Oh, SmAlbany!

Chaz Schumer makes a visit

2005-11-20T14:48:00.000-05:00

Freezin' Seniors: Never one to miss a photo op or press conference, Chaz Schumer was in town today to talk heating oil, specifically the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. He gave his pitch at the home of seniors Steven and Bernice Rudzinski, who had this to say:

If we don't fully fund the LIHEAP we could run out of money before Christmas. What kind of Christmas present would that be on Christmas Eve to have senior citizens have to turn down their heat to 50 degrees? To have senior citizens not have any money to visit their grandchildren or give their grandkids a nice little Christmas present. That is not the American way.

That's not good. I can't even get SJC to turn our heat below 68, and it's not even Thanksgiving yet. She'd pull together a bonus army and march on Washington before I could even think of heading into the 50's with that thing. And I'm also somone's grandson - wouldn't want Grandma to freeze, and I certainly don't want her crying poor come Christmas morning. Schumer added this:

an average home in the Capital Region can expect to pay $441 more than last year.

Wow. I could definitely use that $441 dollars, and so could Grandma. That's a lot of Christmas presents. Vote Schumer if you want Christmas gifts from Grandma! Of course, doesn't Schumer want to repeal the 2001 tax cuts, which would cost many average people triple that amount? Just askin'! Uh, vote Republican if you want Christmas gifts from Grandma!

Oh well, guess I can't win.*** Grandma always said you could just put on a sweater...thanks for taking time out for another ~~trip into the wild~~ visit upstate, Senator.

***Alert, public policy discussion ahead: Of course, I recognize that my position here is somewhat silly, as is mentioned in the comments. I don't think it's ridiculous to oppose tax cuts and simultaneously support entitlement programs. In fact, it's perfectly logical since Schumer is talking about the distribution of tax rates and entitlement benefits in each instance, not their absolute amounts. If he just wanted to raise taxes by $50 on everyone, collect the money, and then send everyone $50, well that would be ridiculous. But that's not what he's talking aobut. He wants to raise taxes in a progressive manner (i.e. collect more from the rich) and increase entitlements in a regressive manner (i.e. give more to the poor). That's a perfectly consistent and reasonable approach to progressive government. In fact, that is the progressive apporach to government.

I was trying to do three things in the post. First, poke fun of the way in which the heating debate was couched. Wouldn't it make more sense to say that if seniors had to pay high heating bills, they woudn't have money for some necessities? Christmas presents are, after all, luxury items for the most part. Why not talk about seniors not being able to afford food, or having to forgo their medication? Seemed silly.

Second, I was gently reminding people that a lot of working and middle class folks get squeezed in the progressive world Schumer is talking about. Since the progressive tax rate is not all that progressive, many people in the working and middle class would end up paying higher taxes under a repeal of the 2001 cuts, but aren't poor enough to qualify for many programs, such as the heating oil program. Such is life. And such is why tax cuts are so popular. Now, if we could find a way to soak the uber-rich for like a 90% tax rate, then we wouldn't have to tax the working and middle class so hard to generate revenue, and support for these programs would skyrocket, since the working and middle class would have nothing to lose. Unfortunately, no one in America wants to tax the rich at 90%, because everyone believes in the American dream - that they themselves might someday be one of the rich.

Finally, I was trying to make fun of Schumer. He's a great advocate for New York State and he always brings home the bacon, but he's a little goofy when it comes to upstate living. I'm not sure he really gets it. So I always like to needle him a bit.

Even more in-depth: From a political theory point of view, there are two governmental solutions to help people pay higher heating bills. One is to collect tax money, set up a program, and redistribute the tax money. The other is to not collect the tax money in the first place! Obviously, the second method fails when you get to people who don't pay any income taxes - the very poor and the fixed-income elderly. They would benefit from a prgram but not from a tax cut. And that's who Schumer is talking about, and LIHEAP is actually a program I support, for that reason. But for everyone else - the vast majority - the program Schumer is talking about does nothing to help offset the cost of heating this winter, whereas the 2001 tax cuts do.

Back in the high life

2005-11-16T06:08:00.000-05:00

Street fighting man: After a short pause, DA Soares is back on the public relations warpath. Yesterday he pulled double duty: unveiling a new plan to fight drugs and then continuing his dance of seduction with Joan Porco. We'll be able to talk Porco for weeks, so I'll take up the drug plan today. First, the plan itself:

A landlord training program will teach property owners how to avoid renting to tenants with known criminal records for selling narcotics. It will also help create leases that reflect community standards.

A narcotics eviction program will give landlords a leg up in booting out those who conduct illegal activities on the premises.

And a trespass affidavit program will let landlords and tenants fight crimes committed in the public spaces between private buildings by vigorously enforcing "no trespass" laws.

Ok, those are all reasonable objectives. No one will argue with that. But I'm not sure they do all that much to stop drug dealing, do they? The first plank looks pretty flimsy to me - even if it worked perfectly it would only stop convicted narcotics dealers from signing leases. That's probably a pretty small portion of the population involved with narcotics. And who knows what "leases that reflect community standards" means. I certainly don't. The second plank only helps after someone is convicted of a crime. That's fine, but it doesn't really get at the source of the problem. And if I'm reading the third plank correctly, it just means they are going to get tough on trespassing. Doesn't this all amount to - in the best case scenario - a shift in where drug transactions occur? Now, that may be better than nothing, but it can't be that much better.

And look, I'm reasonably sympathetic to a "get tough" method of combatting drug dealers. But this "get tough" plan doesn't seem to have much in the way of teeth, at least as its presented. Maybe this will really help out the landlords. But I doubt it. In fact, it strikes me as a plan ripe for both abuse and complaints. Isn't it the worst of both worlds - a "get tough" apporach that isn't actaully tough enough to do anything? And strangely enough, Soares is promoting it as a money-saving plan:

As he unveiled the Safe Homes -- Safe Streets program in front of 12 Dana Ave., District Attorney David Soares waved a 6-inch stack of police printouts detailing more than 500 calls for assistance to that boarded-up building -- and to its neighbors at 14 and 16 Dana Ave. -- over the past five years. During that time, tenants of the three buildings -- and the people who visit them -- have been charged with a range of felonies, including selling drugs.

"Each of these calls costs more than $100 in direct costs and as many as several thousands in follow-ups," Soares said. "When we clean up these crack houses, this money can be better spent on street lighting, remedial reading classes or better sports programs for our teens."

I'm not so sure. For one, as mentioned above I don't see this program as anything close to strong enough to "clean up these crack houses." That means it will almost certainly be a perpetual program. And it looks like the plan has some costs of its own: at the very least the "landlord training program" is going to cost a bit. In the short run, this doesn't look like a money saver. And unless it works perfectly, it's probably a long-term negative cost, financially. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be done - it might be worth the money. But i don't think it's going to be reaping a windfall for the teen sports program anytime soon.

Second issue, the politics. I thought this was a very interesting program for Soares to be backing. A few point here:

point #1 - By standing there with the mayor and police chief, this move is basically insulated politically for all involved. Obviously, this is basically a "motherhood issue." Whether you think it's a good idea or not, if you're the mayor, chief, or DA, you back it if it's going to happen. The last thing you want to be seen doing is not supporting something like this. So once it's definitely going to happen, you get behind it even if you think it's absurd. Of course, that doesn't mean you actually start believing in the plan. Good politics and good policy don't always go hand in hand. I don't know who has their heart in this and who doesn't, but if I had to bet I'd say that Soares doesn't, because...

point #2 - Isn't this somewhat different than the approach you thought Soares might take if you followed his campaign last year? I'm no expert, but didn't Soares call the "war on drugs" a complete failure. Sure, he was talking about the Rockefellar laws, but this new plan strikes me as the same old song - set up a tighter net that will catch a few more dealers and a lot more users. It's basically an empowerment of landlords to harrass people in the lower class, no? I honestly never thought I'd see this from Soares:

One of Soares' staff members will be the contact person for confronting drug dealing, prostitution, trespassing, the sale of stolen property, gambling and other illegal activities in private buildings.

"This is not a matter of the system breaking down," Soares said. "It's making sure we get the problem at the root. This is a new administration. And we are taking a more proactive approach."

Gosh, that sounds like Guilliani in the 90's. Does Soares now believe in the "broken window" theory? Because that involves getting tough on petty crime and small time illegal vice activity. Now that was definitely not the Soares approach last fall. Does this mean that...

point #3 - Soares might be feeling the institutional pressures of the office a bit. DA's can campaign on whatever they want, but when they get into office and want to be re-elected, they need to show that 1) they are proactive and tough on crime and 2) that they are getting results. It looks to me like Soares might be shifting toward that attitude. And that's fine. It's just surprising.

I don't want to kill the DA here. I'm not trying to lay blame. I just thought the program was strange, and an interesting plan for Soares to get behind. I'm actually quite sympathetic to David right now. He's facing a difficult set of circumstances. His high profile cases haven't been friendly to him, in the sense that the public has been divided on them. Crime - or at least violent crime - seems to be increasing recently from the perspective of the average observer. And he's obviously tangling with a police force and mayor who aren't particularly friendly or fun to work with. That's a tough situation.

I dunno. Thoughts?

Free Wi

2005-11-15T07:35:00.000-05:00

For techno-types: A listing of several dozen places around Albany where you can get free wireless internet access, plus some links to other local resources on the matter. I'd add that the Colonie Town Library is also a free hotspot.

Introducing Donald Williams

2005-11-14T11:58:00.000-05:00

A new contributor: Continuing with my call for new contributors to Oh, SmAlbany!, the first person who is going to have a test-run around here is Donald. He's a freelance writer and business consultant. He grew up in western New York, moved to the Albany area quite some time ago, and has worked on a number of political campaigns.

Donald will be contributing occasional material beginning later this week. His posts will be recognizable by the green coloring of the post headline, just like this post (and his name will appear at the bottom of them.) My posts will continue to have royal blue headlines. Blog-related messages will continue to have red titles.

If you would like to contribute to Oh, SmAlbany!, please read through this post and then contact me.

Bruno's stadium blues

2005-11-14T11:12:00.000-05:00

No love for 'the Joe': I had no idea that minor league baseball parks had begun selling off the rights to the name of their stadium, but apparently they have. Except in the capital district. Turns out that Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy is having trouble selling the rights to the stadium's name, and it's costing them a lot of potentional revenue. As reported today in the Times Union:

Several minor league stadium operators, in big and small markets, have enjoyed substantial revenues by selling naming rights to their parks. Not so the operators of Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy, who don't think they can find anybody in the private sector to help them cut their bills as their peers in baseball are doing.

For instance, KeySpan is paying an undisclosed sum -- about $200,000 annually, according to one KeySpan executive -- for having its name on the Brooklyn Cyclones' publicly owned park. The Clinton Lumberkings, in Clinton, Iowa, recently secured $450,000 over 10 years from a regional company. The Independent League Brockton Rox received $1 million four years ago from a local businessman in eastern Massachusetts. And the Greenville (S.C.) Drive, planning a new 5,000-seat stadium, is negotiating to sell rights to a corporation, officials there say.

Officials at Hudson Valley Community College, whose campus contains "The Joe," home of the Valley Cats, say the publicly funded school's consultant explored naming rights in 2001 but struck out. There was no demand, they say.

Perhaps the more surprising thing is that Bruno claims he never even wanted it named after him:

Bruno said he never asked to have his name put on the place and the naming matter is up to HVCC.

I find that hard to believe. I'm pretty sure Bruno loves having his name on that stadium. Getting your name on a building after you die is a lasting honor. Getting your name on a stadium while you're living is ego-fuelilng raw power. And it's just one more thing he can needle Shelly about. Hey Silver- want to go over to my ballpark and catch a game after our meeting with Pataki. You really should visit. We used your constituents' money to build it. Man, that must burn Silver up. God bless powerful upstate pols. Can you imagine if a downstate Republican ever wrests control of the state Senate leadership? We'll be eating cow feed.

Actually, I'm surprised that no liberal interest group has ponied up yet for the naming rights to the Joe. Can't you see it, the Suspicious Family Loan Stadiuim? Or Nepotism Field? Or how about What's Joe Smokin' Ballpark? Readers are free to suggest their own names. I always thought "G-block" would be a nice tribute to The Grove. But only if the stadium opened at 8am and had dime beers.

Last week's garbage

2005-11-14T08:37:00.000-05:00

Last week's garbage: Two quick followup stories worth mentioning:

(1) Continuing a report from two weeks ago, Section 2 high school running put on one the greatest shows in the history of high school running at Saturday's New York State championship. On the boy's side, team titles in Class AA, A, and C, including Saratoga defeating the supposed #1 team in the nation. The three fastest times of the day were turned in by Section 2 boys, and six of the top 12. The finish of the AA race looked more like the Suburban Council championship than the state meet, with suburban councilers going 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 9th. On the girls side, team titles in Class A and AA. It's not impossible that Section 2 teams could win the both the boys and girls national team title this year and that section 2 could qualify 6 individuals into the 64-person Foot Locker national individual championship race.

(2) If you'd like to hear my appearance on WAMC's Weekly Rundown, it's available here in .mp3 format. The segment I'm on starts at about the 16 minute mark and runs for maybe 15 minutes.

SmAlbany is hiring!

2005-11-11T16:11:00.000-05:00

Help Wanted: For a few months now, I've been considering different ways to expand content on Oh, SmAlbany!. I'm now strongly considering having multiple people contribute to the site on a regular basis, instead of just myself. My goal right now would be for Oh, SmAlbany! to be publishing 7-10 quality posts each day. Right now, I'm lucky if I can get two or three. Now, I'm not looking to downgrade my own participation. But if we had a stable of 5 contributors, I think that would greatly improve the blog and also take some pressure off individual writers (read: me). Everyone has bad weeks. Sometimes my posts just suck. For weeks.

Now, obviously this is a risky endeavor. I'd be losing control of the content of the blog. But honestly, I think it'd be worth it. It'd be a great improvement to have a variety of voices around here. I'm knowledgeable about SmAlbany, but not that knowledgable. And my writing style - not to mention my thinking style - can get pretty monotonous. Some days I just don't have enough interesting things to write about.

A good example of a multi-contributor blog is the libertarian blog The Volokh Conspiracy. That's the kind of arrangement I have in mind. It wouldn't be a situation in which contributors respond to each others' posts; I don't enjoy blogs that turn into internal arguments. Instead, we'd simply have a greater variety and quantity of independent contributions that stand on their own, not connected to other posts except incidentally.

I'd be looking for people interested in either niche writing (for example, local food) or just general Albany contributions (like me). Heck, I'd love to have a contributor who specialized in Albany history and could write about it without boring us to death. I'd want you to committ to 2 posts/week at a minimum and 10 posts/week at a maximum. While I'd definitely set some rough guidelines for posting, I wouldn't touch your content. Your free expression would only be constrained by the fact that you would have to put your name on whatever you write, like I do. And, of course, I could give you the boot if you did something utterly unacceptable. But generally, it would be a free environment. Obviously, we'd want to maintain civility among the contributors, but I'd certainly be open to having various opposing views - on everthing from politics to local music - represented.

If you might be interested, send me an email discussing what you'd want to write about and telling me a little bit about yourself. If it seems like a good fit, I'll have you take a one-week trial run.

If you have thoughts about this idea in general, put that in the comments.

Friday is for Budweiser

2005-11-11T09:27:00.000-05:00

Just another day: Probably the main downside of being a graduate student - besides the lack of cash and the boring books - is that weekends don't feel like weekends and holidays don't feel like holidays. Since I never report to work per se, I never really feel like it's a day off. Sigh. Anyhow, I didn't feel like in-depth writing today, so quick thoughts on a variety of topics:

Happy Veteran's Day: Talk to anyone over the age of 65, and they'll tell you that Veterans Day just isn't what it used to be. Fewer parades, fewer observances, and fewer people pausing at 11am. I guess fewer people today know a veteran personally than they did a generation ago. And that's probably a good thing. Nevertheless, it is disappointing to see today go by with little public fanfare. For instance, why is the Colonie Town Library open today? Or better yet, why am I sitting at the Colonie Town Library trying to do work? So take the time, and do something to honor those who defend your country.

School's out: It's probably a good thing that the local schools are closed today. I think we definitely needed a "cooling off" period in Schenectday and Renssellaer. Things like this make you wish the big school issues were streakers, dress codes, and teenage sleep patterns.

Tech Valley: The governor signed the tech-valley high school bill yesterday. As I've written previously, I'm a fan of the idea. And right now, the Times Union is too. But I'll bet they'll turn against it as soon as they see it out-performing the public schools. P.S. It's just killing me that the Times Union hasn't figured out how permalinks work. Sometimes you can access old TU stories through the SmAlbany archives, and sometimes you can't!

The cyber-party's over: Local cops have figured out "Craig's List."

