gazette search engine, you wouldn’t have been able to find it with a few relevant key words like you do with Google. You would have had to have the exact words of the title of the article entered into the search engine or it simply wouldn’t appear.

When the NY Times puts such a restriction on their searchable data they sorta kinda get away with it because everyone wants NY Times articles. But who wants Daily Gazette articles, or rather, who knows that they want Gazette articles ahead of time? Most people are looking for information, they’re not surfing to find local newspapers.

If I want to know about, say, electronic voting machine irregularities in local districts (a subject which is utterly taboo in the national corporate media) I am not going to go searching for the Herald Picayune of Upper Horsebutt Falls, Ohio. I am going to search for electronic voting machine irregularities. If the Herald Picayune has that information available for me, then I will become aware of their paper and of the relevant municipalities of Ohio.

But if I cannot easily access the Daily Gazette, or not at all, how will I know whether or not there are e-machine voting irregularities in the Capital District? The answer is that I won’t know, I won’t be able to find out. And maybe that sort of thing is deliberate (it often is) or maybe it’s simply incompetence. Either way it amounts to a restriction on vital information.

Carl Strock

And here’s the dumbest thing that they did. Carl Strock’s column, which appears three times a week, is the one part of the paper that is most likely to be reprinted and passed around the world. So naturally these fools kept his column completely offline. While the rest of the paper was online, the only way to read his column was off of the dead tree version.

Perhaps the managers of the Gazette think that Mr. Strock’s column is not worth being made available and not worth archiving? I know well that I’m not the only person who, on more than one occasion, has laboriously clipped one of his columns, scanned it and carefully corrected the scanning errors. All this so that I could share one of his columns with others. What a waste of time.

(Note: I’ve just discovered that for the first time ever Carl Strock’s column is suddenly available online, now that the rest of the paper is gone! Who knows what they’re thinking. You know what else? They now have a search engine that takes keywords… but the articles don’t appear. Up comes a pay notice.)

Clearly someone in charge near or at the top of the Gazette organization is having a lot of trouble wrapping his or her mind around the concept of “the internet.”

Perhaps that someone is the owner of the Gazette, a fellow named John EN Hume III. There is almost no information available about this guy. All I can say about him is that he appears to be afflicted with hereditary wealth, a condition which usually causes one to have a severely limited imagination and a lack of real business sense. But that is merely speculation, this fellow seems to value his privacy.

All In The Family: Gazette Owner John EN Hume Jr.
Father Of John III, At The Mic 1949

It seems really silly that I have to explain all this doesn’t it? I’ve noticed that most old farts like me (over 40, or so) are pretty frickin’ stupid when it comes to understanding the internet. Unfortunately, old farts like me are currently in charge of society. So until we all die off we will continue to cause unnecessary obstructions to everybody else, and murder independent newspapers like the Daily Gazette with our ignorance.

There is no reason why printed newspapers have to die. Recorded music did not disappear because of the radio, movies did not disappear because of television. In fact, movie theaters underwent a major revival because of the rise of VCRs, the ability to play movies at home on your own TV set. Suddenly movies became easily accessible and people responded by becoming interested in movie theaters again.

Well, you can’t expect to teach a dumb old dog who thinks he knows it all to get up and play fetch with a new stick. All you can do is get a new puppy if you want to play. The best thing that could happen is for the owner to pass the Daily Gazette on to someone local who could adapt the paper to the 21st century, someone willing to keep this venerable information channel away from filthy deadly corporate hands.

Gee, I hope that happens. But realistically, it looks like I’m going to have to learn to live without the Daily Gazette.

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June 28, 2009

Or, how to get things done in a City with a corrupt government

The other day while cleaning up in the house I found a stack of photographs of abandoned wrecked cars parked on Catherine Street. I snapped these photos around ten years ago – before digital cameras had become common. The cheap paper photos developed at a drugstore are already starting to degrade, but the evidence they display is still clear and scannable.

For about five years or so, from 1999 to 2004 as many as 30 unlicensed automobiles in various states of wreckage sat rotting along the pavement of Catherine Street between South Swan Street and Oneida Terrace. Sometimes the wrecked cars were shuffled around or replaced with other junkers, but many of them sat unmoving for years. Despite constant complaints the City pointedly refused to do a damn thing about these dangerous wrecks… with one small but significant exception.

Catherine Street Eight Years Ago

How did they get there? These wrecks were carefully dropped and abandoned on Catherine Street by one of our worst neighbors, the notorious towing company with the City contract, Joe’s Osborne Street Garage. The line of unlicensed autos ran along Joe’s barb wire fence and on down the hill. I know for a fact that this collection of vehicular junk was dropped on the pavement in the heart of my neighborhood with the open knowledge and approval of the Current Mayor of Albany, Jerry Jennings.

How do I know the Current Mayor did that to us? These old paper photos are the evidence. Jerry told Joe’s to put these junks out on Catherine Street and leave them there. And Joe Gimondo, the owner of Joe’s Garage, enthusiastically complied with Jennings’ request.

Dominick Calsolaro

On three different occasions during those five years I followed the advice of my first ward common council member, Dominick Calsolaro. I carefully photographed Joe’s Catherine Street wrecks and had four copies made of each photo. One set of photos went to The Mayor, one set to the head of the Department of General Services (DGS) and one to the corporation council, the City lawyer. And one set of photos I kept for myself, which I promptly lost under a pile of crap in my house.

Please understand that I did not engage in this civic exercise merely to keep my elected officials dutifully apprised of an ongoing illegality or because I was naive enough to think that the City would ha! ha! respond to my concerns. This was back a few years ago when Jerry Jennings still reigned unchallenged and supreme like an Iranian mullah so of course I received no official response whatsoever from anyone.

No, the point of this photographic and narrative exercise was to formally inform the City of Albany of their legal liability. Here’s how it works. Suppose a dear, sweet little old lady walking down Catherine was forced out into the street into the path of a suburban SUV. The little old lady will find out that she cannot sue the City for deliberate neglect unless she can prove that the City had prior knowledge of the problem and failed to correct the problem in a timely manner.

So then, by my telling the City about the wrecked cars on Catherine, and by my keeping a record of the correspondence, the City leaders had legally become responsible for their policy of applied negligence and could be more readily sued for their criminal neglect. The dear sweet elderly victim can drag the City’s corrupt ass into court and expect to win.

That’s the theory. Of course, the City administration can fail to respond to the complainer and pretend they never received notice of the problem. The suit and tie who was the corporation counsel at the time verbally acknowledged to me that he had received my photos, but I can’t exactly prove that in a courtroom. But I know for a fact that The Current Mayor saw the photos and read my narrative.

Jerry Jennings did respond quickly to one little problem that I had pointed out. You see, there is only one fire hydrant for this entire long block of Catherine Street. It was with my second set of photos that I demonstrated that Joe Gimondo’s wrecked vehicles were dangerously blocking this hydrant, and Joe had been doing this for years. There would have been some serious liability if there happened to be a fire nearby.

The Only Hydrant

I dropped off my stack of photos at City Hall, and the very next day Joe’s tow trucks were out on Catherine Street moving the wrecks away from the hydrant. For the next few years, Joe always carefully maintained an exactly five foot space on either side of the hydrant. As for the wrecked cars that had been blocking the hydrant, Joe’s employees dropped them further down Catherine Street, where they remained.

By this minor bit of activity I know that Current Mayor Jennings willfully and deliberately encouraged Joe Gimondo to maintain these wrecked vehicles on Catherine Street. Inside of a 30 second phone call His Majesty could have told Joe to pick up his garbage, and Joe would have immediately complied. But with a 30 second phone call all The Current Mayor did was tell Joe to move the junkers away from the hydrant.

Let me emphasize that. These unlicensed wrecks were not merely dumped on Catherine Street, they were maintained.

As for why, one might surmise that Jerry Jennings is a nasty, petty minded individual who wastes valuable time and money working out His personal problems on the people who live in “His” City. He pulled this nonsense not merely because He wanted to degrade my neighborhood (we always vote heavily against Him and His machine.) He also wanted to make Mr. Calsolaro look bad by turning an important street in his ward into a junk yard.

During weekly rush hours, many hundreds of suburban gas guzzlers speeding back and forth from Delmar take a short cut down this block. Every day for more than five years these wrecked vehicles announced to these outsiders, “Welcome To Jerry Jennings’ Albany.” Believe me, I took every opportunity to explain this to anyone and everyone who noticed the wrecks and wondered why they were there, and why no one did anything about them.

Oh, in case anyone was wondering, I called the police repeatedly over the years. This happened partly during the era of police denial of service, when the Albany police routinely refused to answer calls for help from Albany citizens. But during this time the police did indeed make a vigorous effort to keep the roadways in my neighborhood clear for the traveling convenience of their fellow suburbanites. So I hoped that The Police might respond to this roadway obstruction that affected them and their kind.

No such luck. I was informed on several occasions by City of Albany police officers that the The Police were partners with Joe and did not wish to cause any problems with him. I did not realize until long after these one sided conversations that these suburban boys in uniform were threatening me, telling me to back off complaining about the wrecks on the street! Yes, I can be naive sometimes.

Dominick was clearly as frustrated with this situation as I was, perhaps more so. Thus, being an innovative elected official, he came up with plan B.

Shortly after Dominick was elected to the Common Council for the first time in 2001, he put in a request for a sidewalk on this block of Catherine Street to be built where there had never been one. The sidewalk was originally supposed to be on the other side of the street, but to my surprise several residential property owners on that side did not want it. I think they just didn’t want to shovel snow off the walk in winter, but never mind.

So Dominick, who has been spectacularly successful getting sidewalks built or replaced in his ward, came up with the idea of putting the sidewalk on the other side of the street alongside the Joe’s Garage compound. “That way they can’t park their junk half on the sidewalk,” he figured, “and with proper curbstones The Police will have to ticket.”

Sgt. Chris Mesley
This Past April Testifying About The Ghost Ticket Scandal

We never found out if Dominick’s reasoning was correct. In 2004 fate arrived in our neighborhood in the form of Officer Chris Mesley, on the job and riding a bicycle. Yes, the same well known Albany cop (now a sergeant) who maintains a controversial and powerful role as head of the Albany police union was doing standard harassment duty in my neighborhood.

Mesley was diligently working his way down Catherine Street writing tickets for my neighbor’s parked cars, you know, looking for expired inspection stickers, missing plates or overdue parking tickets. This was business as usual, a cop used to work carefully through my neighborhood making problems about every three months or so. Every single one of these suburban boys and girls in uniform would make a special point of turning their backs on Joe’s wrecks dumped in the street while they harassed my neighbors, as if Joe’s wrecks didn’t exist for them.

You folks out there who don’t live in Albany, are you getting an idea of what life has been like with Jerry Jennings?

The Wife and I, who happened to be on the street when Mesley came by, struck up a long conversation with him while he straddled his bike. We eventually steered his attention to the wrecks immediately behind him, and we narrated for him the tale of how we tried to get the City and the police department to obey the law and clear these hazards off the pavement. Then, being the diplomatic fellow that I am, I told Mesley that we did not hold not him personally responsible for this street junkyard because no doubt he had been ordered by City Hall to maintain Joe’s wrecks out here at all costs.

Mesley turned his bike around and stared at Joe’s line of wrecks for a long time. Then he turned again to us and said, “I promise you I will personally take care of this. It’ll take a few weeks, but I’ll get them off the street and keep them off.” And indeed he kept his solemn promise. Within a month Joe’s wrecks disappeared from Catherine Street.

Apparently Mesley was so moved by our resigned appeal that his humanity popped to the surface. But I think that he had become genuinely embarrassed by the City’s policy of applied harassment to downtown neighborhoods. In any case, the harassing police sweeps through my neighborhood also ended at this time.

Mesley has been lambasted thoroughly not only in the local blogoshere for his public statements, but also in the corporate and non-corporate media. Often for good reason. However the regular reader of this blog will note that I have never criticized the police union leader. Now you all know the reason I have not.

Dominick’s Catherine Street Sidewalk Today

Finally in 2008 Dominick’s sidewalk got built on Joe’s side of the street. The contractor doing the work, Hudson River Contracting, wanted to make a little extra profit for themselves by sneakily laying asphalt instead of concrete. They apparently figured that in our neighborhood no one would care, or maybe someone in City Hall told them that we didn’t care.

As soon as we spotted their little crime against our street we called Dominick, who dropped everything that morning (he has a regular job, you know) to track down Bill Bruce, who at that time was the commissioner of DGS. Contrary to the misinformation that the foreman (a fellow named Commisso) fed to me, Hudson River was indeed under contract from the City to pour concrete, not asphalt.

With Dominick howling at his back, Commissioner Bruce showed up on Catherine Street within the hour and stopped the job. He subsequently made them pull up the asphalt that they had already spread and pour concrete like they were supposed to. And by the way, I’ve noticed that Hudson River has not been doing much City contract work lately.

So thanks to my Common Council member and thanks to the head of the police union, Joe and Jerry’s wrecked autos have been removed from Catherine Street and replaced with a shiny new sidewalk. That brings us to the present year and to the decaying sidewalk around the corner on my side of the street.

The block that I live on is short, three houses long, running from Catherine to Morton Avenue. The landlord who owns the brick house two houses down from me on the corner of Morton has some sort of political connection inside City Hall. I know this because he has made use of this connection in the past, and he has mentioned it to me.

Last month, without any warning, a crew of City DGS guys showed up one morning and started replacing the sidewalk along this guy’s property line. The one third of the sidewalk alongside this fellow’s property was a bit old, but this was the only part of the sidewalk on my side of the street that was entirely intact. The planned repair job did not include the middle third of the sidewalk, which looked like this:

As you can see, this was not so much a sidewalk as a patch of gravel. It had been like that for more than twenty years, since before Jennings captured City Hall for Himself.

This decayed former patch of sidewalk, so typical of the carefully neglected walkways of the South End, had become a kind of monument. For my immediate neighbors it was a symbol of Albany City government, a kind of living example of what exactly is wrong with our political leaders. Every so often one or more of my neighbors would stand and contemplate this monument. Then they would condemn our City politicians as worse than useless.

Dominick Calsolaro put in a request to replace the entire sidewalk every single year, but was ignored. But now that the City was showing some election year interest in our street, The Wife and I decided it was time to get radical. So after some phone calls, I wrote a nice polite public email (with photos) to Nick D’Antonio, the current head of DGS. The key part of my message was this:

As the foreman and the guys on the crew all said, the final result "is going to look stupid." I would also add that not repairing this extreme hazard while the crew is present and working will increase the City being held liable for an accident, since it is obvious that the City is and has been aware of the problem in front of 221 [S. Swan St.]

April 30, 2009

Checking out a hotly litigated corner of
Albany’s Pine Bush on a hot day

Check out this first photo. Take a guess where it was taken:

Some Strange Land?

If you said North Africa or Mongolia you’d be mighty wrong. This photograph was taken the other day within the borders of the second oldest city in the United States, the capital of the State of New York, the former Dutch colony of Beverwick, renamed later in honor of some degenerate English lord who never visited the place. This, my friends, is the City of Albany.

I’m happy to say that this is not the South End, although this might be what my neighborhood would look like today if the Jennings administration had been allowed to have it’s way. This photo is of the part of our Pine Bush called Blueberry Hill. Those are pitch pine trees rising out of the bare sand, the only visible life forms remaining on this strange planet.

This last weekend we had a record breaking heat wave, so The Wife and I decided to cool off with a four hour midday hike through the Pine Bush sand dunes. At The Wife’s insistence, we wore heavy clothing to protect ourselves from deer ticks bearing the dreaded west nile virus. I’m telling you, by the time we finished our hike I was as parched as the mahogany desert.

The Trailhead At The Dead End Of
Pitch Pine Road

We entered the Pine Bush at the trailhead at the dead end of Pitch Pine Road, an unnecessary suburban sprawl “development” from the 1980s. The cheaply constructed houses, which were looking a little tattered, generally command higher prices because they butt up against the Pine Bush preserve. The added “value” comes from the guarantee that no “developer” can build more crap houses behind these.

I noted with disgust that many of the houses sported unhealthy monoculture lawns, which are created by applying a combination of pesticides, weed killer and antibiotics. Most houses ringing the preserve appear to casually dump these dangerous chemicals on their sad grass. For sure this crud is seeping into Pine Bush preserve, quietly killing flora and fauna.

A Short Way Up The Trail

After entering at the trailhead we took the first trail to the left and almost immediately this astonishing barren vista opened up. Neither I nor The Wife, who proudly calls herself an armchair environmentalist, had been to Blueberry Hill for years. So both of us were shocked and surprised by what we saw, hearing about something and seeing it for yourself are much different things.

What happened? According to The Wife (and others I’ve talked to) back in the 1970s Blueberry Hill was classic Pine Bush, a complex and diverse ecosystem of karner blue butterflies, blue lupen, buckmoths, scrub oak bushes and worm snakes. And there were ridge upon ridge of blueberry bushes. Old timers around Albany still talk about going out every year with baskets to collect the wild blueberries.

Due to a misguided policy of fire suppression, the Pine Bush ecosystem around Blueberry Hill became overgrown. This overgrowth destroyed the low lying blueberry bushes and scrub oak along with the creatures that depend on them.

After several decades of overgrowth, decaying leaves formed an unnatural layer of mulch on top of the sand. This mulch became a breeding ground for invasive species. That’s when fast growing and quick spreading white poplar and black locust broadleaf trees took over, choking out the surviving ecosystem.

Pitch Pine Tree Choked By Poplars

For the last ten or twelve thousand years, fire would sweep over the original 40 square miles of Pine Bush every ten or twenty years. As strange as it sounds, the plants and animals are not only adapted to periodic fires, they need fire to live. But we civilized people can no longer tolerate fire in the Pine Bush because of all these crappy sprawl houses with poisonous lawns ringing the preserve, so alternatives to fire have had to be found.

The Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission is a quasi-governmental agency created as a direct result of lawsuits filed by Save the Pine Bush. The Commission actively manages the preserve, they created this stark landscape of bare sand dunes.

The Commission decided that Blueberry Hill was so degraded by overgrowth that the only alternative to a wildfire was to strip it down to the sand and start over, keeping only the surviving pitch pines. A radical decision to be sure, full of optimism that a ten thousand year old ecosystem can be rebuilt from the bottom up. The organisms that are needed to repopulate the stripped area are right nearby, but I wonder how long it will take to establish the original complexity, if that ever can be recreated.

Well, the Commission is doing the best they can with what they’ve got. The stripping of the dunes is done mostly with bulldozers and a device called a hydro-ax. And unfortunately they also apply chemicals to kill and dissolve the stumps of certain invasive trees, particularly the black locust. And as can be seen, they haul off all of the vegetation and mulch.

Recovering Dune In The Foreground

These dunes are bare because they had been stripped last year, but they won’t stay that way long. In short order we came upon the dunes that were stripped a year or so earlier, an we could see the low lying growth had becoming reestablished. This quick recovery is how we know we are in the northeast US and not in a real desert.

It’s kind of interesting that our entire country is currently facing a quiet crisis in the slow but steady loss of our precious layer of topsoil. But here in the Pine Bush we are removing the topsoil, mulch is the enemy that destroys.

The entire day we saw only one other visitor like us, a bicyclist who stopped to talk to us. I noted when I climbed up a dune (which I’m not supposed to do) that there were absolutely no other footprints in the sand besides mine. I decided I’d better not do that again and stay on the trails, if every tourist did what I did the dunes would have a hard time recovering.

Bags Of Open Pinecones

Out in the open The Wife found a couple of bags of pitch pine pine cones left by the Commission. Pine cones cannot germinate unless they open first, and usually pitch pine pine cones don’t open unless they are exposed to fire. This is one example of how plant life in the Pine Bush needs fire to survive, thus these these open pine cones are important seed stock.

Leaving the stripped down dunes hiked through some of the remaining overgrown areas, heading toward the power line right of way. This is a corridor maintained by the power corporation monopoly so they can have ready access to their lines. As the stupid and self destructive Albany Common Council continues to approve encroachments upon this corner of the Pine Bush, this power line corridor becomes more and more important as an unassailable link between pieces of the surviving ecosystem.

Power Line Corridor

The power corporation mows this corridor once or twice a year. Believe it or not this is a good thing because it prevents overgrowth. While no trees or bushes can grow here, this artificially maintained open area supports a thriving low lying community of plant life.

We were delighted to see that the corridor was carpeted with blue lupen, the primary food and breeding ground for endangered karner blue butterflies. Now, these famous pretty little bugs are not the only threatened species in the Pine Bush, but for many years they were the main legal handle and poster child for Pine Bush preservation. Thus many of the older efforts to save the ecosystem have centered around the well-being of the karner blues.

Blue Lupen At The Power Lines

We were surprised to see a couple of wire fence enclosures on the corridor, meant to protect baby pitch pine trees from hungry deer. Indeed we saw several deer foraging around the power lines. In late winter and early spring they will eat anything they can digest including young trees, their foraging habits can prevent any forest or preserve from regenerating itself.

The deer problem is common to many or most natural preserves across the country, that is why I am in favor of encouraging bow hunting of deer in the Pine Bush. But lupen plants are safe from the deer because they are toxic to mammals., presumably this is why blue lupen is preferred by the karner blue butterflies. Not only are the lupen a safe place to lay eggs, it’s possible that the karner blues, like some other species of butterflies, absorb the the toxins and become unpalatable to predators.

Butterfly Hill With Pyramid Crossgates Looming Behind

The power lines led to the sad Pyramid Crossgates “Butterfly Hill” over the border of the City in Guilderland. This big sand dune was “set aside” as a “mitigation measure” for the construction of that big pile of crap known as Pyramid Crossgates Mall. From the very beginning the dune has been enclosed in a fence which cut it off from the rest of the ecosystem.

In the early years of the mall (or “maul” as The Wife likes to spell it) the Butterfly Hill was treated seriously by the thugs in suits who run the Pyramid Corporation. Or at least they put on a show of doing so. To everyone’s surprise this isolated piece of Pine Bush thrived, eventually supporting the largest population of karner blues in the region. Partly this was because of the fence, which not only kept out marauding humans but also hungry deer.

It turned out that the hill thrived also because it had a high water table that supported the dry ecosystem on the surface. But in the late 1990s, true to form, the Pyramid suits ripped open one side of the hill with bulldozers so that they could carry out one of their endless expansions of the maul. It is clear to me that these people “set aside” the hill for future “development.” rather than “preservation.”

Inside The Butterfly Hill With
The Open Fence

After the Pyramid bulldozers attacked the sand dune the water table poured out for weeks, so much that the water had to be pumped day and night into the storm drains. Almost immediately the living community on top of the hill began to wither. And the once vigorous population of karner blues crashed the next year, never to recover their former numbers. Still, the community on the hill is important, and some karner blues survive.

We found the gate to the fence open, it looks like it had been open all winter. That’s how we walked into the enclosure, and it was evident that deer were wandering in. We could see stripped baby pitch pine trees all over the hill, gnawed to a stubble by the deer.

After this we had to walk out onto the pedestrian unfriendly roads of suburban Guilderland, dodging cars as we skirted around the maul. Our destination was the last outpost of more or less contiguous Pine Bush, the proposed site of the Marriot Hotel.

Proposed Hotel Site

Much of the site has been graded and covered with gravel, turned into a sort of unused parking lot. But as can be seen in the photo, a good portion is still classic Pine Bush. And while the graded areas may look ugly, there is more to the landscape than immediately meets the eye.

For example, the graded lot has turned out to be the habitat of the worm snake, an interesting reptile that has not been seen in upstate New York for more than twenty years. This snake, which looks like a big earthworm, has given Save the Pine Bush quite a bit of help delaying destruction of this site. No one knows quite what to do about the snakes, so for now everything is on hold.

Bizarre Sign On The Hotel Site

As we could plainly see during our hike, stripping down the Pine Bush, can often be the best thing for the ecosystem. In court documents, the developers and the Jennings administration have claimed that the hotel site is degraded beyond restoration, but this is false. The Commission has proven that parking lots such as this one can be turned back into thriving habitat with minimal management

The Pine Bush is extremely vulnerable to the slow march of invasive species, in this sense the ecosystem is fragile. But when it comes to roaring fire or anything that resembles the destruction caused by fire the Pine Bush is tough and irrepressible. Fire is as much a part of the Pine Bush as pitch pines, karner blues and sand dunes.

The sand is what makes the Pine Bush different from the surrounding habitats, but it is fire that keeps the Pine Bush unique. I have seen burned pitch pine trees that looked as dead as blackened two by fours spring to life in a matter of weeks and become riotously healthy.

After a wildfire, such as the one in April of 1999, the whole Pine Bush explodes with life. The ecosystem is a living phoenix which rises periodically from the ashes in joyous rebirth. It’s an astounding thing to see and contemplate, you just don’t get the same effect with management techniques.

Tromping Through Overgrowth

The Pine Bush Commission has the skills and equipment to eradicate all of the invasive species except one, the worst one of all. We could see this nasty creature’s shelters all around the edges of the beleaguered Pine Bush, habitations with their characteristic asphalt surfaces and short poisoned grass. If only we could drive out these creatures with some innovative management techniques, then maybe the Pine Bush could return to the way it was.

Prior Post * * * Next Post

 

April 18, 2009

Is Albany Med flushing raw sewage and medical waste into the
Hudson River . . . via my neighborhood?

UPDATE – this is a difficult issue that I’ve been trying to wrap my head around for some time. Joe Cunniff has graciously provided some corrections to the article, hopefully everyone will come to understand this up until now invisible but vital issue better. The central point remains intact, some concern is dumping raw sewage into the Beaverkill, and that concern smells a lot like Albany Med.

We’re having a big problem with the capacity of our sewers here in the City of Albany. It’s not a new problem, and it’s not unique to our particular New York urban community. But it should come as no surprise that our current Albany City administration has so far utterly and completely ignored the problem as much as they can. That makes Albany unique.

The latest estimates are that it will cost ONE AND A HALF BILLION dollars to fix the combined sewer overflow problem in the City of Albany alone.

The Stinking Grate In The Ravine In Lincoln Park

So far the fallout from the sewer overflow problem has been easy to overlook by the Jennings administration. It wasn’t until this year that Mayor Jerry Jennings admitted publicly that there might possibly be a problem with the drainage systems in Albany. This was at the Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations (CANA) meeting in February.

While talking around some other issue to the assembled crowd of neighborhood activists, The Mayor suddenly tossed into the middle of a sentence “…the sewer overflow problem may cost as much as a hundred million dollars to fix.” As He said this, I noticed a scared look come over His face, and his eyes darted from side to side as He looked for a reaction. Hearing none, the confident mask again slid over His visage and He quickly changed the subject.

I almost laughed out loud. Most of the CANA representatives listening to His Majesty knew perfectly well that the final cost of the overflow crisis may actually exceed TWO BILLION dollars in the City of Albany. But no one bothered to correct or challenge Him. We all gave up trying to educate The Mayor at public meetings a long time ago, let Him figure it out on His own.

What would be even funnier if it wasn’t such a potential disaster, is that the Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDRPC) has been working on a plan to solve the sewer overflow crisis. Of all the local municipalities, only the City of Albany has refused to cooperate with creating both a plan and a pool of cash to deal with the problem. The Jennings administration consistently refuses to send a representative to the CDRPC meetings.

Elberon Street, Looking Down The Old Course Of The Beaverkill Toward Washington Park

The combined sewer overflow crisis is already causing problems all over the City of Albany, and guaranteed to cause a lot more before the problem is fixed. Some of these problems are obvious, such as sewers backing up into basements in the Pine Hills neighborhood, or the spectacular geysers that shot out of manholes on South Pearl Street last summer. But some much more ominous problems are not so noticeable, such as the poisoning of the underground river in my neighborhood.

An underground river called the Beaverkill runs eastward through downtown Albany and empties into the Hudson River. Around 1840 the once pristine aboveground river had become an open sewer, so in the interest of public health the authorities confined the river to a big underground pipe. In the 20th Century the Beaverkill became part of the City’s storm drain system, collecting rain and snow melt from our streets.

The Beaverkill comes from the west down the middle of Elberon Street. Years ago I stuck my head into a manhole on Elberon, the pipe was easily five feet in diameter and the water rushed by in a loud and scary torrent. From Elberon the river enters Washington Park and emerges as Washington Park Lake.