Spring break: Forget Cancun or Panama City, you can now go to ~~Storytown~~ The Great Escape in February. To ride some indoor waterrides. And you can get a hotel there. For $189. God, I feel old. Remember when the feature attraction up there was the Desparado Plunge? There's at least a 10% chance this place has "racino-style" slot machines in 10 years.

Mike Brown: Always classy, in victory or defeat. From the TU:

In a news release, Brown tagged supporters of winner Corey Ellis as "an elitist freak show led by lily-white hypocrites who rented a few black people." He referred to unnamed "thugs" who assaulted an election inspector who is a grandmother, poll watchers who blocked people from voting, and "wrecking crews" who destroyed his campaign signs. "It was so bad, even Ray Charles could see it," he said.

Well, that's got to be a record. The race card (twice), the populist card, the hypocrite card, the thug card, the election-fraud card (twice), and the grandmother-card, all in under 70 words. This is particularly funny because you know Brown is pulling every string he has in order to manipulate the 83 uncounted absentee ballots that could sway the election (which was 507-445) if Brown gets 75% of them.

Don't forget: I'm a guest panelist tonight on WAMC's Weekly Rundown, which airs at 9pm. Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.

trans-siberian orchestra

2005-11-10T10:54:00.000-05:00

Jingle Bell Rock: Well, if it's the holiday season in SmAlbany, that can only mean one thing - endless radio commericals for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra! I've always been puzzled by the TSO, for a few reasons:

#1) I still don't know if they are more a Christmas band or more a rock band: it's absolutely amazing how ambiguous this fact is kept. Let's see: they always come here at Christmas. But they don't play a ton of famous Christmas songs. But all their albums and songs are named after Christmas themes. But their bio never mentions the holidays. But their concert schedule is restricted to the holiday season. But the radio ad sounds like a promotion for a Zeppelin show. Honestly, I'm stumped. The radio spots make it seem like The Who's Tommy meets the Melodies of Christmas. Not that that sounds bad. And I'm not against rock stars singing Christmas carols. Heck, I love this album.

#2) How on earth do they require two shows at the Pepsi Arena: That's just startling. Especially since I've never met anyone who's gone to the concert. I mean, when you think of people who can command two shows at the Pepsi, it's like Springsteen, Phish, Billy Joel, and maybe U2. Oh, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. How come they're not uber-famous in pop-culture? It's like the Beatles coming to America, selling out Shea stadium, and no one talking about it. Ten years in a row. Wierd. Or is Albany just strange? Maybe the TSO plays in front of like 40 people in other cities. Tickets available here.

#3) If they are more a Christmas band, how does SmAlbany land them every year right at Christmas: this year they are coming for two shows on December 26th. Shouldn't those show be at like Madison Square Garden, or maybe the Carrier Dome, given TSO's apparent popularity. And doesn't the fact that they come here on December 26th make it even more unbelievable that they do two shows? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty busy with my family the day after Christmas. Just unreal.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking the TSO. In fact, I'd like to go check out a concert. I almost certainly won't (see #3 above), but I get more curious each passing year. If anyone has seen them, please fill us in with a comment. I'd love to know the real deal on the TSO - who's at the concerts, what's the music like, is it more rock, is it more opera, is it more christmas carols?

SmAlbany goes big time!

2005-11-09T09:18:00.000-05:00

The voice of SmAlbany: Inexplicably, I was solicited yesterday to appear as a guest panelist on WAMC's Weekly Rundown show, hosted by Mary Darcy and Greg Dahlmann. I'm not sure I have either the pipes or the nerve for radio, but what the heck. I've never listened to the show, but it was decribed to me as "smart, but witty." Well, that's what we aim for here at Oh, SmAlbany!, so I guess I'm suitable, in theory. Maybe they'll let me rant about Geisel, or the bars downtown.

Actually, who am I kidding? This is really right in my wheelhouse:

Pontificating about semi-important local topics? Check.
Using a production medium that artificially increases your legitimacy? Check.
Keeping it short so you seem smarter than you actually are? Check.

Ok, I'm excited.

The show will air Friday night at 9pm. Yeah, not exactly your "afternoon drive" slot, but I'll take it. I'll put up a link to the podcast after it's available.

Am I really becoming a ~~C-list~~ D-list Albany celebrity?

Election notes

2005-11-09T08:16:00.000-05:00

Election notes: Various thoughts on different races and election-day happenings:

Albany: I was happy to see that Corey Ellis defeated Mike Brown. That was probably the highlight of the day for me. I thought it was a reasonable result that the mayor didn't get his whole slate on the school board. It will force the TanMan to compromise, in theory. One thing that is really funny is the distorted sense of political reality you can get if you spend a lot of time reading blogs. For instance, given how much he posts over at Democracy in Albany, it never dawned on me that Ford McClain would only get 86 votes in the Ward 7 race for city council. Amazing!

Saratoga: I was disappointed to see the Democratic landslide in Saratoga. The assessment issue was certainly going to be problematic for the incumbents this year, but it was a mandated assessment, so it was a hammer that was simply going to fall on whoever was in office in 2004-2005. Overall, the Saratoga Republicans strike me as a better group to lead the city. Of course, to paraphrase the famous saying, Saratoga politics is so contentious precisely because the stakes are so small. As I've mentioned before, politics is truly a game of leisure when you have the wealth, culture, and lack of crime that Saratoga has.

Colonie: No surprises here, at least in terms of winners. But that itself is no surprise. I guess it is interesting how the GOP margins have shrunk significantly in Colonie in the last few decades. That really has had an effect on the fortunes of Democrats in county politics (think Soares) and in state politics (think Dan Lynch and then Bob Reilly). I suppose the day will come when the Democrats capture town hall. Amazing. All of sudden the Republican streets will be last ones plowed in the winter. As I said above about Saratoga, charmed politics.

Also, somebody call the Justice Department. I think I was the victim of attempted voter disenfranchisement. Or at least it was a pain in the ass for me to vote yesterday. First, I went over to Shaker Junior High School, where I should be voting. But BOE didn't get my change of address. So I head over to Southgate Elementary school near my old place. After telling the greeter where I live(d), she sends me to the district 42 line. Of course, when I get to the top of the queue, it turns out i'm in district 43. Oh well, what's another 10 minute wait to vote in a series of blowouts when I've already burned up an hour.

Actually, that's a bit harsh. I really like voting. Especially when I can vote for major party candidates without ever touching the GOP or Democratic levers. That was nice. And I like the people who volunteer for BOE. That's a thankless, but very important, job. And apparently a boring one too. All I know is that the free doughnuts and coffee were long gone at Southgate when I got there at noon yesterday.

Rensselaer: Who wouldn't be happy that DeAngelis lost? Fred LeBrun publishes a column today that practical wrote itself in everyone's head last night.

Propositions: I voted against #1, and I was pleased to see it fail. I voted in favor of #2, but I was basically ambivalent about it. It passed.

Glen Sanders Restaurant review

2005-11-08T07:23:00.000-05:00

RESTUARANT REVIEW: Took SJC to the Glen Sanders Mansion ($$$$$, 4, 91, Scotia, just over the bridge from downtown Schenectady) for her birthday on Monday. Easily one of the better meals I've ever had in the greater SmAlbany area, although you definitely pay for it. Luckily, there is a great ($18.00) discount in the Entertainmnet book. Including a bottle of wine, our total bill was about $70 after the coupon and before the tip. We started off with an appetizer of steam littleneck clams in a white wine sauce, which was absolutely wonderful, the highlight of the meal. We also had a tasty balsamic salad. For dinner, I had a filet mignon and SJC went with a grilled snapper. Both were excellent. The atmosphere in the dining room is elegent and the service is very good. A pricey treat, but worth your while once a year on that special occasion. Most recently ate here: November, 2005.

Click here for all reviews

How we rate restuarants

election day

2005-11-08T06:54:00.000-05:00

Vote for Pedro: Wait, that was last year 's bad pun. Anyway, 3 things I'd suggest you keep in mind on election day 2005:

#1 - Local government has far more impact on your life than any other level of goverment: So take it seriously. And that means vote. If you don't know alot about the candidates, head over to the Times Union voter guide or search the web a bit for information. Or just vote based on your major party affiliation - I know that sounds lazy and establishment-cozy, but it correctly matches your preferences to the right candidate 8 times out of 10. And that's what party cues are for, especially in the lesser races where information is particular hard to find.** But in any case, make sure you vote. And promise yourself you'll spend a little more time on local politics next year.

UPDATE: A commenter reminded me that Metroland has candidate interviews for most of the races that are in the city of Albany and a few races outside of Albany.

#2 - If you are going to vote for a major party candidate, do it on a minor party line: This is a habit that is worth cultivating if you care about procedural democracy. New York State has very stringent requirements for parties to get on the ballot. They need to keep getting votes in elections in order to stay on the ballot. It's not a problem for the major parties, but it often can be the life and death of the minor parties. It makes absolutely no difference in the election if you vote for Jennings on the Democratic line or the Conservative line. But it means the world to the conservative party, which is constantly fighting to stay on the ballot. I see no reason for New York to have such high ballot restrictions, so I think it's important to do what you can to help the minor parties stick around. It's good for democracy.***

#3 - Don't "not vote" because the races are already deicded: As I've written previously, democratic elections, for better or worse, do more than simply pick winners. They send signals to politicians and voters about the power and support of winners. Winning with 51% is very different than winning with 78%. So if you feel strongly about a candidate one way or another, you can affect politics with your vote even if the election is not close.

**I know that sounds harsh and very un-progressive, but I'm being a realist. Election day is not the day to fix democracy. I wish everyone was informed and cared about politics, but that's not reality.

***Two points here. First, it may not be the case that the minor parties have to worry about this in the current election. It might only be the quadrennial election years that count toward whether or not you stay on the ballot as a party. I don't know. But get in the habit of voting on the minor party lines, because it certainly does matter at some point, and its costless to you.

Second, I encourage this because it is basically the two major parties in collusion that keeps the ballot standards so high. No sensible system of democracy would make it as hard as New York does to get on the ballot, and as easy as New York does to get kicked off the ballot for the next election. More political parties is almost always a good thing, and third parties are great at keeping the major parties in line.

Soares does a 180

2005-11-08T04:58:00.000-05:00

Turn around, bright eyes: Wow, does David Soares ever do a 180 in today's Times Unoin:

Soares said he had an appointment to meet with Joan Porco and her family today they needed to reschedule. "I'm hoping it will be soon, maybe later this week."

"Mom, I'm sure, has a lot of questions and one of the reasons for us wanting to visit with her is to answer those questions to the extent we can," Soares said. "We owe her that."

"We're also treading lightly with her, as to what we can share, because we know she is in contact with her son," he said. "Despite that, there is an issue of courtesy with her, as a crime victim."

"We owe her that."? "Mom, I'm sure, has a lot of questions."? It almost sounds like the new approach down on Eagle street is to be compassionate towards victims of attempted ax-murder! That's a far cry from last August, when Soares basically told Joan Porco she was a either a liar or a lunatic:

In an uncharacteristic public statement, Soares disputed Joan Porco's denials in a Times Union story that her 21-year-old son, Christopher, is a murderer.

It was the first time Porco had spoken out about the horrific Nov. 15 attack in which popular Appellate Division law clerk Peter Porco, 52, was bludgeoned to death with a fireman's ax and she was left near death in their Bethlehem bedroom with debilitating head and eye injuries.

"Based upon the information we have and everything we've looked at, she's wrong," Soares said Wednesday. "She doesn't have what we have. If she did? Maybe she'd think differently."

Looks like somebody got a quick lesson is how you treat your only eye-witness to a murder. On the other hand, this isn't exactly a bridge you are going to un-burn, assuming that was ever possible.

P.S. My wife didn't get picked for a trial at jury duty yesterday. But she has to go back on Thursday - there's hope yet!

Central Avenue

2005-11-07T10:54:00.000-05:00

A drive down main street: After dropping SJC off down at the county courthouse this morning for jury duty, I needed to stop and pick something up at Colonie Center. So I took the opportunity to drive Central Ave. all the way from downtown out into Colonie. A selection of my streaming thoughts, in order, as I drove:

#1(beginning of central) - So that's where Gandhi is located. I'll have to return soon. I don't get off of Lark street enough when I'm downtown for dinner. I wonder where Shalimar is located?

#2(30 yards later) - Even in Albany, Mike Brown stands out as a hack politician. It makes me sad to look at his campaign posters. I don't know if it's disturbing or reassuring (probably the former) that those who represent the least well-off in society are as hackish as those who represent the middle class. God, I hope he loses tomorrow. I wonder if Ellis can beat him...

#3(corner, central and quail) - I can't believe that once upon a time - about 7 or 8 years ago - I frequented Pauly's hotel and thought it was a trendy bar. I can't believe that once upon a time - about 2 or 3 years ago - I frequented Ichiban and thought it had good sushi. Did Pauly's really have a "$2 all you can drink" deal back in the late 90's? Were the rolls at Ichiban always that bad? At least that new sushi place on Lark is good, from what I hear.

#4(corner, central and everett) - It really is great to see hummer after hummer sitting unsold on the central auto super mile. Almost as enjoyable as a Geoffrey Holder commerical.

Heritage Tourism alert

2005-11-07T08:19:00.000-05:00

Heritage tourism alert: I don't know how many visitors this place will draw - probably not more than a couple dozen a week, give or take a few busloads of bored 5th graders. Not too many people are all that interested in Susan B. Anthony or the 19th cenutry sufferage movement. But more importantly, this strikes me as a perfect example of faux history: Anthony only lived in the house for 7 years, and she did so as a teenager. It's not like important meetings took place there. It's a childhood home.

Now, don't get me wrong, if a private group wants to turn the place into a museum, I'm all for it. I like history and you might even catch me taking the 40 minute drive up to Battenville to check it out. But I don't think I could/can justify spending public money on this type of thing - there's just too much real history and too few tax dollars for it already. We don't need to underwrite faux history. Now, that's not the case here - this is a private project - but I can only assume that this is the type of project that supporters of heritage tourism in Albany would like to infuse with public money. It's not worth it.

This is partially because some good historical structures already exist. If you're interested in SBA or the sufferage movement more generally, there's a great public women's rights national historic park dedicated to SBA, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others. It's located in Seneca Falls, about 40 minutes past Syracuse. Also, there is already a house in Rochester dedicated to the life and work of SBA. And she lived there during the most politically active period of her life.

P.S.: Another interesting museum that is set to open. Partially funded with public money, but predicted to gross $1.5 million / year in admission fees...

P.P.S: Apparently, New York State is now ranked fourth in percentage of workforce employed in tourism-related jobs. No word on what percentage of those jobs are SmAlbany heritage tourism...

Happy Birthday

2005-11-07T06:09:00.000-05:00

Does this get you excused?: Today is SJC's birthday. The big 2-7. The good news is that she has the day off from work. The downside is that it's because she has jury duty. I was really hoping in the last few weeks that she'd somehow land on the Porco jury. Too bad.

I think we're going to go out to dinner tonight. Restaurant review tomorrow.

Porco indicted

2005-11-04T17:04:00.000-05:00

No bail, no quote from Soares: After almost a year, an indictment in the Porco case. I'll have more to say next week.

SmAlbany: cross-country heaven

2005-11-04T11:31:00.000-05:00

SmAlbany, cross-country heaven: Abduction attempts of team members notwithstanding, one thing the greater SmAlbany area is nationally famous for is high school running. The Suburban Council has continually been considered one of the most competitive high school running leagues in the country over the past two decades. The Saratoga High School girl's team is undisputedly the all-time best high school running program in the nation. Section 2 has consistently had both boys and girls qualify to the Foot Locker cross-country national championship and teams to the Nike Team Nationals. Local teams almost always either win or come close to winning the state title in a variety of classes each November. And one of the best cross-country courses you'll ever see is at Saratoga State Park.

This year is no exception. On national website like DyeStat and Armory Track, section 2 is literally plastered all over the place. Both the boy's and girl's teams from Saratoga are ranked among the best in the nation, despite the gir's team losing it best runner, Nicole Blood, to private training. A number of other local schools are contending to be among the 20 teams invited to the Nike Team Nationals in Demcember. And if you look at the New York State rankings, all of the following teams are ranked in the top 20 in the state in either class AA or class A: Saratoga boys (#2, class AA), Shen boys (#5, AA), Guilderland boys (#7, AA), Shaker boys (#12, AA), Niskayuna boys (#15, AA), Queensbury boys (#1, A), Burnt Hills boys (#2, A), Scotia boys (#7, A), Averill Park boys (#10, A), Saratoga girls (#1, AA), Shen girls (#7, AA), Columbia girls(#10, AA), Shaker girls (#11, AA), Bethlehem girls(#13, AA), Colonie girls (#15, AA), Holy Names girls (#1, A), Burnt Hills girls (#2, A), Queensbury girls (#7, A), Amsterdam girls(#13, A).

That's simply astounding. The sad part of it is, however, that the New York State Cross country championships only allow the single best team from each section in each class to race for the state title (individuals can qualify also). So despite having so many teams in the top 10 in all divisions, most of them will miss the state championships. I ran for Shaker back in the 90's, and we always missed the state meet because of this system.