The lake in Washington Park drains into another big pipe which crosses Madison Avenue and runs underneath the lower part of New Scotland Avenue. At the base of the hill, upon which sits the ever expanding Albany Medical Center complex, the Beaverkill makes an abrupt left turn and runs underneath Myrtle Avenue past the Stratton Veteran’s Administration hospital smokestack.

From there the Beaverkill snakes behind Hackett Middle School, and from there crosses Delaware Avenue into Lincoln Park. This is where, down in a ravine across from the elementary school in the park, the Beaverkill can be briefly observed through a grate, rushing loudly like a major waterfall. Sometimes in the spring, on a quiet morning, one can hear the river from up above on the road through the park. I always think of the sound as the ghost of the buried river.

The Beaverkill Rushing Madly Inside The Grate

But holy hell on a horse does that grated opening stink. Like raw sewage, like sulfurous decay, like an army of dead things rising up from underground. It smells like the Rapp Road “landfill.” The horrible odor pours out of the grate, fills the ravine and crawls up onto the roadways to sicken passersby.

Now wait a minute here. Washington Park Lake emits a variety of odors, but I have never heard anyone complain that it smells like raw sewage. But after the river emerges from underground at the grate in Lincoln Park the rushing water is obviously carrying a lot of raw sewage.

We are forced to conclude that somewhere between points A and B, between Washington Park and Lincoln Park, the Beaverkill collects large quantities of raw sewage before it empties untreated into the Hudson River. And there is strong evidence that the Beaverkill is carrying a lot of disease causing pathogens.

Of course we can’t say exactly who is responsible for dumping large quantities of raw sewage into the Beaverkill, but we can deduce the most likely culprit. There is only one enterprise along that route that has been undergoing expansion this past decade, adding toilets and bodies to fill them. That would be Albany Medical Center.

You see, my neighbors first started noticing the stink from the grate in Lincoln Park about ten years or so ago. At first the sewage stink would rise out of the ravine only after a big rainfall then go away after a day or two. But as time went on the odor would linger longer and spread farther after the rains.

Today the stink is almost constant. During a dry spell the smell becomes less but it never quite goes away, not anymore. This increase of deathly odors in Lincoln Park coincides directly with the ongoing expansion of Albany Med. The more they build up there, the more we smell their shit down here in the South End.

Where The Beaverkill Turns Left From New Scotland To Myrtle Avenue. The Albany Med Complex Can Be Seen Above And Behind This Intersection

Albany Med has always been a bad neighbor, imposing its will upon surrounding neighborhoods, generating unnecessary noise, operating an illegal burn plant and pointedly refusing to cooperate with CDTA to provide and encourage public transit. Of course the hospital administrators don’t give a rat’s rear end about the sewage generated by their endless expansion projects. Who’s going to bother them about it, Jerry Jennings?

We could easily find out if Albany Med is responsible by dumping blue dye down their toilets and seeing if it comes out in the Hudson River. But I would be willing to make a small wager (I do not gamble) that the Albany Med administrators will desperately fight any attempt to determine if they are responsible for dumping raw sewage. After all, they are a profit making enterprise, taking responsibility for dumping medical waste does not enhance their “bottom line.”

Wait, it’s going to get worse. The next year or so the amount of sewage pouring through the Beaverkill is only going to increase in volume. You see, Albany Med is behind the “revitalization” of the part of the Park South neighborhood at the corner of New Scotland Avenue and Morris street. Basically, a lot of old two and three story houses are currently being torn down and replaced with massive multistory office buildings.

New Scotland Avenue Below Myrtle. Note The New Five Story Building And The Houses Slated For Demolition

Of course these big new office buildings will connect every single one of their new toilets to the nearest working sewer line. Perhaps they will all connect directly into the Beaverkill. If not, then most certainly they will connect to the undersized sewer line that is spilling contents into the Beaverkill.

I have yet to hear anyone suggest that the Albany Med expansion should include increased sewer capacity. Indeed, it has become clear that the Beaverkill does not exist as far as the regional planners at CDRPC are concerned. This major drainage route does not even appear on their most detailed maps. This can only be deliberate, otherwise how can the CDRPC planners ignore the Beaverkill?

This brings us to the other problem besides odor. How much of that raw Albany Med sewage is medical waste? Exactly what communicable diseases are spilling through Lincoln Park and entering the Hudson River?

One of the major things that distinguishes the good old USA from third or second world countries is our excellent sewage treatment and disposal system. Because of our excellent system coupled with strong environmental laws, dysentery type diseases such as cholera and typhus are almost unknown in this country.

South Pearl Street In Albany, 1913

The last waterborne outbreak of disease in Albany was the Typhus Epidemic of 1913, less than a hundred years ago. Caused by filthy Hudson River water backing up into the City’s water distribution system during a massive springtime flood, the epidemic raged up out of the South End and struck at the City and State legislators and their families perched uphill above the flood waters.

The politicians resolved to protect themselves from a repeat of the typhus epidemic, an extremely unpleasant disease. The state leaders created Great Lake Sacandaga to control the water level of the Hudson, and the City politicians began to build the inland reservoir system that provides fresh drinking water, far from the Hudson. Both of these water systems, much abused and taken for granted, are in good working order today.

But now we appear to be going back to square one. Check out these two charts which I pulled with great difficulty from the nearly unavigable CDRPC site:

Click on the image to see both charts at full size

The two charts show e. coli and fecal coliform in the Hudson River at various test sites along our part of the Hudson. That red line is the amount of crap and disease that New York State allows in the water. You can bet that the state standard is not very strict, they allow more filth than we really want in our river.

Notice that the worst crap and disease laden spot is the Port of Albany… which is just a little ways downstream from the enormous pipe that comes out of the parking lot of the U-Haul building. This is the terminus of the Beaverkill.

In the photo below, you can see that I’ve cajoled The Wife into paddling her canoe up to the mouth of the Beaverkill. She is complaining bitterly about the odor, and is telling me to hurry up and snap the picture so she can get away from the stink. How that woman suffers for me.

Where The Beaverkill Meets The Hudson

So in conclusion, there is strong evidence that Albany Medical Center is pouring infectious diseases into the waters of the Hudson along the South End. But first, they are stinking up my neighborhood and possibly exposing my neighbors to infectious disease. Why should they care about those of us who live in the South End? Why should Jerry Jennings?

Like most municipalities in New York, there are two drainage systems in the City of Albany. One is the sewers, that friendly underground series of tubes that quietly carry away your business after you flush your toilet. This dirty water goes to one of several sewage treatment plants where the water is cleaned quite well and then sent into the Hudson.

The other drainage system is the storm drains, the grates on the streets that collect runoff from rain and snow. This water, though not exactly clean, does not carry the kind of bacteria that likes to breed in raw sewage, such as cholera and typhus. Because there is no infectious medical hazard the water is generally dumped directly into the river.

The two systems are separate, as they should be, except at the overflow points. These overflow points are built into the system so that if, say, there is a massive rainstorm that is too much for the storm drains, the clean rainwater running underground will slop over a concrete wall into the dirty sewer water system. One could say that the overflow points act as safety valves for the storm drains during torrential storms.

Fine, as long as the clean water occasionally mixes with the dirty water, no big deal. That’s what it’s supposed to do. But what’s happening is that dirty sewer water is regularly and consistently slopping over into the storm drain clean water conduits. The storm drains, in effect, have become open sewers. And some of these open sewers stink like hell.

Obviously, this problem did not happen overnight, it took a lot of neglect and irresponsible behavior by a succession of City administrations. Basically, as the City of Albany has sprawled westward over the past sixty years or so, there has been no requirement for planners or developers to modify the two drainage systems. There was no effort to build new drainage for the new houses, roads and later on, endless parking lots extending out into the suburbs.

Washington Park Lake: Clean Water

Instead, starting in the 1940s, the new sewers and storm drains were plugged directly into the existing drainage system in downtown Albany. This was when most of the Pine Hills neighborhood was built on pristine Pine Bush land, thus the name. And because Pine Hills was the first of the new developments after World War 2, this is where the household sewer lines back up and fill basements.

You see, Pine Hills has the first of the wider gauge higher capacity sewer and storm drain pipes. Everything built to the west of Pine Hills also has wider gauge pipes. Which is great, all those uptown toilets and parking lots need those extra capacity pipes.

Except for one problem. The ancient downtown drainage pipes, which worked just fine before the City sprawled westward, are of a smaller gauge. When there’s a big storm, all that water from uptown (and beyond) runs downhill smack dab into those smaller gauge pipes that start on the eastern edge of Pine Hills. The water has gotta go somewhere, that’s when the homeowners of Pine Hills get basements full of poop.

It was in the late 1990s that the sewer lines in Pine Hills first started to back up. And it was about that time that my neighbors first noticed the stink of Albany Medical Center wafting through Lincoln Park. The problem, like a graveyard full of rotting zombies from a bad movie, began at that time to rear up from under the dirt in various locations around the City.

You know, that spot in Lincoln Park where the Beaverkill emerges is beautiful spot. A hundred years ago, before the Beaverkill was transformed into a storm drain, “The Ravine” was a tourist destination that was the subject of postcards, such as this one from 1907:

The Ravine In Beaver Park, Now Called Lincoln Park

And today it’s a lovely spot:

The Ravine, Photo Taken Last Spring

A wonderful place to have a picnic, except for one problem. Anybody with even a marginal sense of smell who tries to have a meal down here is more likely to throw up than eat. And nobody can stand to spend more than a few minutes admiring the natural rock walls.

I’d sure like to be able to have a picnic down there, to see the ravine once again become a place of pride. But I’m afraid that the odor and the risk of disease is only going to become worse in the next few years. I’m not holding my breath waiting for something to be done… or rather, I am.

 

Thanks to Joe Cunniff of the Pine Hills Neighborhood Association for providing some of the information for this article. And thanks to both Joe and First Ward common council member Dominick Calsolaro for regularly attending the CDRPC meetings on their own time.

 

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March 31, 2009

Congressional representative John Conyers and HR 676 pack the Westminster sanctuary on a Sunday afternoon

Anyone with a lick of sense is painfully aware that health care is one of the most critical problems facing America today. The stupid privatized insurance scheme that is currently in place is steadily dragging the middle class into poverty, and the poor into early graves. All this unnecessary misery created so that a handful of parasitic corporate insurance scammers can get richer than they already are.

On Sunday I walked with The Wife over to Westminster Presbyterian Church over on State Street for a public meeting about Single Payer Health Care. I was feeling a bit under the weather so I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. Well, I certainly learned a few things at the meeting, and I got to chat with one of the most powerful politicians in the country, a guy most people in Albany have barely heard of.

I’m talking about John Conyers of Dearborn, Michigan, the second longest serving member of the House of Representatives. He is the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, a committee which has extraordinary power over a wide variety of federal departments, including federal courts and federal law enforcement. He is also the senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, which this year has finally come unto its own as an influential body.

Representative John Conyers

Most people don’t know any more about Single Payer Health Care than they know about John Conyers, it’s just words. What it means is that we would have one and only one health insurance provider for every American citizen. Since this one provider is a government agency, the behavior of this agency would be ultimately subject to scrutiny by the voters and taxpayers.

This is in sharp contrast to the current scheme, where a pack of hungry corporate insurance companies supposedly, allegedly, compete with each other for the American citizen’s money. In practice, these insurance corporations have formed virtual cartels that take advantage of sick Americans by driving up the cost of all services, from the hospital to the doctor visits to the pharmaceuticals.

In addition, these corporate insurers pointedly refuse to insure all Americans. They say in their own defense that they can’t afford to provide insurance for people who are … sick. They only want to insure people who are healthy, because that way they can keep their corporate “bottom line” healthy by not paying out premiums to those who need them.

It’s a savage, stupid and idiotic method of exploitation one might find in a miserable run down third world country. This privatized insurance scheme is a national boondoggle, a parasitic method of extracting wealth from people who work for a living. It should go without saying that America can no longer afford such boondoggles, we taxpayers can no longer nurture thieves and robbers.

Westminster Presbyterian Shortly Before The Event

Will Single Payer solve the debilitating societal problems caused by privatized health insurance? Mr. Conyers put it this way:

You have to first of all decide that getting healthcare when you need it is a right and not a privilege. So when people talk about “affordable health care,” you’ve just left a hundred million Americans outside the door because they can’t afford anything. What do you do if you don’t have the money to afford affordable health care?

. . . Do we really need to have profit taking in health care? …And now they’re all marketing …everybody’s hustling health care. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we want to put you into a full employment full reaching program, because you need one organization insuring health care, a single payer. One, only one.

March 10, 2009

Finally! But now we have a split race as two viable and competent
candidates take on the current mayor of Albany . . . and each other

For the past four months the potential candidates for mayor have been talking and maneuvering through the political circles in the City, bouncing off each other like bumper cars. And there have been secret meetings, along with secret meetings that were not so secret. But until this month no one has made a formal announcement. And as of this writing, the incumbent has not formally announced His intentions.

Last Tuesday I bopped on down to the Crowne Plaza, the hotel on State Street with no proper front door, to hear Corey Ellis, who was born and raised in Albany and is a former South End resident, become the first candidate to publicly announce that he intends to ask the voters to elect him Mayor of Albany this coming September.

Corey Ellis Announces His Run For Mayor Of Albany

It was a well managed event with a fair sized enthusiastic crowd and the media in full attendance. The mood on the podium, though, was mostly serious, an attitude which reflects that of the recent Obama presidential campaign, with which Mr. Ellis is closely connected. The clear message from the candidate and his supporters on stage was that the City of Albany is in very serious trouble and we need someone serious to put things right.

First ward Common Council member Dominick Calsolaro gave an enthusiastic endorsement speech, in which he said that Mr. Ellis is the one member of the council “whose commitment to good government matches my own.” That would be a lot of commitment, and a powerful endorsement.

Dominick Calsolaro Endorses Corey Ellis

Sad to say, as I reported on February 28, Dominick has declined to take City Hall for himself. He has wide name recognition in the City and a record to be proud of over his two terms as the progressive leader the of Common Council. In a fair contest Dominick would have kicked Jerry’s Butt. And Jerry knows it.

Mr. Ellis’ announcement speech was solid, a well considered short and to the point statement why the current administration has got to go, and why he is qualified to do a much better job. Here are some excerpts, first Mr. Ellis’ assessment of Jerry Jennings:

Too many opportunities have been squandered, even during a time of great economic expansion… For the past 16 years, we have seen a dramatic loss in our population and ever-increasing property taxes. We have seen entire neighborhoods given up on, given over to crime and demolition by neglect.