I say all this because today is the section 2 championship race. It is usually held at Saratoga Park, but today it is at Queensbury because the state championsihp is going to be held there next week. Good luck to all the teams, and best of luck at states and nationals.

If you'd like more information on section 2 running, there is a tremendous website about it, with up-to-date statistics, discussions, and history: section2harrier.

Porco Case

2005-11-04T10:40:00.000-05:00

Oh, that ax-murder: A good reivew of the Porco case in the Times Union. I had almost forgotten about it - it happened a year ago this month. There has been a strange dynamic to the story the whole time: I feel like there a lot of people who are strangely obsessed with it. Exhibit A and B would be my sister and aunt. On the other hand, I feel like it's the type of story that often would have exploded into a "national coverage" type event, but it never did.

As it turns out, the grand jury is finally meeting again. There may be an indictment before the close of business today. What I'm wondering right now, though, is how a grand jury operates in a case like this. Is it the same grand jury from a year ago? It must be. And they must be simply working with the transcripts from the old witnesses? There's got to be a strain on a group trying to remember testimony from that long ago. Sure - they have the witness records, but there are plenty of things - like character evaluations - that you can't get from a transcript. I might be wrong, but I suspect all of this helps the prosecution when it seeks an indictment. I predict the DA finally gets one today.

More important, Soares did not ridicule the only witness he has or otherwise stick his foot in his mouth for today's story, which is a sure sign that he's learning.

Vegetarian Delight

2005-11-04T08:19:00.000-05:00

Looking for advice: Some old friends of mine, Paul and Katrina, are stopping in town tonight for dinner before taking the train down to NYC. I'm looking for a restaurant that fits the following description:

1) In the general vicinity of the Rensselaer train station - time is tight between when they are arriving and when their train leaves, so something in downtownish Albany or across the river would work best.

2) Reasonably fast service - see reason #1.

3) Is acceptable to vegetarians - both Paul and Katrina eat no meat, not even fish. We don't need a vegetarian place, but it's got to have some veggie-friendly options.

4) Reasonable prices - even if we had the money, we wouldn't try to rush through a dinner at La Serre. So something moderate.

My first instinct was something like El Mariachi or maybe that new Sushi place on Lark, which is reputed to have lots of veggie rolls. Is there a good Indian restaurant downtown that I don't know about? Definitely looking for some suggestions here...

UPDATE [11:10 AM]: Thank you to all who emailed in advice. One emailer directed me to VegAlbany, a website dedicated to living as a vegetarian locally. It's not a great site, but it's definitely worth checking out - the restuarant reviews detail the vegetarian and vegan options for quite a few places. And it's perfect for my purposes today.

A few days off...

2005-11-01T20:28:00.000-05:00

A few days off: I'm headed out of town for job interviews. Back on Thursday or Friday. But for god's sake, I have to mention this "breaking news." Didn't I report on this like three weeks ago?

See you in a few days.

Why Jennings won't debate...

2005-10-31T05:13:00.000-05:00

Why Jennings won't debate: Everyone and their left wing brother is up in arms that Mayor Jennings is refusing to debate his opponents - Alice Green and Joe Sullivan- before the general election November 8th. Even the TU cartoonist got in the act over the weekend, illustrating Sullivan and Green debating on TV while Jennings sits home and laughs. All this means is that it's a good time for Oh, SmAlbany! to return to Political Science 101. Why exactly is the mayor refusing to debate?

Ultimately, it has a lot more to do with his position and resources in the election than anything about him personally. Although his opponents would have you believe the mayor is "scared" to debate the issues or "doesn't believe in the democratic process," this is hardly the case. Debates are certainly nice forums for citizens to learn about candidates and issues, but they are also key political moments for campaigns. If a debate is more helpful than hurtful for your campaign, you want it. If it isn't, you don't. Very simple, very machiavelian. Five points:

Point #1 - Frontrunners hate debates / chasers love debates - If you watched The West Wing last night, this was abundently clear. Congressman Santos, trailing by 9 points in the polls, was begging for a debate, but his political handlers knew that Senator Vinnick had no interest in debating, since he was already ahead. As Vinnick's handler says, "They need to debate 10 times more than we do." The bottom line is that if you are ahead in a campaign, you want to minimize "big moments," where you can either squander your lead with a dumb mistake or your opponent can gain ground with a brilliant manuever. Debates are inherently "big moments." Therefore, people in the lead hate them and people who are behind beg for them. Jennings is in the lead. His opponents are far behind.

Point #2 - Well-funded campaigns hate debates / poor campaings love debates - Debates are the best advertising at the cheapest cost - you get the full attention of interested voters at absolutely no cost, and you get to say whatever you want. This means your message will be up to date. Jennings has plenty of money and can run all the paid ads he wants. His opponents are cash-poor and would love some free airtime. Therefore, Jennings doesn't want to debate and his opponents do.

Point #3 - Mainstream candidates hate debates / marginal candidates love debates - a debate has a strange leveling power in the minds of low-information voters. If a low-information voter sees three candidates in a debate, he/she accepts that these are the "legitimate" candidates in the election. This is why the major parties try so hard to keep third party candidates - like Perot in '92 and Nader in '00 - out of the debates. It denies them the legitimacy that comes with being a "big boy" in the debate. If you can't keep your marginal opponents out of the debate, you simply try not to debate them. Like it or not, Alice Green and Joe Sullivan are marginal candidates. Thus, Jennings doesn't want to debate them.

Point #4 - Incumbents hate debates / Challengers love debates - When there is an incumbent running for office, debates generally center around his/her policies. Since challengers are not managing policy themselves, they often have little record to critique. This usually means that debates end up being asymetric affairs, with challengers able to attack the incumbents record and the incumbent left to either defend his record or attack the challengers experience. Except in the best of situations, this works to the advantage of the challenger. Challengers also tend to be less "legitimate" than incumbents, and thus gain ground under point #3. Thus, Jennings doesn't want to debate and his opponents do.

Point #5 - Not debating can hurt you, but only in high visibility, close campaings - Ducking debates against serious opponents, for instance if you were running for president of the United States, would seriously hurt your polling numbers. But voters tend to not be well aware of the day-to-day news of mayoral campaigns, so they don't usually punish debate duckers. Ducking a debate against a marginal candidate is often less problematic than against a serious candidate in a close race, because voters expect debates in close races. Thus, Jennings doesn't mind missing the debate.

As you can see, Jennings has no reason to debate. His opponents have every reason to demand one. They will, and he won't. Case closed. Jennings is a hack, but right now he's just being a smart politician. His opponents will try to goad him into a debate using every rhetorical device in the book, but they know he won't fall for it. They need the debate, he doesn't.

Debates are wonderful traditions in democratic communities. They inform voters, allowing for the airing of issues, and let voters see politicians interact with each other. But for campaigns, they are either vital chances to gain ground or briar patches to be avoided at all costs. And they are treated as such by the candidates, through pure political calculations about the benefits and drawbacks that attending the debate has for their chances in the race. No more, no less. It has nothing to do with anything personal about the candidates. Joe Sullivan and Alice Green would be stonewalling just the same if they were in Jennings position. They might come up with better excuses - Jennings is laughably claiming he's "too busy" - but they would decline just the same. But that's the sad reality of debates. To understand them through the lens of the democratic ideal is just that - idealist. Enough already.

P.S. - It can be the case that everyone wants a debate. This happens often in wide-open races when no one is really sure what is going to happen, like the Soares/Clyne/Cusick race for county DA last fall (the general election, not the primary). Soares was the frontrunner, but needed the debate to silence his doubters. Clyne and Cusick both needed to make up ground. It can't produce a positive-sum result, but it can be percieved as a positive opportunity by everyone heading into the event.

P.P.S - I wish I could put the TU cartoon up, but it's not available on the website! I guess I'll just have to ~~buy the print edition~~ demand they put the whole paper online.

Liqour Treat

2005-10-28T11:11:00.000-05:00

Liq-our-Treat: Statistically, Halloween is a drunk-driving debacle in the category of New Year's, Fourth of July, and Labor Day. Bet you dind't know that. How about this: Three times as many alcohol-related car crash fatalities happen on Halloween as on St. Patrick's Day. That's not good. And it sure as heck is surprisng, given the common perception of the two holidays.

Some people seem to think this is a new and growing trend:

Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the council joined to spotlight the growing linkage between Halloween and alcohol on Thursday."There's so much more awareness around other holidays," noted Donna Kopek, executive director of New York State MADD. "Halloween is becoming more of an adult holiday, and with that comes alcohol consumption."

I certainly agree that Halloween is increasingly being marketed these days as a booze-fest for adults rather than a children's tradition. A quick look through today's Metroland reveals the following ads: costume party at the Alcove Pub, Halloween Party at the Bayou Cafe, Halloween Party at Valentine's, "Monster Bash" at Sneaky Pete's, Halloween Party at the Elbo Room, Halloween Party at Cafe Hollywood, Costume contest at the Waterworks Pub, 4th annual Halloween Bash at Big G's, an a "Halloween weekend at Jyllian's." That's more than I remember seeing 5 or 10 years ago. Throw on the beer commericals - like that Coors Light "sexy ghots" ad - and it sure seems like there is an aggressive campaign to promote drinking on Halloween.

On the other hand, this isn't a trend that has come out of nowhere. It just can't be the case that Halloween 30 years ago was no different than any other regular day in terms of DWI. College kids don't need much of an excuse for a party, and I assure you that they didn't just discover Halloween in the last decade. And I definitely remember there being some drunks at the school-sponsored Halloween Party when I was at Shaker in the early 90's. I also recall going to a Halloween party at Bogie's circa 1997 that was held in conjunction with their legendary "$5 all you can drink Thursday." So it's not like this is a trend that has been whipped up in the last few years. But it certainly does seem to have accelerated in the recent past, that's pretty clear to me.

One thing that magnifies the danger on Halloween is ~~the ghosts and goblins~~ that no one really thinks of Halloween as a big DWI day. Thus the public-safety messages, blanket police patrols, and generally wariness of people isn't there to deter would-be drunk drivers like it is on New Year's or St. Patrick's Day. Luckily, that seems to be changing:

The evolution of Halloween parties as drinking events also is one reason that the Albany County Sheriff's Department has scheduled an overnight Stop-DWI blanket patrol tonight and early Saturday, said Sheriff James Campbell. Albany County's special patrol is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and continue until 4 a.m. Saturday. State Police, the Sheriff's Department and 11 municipal police agencies will participate.

Maybe soon you'll be able to add Halloween to the list of nights you can score one of those "free cabs" back from the downtown bars.

P.S. On a semi-related topic, I have always wondered if the "college girls/women dressing up in the sluttiet costumes they can justify on Halloween" trend was a rather ancient tradition or just a modern treat that I happened to catch the wave of during my teen/college/young adult years. Whatever the case, the new emphasis on Halloween drinking must only be accelerating it, right?

Restaurant Review: Sitar

2005-10-28T10:51:00.000-05:00

RESTUARANT REVIEW: I've got a new favorite SmAlbany Indian place: Sitar ($$$, 2, 92, Central Ave., a few miles west of the northway). Some of the best Indian food I've had in a good while. We had pretty standard fare: chicken tikka masala and chana masala, and both were superb. The service was excellent. The only way to knock this place is the price: it's a bit more expensive than other Indian options around the Capital District, but I thought it was worth it. Plus, the Entertainment Book has a good coupon that can save you some money. The atmosphere is slightly more upscale than most Indian places, but definitely only slightly. Definitely a good location for a date. Most recently ate here: October, 2005.

Click here for all reviews

How we rate restuarants

Murphy and sports talk

2005-10-27T02:43:00.000-05:00

Back in the saddle: It didn't take local sports anchor Dan Murhpy long to get back on the air after being dumped by WTEN back in August. As reported late yesterday:

Murphy will return to the airwaves next month with a daily afternoon sports talk show on WOFX (980 AM). Murphy will host a 3 to 5 p.m. show on the Clear Channel sports station starting Monday, Nov. 7. The show will be called ``Murphy's Law'' -- the same title the sportscaster's nightly commentary segments were on WTEN. Murphy will also do regular sports commentary segments on ``Don Weeks & The 810 WGY Morning News'' on sister station WGY (810 AM).

That's welcome news. I always liked Murphy on WTEN. I don't have a clear recollection of him when he was doing radio on WPTR, but I'm definitely eager to see what he can do with 2 hours a day of local sports talk.

Murphy's move will adds to the already nice set of options for sports talk radio listeners in the SmAlbany area. AM 980 now has Wyland, Jim Rome (syndicated), and Murphy going straight from 10am to 5pm, while WROW has Mike and the Mad Dog (syndicated) from 2pm to 6:30. And although I usually only listen to it for yankee games, WTMM 1300 has round the clock sports that features the Dan Patrick Show in the afternoon, Mike and Mike in the morning, and The Herd midday. All together, that's a local radio menu with a lot of variety and talent.

And gosh, it sure beats the old days. Seems like just yesterday I was trying to pull in WFAN 660 from New York in order to get any decent sportstalk during the afternoon drive.

Goodbye Fixins bar

2005-10-26T09:10:00.000-05:00

Goodbye Fixins' Bar: Thank God the Thurway Authority finally decided to upgrade the food at the rest stops. Having gone to college in central New York and having taken numerous trips to Yankee Stadium every summer for most of my life, I'm definitely no stranger to the issue of what the hell kind of time warp has the Thruway food services been stuck in? Once upon a time, I simply thougth that all rest stops in the whole world were stocked with terrible food. Then I took I drive to Florida one year and it dawned on me that New York's are simply among the worst.

Here's the understatement of the week:

"The improvements we were looking for were updated offerings -- things that our customers have been asking for," said Bill Rinaldi, acting director of operations for the state Thruway Authority.

Indeed. My dad has been hot about this topic since the Carter administration. I mean, did you ever go to the old Pattersonville stop, prior to the remodeling? I can remember stopping at a truck stop in the middle of the night in Alabama in college, surveying the place, and thinking to myself, "Well, it's definitely nicer than the old Pattersonville stop on the Thruway."

It must have been about 10 years ago that they upgraded the physical infastructure - the bathrooms, the exterior, etc. - at most of the rest stops, and that was great. Before that, you didn't even want to walk in those places. So it's not like we're talking about the old, decrepid rest stops. It's just that they never did a similar upgrade to the food vendors at a lot of the stops. The article mentions some of the new food choices that are coming in but it fails to mention the current choices, which are clearly the crux of the contemporary complaints, best put by reader B. Wolf in an email I received this morning:

You mean I don't have to eat at the Roy Roger's "Fixin's Bar" next time I drive out to Rochester? Or a Bob's Big Boy that looks like it hasn't been cleaned since the 70's?"

So true. Everyone eats at Bob's exactly once in their life. Then they're done with it. Two other points relating to rest stops:

1) There is one diamond in the rough on the Thruway - the Sloatsburg/Ramapo stop down between exit 15 and 16 on I-87 N/S. That place is simply amazing, at least in comparison to the other stops. It's like a mall. And there's covered parking. Plus, when you're coming home from a yankee game, it's the point on the trip when you know you are no longer in danger of downstate traffic, which is nice.

2) No matter what they do, the eastern part of the Mass pike is still king - not only are they the cleanest rest stops I've ever seen, but the food selection is great: Boston Market, Fresh City, Auntie Ann's, and Ben and Jerry's - all under one roof.

Mild restaurant irony

2005-10-26T06:38:00.000-05:00

The Dumpling House: The seemingly endless road construction on Everett Road between the I-90 exit and Albany-Shaker Road has caused lots of headaches for the local businesses that reside there. In one case - the Dumpling House Chinese restaurant - it seems to have actually driven the restaurant out of business:

"We don't make money anymore," said Kenny Chang, 58, who owns the business with his brother, John Chang. "Business is down quite a bit since the springtime." At that point, the paving project reached the area where Dumpling House is located, just south of Albany Shaker Road. A combination of dust, slowed traffic and gravel -- Chang says a few customers got flat tires -- has kept customers away, he said.

Here's the thing: I've been to the Dumpling House dozens of times in my life. It's one of my in-laws favorite Chinese places. The service is good - the Changs are great - but the place is always empty. It's set to close October 30th, but I have always been amazed that it managed to last. I always figured it as a high-volume take-out joint since I couldn't imagine it did enough eat-in business to survive. That or it was a front for something.

So you can imagine my surprise last night when I went there with my in-laws and the place was absolutely packed. I'd never seen it even half as full. It seems that the construction slowed business, but actually announcing and preparing to go out of business revived the flow of customers. What a coup it would be if they managed to stay open because of the recent surge. I mean, that's why we were there - my in-laws wanted to go "one last time" - and that's why I assume other people were there. I have my doubts, though. I know a lot of people love it, but for me the food there has always been wonderfully mediocre, and it's clearly overpriced. My best guess is that the construction was just the nail in the coffin of what was a slowly sinking business to begin with. I mean, it's not like Beff's is exactly suffering these days. But I could be wrong.