And in response to these problems, this administration has grown inward, more secretive, less transparent.

Instead of working proactively to develop new sources of revenue and create new opportunities for our residents, we’ve remained dependent on shrinking state aid and payments and from a landfill that’s almost full.

What is the plan? Where is the vision? Getting more handouts from the State? Building a convention center? Shall we re-capitalize Albany yet again?

For too long, the people have been shut out of the process. You have not been given access to information. You have been treated as though you can’t make a contribution.

That’s no way to lead this city.

February 28, 2009

Against all odds, the South End is
being rebuilt from the inside out

Oh boy, am I happy with what I saw this last Thusday. Sure, I was delighted by the recent opening of Eagle Court Apartments on Morton Avenue down the hill from my house. That renovation project transformed a notorious slum building that blighted our neighborhood into a prize residence. Great, but Eagle Court was just the beginning.

This past February 26 was the ribbon cutting for a beautiful, beautiful collection of homes that used to be a virtual hole in the ground. I have to say that the design, the feel, the materials used in the Jared Holt project are overall better than Eagle Court, which in itself was built well enough. There was plenty of talk at the event about Jared Holt serving as a template for further building projects not merely in the South End, but all across the City of Albany.

Steve Longo – His Moment Of Triumph

This ribbon cutting was the result of some twelve years of work by Albany Housing Authority (AHA) director Steve Longo and his staff. Mr. Longo was grinning happily all morning, as well he should have at this moment of triumph. All of us were present because of Mr. Longo’s successful hard work and dogged persistence in the face of what had looked like impossible odds.

Having closely watched this project unfold since the late 1990s, I can testify to that. Our elected officials had written off the surrounding neighborhood as not worth saving. Actually, by the late 1990s the (current) City administration had adopted a policy of witholding vital services such as police or infrastructure maintenance from all of the downtown neighborhoods. South End residents responded to this abuse by reluctantly leaving their community.

Somehow, Mr. Longo navigated the politics, and somehow he figured out where all the money needed to carry out the project was hiding. More impressively, he discovered that decent affordable housing was what the community desperately wanted and needed more than anything else. And he is perhaps the first City official to have understood that the economic health of the entire City depends upon the economic health of our downtown communities.

At one time this mostly empty lot between Third and Fourth Avenues was the heart of the South End, the location of one of Albany’s oldest and longest running businesses, the Jared Holt wax factory.

The first Jared Holt factory was located at 48 Hudson Street, one of the oldest buildings in the City. At the beginning of the 20th century the old factory on Hudson became the company headquarters while the manufacturing was moved to the South End. By the 1960s the South End plant was abandoned, the company sold and the Jared Holt waxes, most of which were used for finishing wood, eventually disappeared.

The factory building sat for decades undergoing demolition by neglect. Ten years ago in March of 1999 the building was wrecked by the City as part of a wave of demolitions throughout the South End that generated accusations that City officials were personally profiting from the slaughter. i don’t recall hearing more than a few peeps from preservationists about wrecking the Jared Holt factory, but I seem to recall that the neighbors at that point were relieved that it was gone.

The New Streetscape From Up Clinton Street

The demolition of the factory building may not have left a literal hole in the ground, but the empty block sure gave the impression of a sucking void. Indeed, it seemed to me that that the entire neighborhood was oriented around the factory but had lost it’s center. And in the last ten years, as nearby neighbors know all too well, the surrounding neighborhood fell deeper into ruin.

The impressive thing is that the project repairs the streetscape, which is no small thing. Suburbanites are genuinely puzzled by the concept of streetscape, living as they do surrounded by endless parking lots. Streetscape is all about orientation, a secure feeling down in your gut that you know exactly where you are. Suburbanites are by nature disoriented, that’s why they choose to occupy big unsustainable nowheres.

Those of us who live in the City readily understand that our quality of life is directly tied to the number of gaps between the houses in our immediate neighborhoods. Each demolition reduces that secure feeling and brings the neighborhood closer to becoming a parking lot. When the buildings being destroyed have served faithfully for 150 years or more, their loss to the neighbors is more than unsettling, it can be positively traumatic.

107 Broad Street

The most interesting of the new Jared Holt buildings is 107 Broad Street, which almost looks like an old country church. I loved the layout of the living space inside the tower portion of the building, I seriously felt like I wanted to move in right then and there. There seemed to be general agreement that this building ought to be reproduced elsewhere, i sure hope it doesn’t remain unique.

The materials, such as the carpets and windows, are of the highest quality. Darren Scott, who is Steve Longo’s long suffering assistant at AHA, told me that this was a conscious decision. The buildings are a showcase, he told me. More importantly, “we want these buildings to last,” he said.

Darren made a special point of telling me that they used real bricks and mortar for the facades, rather than the fake-o glue on brick that has become a standard siding on new construction everywhere. He didn’t have to explain. All of us are hyper aware of the row of highly visible poorly built buildings on South Pearl Street up from Madison, which for decades have sported peeling fake brick which looks horrible.

That row of houses on S. Pearl is a textbook example of stupid urban planning. At the end of the administration of evil old Mayor Erastus Corning, the City demolished a row of well constructed 150+ year old buildings after first allowing the eviction of the tenants, residents and shops. These lost architectural treasures were replaced by stick and cardboard crap that looks and feels like they wouldn’t stand up to a strong wind.

Clinton Street Facade

I did wonder about the gas filled windows that were chosen for the Jared Holt buildings. Yes, they are the highest quality, two panes of thermal glass filled with argon or some such noble gas. These wooden windows do look nice and have the lowest heat loss of any commercially available windows.

The problem comes when, say, some kid throws a rock through the window. The windows can’t be repaired at the local hardware store or glass shop, they have to be sent to the manufacturer. Two pieces of thermal glass and a bottle of fancy gas, not to mention labor and handling, is mighty expensive. Is this a good idea, especially in a low income neighborhood?

“We wanted to be historically accurate to fit in with the character of the neighborhood,” Darren told me, “and that precluded storm windows.” Plus, a good portion of the funding that Darren and Mr. Longo painstakingly cobbled together for this project depended on meeting standards of energy efficient construction. Thus the windows solved two problems but create a new one.

But really, that’s the only criticism of the Jared Holt project that I have. Everything else, as far as I can see, is golden.

Before The Speeches

Under the tent Steve Longo, almost giggling with happiness, acted as master of ceremonies for the politicians, starting with Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings. It’s been fascinating listening to The Mayor’s patter since the beginning of the year, which is now full of New Urbanist catch phrases. My absolutely favorite phrase from his speech that day was “the blight of suburbanization.” Yup, he really said that.

County Executive Mike Breslin made what I thought was the most remarkable speech of all the politicians present. Albany County, he told us, provides a variety of vital family support services, but in order for them to be effective families, especially children, “need a safe and secure place to come home to.” Thus the county works as best it can to cooperate with initiatives such as Jared Holt.

2nd ward Common Council member Carolyn McLaughlin, who represents the neighborhood, gave a rousing speech of which I remember not one word. This is not surprising, a week ago she announced that she planned to run for Common Council President, a Citywide post. That is, she plans to run if current president Shawn Morris quits the job to run for mayor, which as of this writing is still up in the air.

Later I asked Ms. McLaughlin why she was using a cane that day, I wondered if an injury that she had sustained years ago was acting up again. An injury, I should add, caused by a collapsing front stoop. She said no, she was recovering from knee replacement surgery and was doing fine.

“I’m sure you realize,” I said to her, “that if you want to win a Citywide race you’re going to have to climb every front stoop in Albany.” “That’s why I’m having the surgery now, so I can heal by spring. That way I can campaign come summer.” Ah.

By the way, that is the reason why First ward Common Council member Dominick Calsolaro is not running for mayor, or at least that’s what he says. Climbing stoops is how you get elected in this town, and Dominick’s aging baby boomer body is not up to the task. Also, he says he doesn’t have the cash to run a Citywide campaign against a well-heeled incumbent.

All that is nonsense. Dominick, paradoxically, is such an effective politician precisely because of his lack of ambition. If he had the “fire in the belly” he would find a way to overcome the lack of cash and deal with those horrible front steps that grind up candidate’s joints. Apparently Carolyn McLaughlin does not lack for ambition the way Dominick does, she is doing what is necessary to attain public office.

Luci McKnight Watched By Jerry Jennings

County legislator Luci McKnight was without question the best dressed of the speechifying officials. Her speech, oddly enough, was about her one contribution to the project… which was undeniably an obstruction. And yeah, she sure upset a lot of people at the time.

This was when the building site was first cleared and ready to go, the final approvals about to come through. But Luci did not trust the analysis of the soil on the site, she wanted more studies. “We’re going to have kids living there,” she told me at the time, “and kids play in the dirt. They’ll be the ones who get hurt if the site is contaminated.”

So Luci used her position to exercise home rule and hold up the project, refusing to release the county owned parcels of land that made up part of the site. Was she justified in doing this? Well, at this early point Republican George Pataki was still pretending to be governor and environmental oversight was at an all-time low in New York State. I think she was right to be suspicious.

Broad Street From A Window

But after sitting in all these meetings I’ve come to understand why all the officials involved with the project were ready to throw her off a rooftop. The process of securing government money is a delicate matter involving securing the building site, submitting plans and getting approvals all in the exact proper order. Any delay can cause the project to lose funding and thus fall apart.

Well, thankfully Luci did not mention in her speech that at this point, with the whole project teetering on the brink, she contacted… me. No, I don’t know much about environmental reports, at least not enough to be useful. But fortunately I have a friend named Dave Camp who had just retired (at age 41!) from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC.) He had spent the last 16 years writing and analyzing such reports, an expert with no agenda.

After over two hours on the phone reading Dave the environmental report and answering his questions, he concluded that the soil remediation being done on the site was “overkill, appropriate for a residential project. If they do everything they say they’ll do, removing the soil and digging in ‘hotspots,’ then this should be way more than satisfactory.”

I conveyed this to Luci, in detail, and she left me with a dire warning. “If anyone gets sick, it will be on your head, my friend.” Um, uh…

Based on my say so, Luci let the project go forward. And that, my friends, is my one useful contribution to Jared Holt.

Finally we had the ribbon cutting. Mayor Jennings generously shared his collection of ribbon cutting scissors with a crowd of cutters.

(click on photo for full size)

Starting left in the photo above, we have Mike Breslin looking about as relaxed as he ever gets, Steve Longo grinning, neighborhood resident Rose who would be moving into one of the apartments that day, His Majesty, Carolyn McLaughlin, Luci McKnight, the guy from the bank or Omni or something, and last but not least the guy who hands out money from the State.

Now, for comparison, I present a photo that Luci sent me, taken at almost the exact same moment from head on:

See? It’s all a matter of point of view. One person can look at the South End and see a wrecked landscape that ought to be turned into suburban parking lots. But some of us know better.

The South End has been here for centuries, long before we were born. Our job is to make sure our urban community is still here long after we all return to the dirt. That’s our obligation to the future.

 

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February 17, 2009

The damage Joe Bruno did to our region
is his lasting legacy

Perusing the Sunday newspapers a few weekends ago, I stumbled upon an interesting little detail buried inside an article buried in a back section.  It seems that construction of the the “Van Rensselaer Square Plaza,” a 250,000 square foot corporate retail horror being planted at the intersection of Routes 4 and 43 across the river in Rensselaer County, has been suspended indefinitely.  The article’s description of the site as it sits right now is almost lovely:

 

The plaza at the intersection with Route 43 has been partially built for months, and the only activity there now is the occasional melting of accumulated snow.

 

I went out to look at the site a little over a year ago as the developers were first beginning to destroy the property.  The eight years worth of lawsuits brought by nearby neighbors had finally been defeated a year and a half ago by the New York State Government, our politicians fighting against taxpayers using taxpayer money like they always do.  

After inspecting the site, I couldn’t bear to look at it or even think about it any more. So I was surprised to learn the other day that in March of 2008 the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) had put a stop work order on the construction. It seems that the “plaza” was doing a serious number on nearby storm water drainage, and the DEC wanted it fixed.

The developers, a hit and run outfit from Pennsylvania called BET Investments, didn’t get around to fixing the problems until August of last year.  That’s right about when the US corporate retail sector was beginning to fall apart, a condition which became official the following month.  So today we have a lovely suburban parking lot and no reason for it to be there.

Dirty Joe Bruno

This was supposed to be one of career criminal Joseph Bruno’s final monuments to himself.  The former lord high Republican State Senate majority leader spent eight years and millions of taxpayer dollars not only to beat back the outraged neighbors.  He also spent millions turning once sleepy back road Route 43 into a four to eight lane highway so as to accommodate the hit and run developers.

The apparent economic motivation for Bruno’s “plaza” and for several similar smaller sprawl boxes with parking lots adjacent to this property (also all on hold) was to catch the retail dollars of exurbanites who sprawl around West Sand Lake.  Right now these poor under served exurbanites drive by the site daily in their SUVs on their way to loot the City of Albany.  Right now they often have to drive to the other side of Albany to attend big shopping malls.

All this government investment to make shopping a little bit more convenient for maybe a few hundred exurbanites.  These people currently residing in eastern Rensselaer county chose, of their own free wills, to buy overpriced houses in a remote area, a place devoid of goods, services or public space. 

Personally, I don’t see why these exurban welfare queens are living off of my tax dollars.  I’m sick and tired of it.

Van Rennselaer Square Plaza

For a long time past the underlying assumption among politicians and planners has been that the exurbs, the cutting edge of suburbia, will be gaining population indefinitely.  But there’s one problem with this assumption.  It appears that local exurban expansion is grinding to a halt.

Planning boards of municipalities at the outer edge of the Capital District (with the obvious exception of Malta) are beginning to balk at giving automatic approvals to upscale overpriced residential boxes.  “Luxury homes” and “townhouses” jammed up against dedicated nature preserves and other natural areas.

Around the Capital District we are not seeing the same sort of visible and obvious collapse and abandonment of residential areas that is going on in the outer fringes of places like Atlanta and Las Vegas.  That is because our demographic region did not share in the phony “economic boom” of a few years ago.