Google blogsearch

2005-10-26T03:18:00.000-05:00

Google and Blogs: Most people don't have a clue about the advanced features of Google, like Google Maps, Google Print , and Google Earth (which i discussed several weeks ago). My gosh, a lot of people don't even have the Google Toolbar yet. But perhaps the best Google software for anyone who reads blogs is the new Google Blog Search. It's by far the easiest way to search multiple blogs for a post on a given topic. And it updates virtually immediately, since it is based on atom feeds. Honestly, it blows Technorati away if you're just trying to search and don't care about links, etc.

Of course, I'm pretty sure Google doesn't offer a way to embed the search on individual blogs, so for now Oh, SmAlbany! will have to rely on FreeFind, whose search box I have placed below the archives on the right hand side of the blog. This is a long overdue way to search SmAlbany with ease. Happy back-post hunting!

Brave new SmAlbany: As long as we're on a tech kick, it's worth noting that Fox23 now has podcasts avaiable daily for both news and weather, as well as a weekly podcast of the high school sports show. Not bad, but not great - it's basically an .mp3 of the TV show, which means it's not adjusted for things like not seeing the weather graphics. I also found Radio Free Upstate (also a podcast), which offers conservative and libertarian commentary with an upstate slant. Haven't listened to it yet, so I can't offer an opinion.

Muffin-tops

2005-10-25T08:58:00.000-05:00

Muffin Tops at Crossgates: Today's Times Union has a feature story on the "muffin-top" - the sultry combination of a female wearing low-rise, hip-hugging jeans and a little bit too much mid-section flab. That combination results in the look sported in the picture at right, which was formerly simply called "ugly." The article interviews researchers at various universities for their take on the matter, and that disappointed me. I got all the research I needed during my visit to Crossgates yesterday. The TU could have done some field research and landed a dozen interviews in 5 minutes. A few other highlights from my trek out to Guilderland:

1) Given the recent focus on teen-related problems at Crossgates, I can't imagine the mall is thrilled with the way Spencer Gifts has decorated the outside of their new space. The exterior of the store is faux brick with graffitti sprayed on it. And it extends around the bend of the store (out of sight of the storefront) to the point where some shoppers must be thinking that someone just tagged the mall. Very amusing.

2) I was asked to do one of those "quick test" surveys, where they pay you $5 to watch some commericals and report what you think. As a social science student, I was simply aghast at their research methodology. I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say that there's no way they are getting results with any external validity. I didn't say anything, though. I enjoyed the commericals and I bought a pretzel with the money.

P.S. Alert reader J.M. writes in to note that the TU basically ripped this story off from a Daily News story from this past summer. It's always fun when the local papers run features based on three-month old "Daily Dish" columns. Yeah, TU!

Skidmore college voting

2005-10-25T08:16:00.000-05:00

The Great voter-eligibility Debate: Up in Saratoga, it's once again time for the annual fight over whether and how the Skidmore students should be voting in the town elections. In a small town like Saratoga, 600 or 1000 votes from the college can turn the outcome of the election. At Ohio Statse - where there are 50,000 students, the college can be a major player in city politics. And that means that lots of people get really heated about whether or not they should be voting and also about little trivial detals, like whether they should have to walk to town in order to vote instead of a voting machine being placed on campus. All of this means it's again time for political science 101 here at Oh, SmAlbany! Itsn't it great what 6 years in graduate school will do for you?

As always, the first thing to throw out the window is the partisan rhetoric. It's important to remember that the rules of a democracy are often shaped by political preferences instead of philosophical values. This leads to lots of hypocrisy. It's why politicians so often flip-flop on fundamental issues and why partisan bloggers are so often caught making hypocritical statements. For almost any democratic rule worth debating, there are reasonable philosophical positions to support either outcome. People interested solely in the outcome simply pick the philosophical position that suits them as a justificaiton. So, of course, in Saratoga this means that the Republicans oppose Skidmore voting and the Democrats favor it, for the most part. In towns where the college is more conservative than the town (think Colorado Springs or South Bend), the opposite situation ensues.

Of course, beyond all the partisan rhetoric there is a serious philosophical debate about the voting rights of transient people. Let's first examine some reasons why it might be a bad idea for college students to be allowed to vote locally:

1) College students are barely residents of the town: At a school like Skidmore, the vast majority of college students go home to their families on every break from school. That means that they actually live in Saratoga about 26 weeks of the year, or half-time. So they are short-term, part-time residents at best. (Now, in some locales the laws have been drawn that you have to actually sign up for residency in your college town if you want to vote there. In other places (like New Haven, CT) you can vote ion the local elections regardless of your residency status. But that's simply a sub-question to the main question, and not particularly part of the philosophical issue.)

2) College students aren't part of the tax base: The vast majority of students live on campus, so they don't pay rent in town. Similarly, most of them get the vast majority of their meals on campus. In effect, they are only very slightly part of the local tax base, since Skidmore operates under the non-profit tax laws. They consume the services of the town without really paying for the services of the town.

3) College students don't have any long-term interest in the community: This is perhaps the fundamental objection to college town voting. While college students are a mainstay of any college town, the individual students aren't there very long. Thus they don't worry about the future of the town. For instance, college students would never support a public works project - like a library - that was going to take more than 5 years to complete (assuming they had to share the tax burden). They'd be gone. So if the trade off is higher taxes now for a library then, or some short-term project now vs. some better project long term, they are always going to side with the short-term. Democratic entities have enough trouble producing long-term benefiical results without the added complication of fundamentally short-term voters.

4) College students don't have any fundamental interests in the community: This is similar to the last item, but a different effect - college students don't have much interest in the long-term vitality of existing public life. This gives them all sorts of incentives to support policies that have short-term benefits but drastic long-term costs. For instance, college students would probably not support the improvement of the public school system (again assuming they had to share the tax burden), since they will be long gone before they have school-aged children. In effect, they are a permanent proportion of the town that really doesn't care about the town. And that's important, espeically in a town like Saratoga, where less than 100 votes can often determine the outcome of the elections, bonds, and school budget votes.

5) College students are rich and different - this is not a real objection, per se. But it's the way that the above objections are often articulated in college towns. Unlike Saratoga, most college towns feature populations of locals who are not wealthy. Saratoga is an exception in that the students at the college are probably not from families that are particularly more wealthy than the average citizen of the town. That's not true in most college towns. Furthermore, most college towns feature liberal campuses and conservative town populations, relatively speaking. Thus the complaint from the town is usually as follows: a bunch of rich kids who don't pay taxes and led a charmed upbringing are coming to the town and trying to pass liberal policies against the wishes of the simple folk on main street. In effect, college students are seen as the limosine liberals - rich kids in SUVs pretending to be working-class revolutionaries.

Ok. That's the basis of the philosophical objection. Now let's discuss some reasons why they should be voting:

1) Where else are they going to vote?: It's clear that college students should be allowed to vote somewhere. The ony real alternative to voting at the college is to have them all vote absentee back in their hometowns. But they don't really live there, either. In fact, the hometowns could argue just as easily as the college-towns that students shouldn't be voting there for all the reasons listed above! Sure, they have roots in those towns, but they are by and large not going to be heading back to the old towns. They don't pay taxes in the old towns. It's a weaker argument, but only by degree, not by kind.

2) Allowing them to vote in the college-towns increases their turnout: It has been shown they college students are far more likely to vote in the college-towns than they are in the hometowns. This is for a number of reasons: 1) being able to vote in person rather than by absentee ballot generates an easiness to the process that raises turnout. 2) Students tend to be more aware of local issues in the college-towns than they do in their hometowns, so they tend to be more interested in politics in the college-towsn. 3) Students in the college towns tend to have aggregate interest - i.e. the interests of college-students - while students who vote in the hometowns tend to not be affiliated with any particular local interests.

3) Voting in the college-towns builds better democratic citizens: The lowering of the voting age in 1971 had one nasty side-effect: People gained the right to vote just as they were generally being uprooted from the political community where they initially grew up - some were going off to college and others were moving as they found work in new communities. This placed people's intial entry into adult political life right at the moment they were least likely to have any knowledge or history in the community they currently resided. Several studies have shown that students who vote in college-towns are more likely than those voting in hometowns to continue to vote after they leave the college town and settle in a new area. The implication is clear: getting students to vote in the location they live can have an effect on their future voting habitis.

4) Voting in the college-towns improves the college-town relationship: Often, if the school is small compared to the town, allowing the students to vote has the effect of both softening the ability of the town to dump on the students with ridiculous rules while at the same time leaving the students unable to truly affect the other policy areas of the town that don't concern them. That's a happy outcome for both sides. This doesn't work well in places where the school overwhelms the town, but that's not most situations.

Personally, I'm very torn on this issue. There are bad results from either policy. If the college truly overwhelms the town, you have situations where the students, as voters, end up running the town to a certain degree. Sometimes students even run for mayor, hoping to bank on support from the other students. I don't think that's a good idea. On the other hand, when students don't vote in the small towns, the towns have a tendency to put in place policies that are sometimes quite anti-student. Throw in the beneficial effects of student voting and i'm probably in favor of college-town voting, but not by much.

At any rate, don't listen to the partisan on this one. They are simply worried about the effect of student voting on the political outcomes, not the philosophical question that underlies it.

P.S. I'm going to start collecting all of these PoliSci pieces into a new right-side tab, so they can easily browsed in the future. They seem to be some of my more popular posts, so I thought I'd make easy access available.

Gazette online edition

2005-10-25T04:59:00.000-05:00

Online Newspaper Access: In the wake of the New York Times deciding to take some of its online content and make non-subscribers pay for it, it's worth remembering that the Schenectady Gazette does the same thing. That's right, you can't get any content in the Gazette online unless you sign up for a subscription. Predictably, the results of this policy have been the same at the NYT and the Gazette: few people subscribe and no one references the articles on the internet. Blog references to the pay-for content in the Times have dramatically fallen off since TimesSelect went live. And no one ever links to a story in the Gazette. It's a silly business model in the exploding age of Internet media, because so much of a paper's relevance is tied up in the degree to which the chattering class discusses it. The chattering class is now significantly online. The Times pundits, and the Gazette, for all intents and purposes, are not.

That's a shame, because the Gazette online has one thing going for it: it's a model of how online newspapers should be structured (you can peruse an example here). It looks like a regular newspaper. You can quickly browse it like a regular newspaper. You can search it rather intutively. It's not perfect, but it does offer a rather striking alternative to the Times Union site, which has the entire paper for free but is cumbersome to navigate.** Of course, I'd be remiss not to mention the worst local newspaper website: The Troy Record, hands down. Seemingly designed to frustrate the reader.

**Two points here that warrant mentioning:

1) The Times Union site is not a bad website. It's a bad newspaper website. As it turns out, I don't think the natural way people read the newspaper is anything like the way they naturally read the internet. The TU site makes sense as an internet site - it's just that everyone wants to read it like a newspaper. Thus the headaches as you try to get to the part of the paper you normally head for with your print edition.

2) The Times Union does offer a pay-for service that rivals - or even exceeds - the Gazette structure. It's called the e-edtion, and it delivers the goods...but again you have to pay. You can get old issues, however, which trades $2 for a trip to the library if you need a back issue.

Update: A knowledgable reader writes to inform us that back issues of the TU can be had online:

Good analysis, but a correction to your last point: No need to spend $2 or make a trip to the library for back issues of the T-U. You can access them online for free with your library card number. Go to www.albanypubliclibrary.org and use the online databases. Full text of the T-U is available from 1995 to the present.

Beyond 1995, you're still heading to the library, though.

Letter from Iraq

2005-10-24T08:42:00.000-05:00

In the inbox: I received this email this morning from Iraq:

Matt: I have mixed emotions about stumbling upon your blog on Albany. Sad it took me so long to find it, but glad to see it exists and that individual "Albany-boosters" put forth the effort to celebrate their home. I spent the first twenty one years of my life living in the Helderbergs over looking Albany and loving the local culture and history. Now, after six months at fort drum and after spending the last year in Iraq, I am understandably anxious to return home to Albany with my national guard unit and begin enjoying the pleasures of a less Spartan lifestyle. I brought a number of Albany related books by Bill Kennedy, had my cousin with a photography interest send me pictures of the area, and kept up best I could with the Times Union and Metroland. Now only two or so weeks away from my return, reading through your blog has made me even more enthusiastic about returning home and restarting my life after a year and a half interruption. Thanks for the effort, and keep up the good work.

-Jeremy Rue
Forward Operating Base Danger
Tikrit, Iraq

The pleasure is all mine. Jeremy - you should know that I speak for the vast majority of people in Albany when I say that I sincerely appreciate your efforts in Iraq and your service to our country more generally. The email sent a chill down my spine when I first read it. It is surreal and very humbling for me to think Oh, SmAlbany! is, in some small way, making a soldier in Iraq feel closer to home.

And the converse is true as well. A letter like this really makes me feel connected to a war that is relatively easy for many of us to be detached from. I don't personally know anyone who is in Iraq, and it's therefore easy for me to sometimes let a day pass without even thinking about it. Thank you, Jeremy, for at least momentarily reprimanding my selfishness. I'll keep you in my prayers.

Best of luck in finishing your assignment, soldier. Albany awaits your safe return.

Cranberry the clown

2005-10-24T05:53:00.000-05:00

Clownin' around: Anyone who, like me, went to grade school in the greater SmAlbany area in last 25 years surely remembers Cranberry the Clown, who was featured in a Times Union cover story yesterday. I must have seen her act at least once a year when I was a kid, usually on stage in the elementary school cafeteria, but occaisonally at a birthday party or a little league parade day.

Of course, I never had any inkling of the difficulties that forced Cranberry - who's real name is Jan Potter - to start her career as a clown:

Potter's two sons cried with her on the couch the day they helped her move into an apartment. It was the late 1970s, and she had divorced. Her boys were living with their father, and she was living alone for the first time. Her neat suburban home with its own little pottery studio was gone. Now, she had a tiny, low-rent apartment in downtown Albany, where she sat and wondered what to do next. It was a dismal place. She was at a dismal point. She was determined to make it full time [as a clown], but livings weren't made on weekend birthday parties. She spent her days calling fire departments and fraternal clubs, trying to get work at their holiday events. And she stayed in that apartment for 11 years to make this clown dream work and to one day buy a "clowndominium," a nice house in the suburbs earned by sculpting balloons and drawing little ones to the front row of her magic shows.

That's impressive. Good for you, Cranberry.

P.S. I was definitely a Cranberry supporter in my younger days, but in the realm of school assmeblies I was always partial to magician Jim Snack, who is apparently now - and I'm not making this up - a motivational speaker who does magic as part of his talk.

P.P.S. This TU article is a classic example of how their Life/Leisure/Special Interest section sometimes tends toward bad writing by way of trying too hard. The article is simultaneously excesively long and short on factual information. It's also written in a strange style - i can only describe it as "detached" or "dream-like" - that seems to demand a new paragraph almost every sentence. It also fails in its attempt to weave flashbacks into the prose. It's like the story itself was not deemed good enough, so the writer was told to get creative with the structure of the article. Wierd. Effort: B+, achievement: C-.

Colonial Hotcakes

2005-10-24T05:30:00.000-05:00

Sellin' like colonial hotcakes: It appears that one important detail was left out of last week's debate over heritage tourism in Albany - we don't have enough pankcake houses! As reported in the Sunday Times Union travel section cover story, Williamsburg, VA has more than just America's colonial history to keep its heritage tourism afloat:

Our nation, this great land America, was built on a foundation of blood, sweat and pancakes. At least, that was our impression as my friend Andy and I drove into the city of Williamsburg, Va., easily the greatest historical museum -- that is, historic living museum -- in the country. There, along one or two long blocks, we passed The Gazebo Pancakes and Waffles, International House of Pancakes, Mama Steve's House of Pancakes, Maple Tree Pancake and Waffle House, Old Mill House of Waffles and Pancakes, and Andy's Pancake House.

And just in case you were worried, this is clearly not a conicidence:

"Tourists love pancakes," said [our] waiter, a young man who wore eyeliner, sitting down to talk to us. "Williamsburg has more pancake restaurants per capita than any place else in the country. Says so in the Guinness Book of World Records."

All kidding aside, read the whole article. It gives a good sense of the tradeoffs that a community makes when it heads toward a heritage tourism economy. While the article gushes about the greatness of the Williamsburg - Chesapeake - Jamestown - Norfolk tourist corridor, one can easily see the drawbacks to such heritage-industry-as-local-economy, most notably the loss of any real local history. Williamsburg is simply one hell of a fake colonial town, stuck in 1760.

Not only will Albany never be Williamsburg, I'd never want it to be Williamsburg.

Also: Reader B.W. had this response to the Albany tourism debate:

You say "the State Museum is nice," but isn't that a bit of a stretch? Wasn't it just like a few years ago that they had to close down the best exhibit at the entire place - the thunder and lightnight room - because teenagers were getting high in there? Sure, that's just an isolated funny story, but great tourist museums don't have that problem. And when they do, they don't give in and close the exhibit. Bottom line: that place is a nice 5th grade field trip, but nothing worth a 30 mile drive.

I'm a little more charitable than that, but point taken.

McNulty's website

2005-10-21T03:33:00.000-05:00

Midterm election '06: If you're thinking of running for Congress next fall, let me suggest one possible issue: McNulty's absoultely pathetic website. The thing looks like every final project for Computer Science 101: Introduction to HTML editing, circa 1997. You see, Mike, if you put a slash before the i, it turns the italics off. It's unbelievable that any Congressman has a website this ridiculously amateur, nevermind the one from the area trying to reinvent itself as "Tech Valley." It's like McNulty rushed up a website after the dot-com boom, and then forgot to update the layout for the last 10 years.

After a quick perusal through other congressional websites (accesible here), I am positive that it is the worst of all 435 House member sites. Most members of Congress have professional, if not great, looking websites (an average example here), offer readers tons of policy information (example here), or at the very least make you confident that they didn't outsource the job to a local 5th grade class project, even if you would never call the website "good" (example here).

P.S. Check out Sweeney's site. Clean, clear, and accessible. Would it kill McNulty to cut and paste the source code?

Addicted to Garbage

2005-10-20T06:25:00.000-05:00

"Albany, garbage addict": Alice Green released her platform yesterday. From the Times Union article:

"The solution to our city's waste crisis is not to turn the landfill into a cash cow like Jennings has done to raise tens of millions of dollars to cover annual deficits in the city budget. Instead, Albany has become a garbage addict," Green stated.

That's a poor statement, politically speaking, because:

#1) Voters don't like being told what is wrong with them. Welcome to mass democracy 101: don't insult the voters. No one wants to hear that they are stupid or closed-minded or bigoted or selfish. No one want to hear that they are a garbage addict and if they do want to hear it, they were already going to vote for you anyway. At least she said Albany was a garbage addict and not "the people of Albany," but still. Net gain: negative.

#2) It unintentionally makes Jennings' plan sound really appealing. The landfill has become a cash cow? It has raised tens of millions of dollars? And this has covered defecits in the budget? Sounds like we should build more of them! Obviously, Green didn't mean it this way, but that's how the average reader is going to interpret it. Net gain: very negative.

Here's a rewrite of the quote that would have worked much better:

"Mayor Jennings has ignored this city's waste crisis. Instead of trying to reduce the overall amout of garbage, he has simply looked for new places to pile it up. He just doesn't get it. When I am mayor, we will work toward solving this problem, not dumping it on our neighbors and children."

Not bad. I wrote that in 8 seconds. You'd think the Green campaign could do almost as good with a few hours work.

Whatever the merits of the Green candidacy, it is obvious that the Green campaign is being run by a bunch of amateurs. That's too bad. Although I'm pretty sure Jennings would whip her in a fair fight, this has become much a joke. Running a sloppy campaign like this is a death knell against a seasoned pro like the Tanman. He's not my favorite, but I guarantee you his political advisors would never let him come off in a platform interview the way Green did yesterday. Sure, it's subtle. But it's still a disaster.

And voters are smarter than you think. You might respond by saying something like, "It's just one silly quote, Matt. No one actually cares if Green puts her foot in her mouth politically in one interview." I disagree. It sends the signal that she's a political lightweight. Sure, the Tanman is fake and moderately hackish, but people know that he's also ruthless and cunning. Whether you agree with his policies or not, no one doubts that he has the political skills to win the tough battles. A mayor who represents your policy positions is still worthless if he/she is politically ineffective. I may not always agree with Jennings, but he usually gets his way. And that counts for a lot when you know the mayor will be dealing with all sorts of tricky political situations - the thicket of interests in city politics can crush you if you aren't careful. There are also the situations that pit Albany's collective interests against other locales in the state. Would you really want Alice Green sitting down with Pataki and Silver and Bruno to try to extract state money for Albany? Me neither.

P.S. What kind of newspaper informs the readers that a candidate has released their platform, but doesn't go on to describe the platform in any detail? It's like the TU wants you to think that Green Party candidates only put environmental issues in their platforms...

Saints worst nightmare

2005-10-19T10:01:00.000-05:00

A Saint's worst nightmare: While I think the ultimate nightmare would be for SUNY basketball to outdraw Siena in attendance, I don't think that will happen this year or anytime soon. However, SUNY might be good enough this year to steal the banner headline in the sports section when both teams play on the previous night. Who woulda thunk it. Certainly, they are a huge favorite over Siena to still be playing basketball in mid-march. And they will almost certainly bury them when they play each other on December 3rd.

I, for one, never thought I'd see this day. George Weber, god rest his soul, must be rolling over in his grave right now.

Green puffs the magic dragon

2005-10-19T09:35:00.000-05:00

Alice Green - Puffin' the Magic Dragon?: So 1/3 of Peter, Paul, and Mary was in town yesterday to lend a hand to the Green for Mayor campaign. Very cool. Unfortunately, it seems like Green doesn't really know what she wants for the Albany public schools. Exhibit A:

Green used Yarrow's endorsement to come out against this month's decision by the city Board of Education to allow the use of hand-held metal detectors in random searches of students..."Students don't want to feel like they are in prison," Green said. "As mayor, I will seek to implement and expand a broad range of anti-violence programs for young people, including arts programs, after-school activities, restorative-justice programs and job opportunities."

So far, so good. Reasonable people can debate this kind of public policy, but I would probably side with Green in the end. I wouldn't want to feel like I was in prison either. But then there's this:

Green, 68, also said she opposed any proposal to give the mayor's office "oversight, control or appointment authority" over the school board. Mayor Jerry Jennings has a long history of being at odds with the board and has supported a proposal that would give him a voice on it.

So let me review this here: Green has a "variety of programs" she would like to implement to reduce violence in the schools, but she "opposes any proposal" that would give the mayor any power on the school board.

Well then. I'm not saying these things are contradictory - they technically aren't. You could come up with a lot of good programs and implement them without any power over the school board. But two things come to mind:

#1) It'd be a lot easier to implement them if you had some power on the school board - what do you do when the school board is at odds with you? I guess you dump the programs? Doubtful.

#2) Obviously, it's not like Green has any principled problem with the mayor defining policies at the public schools - she clearly wants to be a player in public education in the city, and that's a good thing. It's rather ridiculous for her to pretend that she doesn't want to influence the board. This is just a poor attempt at good politics - attacking Jennings for something that she'd be just as guilty of doing. What mayor doesn't want control over everything?

Why not just come out and say it? That it would be a good thing if the mayor - who has a lot of power the board doesn't - could have a little more than persuasion over the school board. It's obvious that both the Tanman and Green want to influence the public schools - would it be so bad to structure things so they could? I could be convinced, but I don't think so. Oh wait, here's this problem:

"It is important for the system to remain independent of the mayor and partisan politics," said Green.

That's silly. School boards are already hotbeds of partisan - in the 18th century sense - politics. And obviously both candidates for mayor want to be influential on the board.

This is just fairweather federalism under a differnet guise. Not that I mind the attacks on Jennings, I don't think his education policy is particular sound.

More on heritage tourism

2005-10-19T04:08:00.000-05:00

More on Albany as tourist destination: In response to my recent post about why Albany can never be a hotbed of heritage tourism, I got this email from Paul Bray, longtime Albany supporter and co-founder of the Albany Civic Agenda:

FYI, I recognize that you "love" Albany but you are living up to smalbany. There are reasons why Albany metro is unlikely to become a heritage tourism destination, but resources and narratives aren't amongst those reasons. Albany has a wealth of both:

-Native American association and first contacts between Native Americans and Europeans
-Hudson's discovery in 1609 and Dutch settlement
-colonial settlement incl. Albany Plan of Union, three first class historic house museums
-Rev. War
-Beginning of Erie Canal-concept and physically
-significant role in Civil War
-Association with future presidents-Van Buren, Arthur, Roosevelts
-transportation-first passenger rail, first muni airport, etc.
-World class architecture: Capital, Richardson city hall, SUNY Plaza, an acropolis of governmental bldgs., Empire State Plaza, UAlbany campus, the Bar Association bldg on Elk Street, etc.
-first class historic residential districts
-Albany Institute and State museum
-State Street, a truly great street
-Washington Park
-Churches
-assets like Bill Kennedy
-riverfront

and I could go on. In many ways we offer more than Charleston, only Charleston has its act together and we don't.

Well, now we know why so many people call the ACA a bunch of well-intentioned dreamers. I mean, come on Paul. You might get away with that kind of pie-in-the-sky nonsense over at Democray in Albany, but we can't let it slide by over here. Do you really think anything on that list is going to attract tourists to Albany from farther away than, say, Utica? Just reading it over makes me laugh. Washington Park as tourist destination? UAlbany's campus as a model of architecture? And then there's the associations with past presidents. Like I said Monday, I've been to the Van Buren House ten times. It's not a tourist destination and it never will be. And Arthur's grave?. Trust me, you couldn't pay locals to take a trip to the Albany rural cemetary. And Roosevelt does have a nice tourist spot - but it's a mansion down in Hyde Park.

The comparative advantage of Albany as a heritage tourist town is not much. Trust me, no one is going to travel here to check out Lock 7. Rocky's errection is startling, but it's hardly the kind of history we'd be looking to preserve - it's only a monument to Albany heritage if you are talking about the political machine and the greenback slushfund flowing through the state government. And everthing else - the historic churches, state street, the old houses - well that's just niche tourism, anyway.

A few things on the list I can agree with: the capital is a magnificent building that might attract some tourists. The state museum is nice, something most smaller cities don't have. And by virtue of being a rather old city, Albany's history intersects with major pieces of American history. But so does virtually every other city in the northeast. And that's the problem - in order to be a tourist destination, you need to show people why it's great to come to your city and why you can do and see stuff there that you can't find anywhere else. And Nipper and the Egg are not going to make the cut. You need the big bang.

The bottom line is that you cannot produce a heritage tourism industry from the supply side. If there is no natural demand, the odds are incredibly against the artificial creation of such demand. The city could spend $100 million dollars pushing the above list of items, and it wouldn't change the bottom line: we don't have the one big thing that will get tourists here. It's cold half the year, there are no beaches, and there's no grand canyon. And that's why we're different than Charleston - they have Fort Sumter, they have the beaches, and they have that lovely carolina weather. Once you have that kind of natural demand, it's easy to do supply-side type things to enhance your attractiveness as a tourist town. But you'll never create that initial demand artificially. It just doesn't work that way. To say the difference between Albany and Charleston is just that Charleston has its act together and we don't is like saying we could produce as much orange juice as Florida, but we just don't have our act together. It's patently ridiculous.

Now, does this mean that we shouldn't care about Albany's heritage? Of course not. But let's be realistic here. There's a difference between actively preserving Albany's past and trying to sell the city as a heritage tourism town. That's the point I was trying to make on Monday. And in subtle ways, I think it's better not to be shooting for tourism - you don't create faux history like Williamsburg, you don't have to emphasize stuff that is popular over stuff that is actually historically relevent, and you don't have to spend a ton of public money on advertising and public relations. Instead, you can actively preserve things like historic buildings and old churches. The little things that are part of a real history, not a tourists history.

Look, I'm damn proud of Albany's heritage. I love its Dutch past and its Irish influence. I love the old buildings and I love the political history. And I'd love to spend more public money than we currently do to promote that history and preserve it. But it's just crazy to think that we can actually produce a tourism industry here. To argue that we have the "resources and narratives" is to misunderstand what makes a mid-sized city tourist destination popular - the one big thing. And that's what we don't have.

So, yes, scream at the politicos if you want them to spend more money and have more sensitivity toward historic Albany. But get off the soapbox and stop pretending that Albany's history could turn this town into Gettysburg if we just played our cards right. It's hackish idealism and a waste of time.

P.S. - I do wonder what Bray thinks are the reasons "why Albany metro is unlikely to become a heritage tourism destination" if it's not the lack of resources and narratives? My assumption is that he would point to the political system as the problem, just like Metroland did. But that's just a guess...

Times Union Blogs

2005-10-18T09:35:00.000-05:00

Good Idea, Poor execution: So far, the month-old Times Union experiment with blogs has - how should I put this - ~~been a disappointment~~ ~~lacked energy~~ not lived up to its potential. I don't have any knowledge of how many hits the blogs are getting, but I can't imagine they are getting very many. Here's why:

1) The blogs have zero personality: This is the TU's fault. The writer's seem to have no power to spruce up their blog's physical appearance. All of the blogs are bulit from the same basic template, and it's not a very good one at that. You feel like you're "stuck" inside the TU website. Every blog looks exactly the same, right down to the font, which also doesn't seem to be alterable - no one uses blockquotes for instance, even when quoting a TU article. That's not blogging. And while all writers hate to admit it, presentation counts when you are trying to build readership.

THE FIX: Allow the bloggers to modify their sites and get some individuality going. Train them in some basic web development if necessary.

2a) The blogs have tended toward journal-blogging: By and large, the kids writing the high school sports blogs are decent writers. I've been mildly impressed. But almost all of them have taken the route of writing basic diaries of their experiences, from a very closed perspective - we hear about what they did, how they felt, and so on, but we don't get a sense of the teams they play for at all . That's fine, but as I pointed out a while back, it's really hard to do that in a compelling manner. Outside readers (like me) have trouble caring if they don't know the team personally.

2b)The blogs lack focus: This follows from the above criticism. Many of the blogs often stray from their intended material. Sometimes they talk about their sports team, but sometimes they talk about whatever they feel like.

THE FIX: The TU should encourage the bloggers to find an interesting "angle" for their blog, and they should encourage them to stick to it.

3) The blogs are being strangely promoted : The TU is pushing the blogs, for sure. If you go on the website or open the sports section of the print edition, you'll see little advertisements directing you toward the blogs. But that's not good enough. If I were the TU, I'd challenge the bloogers to come up with quality pieces surrounding TU-suggested topics, and then print the best one's in the regular section of the paper, both online and in print. Right now, the blogs are being treated as a separate kiddie-pool to the real paper. Getting some integration would both enhance the readership and compel the bloggers to write better material. I mean, if the point of the blogs is to get a viewpoint that doesn't exist in the regualr paper, then it only makes sense that said viewpoint should occasionaly appear in the regualr paper, no?

THE FIX: The TU should notify the bloggers that quality and timely pieces of writing may be picked up for the regular paper. And then they should follow through.

The Times Union took a pretty bold step in heading toward blogs. But they seem hesitant to take the steps that would really make their blog experiment a part of the newspaper. Obviously, this is a first run for them. Hopefully, they will head in the direction of better, more integrated blogs.

Defining Albany

2005-10-18T04:53:00.000-05:00

What's the definition of Albany?: Well, that's the question that I looked up this morning on Wikipeida, the online encyclopedia that is open source so that anyone can edit it. Here's the entry for Albany. Not bad - you get history, geography, demographics, some nice facts. A decent entry.

However, an important tidbit appears in the second paragraph, much to my surprise:

Nicknames include Cap City, which is a more recent term, and SmAlbany, which is used to put the city down.

Whoa. And note that they use the far less popular, though in my opinion better, capital S-lowercase m-capital A-one l spelling.

The Cap City? I guess.

Destination Albany

2005-10-17T07:42:00.000-05:00

Pack your bags, honey, we're going to Albany: Look, I love Albany. I love the town, I love the people, I love the history, I love the politics. And I definitely love the architecture. I'm about as big of an Albany apologist as you will find and a perpetual optimist and promoter of the city. But even I had to laugh at Shawn Stone's and Ann Morrow's articles in Metroland this week, which had two basic points, one reasonable and one ridiculous:

A reasonable point: Albany's city government doesn't do enough to preserve historic sites around town. Writes Stone:

The point seems to be that, despite gains, historic preservation is still a harder sell than it should be—and often not a priority for city leaders or residents. For every triumph, such as the Martin Van Buren buildings at 111 and 113 State St., there’s a Wellington Row seemingly out of reach for restoration, or a historically unique distillery buried under tons of concrete.

Maybe stating that Albany “hates” history isn’t 100 percent fair. But the city sure as hell isn’t in love with it.

I can agree with this. Things tend to get knocked down instead of preserved. Like many cities, Albany spent the past two generations trying to cope with the new reality of automobile transportation and its downsteam progeny, commuters. The 787 interchanges were probably a mistake, and the new comptroller's building is kinda blah. All true.

Maybe we should think more about historical preservation. I could get behind that kind of effort. Giving the city a better sense of its past would definitely be the kind of thing that could do wonders for the atmosphere downtown and in many of the neighborhoods.