Right now we are at the cusp of a major reversal.  Wealth is starting to withdraw from the outer suburbs and is starting to be redirected into City centers.  It is the beginning of a process which will end years from now with downtown Albany a pricey enclave of the wealthy while Colonie and Clifton Park will turn into one vast crumbling pavement.  

Here at the center of our region in downtown Albany we don’t have much phony economy to lose.  We had our collapse imposed upon us decades ago.  Our downtown urban community has been stripped bare of our wealth until all we have left is our infrastructure.  

The economic point needs to be repeated: suburban sprawl is only possible with massive government subsidies and vigorously pursued government sponsorship.  Cut off the constant stream of money and political support from the unsustainable suburbs and they will quickly become desolation.

The "Plaza" A Year Ago January 2008

Joseph Bruno was the government behind the ruination of the corner of Routes 4 and 43. This is what Bruno chose to do with all of his power, destroy his own personal Senate district by turning it into a vast automobile slum.  But his criminal career appears to be catching up with him, he’s been forced to retire.  Joe is no longer the king of sprawl.

Of course there’s Bruno’s other sprawl monument to himself, the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) chip manufacturing plant up in Malta.  Now that some Sheik from Abu Dhabi has been induced to pour some of his spare billions into this scheme it looks like the Luther Forest boondoggle is going to happen, although the plans for the “chip fab campus” have been downsized.  I wonder how many more promises will also be downsized in the coming months.

Apparently the Luther Forest money pit has legs of its own, it doesn’t need Joe Bruno to make sure the cash keeps rolling into politically connected pockets.  Someone worked very hard to rope in this billionaire sheik and keep the project going.  How nice that our “leaders” have found a way to make us dependent upon a middle eastern sheikdom.

Meanwhile, worldwide demand for AMD’s products continues to decline, and their stock continues to slide toward worthlessness.  If the Malta plant gets built, and AMD goes bankrupt or the Abu Dhabi sheik pulls out, then we will have one big abandoned plant and a lot of unemployed people where there weren’t any before.

So this is corporate socialism at work, eh?  New York State bankrupts itself giving money to a dying corporation, while at the same time effectively suppressing local home grown businesses so as to make room for the foreign corporations they imagine will flock to upstate New York and turn it into a paradise.  

Let me make an outlandish radical suggestion.  Instead of New York State giving all of our taxes to sleazy international corporations, why not plow our money back into our own communities?  If upstate has a solid productive economy then corporations will come hat in hand to us instead of the other way around. Or perhaps that idea is too outlandish for our current political leaders.

Too bad for the developers of “Van Rensellaer Plaza” that Joe Bruno couldn’t help them with the storm water runoff problem.  Last year, his control of the State was slipping from his sweaty grip and the federal secret police were reluctantly closing in on him.  If this delay of construction had happened just a year earlier, Bruno could have made a few phone calls and no doubt  doubt have made that DEC stop work order quietly go away.

So maybe the eight years of lawsuits by the neighbors of North Greenbush were worth the trouble.  Perhaps, in this case, the taxpayers have lost the battle against bad government (Joe Bruno) but won the war.  Like the folks at Save the Pine Bush (SPB) are fond of saying about their own often desperate litigation efforts, any delay of sprawl “development” is good.  Time will tell.

Meanwhile back here in the South End of Albany we don’t have any great big politicos like Joe Bruno pumping money into our community.  On the contrary, about nine or ten years ago Dirty Joe actually went out of his way to prevent a massive federal grant from being awarded for South End housing redevelopment, specifically a HOPE 6 grant from Housing and Urban Development (HUD.)

I’ve mentioned this before, the projects in my neighborhood that Bruno sabotaged are just getting going now.  Thanks a lot Joe, you scuzzball.  Good riddance to nasty rubbish, don’t come back.

Route 43, Dirty Joe’s Highway

When Bruno was compelled to give up his Senate seat last year, the local corporate media wailed and moaned about how he wouldn’t be around any longer to direct cash toward the Capital Region.  I say that Bruno was a political bottleneck that directed public money away from where it was needed to where it would do the most harm.  And it is becoming increasingly evident that Bruno was misdirecting some of that cash into his own pocket.

The corporate media’s slavish devotion to Bruno even after his indictment is puzzling.  The former Senate majority leader did not tolerate even light criticism from the media.  And woe to the media outfit that dared to lean on him.

For example, take Bruno’s lousy relationship with the Hearst Times Union. As the New York Times put it:“Mr. Bruno, who lives in Brunswick, northeast of Albany, has been critical of The Times Union and is known for singling out its reporters during news conferences.”

About a year and a half ago the Hearst editors threatened to create negative copy about Bruno if he didn’t start giving them money.   As Bruno spokesperson John E. McArdle put it, the Times Union made “an attempt to shake down the Senate and the senator and would be an attempt to extort both public and private money.”   

Or, as former Times Union Publisher Timothy O. White described such activities by his corporation in a courtroom deposition many years ago, “horsetrading.”  Bruno even formally requested that Albany County District Attorney David Soares investigate the Times Union.  

You’d think that after all this public abuse the Times Union editors would develop a generally negative attitude toward Bruno, but you would be mistaken.  Almost immediately after this exchange the Times Union became Joe Bruno’s leading defender.  Indeed, our Hearst Rag succeeded in aggressively turning a negative report about Bruno’s criminal activities into an attack routine against his political opponents.

Now, how can that be?  The short answer is that the Hearst Corporation has a strict policy of supporting Re-pubs against Democrats, a policy which the local editors can not ignore. Even with the recent sea change at the federal level this is still true.  

Bruno Reaches For Eliot Spitzer

At the time of the attempted shakedown by the Times Union, Bruno was publicly butting heads with then New York State governor Eliot Spitzer, a political battle that turned out to be a sideshow of a bigger more sinister political operation.

About six months later, as we all know, the Bush White House publicly smeared Spitzer by publicizing information about his private life they had discovered using the so-called “Patriot” Act.  (“Gee, Spitzer must be a terrorist.”) Apparently the ex-governor had gathered enough evidence to hold the Bush White House criminally culpable for the then looming sub prime mortgage crisis.  Clearly, the Republicans had to act.

In a well coordinated operation, the FBI, the Bush Justice Department and the New York Times destroyed Eliot Spitzer almost overnight.  We all remember the story.  What horrified me, and continues to horrify me about the whole thing was the sheep-like reaction of the public and our ready willingness to be so easily manipulated.

No one can say for sure, but it may be that both Bruno and some of the top executives at the Hearst Corporation were given advance warning about the imminent take down of Eliot Spitzer, right after the Times Union tried to shake down Bruno.  How else to explain the Times Union’s enthusiastic support of Bruno after that embarrassing clash?

Well, the Times Union editors obeyed their corporate masters and did not try to punish Bruno.  At all.  And the editors obediently relentlessly attacked Eliot Spitzer with a string of manufactured fleeting “scandals” right up until the white House made its move.  It looks to me like the Times Union was assigned the task of softening up Spitzer’s reputation in anticipation of the big smear.

I couldn’t help it.  I had to buy a copy of this pathetic magazine Success, which likes to put on its cover retirees who are starting second careers.  Since the magazine is “old media” they have a more than six month lag between writing their stories and actual publication.  Thus we have Dirty Joe featured on the cover of the issue that hit the newsstands a few days after he was indicted.

I present this cover as a public service, so that all of humankind may gaze upon Joe Bruno’s face, the very picture of success.

 

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January 30, 2009

A guest editorial from Steve Downs, an appeal to our new President Obama to right the wrongs of the previous administration and defend the Bill of Rights

Note: The original petition is complete and has been sent.
Sign similar petitions here.

It’s funny how life works out sometimes. Attorney Steve Downs has done many positive things during his adult life, things that have helped make our world and our community a better place to live. And now that he’s retired from the State he is busier than ever.

For the latter part of his State career Steve headed a panel that reprimanded and removed bad judges from the bench. Like the removal of Albany City Court judge Cheryl Coleman, much to everyone’s relief. Or the two serious reprimands delivered to the startlingly corrupt Supreme Court justice Joseph Teresi, who is too politically protected to be removed. But Teresi could not ignore the message.

You know what? If I ever purposely commit a heinous crime, I’ll hire Coleman to defend me in court. She’s a vigorous defense lawyer who gets depraved killers sprung on vague technicalities. But if I’m ever falsely or unjustly arrested, Steve Downs will be the first name that will come to my mind.

Protesters At The FBI Fortress On McCarty Avenue, March 2004

Among Steve’s current retirement projects are several Save the Pine Bush (SPB) court cases, which he has pursued enthusiastically. Most people are not aware of how desperate are these SPB cases, fought to protect our local environment, but directly applicable to the entire State and beyond. Steve has brought new insight to SPB’s lawsuits, and helped open up new possibilities for protection of the Pine Bush ecosystem.

Most people don’t know any of that. Steve can save 30 kindergartners from a burning school bus, find a cheap and simple cure for cancer, put on a spandex super hero suit and bring the Bush administration to justice. No matter what he does, it will pale in comparison to his greatest accomplishment.

Now and forever, Steve Downs will always be known as THE GUY WHO REFUSED TO TAKE OFF HIS T-SHIRT AT PYRAMID CROSSGATES MALL.

For the ten people or so on the other side of the world who don’t recall, in January of 2003 Steve and his son were strolling among the shoplifters and gangbangers who roam the corridors of Pyramid Crossgates Mall. Without any warning, two security guards, following explicit orders from the Pyramid executives, confronted and essentially assaulted Steve in a public area of the mall.

The Pyramid guards told Steve to take off his “offensive” t-shirt or leave the mall. The shirt read “Give Peace A Chance.” In a split second decision, he did the right thing and refused. The silly-ass Guilderland Police were called in and Steve was promptly arrested and put in handcuffs.

Steve Downs And His Famous T-Shirt

It’s hard to remember today, but back in 2003 the bland phrase “Give Peace A Chance” was massively politically incorrect. We were in the flaccid grip of America’s elite Neocon enemies, who were at that time attempting to quickly overthrow the United States Constitution. Big corporations and their media, local, state and federal cops, Republicans and their Democrats, all were working together to impose corporate fascism on our nation.

All Steve did was say no, sort of like Rosa Parks did. But like Rosa Parks Steve was not alone, there were well-organized people who were waiting for someone like him to come along. Understand that these things almost never happen by accident. Rosa Parks had the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Steve had the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) to publicize the famous political assaults against them.

For the past six years I’ve mentioned Steve’s name to hundreds of people in conversation. Most look blank until I say “He’s the guy who refused to take off his shirt at Crossgates.” Every single person without exception easily remembers the incident. "Oh yeah, that was bad. You know that guy?" The fiasco is etched in the American mind, as well it should be.

Steve is a modest guy, not someone who looks for attention. I can easily imagine him wincing at being compared to Rosa Parks. Well, too bad Steve. What you did was very, very important, a story that needs to be told and retold.

Pyramid executives, facing approbation from the entire world (thanks to the then new internet) shamefacedly dropped their charges against Steve. Several local politicians, most notably assemblyman Jack McEneny, announced that they would introduce legislation to deal with abuse of public space inside malls, but of course they did nothing. And the only person to suffer was the security guard who obediently had Steve arrested. He was fired from his job.

Oh, and the politically incorrect t-shirt is now being carefully preserved by the New York State Museum.

Kathy Manley Reading A Banned Book

Okay, Steve Downs is not supposed to be the main subject of this post. One of Steve’s retirement projects is the false arrest and imprisonment of former Albany Imam Yassin Aref and of pizza shop owner Mohammed Hossain. Along with fellow attorney Kathy Manley, Steve has worked hard on their trial and appeal. And both are leading members of the support group for the two Muslim men in prison and for their families who are still here in Albany.

Time out for a clarification. Yassin Aref did NOT see or even hear about the FBI’s famous half-dismantled rocket launcher before his false arrest. Nor did he ever hear a single word about plots against the Pakistani ambassador or anything else like that. Anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant or a liar.

Mr. Hossain briefly saw the device across a room among a jumble of crap presented by a criminal con artist named Malik who had spent the last four months setting him up for the FBI. Not that seeing someone else hold up a rocket launcher is a crime. Hell, in some states you can legally purchase and possess rocket launchers. Unless of course you are not morally fit to own such a weapon. But I don’t recall ever hearing that watching someone else hold up such a weapon is a "terroristic" act.

You see, other than the silly 17 second video of the scam artist Malik pulling out the partial rocket launcher for Mr. Hossain, there was no evidence to convict these men. Nothing.

Since this quick showing of an unfamiliar weapon was the only evidence, that makes Mr. Hossain the “terrorist” and not Mr. Aref. Both were given equal sentences of 15 years, but were sent to vastly different prisons. So… why is Mr. Hossain the “terrorist,” the only one of the two who actually saw the weapon, confined to a medium security prison in New Jersey, and Mr. Aref who saw nothing illegal is in an extraordinary super high security ethnically segregated former death row in Indiana?

Obviously, “terrorism” is not the reason for their unconstitutional imprisonment. The degree of punishment doled out to each of the men reveals convincingly that this entire Bush administration legal farce is pure political harassment. Nothing more.

We are definitely not safer because of this unamerican injustice. We are all much less secure, and all of us should be very alarmed.

Albany Supporters Of Aref And Hossain Outside The Federal Courthouse In NY City, March 2008

So, you might ask, if there was no evidence, why did Steve Downs and Kathy Manley and all the other lawyers who volunteered their time, why did they lose both the trial and the appeal? Are they lousy lawyers?

That brings us to the heart of the matter. The only way to convict these men was by introducing secret evidence that neither the jury or the defense lawyers were allowed to see. Secret evidence. Take our word for it. You can trust the Bush administration to tell the truth.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which is a department of the White House in Washington DC, and a Bush appointed vicious clown of a federal prosecutor named Glen Suddaby, used this case to undermine a basic principle of law that goes back essentially unchanged to medieval England. The principle is this: secret evidence is no evidence. If you can’t present your evidence in a public courtroom, then you cannot charge or convict.

The legal term for this principle is habeas corpus. The US Constitution is perfectly clear about this, only the most terroristic America haters would dispute habeas corpus. But unfortunately, terroristic America haters like Glen Suddaby, who is now a federal judge, are deeply imbedded in our deeply dysfunctional federal justice system. And the FBI, which derives all of it’s power and legitimacy from the person of the President, has demonstrated a hatred of and ready willingness to overthrow the US Constitution.