A ridiculous point: This lack of preservation deprives Albany of what could be an "economic engine" - heritage tourism. Writes Morrow:

The import of the city's loss of a distinctive visual heritage goes far beyond the ire of history buffs and preservationists, however. It cuts to the heart of the city's vitality. Because really, without its history and architecture, what does Albany have?

As the Albany Visitors Center emphasizes, our historic architecture is a draw, and it could and should be a bigger one. Heritage tourism is a fast-growing, billions-of-dollars-a-year industry. And the cities that have the most appeal are the ones that preserve a sense of historical background rather than just promoting a few isolated attractions. It’s niche marketing for sure, but also an easy way for a beleaguered city to earn extra income: Tourists come, they spend (studies show that heritage tourists spend more money than any other kind of traveler), and they leave. You don’t have to build middle schools and nursing homes for them. And they tend to come on the weekends, utilizing hotels, parking, and other amenities that tend to sit quiet once the business week is over.

Just give me a break. Every time I think Metroland has bounced back into reality, they come out with nonsense like this. Albany floats - broadly speaking - on the state goverment, end of story. That's what it has, in the economic sense. Throw in some tech development, some good colleges, and there you are. Have the editors of Metroland ever been to Bridgeport, CT? Or Allentown, PA? Or Kingston? Those cities have tons of history. Just an overflow of history. But guess what? They are economically depressed, and it's not because they missed the boat and forgot to build a heritage tourism industry.

I mean, please. How many places in the United States can benefit from heritage tourism? I can think of a few: Williamsburg, Gettysburg, Sturbridge, Mystic, various small towns in Vermont, Cooperstown if you count it. It's just not the basis for augmenting a medium-sized city economy. It's not like the Shakers haven't been trying out in Colonie. But they aren't exactly pushing wheelbarrows full of money around the Ann Lee preserve. And even more to the point, what's so great about Williamsburg, VA - it's just a fake town that plays on people's misperceptions about the colonial era and tries to sell them expensive faux junk from the 18th century. There's nothing particularly historic about it. It kinda sucks. And unless you have the "big deal" - like Gettysburg or Cooperstown - you not talking about streets paved in gold.

Morrow tries to compare Albany to Charleston, SC, arguing that Charleston does everything to preserve its history that Albany should be doing, and is thus a great heritage economy. But Charleston has always been a tourist destination. The weather is nice, it's on the coast, and - by the way - the civil war began out in the harbor on an island that the feds pay to maintain as a tourist attraction. It's not a big deal to orient your public policies around maintaining and augmenting that kind of tourist attraction. And Charleston does a great job of it - you can tour plantations, you can walk along faux antebellum era cobblestone roads, and you'll never see more sweetgrass baskets and confederate flags for sale than down at the Old City Market.

The point of all this, of course, is that you can't simply build a tourist town, and you certainly can't build a heritage economy from nothing. And while it's true we don't have nothing, we don't have the tourist attractions around which it makes sense to build a preservation economy. The people who care about Albany, NY are the people who live around Albany, NY. No one flies in from California to check out our city for a week. Maybe they should, but they don't. And fixing up the old buildings and trying to build a heritage economy won't change that. Neither will a convention center. Hell, building casinos wouldn't change it, either.

That's life. We have a lot of history, but we don't have any key pieces of American history. Yeah, I've been to the Martin Van Buren house. Ten times. I've never seen anyone else there at the same time. I've looked at Chester Arthur's grave, I've admired Rocky's errection, I've strolled down the million dollar staircase, and I've walked along the Corning Preserve - all in the same morning and always virtually alone. Our history - Albany's history - is not of interest to the average tourist. Not even close. Even Saratoga battlefield isn't historically "big" enough, and that's way bigger than anything in Albany. I mean, I could imagine a day trip to Albany - if you lived in upstate New York to begin with - but is there enough to see that you'd even consider getting a hotel room?

And this is what just infuriates me about the Metroland article. They take a perfectly reasonable point - that we should do more to preserve the city - and they think they need to make it the be all and end all of economic life in Albany in order to sell the idea. And they have to blast the city government at every opportunity. This is why some people run the city and others daydream about it.

We should preserve historic Albany, but not for the tourists and not for a heritage economy. We should preserve it for ourselves, and because historic preservation is worthwhile in its own right. And yes, that means compromise: downtown will have to have new buildings suited for the modern economy and some historic structures will have to go. But at least it won't be a tacky tourist trap. The last thing we need is to be doing preservation on some bottom-line economic calculation. Not only would no one show up, but that's not preserveration, it's faux history for economic gain. We can't make heritage tourism a focal point of the city. It simply won't work. Would you trade the state government for a historically redeveloped Albany? Of course not.

Albany's history is worth saving, but not because it will save Albany.

Doane Stuart School

2005-10-17T07:27:00.000-05:00

Local milestone, national anomoly: I bet you didn't know that the Doane Stuart School in Albany is the only successful example of a Protestant and Catholic school merging in the entire United States. As reported by the Time Union over the weekend, the school celebrated the 30th anniversary of the merger over the weekend:

The Doane Stuart School was formed when the Roman Catholic Kenwood Academy, founded in 1852, and the Episcopal Saint Agnes School, founded in 1870, merged in 1975.

The name Doane Stuart, taken from the first Episcopal Bishop of Albany -- the Rev. William Croswell Doane -- and the Roman Catholic educator -- Mother Janet Erskine Stuart -- represents the interfaith nature of the coeducational, independent day school.

"The institutions that merged to create our current school were the oldest in Albany," said Eric Stahura, director of admissions and college counseling. "Our school, in some fashion, has been in existence for over 150 years."

Of course, Doane Stuart has a special place in my heart - my wife and I got married in their chapel. In fact, SJC's family is Catholic and my family is Methodist, making our merger pretty darn Donae Stuart-ish.

Tickets and Groceries

2005-10-14T07:08:00.000-05:00

Attention Scalpers: The TU is reporting today that the county has dumped Ticketmaster as the vendor for tickets at the ~~Knickerbocker~~ Pepsi Arena. Apparently, tickets.com outbid Ticketmaster for the contract:

Tickets.com, in beating out its chief competition, Ticketmaster, offered to provide the Pepsi with a revenue share of nearly $900,000 more over the term of the contract.

Two thoughts here:

1) My god the Internet is great for business competition: Wasn't it just last decade that Ticketmaster- after it shoved out Ticketron - was quickly becoming a monopoly? Now it's being outbid by an outfit called Tickets.com? I thought the dot-com bubble burst like 6 years ago. I wonder if this will mean fewer surcharges. Paging Eddie Vedder!

P.S. Tickets.com is owned by...Major League Baseball? Who knew!

2) The Price Chopper angle: Apparently, you will also be able to buy Pepsi Arena tickets at Price Chopper:

The Golub Corp., owner of Price Chopper, negotiated its own contract with Tickets.com. Supermarket spokeswoman Mona Golub said the stores will receive a commission to cover the costs of selling tickets. She declined to say how much.

"We at Price Chopper are very excited about this partnership," she said. "It's safe to say it will happen by the end of the month."

The company will profit in the long run "from having customers and traffic roll into stores," Golub said.

Eventually, ticket sales could be extended from the initial 20 stores to all 37 Price Choppers in the greater Capital Region, five stores in the Berkshires and one in Bennington, Vt., Golub said.

In some ways this is quite a surprise. Not to harp on the "back in the 90's" theme, but this would have been huge news in, say, 1992. I can remember when the Bookmark bookstore in Newtown Plaza on Route 9 became a ticketmaster outlet around 1991. For a while, it was the big secret for getting great concert tickets. All the suckers would be down in long lines at the arena or trying to get through on the phone, and meanwhile there would be 7 people in line at the Bookmark, all of whom would have their tickets 2 minutes after they went on sale. It was great. I remember going there with my dad to get tickets to the Siena-Tulane NIT game, getting pretty darn good downstairs seats, and then watching the news that night show all the disappointed people who couldn't get a ticket down at the arena.

But the point, of course, is that the Internet has rendered such secrets - and the whole concept of going somewhere to buy a concert ticket - totally moot. It really doesn't matter if you can buy tickets at Price Chopper, since you can buy tickets now (and print them out) sitting in your bedroom in your underwear. I'm actually surprised that Price Chopper is getting into the ticket business now - it seems like a service that was basically designed for the internet to completely swallow.

P.S. According to the TU article, Tickets.com is promising an easier to navigate website than the Ticketmaster one. That's kind of surprising - I always thought that Ticketmaster did a good job with their online sales division.

P.P.S. That's a real tearjerker in the above paragraph, eh? Siena in the NIT and selling out the Pepsi! God, that seems like ages ago...

Live, local, and...

2005-10-14T07:02:00.000-05:00

Live, Local, and on the 'net: While researching the above post, I stumbled onto this. I know, I know. Who knew that local news celebrities had webpages! There's probably a post or twenty worth of material in there, but it's not really my turf. Paging the AlbanyEye...

Oh, that blogging....

2005-10-14T06:57:00.000-05:00

Gentlemen, start your engines: In the immortal words of Deion Sanders, "I'm ba-ack." Now, I'm not promising the same level of content I was outputting over the summer, but I will be posting daily with at least one reasonable entry. And just like Mark McGwire, I'm not here to talk about the past: we're going to bury Giesel and the rest off the old news crowd. Their fifteen minutes is up on this blog.

Like the Figgs in the summer of 1995, you can consider this the triumphant return of Oh, SmAlbany!.

More break...

2005-09-27T12:07:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I'm an idiot: Who knew that when you start sending out academic job applications, you start getting academic job interviews. Apparently not me. That means I'm spending my days trying to write job talks and practice classroom lectures. Sigh. So yes, Oh, SmAlbany will be taking a longer-than-expected break. But i promise you it will be back starting around the week of Monday, October 10th (although the entire fall schedule may be more limited - say 1 or 2 post a day instead of 3 or 4.)[You have got to be kidding me. Didn't Geisel just plea out yesterday? Didn't Soares put his foot back in his mouth again? Isn't all this right in your wheelhouse?-ed. I know, I know, trust me, no one wishes they were blogging 3,000 words/day right now more than me. Did you hear me, the Geisel case is over!?! -ed. I know, I'll have a full report next week. Geez, if i wanted that kind of reaction time, I'd read a newspaper.-ed. Ouch, low blow.]

Short hiatus...

2005-09-19T13:01:00.000-05:00

On break this week: I'm swamped with job application deadlines, so Oh, SmAlbany! will be on break for the week. Regular posting returns Monday 9/26. As always, major events will be dealt with if necessary, and those posts will appear below this one. [um, do you really need to go on break 3 times in a 3 month span?-ed. I'd gladly quit school if you'd start paying me. Fair market value? -ed. I'm scared to ask what you think that is.]

Blogging and Poker

2005-09-17T07:31:00.000-05:00

Interesting offer for bloggers: I'm not one for online poker, but it appears that anyone with a blog can play in this rather lucrative poker tournament for free. I might give it a shot:

I have registered to play in the
Online Poker Blogger Championship!

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 3225443

TU headline...

2005-09-16T08:10:00.000-05:00

Above the fold, below the radar: Take a guess at the subject matter of today's TU, Page A1, above the fold, lead story? Go ahead.

Bush and his flood speech? Nope.
Something on the primary elections? Nope.
A break in the Geisel or Porco case? I wish.

Instead, we get this:

Age-old question's gray area

Nevermind that the headline makes limited sense. It's a story about old people in the world of entertainment- Andre Agassi, the Rolling Stones, etc!

Hey, fellas - I know the 'Stones are comign to town, but bury this somewhere in the Life-Scene section next time, ok? [yeah, like you have any clue what normal people think is worthy of spending a lot of time talking about. -ed. Well, I write for a niche audience. Is that how you explain your pathetic hit numbers?-ed. No, they are a result of me being a true artiste - few people understand me in my own time. That's for sure. -ed. Shut up.]

Well, maybe the TU is just sympathetic to old greying relics that are still at it...[cheap shot. -ed. But just soooo necessary.]

Siena's disaster

2005-09-16T08:08:00.000-05:00

National embarressment: If you thought it couldn't get worse for Siena basketball, it just did. Both UAlbany and Siena have been selected by ESPN to take part in "Bracket buster Saturday" in February. This is a made-for-TV event in which top mid-major basketball teams play against each other a few weeks before the NCAA tournament. It gets them some national TV exposure and also gives them an extra game against a good team, which they can use to help show the tournament selection committee that they deserve an NCAA bid. For instance, Vermont was selected to play in Bracket Buster Saturday last year before going on to upset Syracuse in the NCAA tournament first round.

Normally, this would be a really good thing. The problem, howver, is that Siena is going to stink this year. They were only picked because ESPN has a contract with the MAAC and all the teams in the league are going to be in bracket buster Saturday. Siena might have a record like 3-19 when this game rolls around. Then they'll have to play one of the best mid-major teams in the country, on national TV. Great. That should boost recruiting.

And trust me, they have no chance in this game. Remember, Vermont was one of the best mid-majors in the country last year, and they lost their bracketbuster game. The only saving grace is that not all the selected teams will play on ESPN. Some games will not be televised. Say an extra Our Father on that one, ye Siena faithful.

UAlbany, on the other hand, might well benefit from a bracket buster game. They are predicted to be the best team in the America East conference this year, and they could certainly stand to benefit from some national exposure. Good for them.

Colonie rec center...

2005-09-16T05:11:00.000-05:00

You knew there was a catch: I've been excited for a while about the new recreation center that the Colonie Youth Center is planning to build in The Crossings park on Albany-Shaker road. They have been planning it for a while, and just yesterday they secured the final loan that they needed to go ahead with construction. The place just sounds cool:

With an aquatics complex that officials say will be unique in upstate New York, one of the center's most novel attractions will be a variable-depth pool capable of changing from zero to 6-feet deep and creating "slow, gentle" ocean-like waves. The complex will also have a three-loop, 20-foot high water slide, a lazy river that ambles along at 3 mph, a four-lane lap pool, an indoor running and walking track, a spa, and two full gyms for hosting basketball, volleyball, soccer, lacrosse and softball.

Awesome. Alas, the place is being built with private money by a private group (the CYC is not associated with the town) and thus there will be serious membership fees. Real serious:

Access to the facility will be on a membership basis. A family membership, for anyone who lives at that address, will cost $848 a year. Individual membership will cost $425 a year, $375 for a senior, and $580 for a senior couple. Youth memberships, for kids 11-15, will cost $215 annually, or $250 for high school or college students between 16 and 18.

That's not cheap. It's probably enough to price me and SJC out of the running. Now, it's not outrageous - any gym membership is going to cost you at least a couple hundred a year anyway - but it's still a lot more than I expected. I don't think they are going to have an over-subscriber problem, although they are prepared for quite a crowd:

Burns said membership will not be limited to just Colonie residents, and the facility can handle membership by about 3,900 households, or about 10,000 people.

I wonder if they will sell that many memberships? As Lebrun would say, I guess we'll have to watch and find out.

Lebrun again...

2005-09-16T04:08:00.000-05:00

Jekyll and Hyde: Fred Lebrun, making a surprisingly sensible remark in his column in today's Times Union:

[Goodbee] concentrated on the downtown minority wards for his support...In a city that may not be thrilled with its mayor these days, but isn't seriously discontented with him either, that is not going to be a winning strategy. So Goodbee carried the wards he set his sights on...and lost the other 12. So what was he thinking? That the Soares lightning would strike twice just because? Politics doesn't happen that way, not in Albany anyway...Soares upset Paul Clyne in a primary precisely because he did present a compelling alternative, and because what he had to say resonated with the majority of those who voted. He did just fine uptown.

I think that's an important part of the story here. Goodbee was a good reflection of a rising political interest in the city, but it's not yet mobilized into a coalition that can win the mayorship by brute force. It either needs to grow in strength or attract more uptown voters.

A few paragraphs later, Lebrun returns to his usual form:

So now Jerry Jennings has only the enemy within to worry about as far as the history books are concerned. Ah, the legacy thing. The enemy within is his state of mind, his committment and enthusiasm for the job. Boredom.

Hey Lebrun, stop doodling on your notebook and pay attention to the teacher. Oh, and then he ends with this junior high school style essay closer:

An old adversary of the mayor's once sagely observed taht Jerry Jennings is at his best in confrontation, when he's at war, when he has an opponent. Even a lightweight like Archie Goodbee.

But how will he do when the only opponent of any consequence is himself? I guess we'll have to watch and find out.

Congratulations Fred, you just got a B on your 7th grade social studies essay. [it's not like your writing is superb everyday-ed. Yeah, but it's not like i'm getting paid by the paper of record.]

2005-09-15T08:29:00.000-05:00

Brave new world: The new Times-Union high school sports blogs are up. So far there are only two blogs - one by a sophmore tennis player at Chatham and one by a junior football player at Rensselaer. It's not clear if these two were chosen in a competetive process, or if only two people signed up for fall sports blogging. The writing seems acceptable right now; it remains to be seen if the access that the writers have to their sports teams can be converted into compelling reads.