How can a lawyer fight secret evidence? At least three times during the trial, the idiot judge told the jury "There were good and valid reasons for the FBI to target Yassin Aref." This ranks among the most utterly stupid and blatantly anti-american comments ever delivered by a sitting federal judge during a trial.

What about the jury? I asked Steve several times about the carefully selected jury, why were they so foolish? I mean, if I was on that jury (no way) it might have hung 11 to 1, but there wouldn’t have been any convictions without evidence. Not that day. What was their problem, why did these spineless wimps on the jury allow themselves to be manipulated by America’s enemies in the courtroom?

At first Steve was annoyed with my question, but eventually he realized that it was a serious inquiry. He finally explained, “The jury could see that there was no evidence of ‘terrorism,’ but at the end of the day they said to themselves, ‘But what if they really are terrorists? Better safe than sorry.’ You have to understand the mood of the times, how badly people were frightened by nine eleven.”

Funny, I was not terribly upset the day that nine eleven was happening, I’d been expecting something like that to happen for some time. I was actually relieved that it wasn’t worse, a “nuke in a suitcase” as a friend of mine had been talking about. But I became bug eyed terrified by the reaction to nine eleven, the pointless wars, the censorship, the nullification of the Bill of Rights, and most of all the public paralysis as our nation was being beaten to death by our "leaders."

Kathy Manley, Steve Downs, Daily Gazette Columnist Carl Strock, Albany Mosque President Shamshad Ahmad
Promoting Yassin Aref’s Extraordinary Autobiography at the Spencertown Festival of Books

Fine, but who cares about the rights of a couple of foreign immigrants? Well, once the political elites have effectively eliminated habeas corpus from the Constitution they can use secret evidence against YOU.

Imagine this scene. Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings finds out that not only did you not vote for His preferred candidate in the last election, you’ve been supporting His biggest political enemy Dominick Calsolaro with monetary contributions and volunteer time. Clearly, The Mayor needs to make an example of you as a warning to others.

So Jerry Jennings calls up some of His buddies in the Republican Party, “C’mon, help me out here.” In exchange for unknown favors from Jerry, Federal Judge Glen Suddaby makes arrangements to have YOU charged with terrorism. Next thing you know you are in a courtroom feeling very helpless because you can’t see the evidence against YOU… or even if there is any evidence.

YOU are now in big trouble. If you are lucky, Jerry Jennings will have a little talk with you before the trial ends. “How about you lay off bugging Me, and stop supporting that a–hole Calsolaro. Tell you what. Make Me a promise, and I’ll talk to the judge. Maybe that secret evidence will go away.”

Unthinkable? Maybe five years ago, but not any more. The Aref/Hossain mistrial makes this scenario all too possible.

The Media At The Book Announcement. At The Same Time The News Was Breaking About Eliot Spitzer’s Smearing By The Bush White House. Most Of The Media People Present Chose To Stay

Here’s the problem today. There are no more appeals left for these guys except the US Supreme Court. I hear Kathy Manley is working on that, but even she acknowledges that’s almost hopeless. Everybody knows that the Supreme Court contains five Republican Party hacks who hate the US Constitution, and who put their party before their country.

So the only thing left is to knock on the door of the royal palace and beg the emperor for mercy. That’s what this petition is all about. It’s not asking President Obama for a pardon for Mr. Aref and Mr. Hossain. It is asking the President to review the process that convicted these men, and to take a hard look at the issues and motivations and personalities that created this farce. That’s all.

Right now the President is looking hard at the Justice Department that he inherited from America’s enemies. Scandal has been brewing for years over there, barely suppressed with great effort by Bush and his handlers. We’ll be hearing plenty more about the US Attorney Scandal in the next year.

Steve Downs has written a hell of a header on this petition for the President to read. It’s a very elegant piece of writing. Please read it. And sign, not for these two unlucky immigrants, but for yourself. Yesterday they came for Mr. Aref and Mr. Hossain, tomorrow they will come for YOU.

 

Dear President Obama and Attorney General Holder:

We join with the consensus of people who believe that upon taking office you must move swiftly to close Guantanamo, end warrantless electronic surveillance, and prevent the U.S. from engaging in further torture. These fundamental errors arose because the Justice Department succumbed to post-9/11 hysteria and set aside the Constitution and a long legal tradition of due process and respect for human rights to sanction illegal government policies aimed primarily against Muslims.

Yassin Aref Last Month In Terre Haute

The fundamental errors of the Justice Department did not stop just at international issues such as Guantanamo and torture, but continued into domestic prosecutions of Muslims based on suspicion of possible future criminal activity, rather than on actual crimes committed. Obviously, prosecuting innocent people because of suspicion that they might commit crimes in the future is highly illegal, and violates the Constitution and our legal tradition in the same way as the Bush Administration’s policy on torture or Guantanamo violates it. That these prosecutions were directed at a particular religious group – Muslims – makes the errors all the more offensive to American notions of justice. We ask you to review these prosecutions.

Project SALAM is an internet project, whose web address is listed above, dedicated to recording and documenting the Justice Department’s illegal abuses against the Muslim community after 9/11. On our website we have listed approximately 400 cases that we believe may have resulted in injustice – and the number keeps growing. Rather than provide you with massive amounts of material showing this abuse, we are including with this letter only a sample of newspaper columns from around the country showing how independent newspaper reporters reacted to some of the phony, over-hyped, under-proved prosecutions of Muslims that have occurred around the country. If this material does not convince you that an investigation is necessary, we will be happy to provide more.

The abuses in the prosecution of innocent Muslims have not received the same publicity or scrutiny that Guantanamo or the torture policy have, but they have resulted in equally serious or even greater abuses. We believe that large numbers of innocent or overcharged Muslims are serving long prison terms based on illegal and unconscionable prosecution tactics, where the prosecutors knew or believed that the defendants were not guilty of any crime or were not guilty to the extent prosecuted. If an independent inspector were to examine the files of these cases, he or she would discover memos indicating that the prosecutions were begun not because the prosecutors believed the defendants had committed crimes, but at best because they believed the defendants were suspicious or might commit crimes in the future, and at worst because they believed that a successful prosecution might intimidate the Muslim community, or boost approval of the administration at the polls, or justify the large budgets given to law enforcement after 9/11, or lead to the “cooperation” of the target defendant against other suspicious targets. In many instances, no criminal activity would have existed at all but for the fictional conspiracies or terrorist plots created by the prosecutors themselves.

Often the charges and the proof against the defendants rely on guilt by association and on the demonizing of free speech and lawful activities. Some of the common factors in these prosecutions have been the use of illegal wiretaps, secret evidence withheld from the defense, and entrapment of the defendants using criminals hired as "informants" to suggest activities for which the defendants had no predisposition. Prosecutors have intimidated juries with fear tactics, hyped pretrial press conferences, exaggerated security precautions at trial, mistranslated documents, introduced phony expert testimony, and admitted irrelevant but prejudicial material as “evidence.” The defendants, once convicted, have often been sent to a special Muslim prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, the Communication Management Unit (CMU), where their ability to communicate with the outside world has been severely restricted, and they are given minimal or no services that are normally afforded prisoners in other jails.

Mohammed Hossain At His Arrest

Many of the questionable prosecutions originated in a special terrorism unit in Washington which used warrantless NSA material to illegally generate suspicion and target individuals. Because the NSA material has been deemed secret, it could not be challenged or revealed to the defendants to show it was unreliable or false. (In the same way, the Justice Department classified secret legal memos that led to the establishment of Guantanamo, secret rendition, torture, and other abuses so that none of it could be challenged and shown to be false.)

Where it is known that a certain government agent committed perjury in some cases to obtain convictions, it is an established practice to appoint an independent investigator to examine all of the cases in which the agent testified to determine if the agent committed perjury in the other cases as well. Here it is beyond question that the Bush Administration engaged in highly illegal tactics to punish innocent people, mostly Muslims, in places like Guantanamo, and it is a matter of this country’s honor as well as justice for the victims to examine all of the cases in which such injustices may have occurred, including domestic cases.

All around the country, groups have been formed (by Muslims and non-Muslims) to protest particular cases of injustice, and these groups may send you information about the particular injustices they have observed. But tragically, in many cases the U.S. government’s tactics of scapegoating the Muslim community were successful, and no groups were formed to protest or advocate for wrongly prosecuted Muslims. It is especially for these cases of injustice that we ask that an independent investigation be conducted. Neither appointed defense counsel nor the courts can successfully protect innocent people when the government covers up its illegal acts by secrecy. Only a reformed Justice Department, which conducts an investigation of these cases by an independent counsel, can clean the stain of injustice from its record of abuse against the Muslim community in America.

You may contact us at any of the addresses below.
Yours very truly,

Stephen Downs Esq., lawyer, 26 Dinmore Road, Selkirk NY. 12158; (518) 767-0102; swdowns68@aol.com

Note: The original petition is complete and has been sent.
Sign similar petitions here.

If you are Interested in a copy Of Yassin Aref’s autobiography "Son Of Mountains, My Life As A Kurd And A Terrorist" there are still some copies available here.

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January 25, 2009

The Day Before The Inauguration

More people than ever, but hardly any politicians make the
annual short march across Lincoln Park to the King Statue

The other day a friend said to me, “I never hear about these Martin Luther King events in your neighborhood, at the Rockefeller Plaza, or afterwards at one of the schools. I don’t see them advertised anywhere. How come?”

Well, I could have lectured my friend about how the local corporate media makes a special point of not informing the public about upcoming events. But I didn’t this time. I can assure you that my friends have heard more than enough of this stuff from me.

Word of the M.L King events does get out every year, through churches, unions and governmental workplaces. All of the local and state politicians are somehow magically aware of the events. As usual, I saw no public announcements ahead of time, not even an email. Despite this information suppression, people like me do show up.

Waiting With The Parking Guy

Every year, the ceremonies start in the dismal auditorium under The Egg, where a sparse and somewhat sullen crowd sits in the half light and listens to a string of elected and appointed officials give a series of inane bordering on idiotic speeches. Meanwhile, unnecessary State Troopers get in everybody’s way and eye the audience suspiciously.

Eventually the officials run out of self-congratulatory platitudes and the vaguely irritated audience drifts out onto the concourse under the plaza. Thus the first part of the annual march is a disorganized drift across the nice warm concourse to stop at the doors opposite the State Museum. Then, after forming up, the crowd plunges into the cold outdoors for the grueling quarter mile downhill stroll.

I did not descend into the plaza for this ritual abuse, I learned my lesson last year. Although it was seasonably cold this year, I preferred to stand in Lincoln Park on a snow bank under the sunshine and wait. I’d rather freeze to death than listen to those speeches again. (Fortunately, I was wearing my thermal underwear.)

Here Come The Marchers

As usual, there was a genuine Albany cop posted at the entrance to the park at Morton Avenue, ready to block off the street with saw horses. But this year Parking Enforcement personnel were stationed at the intersections along the parade route. I suppose that saves the taxpayers lots of money on salaries since real cops get pretty expensive, especially on holidays.

The parking guy I chatted with who was stationed across from the entrance to the Lincoln Park Pool told me he wasn’t getting holiday pay, but he was happy to get the extra hours. He also admitted to me that he didn’t have the slightest idea what he supposed to be doing other than standing where he was. I told him he was doing a great job of keeping back the crowds and the cars.

One Of The Honor Guards…
Are Those DEC Patches On Their Shoulders?

One car did pull up and stop, a middle aged guy who took his dog down into the bowl of the park. Five minutes later I watched the dog run with effortless joy up the steep sides of the bowl, straight across the road and practically fly to the top of the grassy hill by the Sunshine School. I could see the ecstatic pooch circling a tree and leaping repeatedly with total abandon straight up into the air.

A few minutes later the guy came huffing up to the road. “Your dog went that way,” I told him, “and he looked very happy.” “His owner is not,” was the reply as he passed by and trudged up the hill.

That’s probably the only regret I have about living in an urban environment. I don’t want to own a dog if I have to confine it all the time like a bird in a cage. A dog needs to run as fast as it can over the hills, glowing with joy and excitement. It needs to do this every day of its life. Can’t let a dog do that in the City anymore, or in the suburbs either.

The Controlling Element Brings Up The Rear

After this we watched the Parking Enforcement Supervisor’s SUV pull up to the corner at the north end of the park, roof lights flashing angrily. It seems that the Parking Enforcement guy guarding the intersection up there had placed his saw horses carefully across Park Avenue, which was the parade route. The Supervisor, a much younger guy, stomped out of his vehicle and moved the horses himself to the proper position.

After these crises the procession finally appeared, a good healthy crowd. First came the cops in two cars, then the cops on horses. Behind them was the police honor guard with flags. And behind them were supposed to be a crowd of politicians… but where were they?

Quite a few of our elected officials were already in Washington DC for the inauguration of Barack Obama as president, which was to happen the very next day. They were joining the million and a half relieved and joyful Americans on the National Mall celebrating the return of ethics and competency to our federal government.

But where were the rest of the local politicians? Was it too cold for those shirkers?

For several years we even had former governor George Pataki march out of the plaza to our statue, the first time in 1995 after he first got elected. Pataki had just finished running for office on a “hate Albany” platform, a tactic which seems to have played well in the more economically depressed parts of upstate New York. Partly for this reason the Republican governor was already at this time deeply hated by most of the taxpayers who lived in the City of Albany, deservedly.

Here’s a story that made it into the corporate media. At the plaza doors Pataki joined the gaggle of politicians behind the honor guard. But then, future mayoral candidate Alice Green walked up to Pataki and told him that he couldn’t stand near the front, he had to go to the back of the crowd. Being an easily manipulated spineless wimp, Pataki obediently trailed the procession all the way to the statue.

I’ve always admired Ms. Green for this gesture which revealed so much about the former governor at the start of his first term, and for delivering such a great zinger. Too bad Ms. Green and her husband are such active opponents of Pine Bush preservation. For that reason she will never receive my political support.

Mayor Jennings Reviews The Parade

Pataki’s successor Eliot Spitzer had exactly two chances to march out of the plaza doors to my neighborhood, but he blew it. This legal expert and top prosecutor seemed to think that the Cheney/Bush administration would not use the so-called “Patriot” Act to destroy political opponents like him by fishing through his bank records. Did Spitzer, like most Americans, imagine that this “terrorism” statute would not or could not be used against him?

I can understand how the average American does not realize how close we are to totalitarianism. But when a central figure like Spitzer demonstrates that he doesn’t have a clue how statutes like the “Patriot” Act are quietly destroying our country, then we are all in deep trouble.

Police Chief James Tuffey

Early last year Spitzer was about to make a one person last ditch effort to stop the impending sub-prime mortgage crisis by filing suit against the now thankfully defunct Republican administration in DC. Unfortunately for him, the electorate in New York State is easily manipulated by the corporate media, and Spitzer lost power instantly because of his personal bedroom habits.

Perhaps the former governor should have done things like march out of the plaza to the King statue, perhaps he would have made some friends who would have leapt to his defense. That is, some friends who would have leapt to the defense of the Bill of Rights. The hell with Spitzer. Our precious rights need friends a lot more than he does.

Eliot Spitzer ought to be thankful that the Republicans stopped at destroying his political career. He could very well have suffered the fate of Karl Rove’s computer expert Michael Connell, who was about to reveal the details about how the 2004 presidential election was stolen when he met with an untimely accident. Funny how this experienced and expert pilot forgot to put gas in the tank of his plane.

This year I hoped to see our new Governor David Paterson marching down Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard (S. Swan Street) but I was disappointed. You never know, Mr. Paterson, this may have been your only chance. Just ask Eliot.

Unless I’m mistaken, there were exactly three elected officials marching this year. I saw county legislator Wanda Willingham and long time assembly member Jack McEneny. This is, after all, McEneny’s district. And of course, the master of ceremonies himself who shows up every year, Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings. Yes, this year The Mayor marched across Lincoln Park.

Behind the politicians came… the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation? With a banner, no less. I strongly suspect that there’s some sort of rotating obligation among the State agencies to participate in the M.L. King event. This year it was the DEC’s turn. Or am I wrong about that?

Behind the DEC came the military honor guard, with flags of course. This much of the procession was like a traditional parade, with the police, the government, the bureaucracy and the military in formation on display. Indeed, all of the oppressive controlling elements that bear down on our society were formally represented.

All but one controlling element, that is. So far, M.L. King day has been free of advertising and product endorsements, thus the corporations did not represent themselves in this march. Besides, corporations are decidedly unpatriotic, and they definitely don’t care about the well-being of communities like ours which they exploit.

Of course, the corporations were present in the form of the corporate media, but they did not participate in the event. They were present merely to fill up their air time with content. To put it another way, they were here in our park to grab something that they could sell.

Ah, but the short M.L. King march is a modern democratic parade. In traditional old fashioned parades you have to qualify in order to participate, that is, you have to be a member in good standing of either the oppressive ruling elements or of a respectable civic organization. If you don’t qualify, then you have to stand along the parade route and watch obediently.

I’d like to see more political holiday parades such as the Fourth of July or Memorial Day become open to us all. We see how traditional parades that take place on these days are sparsely attended and hardly noted. These days belong to all of us, thus all of us should have a right to participate.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, the most purely democratic and well-attended parades are the numerous urban 5k runs for health that we have throughout the year. People unhesitatingly join these parades because these runs have no ideological baggage for the participants. Because the urban runs are empty of meaning, they acquire meaning from their settings. They become celebrations of urban communities, of public space. This is no small thing for those of us who live here.

The Wife started running (marching?) in 5ks for her health. She’s told me that she’s always had a dream or fantasy of just running down the road with total abandon like a young dog sailing over the grass and never coming back. For her, running is an approximate fulfillment of that desire. After all, she never has to stop running in urban races, does she?

Assemblyman Jack McEneny (Center) Bugged By An
Uptown Party Hack. The Guy Wouldn’t
Leave Him Alone The Whole Time

I was the only spectator lining the parade route when the procession appeared, and I jumped right in and joined the marchers. Here we were, the most important and decisive element in our society. Without our support, the oppressive elements marching in front of us would shimmer and fade like thermal mirages on an August pavement.

In two shakes we were at the statue. As usual the speeches and ceremonies and invocations were short. Nothing like an outdoor event in January to suppress the natural tendency of elected officials to blather until their audiences turn glassy eyed.

After all the official ceremonies people milled around in the cold and interacted, reluctant to leave the statue. I suppose if we held ML King day on April 4, the day of the great man’s assassination, we could have a barbecue. But then, if the weather was nice, the politicians wouldn’t shut up. There’s always tradeoffs for these things.

Several cute young kids posed shamelessly while the shameless corporate media filmed them and snapped their pictures over and over. I swear these kids didn’t move for about five minutes, gazing at Dr. King’s image with adoration. They seemed to be perfectly aware that their upturned faces were going to become the iconic image of the day’s events on the evening TV news shows.

Kids These Days…

The very next day would be a new beginning for our nation. During the week to come the worst of the old boys and party hacks would be swept out of the White House, hopefully never to return. If only we could remove them from everywhere, sweep them out of Albany. Then maybe yes, we the people can take back our country from the oppressive elements and prosper once again.

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December 30, 2008

The Miracle At Eagle Court

The City of Albany takes responsibility for its actions and fixes the damage it caused to lower Morton Avenue

You’d better believe I attended the official grand opening and ribbon cutting this past December 16 for the newly renovated Eagle Court Apartments on Morton Avenue at Eagle Street. No way I would miss the ceremony marking the completion of this important renovation project in my neighborhood, turning perhaps the most notorious slumhole in the City of Albany into a beautiful place to live.

The New Eagle Court Apartments

All 47 apartments in the building have been spoken for ahead of the opening, tenants began moving in the next day. I’m told that in addition there is “a waiting list a mile long” for the apartments. Imagine that… people are lining up and fighting for an opportunity to live on the lower part of Morton Avenue.

The old exterior of the building is essentially unchanged, but everything inside, including the walls, is brand new and shiny. If I were looking for an apartment, and had a chance to move into Eagle Court, I wouldn’t hesitate. And if I owned the place, I’d be proud to rent out these spaces.

I made sure to stroll down the hill from my house and arrive a half hour early around 10:30 AM. I could see immediately by all the activity that the ceremony would take place on the uphill Eagle Street side of the building, not to mention the balloons tied to the porch rail. The guys who do the actual building work were very busy planting street trees and laying topsoil between the sidewalks and the curbs.

I watched the media workers arrive and set up on the other side of Eagle Street. They usually turn out in force for these ribbon cuttings, and they stick around unless a plane crashes into a suburban house, in which case they all disappear like magic. That didn’t happen this time. But despite the media presence, I only saw marginal coverage of this event in the two daily papers, and absolutely nothing about the story behind this building.

Albany Housing Authority (AHA) and other City employees arrived and went inside, visibly happy for this opportunity to get out of their offices for a while. Employees also showed up from Omni, the contractor who did the renovation. The Omni guys in suits looked much less thrilled to be present, but I noted that some of the Omni workers marched inside to help themselves to coffee and muffins.

I briefly considered forcibly crashing this semi private affair, but decided to behave myself. Various nonprofit agency heads and employees arrived, most of them stood outside in the cold like me. A handful of neighborhood folks also showed up, and we had a decent sized crowd.

Finally, Mayor Jennings arrived in his chauffeur-driven black SUV, which dropped Him off and then backed discretely out of sight. Almost immediately His Majesty set to waving the media workers closer to the action on the porch, so that they stood in front of the crowd. The suits emerged from inside, this was the signal to begin.

Steve Longo At Right Introduces
The Mayor, Who Contemplates His Ribbon

The porch was kinda small, so it was hard to put too many dignitaries up there. Fortunately the speeches were brief and The Mayor has a lot of practice cutting ribbons. In no time all of us were invited inside to inspect the new apartments and check out the tray of muffins.

I heard words and phrases such as “this is incredible” and “I can’t believe this” and “I never thought anything like this would ever happen.” More than once I heard the word “miracle.” Here was solid proof, evidence exhibit A, that Albany does not have to accept and live with neighborhood blight.

More than anyone else, the person responsible for this incredible transformation is Steve Longo, director of AHA. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the City of Albany is lucky to have this guy. He is leading the rebuilding of the housing landscape in the City, and somehow at the same time managing to avoid washing up cold and stiff against the political rocks.

About nine or ten years ago, Mr. Longo and his staff put together a plan for transforming the South End as part of the application for a big federal grant program called Hope 6. Putting the plan together cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and many months of staff time. The City had already received one massive Hope 6 grant to rebuild the horrid Corning Homes in North Albany, so it was not unreasonable that the City would receive another grant for the South End.

But politics got in the way and the grant application failed. The NY State Republican Party (read: Joe Bruno) found a way to stop then secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Andrew Cuomo from giving the Hope 6 money directly to the City. Technically, the money is supposed to be given to the State, but with Republicans in charge of the State at the time there was no way the money would ever get to the intended recipients.

After the pointless Republican disruption (aren’t they all pointless?) the application, of course, was rejected. However, as I’ve heard Mr. Longo explain on more than one occasion, there was no reason to let a good plan go to waste. So, with The Mayor’s approval, Mr. Longo and his staff searched for alternate funding sources so that the plan could be implemented piecemeal.

Coffee And Muffins

The transformation of Eagle Court is half of phase one of the Capital South Plan. (“Capital South” is a euphemism for the South End thought up by a planning consultant firm. The idea is that “South End” supposedly has negative connotations and needs to be “rebranded.” Whatever.)

The other half of phase one is taking place not far away, on a mostly empty lot bounded by Broad Street, Clinton Street, Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. This new development is an appropriately urban mixture of rental and owner occupied housing called Jared-Holt, after the long gone wax factory that was on the site. The expected opening for this project is late January, stay tuned.

Going back forty years, Eagle Court was a decently run desirable place to live. But in the 1980s, a person named Roger Ploof bought the building, after which Eagle Court became a crack and heroin supermarket, home to a mixture of criminals living side by side with some of the most helpless members of society. As the years passed, the Ploof Building had a devastating effect on the surrounding neighborhood, as can be readily observed today.

The building was heavily infested with vermin. A woman who briefly lived there told me that when she used the toilet at night she had to remember to flip on the light and wait a moment, otherwise she would crush a half dozen cockroaches when she sat down. I heard ca report from one of the few, long-term respectable residents of the building (perhaps the only one?) that it was not uncommon to hear gunshots in the hallways, including an incident in the very last week the building was open before renovation.

How did Eagle Court turn into a hellhole, and stay that way for three decades? Ploof owned rental properties across downtown, notably in Park South, North Allen Street and Central Avenue. As far as I’ve heard, all of his buildings were very much like Eagle Court.

As a landlord myself, I am loathe to defend Roger Ploof. Yet it is evident that the City government, going back to evil Erastus Corning, had written off downtown Albany, particularly the South End. Without question our last three City administrations were looking forward to bulldozing the entire South End (“urban removal”) and eventually selling off the vacant land to line their pockets.

Basically, Ploof followed the business model that the City wanted him to follow. Successive City administrations wanted decay so that they could bulldoze our part of the community out of existence. What better way to accomplish that end than to encourage property owners to extract wealth from our neighborhoods by creating slums.

But our City leaders forgot about the people who live here in the South End. Many born and raised natives and immigrants like myself refused to give up on our community. As time passed we learned to push back and fight when the City tried to destroy our homes.

There have been thousands of little battles fought between the citizens and the City government all across the South End. But there were two major battles in particular that brought people out en masse and angry. These two public fights forced the City administration (read: Jerry Jennings) to radically change its attitude toward the South End.

The first was in 2002 when Jennings tried to shut down our unique Lincoln Park Pool and give the parkland to a private developer. More than 250 neighbors came out during torrential rainstorms to unanimously tell The Mayor to leave our pool alone. By the end of this public confrontation, I could see by The Mayor’s face that he knew that he could not dictate this scheme to us. We kept our pool.

Lincoln Park Pool

The next battle was in 2003 when The Mayor told a sleaze bag developer that he could locate an asphalt plant down by the river. I mean, c’mon. This operation would have spewed sulfur dioxide by the ton into one of the most densely populated parts of the Hudson Valley. What kind of “civic leaders” would do something like that? The kind that want us to get sick and die, that’s what kind.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) was forced by widespread demand to hold a public hearing at the auditorium of Giffen School. This time most of the South End politicians came out to support us, after all they live here too and would have had to breathe that deadly crap. As a result, The Mayor decided that he was compelled to tell the City planning board to reverse their approval of the asphalt plant. (Yes, that’s how it works in this town.)

After these two uprisings Jerry Jennings developed a new attitude. He could see that there would no political gain from waging war on the citizens of the South End. Indeed, if people are that angry, then such a war could very well lead to His ignominious downfall, politically and otherwise.

I don’t know what happened next, but a likely scenario is that The Mayor called Steve Longo into His office and said, “Help Me out here, what can you give Me?” And Mr. Longo probably said, “Well Sir, we have this great plan in mothballs…”

After that, Jerry Jennings did the best possible thing that He could. After taking ceremonial credit for launching a “South End revitalization effort,” He stepped back and let AHA and the City planning department implement the plan without much interference.

In The Kitchen

For a long time I’ve wanted to thank The Mayor for doing this. Outside before the ribbon cutting at Eagle Court, The Mayor walked a wide arc around me while he was working the crowd. Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to hear that He didn’t want to look at me.

Inside, however, was a different matter. The Mayor and I were face to face in an inner doorway, no one between us. I shook His hand and told Him, very sincerely, “Mr. Mayor, thank you for letting this project happen.”

I thought I’d chosen my words carefully, to be as accurate and as complimentary as possible. But afterwards, several people to whom I told this story guffawed, “Haw, haw, let it happen, huh? That’s tellin’ Him!” Which is not what I had in mind. Diplomacy and charm have never been my strong points.

What happened next is that The Mayor decided to tell me a little story. Also present fror this extraordinary tale was Pastor David Traynham of the nearby New Horizons Christian Church on Catherine Street, our neighborhood church. Here’s the story as best I remember it.

My first year teaching (said The Mayor) at Albany High, I was a young guy in my twenties, teaching history. I was alone in the room after class let out, when in comes Rocco So-and-So, the toughest kid in the school. (You remember Rocco? “I sure do,” said Pastor Traynham.)

I was standing by my desk, and Rocco comes up to me and gets this close, and he says to me, “This is MY school, and the sooner you learn that the better for you.” (Or something like that.)