Usually, to make a blog "work," you need a seductive angle to the journalism. [what's yours - anti-urban cynicism?-ed. I was thinking more "local pop-culturalist." Keep dreaming. -ed. Shut up.] Clearly, the easiest way to do that is through the up close access these writers have to the sports teams. But high school sports is most compelling when either 1) the reader personally knows the team or 2) the team is very good. Absent either of those, you need something else. So we'll see how they do.

One thing the TU doesn't seem to be doing is allowing much creativity in blog design. Both blogs are visually identical. They have comments, categories, and small bios of the writers. And it looks like the posts will come out on a daily or every other day basis. Kudos to the TU for getting the ball rolling with this. Hopefully, both design creativity, and the number of blogs, will expand in the future.

As I've said before, I'm going to try and write at TU blog about Shaker basketball this winter.[and what the heck is your compelling angle? -ed. I've got a few months to figure that out, thanks.] I hope they still want people who don't currently play high school sports.

UAlbany farce...

2005-09-14T18:24:00.000-05:00

Well, good luck to you, sir: SUNY-Albany has just created a new position - the Vice President for Student Sucess. Now that sounds like a cushy position, especially since the salary is 185 large. But before you consider applying, note this aspect of the job description:

Building a successful college career isn't just about grades -- it's about becoming part of a community, University at Albany officials say.

So on Monday, the school announced plans to turn its student affairs department into a division that covers both academics and town-gown relations.

Good lord, that's not my idea of fun. I mean, I hope James Anderson - the man hired for the job - spent some time downtown on a Friday night before he signed up for the gig. He might just be in for a rude awakeing, especially since he is making statements like this:

UAlbany, he said, is just two or three years away from reaching the "national limelight."Anderson talked of finding ways for classroom learning to stretch off campus.

Those are some pretty lofty goals. Then again, maybe by "national limelight" he means getting back that top national party-school status that they just recently lost. And perhaps "stretching the learning" has to do with teaching students not to leave trash everywhere.

Don't get me wrong, I'd take the job for the cool 185 large ~~they~~ we the taxpayers are going to pay Mr. Anderson to do it. But you got to believe he's going to be earning that cash, especially if he manages to show some improvements.

Primary Results

2005-09-14T05:56:00.000-05:00

Too Goodbee to be true: Well, the primaries are over. It was pretty predictable. The TU headline - Jennings easily takes mayoral race - is technically true, but also a completely disingenuous spin on the story. Sure, Jennings got 68% and that's more than he's gotten in either of his previous primaries. But the last two were against Harold Joyce and Jack McEneny, serious politicos with serious cash and serious campaigns. Did Goodbee even run a campaign?

As I said Monday, less than 75% should be considered a wake-up call for Jennings and less than 65% would be an unmitigated disaster for him. He fell between those ranges. I mean, come on - the obvious story in this primary is that Albany's political culture is rapidly changing. A real candidate, who had the backing of hte WFP might have been able to pull a Soares on Jennings. I have no doubt that the Jennings coalition is going to fall apart in 2009, probably to the benefit of the progressive movement.

On the other hand, it wasn't like Jennings and the establishment rolled over. Dewitt flamed out against Barnette, and the Common Council was not overhauled very much. In fact, the results made DIA mad enough to head dangerously close to a "if the voters are this stupid, then they get what they deserve" response to the results here:

As far as Barnette, I can only say to all you taxpayers ...suckers ...my lord ...I'm really stunned on that one...

That's not a great thing to say in a democratic system. It's an expected response when people are frustrated with democratic results, but it's ultimately counterproductive. It's similar to the attitude that crippled the national Republican party in the 1960's and is probably harming the national Democrcatic party right now - the idea that the people are simply too stupid and/or too stuborn to see the light and that, ultimately, if they want to be that dumb there is nothing the philosopher king can do about it.

This kind of thinking tends to do wierd things to a party. The 60's Republicans became bitter and defeatist; the current Democrats have adopted a bunker mentality, looked for hope toward the non-democratic institutions (like courts), and have become more radical. Neither formulation is a good one if you are looking for future electoral success. Whatever the merits of your philosophical cause, it's just political suicide to tell the voters how dumb they are after they reject it.

It's an easy impulse in politics to trash the intelligence of the voters - nothing is more frustrating than losing when you believe that your candidate/ideology is obviously superior - but it's not a productive attitude to bring to the table. You end up a cynic, and usually in an echo-chamber. I've been there.

DIA can be forgiven the day after an election; I just hope he/she returns to a more productive posture sooner rather than later. I'm sure he/she will.

Giesel was abused!

2005-09-14T04:48:00.000-05:00

The Predicatable Kinsella: After Beth Geisel pleaded not guilty yetserday, her lawyer David Kinsella finally came up with the defense I predicted almost 6 weeks ago: Beth Geisel was abused as a child. As reported by WRGB:

Kinsella says both of her parents were alcoholics and there was a history of violence in the home.

Well then. She obviously has problems. It may not seem like it, but i'm starting to feel bad for Geisel.

But not that bad. Let's get this trial going.

UPDATE (9/16/05): Welcome Captial Region People readers! If you'd like to see my full collection of Giesel-related posts, they are documented at the bottom of this recent post.

Go vote...

2005-09-13T05:08:00.000-05:00

Today's the day: Regardless of which primary candidates you support, I would encourage you to vote today if there is a race in your town. Heck, if you live in the city of Albany and you're a Democrat, go ahead and vote three or four times, and bring your dog to vote too.

If you just can't be bothered, consider this: a few years back, my wife and I forgot to vote in the county legislature election, and the guy we would have voted for lost by 2 votes. I wouldn't say that it ruined my day, but it certainly was a weird feeling.

Then again, I can't even remember who the candidate was, so it obviously hasn't affected me long-term.

More importanly, it might be the case that if you do go vote, you might help defeat some idiot by 1 or 2 votes. I spent years hoping my individual vote would bring down Bob Prentiss. Very satsifying.

2005-09-13T04:34:00.000-05:00

Inquiring minds: want to know why would you subscribe to Capital Region Living? While perusing their circuliation numbers, I noticed that a subscription to the print edition is $18 for the year, which is twelve issues. Now, it's not a bad magazine, by any means. In fact, I glance at it once in a while. But I read it online, where you can get the full content of the magazine for free. Oh wait, you say, what about people who don't like reading on a computer, or who prefer to have the physical magazine in front of them, or just like being able to see the pictures? Well, not only can you read it online, but you can pick up a copy for free at "over 500 locations" including "every Price Chopper and Hannaford" in the capital district.

P.S. I dont' want to pump the magainze up too much. They did include this clunker article this month about finding "time in your life to date" which includes such tips as "turning off your cell phone," "use a crockpot," and "don't make your bed," presumably because that will save you time that you could spend dating. I suppose the bed advice might save you some time at the end of a date, although probably not, given that you're getting dating tips from CRL.

P.P.S. Then again, I don't want to dump on the magazine too much. Sure, it's a little disingenuous to call itself the area's "premier magainze," but it does have some decent features, like this article on local chefs. And i thought the saratoga guide last month was decent. [Don't you occasionally call Oh, SmAlbany! the area's premier blog?-ed. I would never use that terminology. But you do think it's true?-ed. Shut up.]

REVIEW: Courtney's Pizza

2005-09-13T04:27:00.000-05:00

REVIEW: Courtney's Pizza: Had dinner last night here ($$, 1, 87), located on Old Loudon Road about 1/4 mile from the Latham Circle. It's a small place, with maybe 10 tables and a bar that is separated from the dining area by a partial wall. There are numerous TV's around with sports on, but it doesn't feel like a sports bar. The walls are decorated with Adirondack pictures and the tables are glass top with moose-print tablecloths. It something like a cross between a sport's bar and a family pizza shack. The food is pretty good, excellent considering the price. There is a good selection of exotic pizzas - we had a large mottzarella pizza with Ricotta cheese and fresh tomatoes (12 slices), a large salad that we split, and two cokes. The total bill was $19. The rest of the menu is varied Italian fare, plus the usual pub food like Buffalo wings. They appear to have NFL Sunday ticket if you are looking for out of town games. Overall, a quick and tasty stop. Virtually no one there on the weeknights. Delivery available to the local area..

The TU loves SmAlbany!

2005-09-12T12:17:00.000-05:00

The TU's blogroll: Is Rex Smith reading Oh, SmAlbany? I don't know. But his editorial column in Saturday's TU gave me the errie sensation that I was reading my own writing. [Do you mean because it was an ego-stroking piece full of self-congratulation?-ed. I hadn't been thinking along those lines, but I guess that's true too.] Consider this passage from Smith's editorial:

I first heard the term "Smallbany," and it came from a guy who had spent his whole life here. Not surprising, I thought. Hometowns always seem a bit worn when you look at them too long.

Does that sound familiar? Oh yes, it sounds alot like my opening paragraph in the FAQ definiton of SmAlbany:

The word "SmAlbany" is certainly of unknown origin, but most people who grow up around here encounter it for the first time when they are about 16. Invariably, one of their friends decides that "this town stinks" and that "there's nothing to do here." At that moment, someone will either recall having heard the term "SmAlbany" from an older sibling, or they will "invent" it themsevles.

Not plagaurism, but errily similar. And then there's this, again from Smith's piece:

But it already struck me as a bum rap...This is a great place.

Heading back over to the intro to my FAQ:

And it's why people stay in Albany...[t]hat's the big secret: This place is great.

Geez. Now that seems like a heck of a coincidence.

Look - I doubt that the editors and powers that be at the TU are reading my blog. And I'm positive they aren't plagaurising it. But you'd think that an editorial that both used the term SmAlbany (even if he used the less-interesting "two L" spelling) and made the same general point about how this area really isn't a bad place would at least throw me a bone over here while making the point. [I knew this whole post was just a ploy to get some publicity.-ed. I resent that accusation. And also a sucker-punch at Smith for not mentioning your blog in his column.-ed. Ok, you caught me.]

Geisel Redux

2005-09-12T04:58:00.001-05:00

The blackout defense: You knew the Geisel case was coming to this! After her indictment by a grand jury last Friday, Geisel's lawyer, Thomas Kinsella, hinted at yet another twist in the ongoing series of trial-balloon-defenses. First, it was strictly "blame the booze." Then it was blackmai l. And now it's that she doesn't remember the sex and/or she was physically coerced into it?!?:

Attorney Donald Kinsella says his client is an alcoholic who needs help, not jail time.

He said Geisel claims she was forced to have sex with the 16-year-old on the first occasion and witnesses testified before the grand jury about her bruises.

She said she doesn't remember the other incidents.

"She's not a sex offender," Kinsella said. "She has an alcohol problem."

Emphasis mine. Holy crap! Why the hell is the TU burying this paragraph - it's got to be the lead! Claims of physical coercion...but wait, didn't Kinsella explicitly deny that back in August, hinting at blackmail and away from physical coercion? Oh well, it's not like her defense has ever been consistent!

Ok, to sum up, Geisel's defense now looks something like this:

1) I have a drinking problem which
2) Led me to be drinking during school and on field trips and that
3) some students found out about my problem and blackmailed me to
4) buy them booze, which i reluctantly did, but then they
5) escalated the blackmail to sexual activity, which i consented to with
6) the students who were 17 (legal), but then they continued
7) the blackmail and physically forced me(?) to have sex with a 16-year old,
8) at which point I had totally lost it and was drinking even more, and thus
9) I don't even remember the other sexual incidents, including
10) having sex in the CBA football field's annoucing booth. So
11) therefore I'm not a criminal, just an alcoholic.

Wow. Am I missing anything? What a ridiculous leap-of-faith! Are we really supposed to buy this? I just don't see how you can mesh all of Kinsella's statements and not come to this accumulated defense. It's like they triangulated in on a story - no matter how implausible - that could proclaim total innocence. Is there any other possible way for the defense to explain away all of this case? Hey - juries believe a lot of things!

P.S. Isn't this a risky strategy? If the jury doesn't buy it, don't they come down a lot harder on you for making up such wild stuff? Just asking!

P.P.S. I think Soares managed to keep his foot out of his mouth in the latest news cycle - he simply disputed Kinsella's claims:

"The law states that someone under the age of 17 cannot legally consent to engage in sex with an adult," Soares said. "We see the case as that of a person who should have known better."
The students were not charged with crimes because nothing indicates they exerted force or coercion, Soares said.

Good job, David. And thanks for getting an indictment so that we can get this thing to a public courthouse!

P.P.P.S Here's a recap of every major and semi-major previous Geisel post I've done. Enjoy:

August 1 - The New York Post takes this thing national.
August 3 - But your honor, I was drunk.
August 4 - No sex tape yet.
August 8 - The TU's disasterous coverage of Geisel.
August 9 - Here's come the phantom journalist.
August 11 - New twists: field trips and blackmail.
August 12 - Soares takes on the bloggers.
August 22 - Soares puts his foot back in his mouth.
August 19 - Geisel gets arrested again.
September 5 - Geisel, Soares, witnesses.

Primary day...

2005-09-12T04:53:00.000-05:00

Election,er...primary day: Well, it's no secret that the Democratic party primaries - coming tomorrow to a ward near you - are the real elections in most Albany races. Thrilling coverage of the names and ages of the council candidates in the Times Union. [It's not like you've been doing anything speical in terms of coverage.-ed. Yeah, but i'm not the supposed paper of record around here. You act like you are.-ed. Shut up.] While we may or may not see some surprising results in the council races, the mayor's race is basically a question of how much Jennings will win by. But that's an important question! If he gets less than 75-80% of the vote, I think that's a political loss for him, and less than 65% would be an unmitigated disaster for his political capital in the city. It's funny how elections do more than just pick winners, but they do. A weak re-election (or a re-election by a margin smaller than expected) lets all the politicos know that it's safe to attack.** And that's important in politics!

P.S. This is all doubly true since Jennings is basically going to be a lame duck anyway for the next four years. One truism of politics is that as soon as people can see when your power will end, they stop doing favors for you and start looking for ways to position themselves in the coming new power structure. That's why presidents lose power in Washington during their second term, why lifetime bureaucrats and entrenched Congressmen don't get too attached or beholden to any president, and why mayors should generally refrain from announcing the end of their career four years ahead of time. It won't be more than a 12-18 months before the backbiting and power games begin, and that's within Jennings own circle!

P.P.S. Even though Albany Eye says you have to go online to find the Jennings campaign ads, I saw one on channel 6 during Meet the Press Sunday. Unimpressive! He's not even that tan...

**This is for a few reasons. First, they have less fear of the voters wrath in their own reelection or future runs for office. If you attack the most popular leader ever, the voters remember it and punish you. If you attack someone who's down, they don't care. Second, you don't have to fear political losses as much. Voters hate losers, so it's dangerous to oppose a guy when it's likely he will win many of the policy and power struggles. But a weak election means many people will be attacking, and thus it's less likely for him to win a policy battle, and thus less likley you look like a loser in public! It's a kind of herd mentality.

Losers parade...

2005-09-09T10:34:00.000-05:00

Basement Party: I'm surprised they are going to show their faces, but apparently you can meet with Siena's basketball team this Tuesday evening outside the Pepsi Arena. As I've written before, they have no chance of a winning season. I previously have stated that 12 wins would be a huge positive this year but, all things considered, I now think 10 wins would be simply amazing. Such is life when your best player is hurt, all your prospects leave, and you weren't any good before anyway.

The only question is how low the attendance goes down at the arena by March. I'll set the over under at 4900/game for February (although that includes the hordes of season-ticekt seats that will have been paid for, but empty.)

TU high school sports?

2005-09-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

Dropping the ball: All week long the TU has been doing its daily previews of various high school sports: cross-country, soccer, etc. And they've been promising that on Friday they would do "other sports." I took this to mean that we'd get coverage of golf, field hockey, crew, swimming, and tennis. I was actually looking forward to it. So you can imagine my shock when I opened up the paper today and found just one short article by Bill Arsenault, about the Burnt Hills girls volleyball team.

What gives, TU sports? I hope the "focused coverage" you are promising for high school sports starting next week isn't as disappointing as today's preview. The TU has really been hyping it's expanded coverage of this stuff as part of the revamping of both the print and online paper. So far, I can only classify it as a disappointment - like why are you moving all the boxscores and such to "online only." But i'm willing to hold judgement for a bit longer. I just want to see some results. Right now it just looks like the same crappy coverage repackaged in a new way.

P.S. And when are those high school sports blogs starting up? [you seem to care quite a bit about high school sports? -ed. You have to, given Siena's prospects this year.]