Well (said The Mayor of the capital of New York State,) I had one of those big history books on my desk. I put my hand on it, slid it fast across the desk and hard into his gut and he doubled over. I then grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face into the desk.

“Your school, huh.” said The Mayor. “I’ll show you whose school this is. After that, Rocco became my chief enforcer.”

That last is an exact quote. The Mayor then saw fit to add that his boss at the time admonished him lightly for this act, but conceded that “this was the best way to handle that kid.” Another exact quote.

I wonder how many people have been terrified and intimidated by this story? The good pastor, who was one of The Mayor’s students a long time ago, looked rather uncomfortable. As for me, I’ve been threatened so many ways by so many people over the past five decades that I barely notice anymore. Next time, bring a gun.

After these pleasantries I explored the apartments and had several very good conversations, not to mention chatting with half the people in attendance. And I grabbed a couple of souvenir mugs, one for me and one for The Wife.

As for Roger Ploof, the City bought Eagle Court from him for a ridiculously large sum of money, which was worth every penny. Again, The Mayor is to be commended for negotiating this difficult sale. It took several years, but Ploof eventually figured out that the landscape had changed and it was in his best interest to give up his cash cow slum building.

Earlier this year, I learned to my horror that Ploof had taken the pile of money he’d made from the sale of Eagle Court and was buying buildings on the other end of my neighborhood, along the streets behind the eastern end of Delaware Avenue.

I mean, what for? I recall years ago seeing a picture of Ploof in the Hearst Times Union with his Lamborghini, complaining that his fancy Italian sports car was a lemon. His “summer home” is a multimillion dollar Victorian mansion in the upper class onclave of Cape May, New Jersey. Doesn’t he have enough money?

Yet it appears that Roger Ploof, like Jerry Jennings, is also a changed man. I’ve been told by Sandy LeVan, ace tenant/landlord/court negotiator for the excellent tenant advocacy group United Tenants of Albany (UTA,) that complaints about Ploof’s buildings have dropped off to nothing. Ploof used to be a major contributor to the UTA workload, but not anymore.

Window With The Now Obligatory Child Protection Grate

Suddenly, as if by magic, Ploof has apparently become a responsible rental property owner. This is a simple example of how landlords are not the root cause of slums and blight in the City of Albany. Guys like Ploof only play by the rules they are given. Change the rules, and the players will play a different game.

The government of the City of Albany turned Eagle Court into a hellhole, so it is right and proper that the City government take responsibility. I can report that in this case the City has done an excellent job of repairing the damage done by their destructive policies.

The only question remains, is this initiative enough to please the voters of the South End? Or is the Capital South Revitalization Plan too little too late for Jennings reputation? No doubt we will all find out after this New Year, certainly by election day in September.

Prior Post * * * Next Post

 

November 24, 2008

The Next Mayor Of Albany

The blogger asks a rude question, hoping to find
out who wants to run the City

*UPDATE* The Hearst Times Union claims that Mayor Jennings is launching his reelection campaign, but all The Mayor is doing is holding a fundraiser. He has not announced.

You may think that the elections are over. But next year here in the City of Albany, The Mayor and the entire Common Council are all up for reelection along with several other citywide positions. If you carefully read the back pages of the local newspapers and listen to the political chatter around town then you don’t need to be told that the 2009 races have already begun.

Mayor Jerry Jennings and his loyal minions are exhibiting signs of nervousness. We are seeing Common Council members, who have never shown any signs of life other than voting as The Mayor tells them to, are suddenly attracting attention in the local media. “See? We ARE alive after all!” It’s almost as if some of these elected representatives are actually representing their constituents.

The Mayor, you see, is very aware that out here in the wilderness, beyond the bogus security checkpoint at the door of City Hall, there are some very serious people who are plotting His overthrow. And the voters in Albany, like voters everywhere, are dissatisfied with the usual incompetence and are ready for change.

Mayor Jennings

The big topic of conversation around town is whether Mayor Jennings will run for another term or not. Is The Mayor burning his bridges by spending the City into oblivion so He can go out with a bang, which is what His predecessor Thomas Whalen did ? Or is He spending our money like crazy to prepare for the reelection of Himself and His minions? Your guess is as good as mine at this point.

Perhaps He Himself doesn’t know yet. My thought is that He is waiting to see what sort of person is going to announce a run against Him and how much money that person has. Jennings has a sputtering but still functioning political machine at his disposal, and he is sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars. Plus, he’s the incumbent. He doesn’t need to be first to signal his intentions.

But listening to Him at the opening of the Neighborhoods Work conference at First Lutheran Church this past Saturday morning, He plunged right into a commentary about the City of Albany’s financial condition. Jerry Jennings sure sounded like He planned to stick around.

“Things are only going to get worse,” He said. “We are going to have to make some tough decisions. There is a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s come up with solutions.” The Mayor then explained at length to the auditorium full of neighborhood activists that the public school system is the cause of most of the City of Albany’s problems.

Jennings knows perfectly well that anyone who wants to run for Mayor had better announce soon if they are serious. Like, in the next few weeks, certainly no later than the end of this year. Mark my words, folks.

The other big conversational topic around town is who has enough stature to run against The Mayor and win. In my opinion, and in the opinion of a lot of other people there is only one person. My own first ward common council member, Dominick Calsolaro.

Dominick Calsolaro: Albany’s Next Mayor?

Will he run? The other day I asked Dominick, “Do you want to be mayor?”

He threw his head back on his shoulder and rolled his eyes. “Do I want to be mayor? I don’t know if I do. But somebody has to do the job so I might have to run.” He also indicated that he has to consult some more with his family.

My impression is that Dominick doesn’t know yet either. Like the current mayor is doing, he is waiting as long as he can before making a time consuming life churning commitment. But he indicated that he knows perfectly well that if he wants to run, he can’t wait much longer to announce.

Meanwhile, I’m hearing escalating rumors that Common Council President Shawn Morris is about ready to announce her own run for mayor. Word is that she is busily preparing an organizing committee, lining up funding sources, etc. All this is supposed to be secret, of course, but such doings are necessarily public and thus hard to hide.

The other day I sent an email to Ms. Morris titled, “Shawn – Quick Question, Please.” My inquiry was brief: “Are you planning to run for mayor? The rumors are intensifying, you know.” Here is her entire reply:

That’s neither a quick question, nor one that can receive a quick answer.

Shawn

November 10, 2008

Trying To Keep It Real

Has our long national nightmare ended with this last presidential election, or can we expect more of the same in a different package?

*BIG UPDATE* Michael Connell, Karl Rove’s computer expert, ready to to testify about his role in stealing the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, has turned up dead. How convenient!

*UPDATE* One commentator has pointed out how bloggers have been the driving force behind this past election… Sarah Palin! Here’s a clip of Rachel Maddow, who calls herself "a blogger on TV," responding to Ms. Palin’s vitriol with a fashion statement.

This past first Tuesday in November I dragged my half-sleeping butt down to my neighborhood polling station at the inhuman time of 5:45 in the morning like I always do. This year our election district has been voting at the Boy’s and Girl’s Club on Delaware Avenue while Thomas O’Brien public school in Lincoln Park is being renovated. There are four tables at this location, one each for four different election districts, and rarely does anything exciting happen at this spot other than voting.

This year, starting at five minutes to six, I saw something I’d never seen before. There was a line out to the front door of voters waiting for the polls to open. I sure wish I’d had a camera with me. Most of the folks standing in line were first time voters, and all but a few were persons of color.

It turns out that these virginal voters had shown up early because they had all been hearing about vote suppression tactics around the nation. During the last two presidential elections, millions of voters, always in districts that primarily contain low income, minority or overwhelmingly Democratic voters, have been deliberately forced to stand in line and wait as much as 18 hours to exercise their right to vote. For this presidential election, these folks at the Boy’s and Girl’s Club were determined to exercise their rights even if it took all day.

We don’t have these kinds of problems in the City of Albany, so of course we had everyone in and out fast. By 7:30 AM the gymnasium that we were in was back to normal, with voters continuing to trickle in. The election inspectors went back to sipping coffee and discussing what they planned to have for lunch.

You may wonder what I’m doing hanging around a polling station, something I’ve been doing for about fifteen years. Technically, I’m a poll watcher, carrying an official certificate signed by the head of the local Democratic Party. My official job, as I understand it, is to make sure neighborhood Democratic voters show up to vote, and that they vote the way The Party wants them to vote.

But as far as I’m concerned, my real reason for being there is to protect my neighbors from being harassed by The Party or any other noodnicks while they vote. I do this because I believe passionately that everyone has a right to cast an equitable and secret ballot. I may be nuts, but I am able to do this because I have no fear of public officials, elected or otherwise.

This election we had record turnout in downtown Albany, what with so many people coming out of the woodwork to vote for Mr. Obama. I understand that overall polling numbers were down across the Capital District because a lot of Republicans didn’t vote. We only have a handful of those people in our election district, but I think only three of them bothered to show up at our table.

Undeniably, one big reason my black neighbors enthusiastically came out to vote was because they identified with Mr. Obama. This is perfectly understandable and not at all strange or to be frowned at. I know of a few elderly Irish Catholics who still have shrines to John F. Kennedy in their parlors.

Yet it took a lot more than first time minority voters and demoralized Republicans to hand Mr. Obama his well deserved victory. Over the past week, i’ve been chatting with middle aged white guys about the election, guys like me in other words. From almost all of them, I’m hearing two things:

1) They’re not enthusiastic about Barack Obama, but he appears quite competent while McCain and Palin clearly are not competent.

2) Anybody and anything is better than four more years of the Republican Party in the White House.

Mr. Obama appears to know perfectly well why he won by a landslide, and how much work he has ahead of him. Watching his acceptance speech broadcast after midnight on my computer, I noted how he frowned and looked grim a lot more than he smiled. This in contrast to Vice President elect Joe Biden, an old time pol, who joined Mr. Obama on the outdoor podium near the end of his speech and kept a wide toothy politician’s grin on his face the entire time.

Um, Let’s Wait A Bit For This

Sure, I’m happy and relieved that we’ve finally given the boot to these unamerican Republicans, but I can’t quite bring myself to jump up and down and cry tears of joy over Mr. Obama’s victory. Nor am I ready to sign on to the notion that this election is the beginning of a new era of US history, although that is an intriguing notion. We’ll see in a few months if the president elect truly is a break with the past, or more of the same with a darker skin color.

It looks like the white voters did not secretly vote against the black guy while in the privacy of the voting booth. A few months before the election, the corporate media gave a name to this phenomena, The Bradley Effect. This phrase was deliberately inserted into the minds of everyone who watches TV. At first, I was puzzled about this. Why were the corporations instructing people to think about racial hypocrisy?

Well, a lightbulb lit up over my head after reading several commentators, who wrote that they believed The Bradley Effect was meant as a cover story to account for what was supposed to be the third presidential election stolen through electoral fraud. That sounded plausible to me. As a diarist on Daily Kos put it:

First, they push a narrative (in the form of the Bradley effect) that Obama’s poll numbers are artificially high and that we should expect to see those results collapse at the actual voting booth. Second, they push a baseless narrative of "that guy" engaging in voter fraud when they have a modus operandi of accusing others of what they’re doing themselves… See my point? They’re laying the groundwork for stealing the election.

August 24, 2008

Glasnost At Hearst?

The ascension of Jay Jochnowitz to the Times Union editorial page may mean a new era of openness and accuracy, or maybe not

We were starting our two week vacation this past month in a cabin on the shore of Great Lake Sacandaga, which is in Adirondack Park just inside “the blue line.” We had quiet mornings, no traffic noise, no schedule, and all of the lazy outdoor activities that we wanted. But this peacefulness came at a frightful price: we had no internet hookup.

Our Rented McMansion
On Great Sacandaga

Plus, we had to go six miles to town to get newspapers. The Wife had just come back on her bicycle with the Sunday papers when she got a phone call from Rezsin Adams, the venerable president of Save the Pine Bush. “Look at the editorial page of today’s Times Union,” she said.

I was busy amusing myself by slowly and thoughtfully moving rocks up the beach to stop erosion of the shoreline. The Wife in her bike shorts and bicycle helmet came bouncing down the grassy slope from our cabin. She had a big smile and a copy of the Hearst Rag in her hands.

Here’s the beginning of what she read to me from the lead editorial:

To think that the 6000 acre Capital Region ecological treasure known as the Pine Bush was once almost 10 times that size, before developers started making their way into what still qualifies as one of the premier examples of an inland pine barrens ecosystem anywhere in the world.

August 8, 2008

May 31, 2008

April 27, 2008

April 13, 2008

December 9, 2007

UPDATE: Great Man, Great City, Great University! For $150 you too can honor Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings for his great accomplishments! Click here for your personal invitation.

November 30, 2007

November 22, 2007

November 5, 2007

July 29, 2007

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July 21, 2007

July 14, 2007

July 8, 2007

Options Available To Cyclists Invisible to Metal Detectors

First published: Monday, June 11, 2007

Q: I do not drive, so I ride my bicycle for most local travel. Sometimes, I encounter very long waits at certain traffic signals, including one in Albany at Academy Road and Hackett Boulevard — especially at night.

I wonder if these streets have pavement sensors that don’t detect bicycles. I either must wait for an indefinite time at a red light until a motor vehicle approaches on the same street, thus activating the detector, I suppose, or violate the law by "running" the red light after a few minutes.

— John Morse, Delmar

BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS AGENDA
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 5:30 PM
Common Council Chambers
Second Floor, City Hall

1. Case # 4-06, 1213
The case of Capital City Rescue Mission regarding the premises located at 229 S. Pearl Street requesting an Area Variance to allow forthe installation of an eight (8′) foot fence to surround the perimeter of the property, when fences shall not exceed six (6′) feet in any yard without street frontage. The property is located in a C-1 Neighborhood Commercial zoning district.

Photos of the Pine Bush that The Mayor wants to destroy, here. This is a virtual tour of the condemned parts of the Pine Bush Preserve parkland, and of the West side of The Dump, otherwise known as the City of Albany "Landfill." Photos taken March 11, 2006, a warm Saturday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I continue to remain steadfast that I continue to offer an important public service by my media sourced database which is the ONLY publicly available listing of incident by incident of such gun crime in our City. I will review your paper but I can only wish that you would have acknowledged the importance of this data collection. I think you may have actually directly or indirectly by noting how the "establishment" (Mayor, Chief etc) are feeling threatended by my advocacy.