2005-09-09T09:17:00.000-05:00

A republic, not a democracy: Charter reform is dead for this year. Honestly, I can't get all in a twist about it like some people can. It's not like this was landmark change. And it's not like it was a huge favorite to pass the voters either. Furthermore, it's not like the common council isn't a democratic body - they can be voted out of office if people don't like their stance on reform. And besides, if the ACA has the citizen support it claims, then the normal democratic process of elections will see that they achieve their goals eventually. You can't hope to govern through initiative and referenda. Eventually, any movement must turn to candidate production and electoral victory. Personally, I would have voted to put it on the ballot, but it's disingenuous to call this an undemocratic result. The elected representatives of the people are at least as important as a 3500 person petition. At any rate, I've said it before - losing in this manner may be the best thing that could have happened to the ACA/Progressive movment.

But on it's face, the score at the end of one inning: Jennings 1, ACA 0. [But they did get a few hits.-ed Sure, just nothing with runners in scoring position. And it looks like the opposing pticher is tiring quickly-ed. That seems true. Agreed. And they have a great farm team...just wait till next year! -ed. Enough already.]

In other political news, the TU endorsed Morris for CC president (yawn) and the Albanyeye is laughing at (lamenting?) Goodbee (and discussing Albany Toast!).

Weak endorsement...

2005-09-08T13:59:00.000-05:00

I mean, thanks, but..: I don't think you'll ever see a less enthusiastic endorsement of a candidate than this TU editorial today supporting Betty Barnette for city Treasurer:

How good a treasurer is Mrs. Barnette? It's hard to say, actually. What's much clearer is the turf-conscious nature she brings to the job. Four years ago, her storied clash with then-Albany Comptroller Nancy Burton culminated with her rival's resignation from city government. Mrs. Barnette dismisses that ugly incident with an insistence that the resulting dysfunction in City Hall was entirely Ms. Burton's fault. Few who recall those years clearly would agree.

Remember, that was all about the candidate they are supporting! Of course, they have their reasons not to like Barnette's opponent, Ward Dewitt:

It's very hard, however, to support Mr. DeWitt for a job that involves managing tens of millions of dollars of other people's money. His campaign for treasurer is undermined by a record of mortgage payments on his own house that's spotty at best...Mr. DeWitt has been associated with institutions that have had fiscal and management problems -- the Martin Luther King Institute and Commission for Nonviolence in its waning days -- when, he says, it was too late to reverse course -- and the New Covenant charter school in Albany in its early days. Those experiences don't recommend him for treasurer.

Well, that clears things up, I guess. Each candidate has their faults, to be sure. But since when do you endorse a candidate just for the sake of endorsing a candidate? Hey Rex, incoming memo: you don't have to endorse anyone if you don't want to. P.S. Inexplicably, the Times Union doesn't see Dewitt's faults as precluding him from other types of political office:

He'd do well to consider another run for another office.

Say what? I mean, come one. That's just high comedy. We don't think you're trustworthy enough with money to be treasurer, but how about a different political office?

Ahh, TU - you've done it again.

Charter reform redux

2005-09-08T12:17:00.001-05:00

Let's get ready to rumble: So tonight the Albany Common Council is set to have a vote on whether or not to put the charter reform initiative on the november ballot, after it gained a new lease on life in the state court system. As you may recall, a citizens petition was completed (and then held up in a court battle) that would give the city voters an opportuinty to reform the city charter in November through a ballot vote. The reforms would marginally reduce the mayor's power in favor of the city council in a few administrative areas of governance. Now the council must approve the petition as a final step to getting it on the ballot. If they approve, the voters will vote on the reforms in November, with a bare majority needed for passage.

I don't have a whole lot to add - i've already said my peace on the substance and the politics before - my thoughts on strong mayors vs. strong city councils and how this might be a classic political win-through-losing situation (also here).

I guess I don't think the proposed charter reforms are substantively bad ideas - in fact I think at the end of the day this is rather much ado about nothing, at least on the merits of the substantive changes in power distribution between the council and the mayor. But i'm always skeptical of any monkeying with the institutions of government for political purposes. As I've written before, there are good and bad aspects to having a strong mayor. There are also good and bad aspects of having popular participation in the form of ballot intiatives. [why haven't you written about that?-ed. This isn't my day job. What do you do?-ed. Shut up.] But it is worrisome to me when people are changing institutions not because the institutions are bad, but because they dislike the people within the institutions. That's what happening here. People don't want to reduce the mayor's power, they want to reduce Jennings' power. And that makes me a skeptic, just as I'm skeptical of the Clifton Park redistricting, though i think it's a good idea substantively.

But, realistically, political philosophy has nothing to do with this anymore (despite the pleas on both sides) - this is a sheer test of wills between a controlling political faction and a rising one. The political stakes have long since dwarfed the ramifications of the institutional changes. But it sure is fun to watch! It is also important to remember that this is an insanely complicated political thicket. There are at least four layers: how you feel about the substantive changes philosophically, how you feel about the initiative method of changing things, how you feel about the likely political results of the changes, and (if you are a current politician) how you think supporting/opposing the measure will help or hurt your own fortunes. Throw in the possibility of strategic voting (i.e. vote yes tonight at the council meeting because you think the measure will fail in November and you want to bury its proponents) and it just becomes crazy.

If you'd like to enter the fray, jump on over to Democracy in Albany, where you can get the pro-reform side of things, and also read an anti-reform letter from Jack McEneny.

It certainly has been fascinating to see the political cogs-a-grinding downtown. I wonder what old Dan O'Connell is thinking right now?

Of wards and at-larges

2005-09-07T05:37:00.001-05:00

Of wards and at-large seats: Ok, political science 101 returns. Today's lesson is about the different ways you can divide up a geographic area into districts for electing a legislature. I bring this up because Democrats in Clifton park are trying to get an initiative on the November ballot that would shift the town from a 5 person town board elected at-large to a 5 person town board with 4 wards and 1 at-large supervisor. Let's start with the basics:

1) How you draw the lines is philospohically important, part I: Once upon a time, people who believed in democrcacy thought that geographic regions deserved equal representation, so local election lines were often drawn to match county lines or to give different areas of a town equal representation, based on things like traditional neighborhoods or types of commerce in an area. In the 20th century, it became common belief that individuals should have equal representation, so lines are usually now drawn such that the same number of people live in each district.

2) How you draw the lines is philosophically important, part II: The question in this case, however, isn't one of equal individual representation. It is a question of the part vs. the whole. At-large districting is the practice of electing all of the representatives from one big district (i.e. the whole town votes for the whole board), such that each representative has the same constituency. Imagine if everyone in New York State got to vote for all of our Congressmen. That's at-large districting, and it was very common in the 19th century. Many states did indeed use this method for selecting their Congressmen back then - if the state had 7 members in Congress, then there were state-wide votes for 7 different races (note that you could use a "top-7" system in which there was one race and the top 7 vote getters won, but no state every used that). Ward districting, or just districting for short, is the practice of sub-dividing states or towns into distinct parcels for the purpose of elections. This is how every state now picks their Congressmen, and how almost all cities hold elections for city council. It became popular in the early 19th century in America and is very common today. Albany, for example, has a ward system for common council elections. Only the mayor is chosen by an at-large vote of the city residents.

What are the advantages of at-large districting? There are three distinct advantages: first, you tend to produce better representatives in terms of candidate quality, since there are simply more people to choose from for each race. Second, the people who win elections tend to represent the whole, instead of just a factional part of the town. Their interests lie with their constituency, and their constiuency is the whole town, not just one neighborhood. Third, you don't have to deal with the political mess of drawing ward lines, but more on that below.

What are the advantages of ward-based districting? Again, at least three advantages: First, localities can be better represented, particularly if they have strong preferences that are different than the rest of the legislative area. Secondly, politicians who are elected can be more in touch with their communities because they represent a smaller area and a smaller number of people. And finally, you avoid the political mess of having a party with a slim-majority across the whoe region dominating the town board or legislature, but more on that below.

3) How you draws the lines is politically very important: Most people have a sense of this from past national debates about gerrymandering congressional lines. But consider a town with the following dynamics: four distinct areas of town, all equal in population. In one area, it is 90% Republican and 10% democrat. In the other three areas, it is 53% Democrat and 47% Republican. Under a system of ward representation, we would get 3 Democrats and 1 Republican (plus a republican supervisor if that was chosen at-large). But if we did at-large voting for all the seats, we would get 4 Republicans and no Democrats! (Plus a Republican superivisor if that was chosen at large). So you can obviously see how the drawing of the lines is crucial to the outcome of the board elections. If you think about it for a bit, it can be a bit scary. And that's what's going on in Clifton Park. The Republicans have a slight edge overall in the town, so they wan't at-large seats. The Democrats probably have slim majorities in several sections of town, so they want a ward system so that they can get some representation on the board.

But wait, it gets worse! Go back to our hypothetical 4-ward town. But put the republicans in control of drawing the lines. By putting a portion of the 90% republican ward into each of the other wards, the republicans can win all the seats without resorting to at-large districting! This is why the line drawing for the congressional districts is so hotly contested. It's not simply a matter of wards vs. at-large, it also matters how the lines are drawn in the ward system!

P.S. - As I've noted before in detail, it's often the case in a democracy that institutional change of this sort is desired because of political goals of factions or parties, not because of any philosophical interest in the merits of the change.That's exactly the case here - neither party really cares about the districting system, they just both know that they can do better politically under one of the two systems, so that's what they support. Take this for example, a prominent Democrat extolling the virtues of the ward system if it came to Clifton Park:

Democrats contend the system, which would divide the region's second most populous town into four geographic wards, would give better local representation in Clifton Park's growing suburban neighborhoods.

True enough, but that's not why they support it. For this reason, I'm very hesitant to monkey with the institutional rules. Although in the case of town boards, I think a ward system is philosophically better.

Cermak on track...

2005-09-07T05:37:00.000-05:00

Cermak on NYRA: Marv Cermak's "covering Schenectady" column in today's TU asks why NYRA lets 150 trackside parking spots at the track sit fallow everyday in August, when they could be making $10 a pop and be cutting a bit into their ginormous financial defecit. A better question is why did they shift the general admission lots to being free, when they could be making $2 a pop on thousands of cars a day? [An even better question is why is Cermak writing about this now instead of the first week in August, when it was relevant?-ed. And an even better one is why is this obviously blog-level story being covered in the papers? That's my turf you're standing on, Mr. Cermak! And still better is why are you still trying to squeeze out track-related posts at this late date? -ed. Ok. Shut up.]

Campaign Signs...

2005-09-07T04:02:00.000-05:00

Sign of the times (union): Communities TU runs a story today about the Burma-Shave-esque lawn signs being used by Craig Waltz in the 8th ward race for the Common Council. A few points:

point #1: What a classic no-content campaign story by the TU! They use, what, almost 35 inches and the only actual information we get about the campaign is that it's a) an open seat race being contested by three people and b) Mayor Jennings has endorsed John Rosenzweig. That's it. Now, I know that very few people care about the 8th ward race, but couldn't the TU at least let people know something about the candidates? [don't we now know that Waltz is a little kooky? -ed. Because he got a bit too creative? No, because he said "lawn spam." -ed. Fair enough.] Yes, the Burma-shave signs are fun and psuedo-creative, but let's remember here that they are part of a campaign, not just some summer fair spectacle.

point #2: I'm not so sure about the signs as a campaign gimmick. They definitely attract attention, good. But they also make you seem a bit silly, bad. They get your name out, good. But they also make your camapign seem something less than serious, bad. From a machiavellian win-at-all-costs viewpoint, it might be a clever calculated risk: if you have little or no chance of winning otherwise, you might as well go for something like this. I'm not so sure about Waltz's explanation of the signs, either:

We wanted to avoid the usual lawn spam. They just clutter things up. We decided we needed to bring some fun back to politics.

Seems more likely that he had no money for real signs and making a homemade sign with your name on it just looks pathetic. But I love the effort. I will, however, resist the temptation to write a quick stanza as part of this post. [Coward.-ed. It's 5:30 in the morning, please.]

point #3: Wasn't Democracy in Albany on top of this like four weeks ago?

More on Jennings...

2005-09-07T03:51:00.000-05:00

Speaking of DIA...: I got in a bit of a tiff with him/her yesterday after DIA posted this response to my recent post about Jennings' plan to step down after the next term.

Backfill: I casually remarked that I "was no Jennings-hater" and that "It's hard to see Albany as worse off than it was 12 years ago." This unleashed a torrent of attacks on my point of view from the DIA faithful, some legitimate and some a bit ad homenim. Read through the posts, it certainly reveals how deep the Jennings hatred is among some.

In my defense, a few points:

point #1: Even if it is true that Jennings is only helping out certain parts of the city, that would still mean that he's doing something for the city. This goes counter to the notion that "he's done nothing for Albany." No, he has done something, he just hasn't had the agenda that some people want him to have. I don't think anyone honestly evaluating Albany can say the city as a whole has gone backwards in the last 12 years. If you want to argue that certain parts of the city have been neglected, fair criticism. I'll even back you up on it. But remember - 20 years ago those same parts of the city were being neglected and the city as a whole was going the wrong direction.

point #2: I never even meant to light the fire I did. Truth be told, I don't think Jennings is a particularly good mayor. I simply think he'll be hard to run out of office because he's done enough good things to keep him in there. And that's the truth of city politics - to beat an incumbent takes either a firestorm of political activism or a really bad screw up from the man in office. The main point of my original post was that Jennings was getting out of the way in four years. Maybe because he sees the firestorm coming. Maybe not. But either way, 2009 is going to be a grand opportunity for those seeking change to achieve it.

point #3: The class warriors are out in full force! At various points in the post and comments I'm told that a) I couldn't understand the problems of the city because I was from the suburbs, b) that obviously i held my point of view because of my socioeconomic class and c) everyone who doesn't live in the city supports Jennings, ostensibly because of (a) and (b). I think all three of these statements are rather rash and opportunisitic - would they really be said if I hated Jennings and was pontificating on that? I can understand and discuss city politics without living there. People without kids discuss education policy and people without houses discuss property taxes. Why? It directly affects their lives! The same with Albany city politics - it directly affects my life! Sure, I can't vote in the city elections and I don't live downtown, but Albany - believe it or not - is a metropolis, and city politics is crucial to everyone in the metropolis. That city politics should somehow be the domain of people who simply live downtown is silly. You can't simply exclude people who disagree with you from the debate. It's hackish. P.S. Be careful what you wish for! Class warfare is often not the best dimension to fight politics along. Pretty soon you might get what you perceive - no one in the suburbs will support you! And that simply isn't the case right now...

I hope our little tiff results in some more debate, of the constructive kind. God knows we don't get it in the newspapers...

Dress codes...

2005-09-06T04:56:00.000-05:00

"Pointy hair so sharp it could hurt someone": Ah, a new academic year and a new round of revamped dress codes in the local high schools. These articles are always just so good for a laugh. We'll start with the problems in Ravena:

Administrators added one more item to the list of banned clothing: pajamas.

"We can't have kids wearing lingerie or pajama bottoms or slippers to school," said RCS district spokesman Michael McCagg.

Of course you can't. Although you'd probably be wishing the kids were shopping at Victoria's Secret if you had this apparent problem at Burnt Hills:

But Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake district spokeswoman Christy Multer added a few other things to that list: pointy hair so sharp it could hurt someone, dog collars, chains that could catch on to something. These, she said, are safety hazards.

Nice. But before you going blaming the parents, consider this revelation:

Some kids also try to bamboozle their parents by wearing one outfit out the door and changing into another when they get to school, McCagg said. The dean of students has seen kids wearing three outfits in one day.

Three outfits? I guess when your pajamas counts as one of them, it's not that tough. Then again, the schools have probably made it hard on themselves in some ways:

[The] list of what you can't wear includes a lot of stuff you'd expect: clothes promoting the use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs; shorts and skirts shorter than mid-thigh; midriff-revealing tops; two-piece bathing suits at the pool.

I understand the impulse against the alcohol, tobacco, and drug-wear, but it doesn't really seem worthwhile to me to get all up in a twist about high school kids wearing a Budweiser t-shirt. And i certainly don't remember them worrying about it 10 years ago when i was in high school. Especially if kids are wearing lingerie to class. That's got to be a more urgent problem.

High School Sports

2005-09-06T04:28:00.000-05:00

Varsity Blues? Not at the TU!: Well, school starts tomorrow for most high schoolers around SmAlbany. And the TU seems to be making good on its intention to ramp up coverage of high school sports. There's a nice roundup of cross-country in today's paper, and the high school football coverage has been better than usual. The TU web section for high school sports has always been good, and it continues to be the best place to find out about stats, rosters, and schedules.

I'm still waiting to see how the TU blogger coverage of high school sports will be. It may or may not have started - i'll be damned if I can find any blogs on the website, although they continue to advertise it heavily. I suspect when it does get up and running that we'll find mostly cruddy coverage. But I also can imagine that there will be a few diamonds among the cow chips.

I actually signed up to write a blog about Shaker basketball this year [Do you suspect it will be a diamond or a cow chip? -ed. I'm sure you'll hate it. Why?-ed. Just a hunch.] It was something I was going to do anyway, and the TU outlet was as good as any, I figured. God knows we'll all need a diversion from Siena's train wreck this winter.

By total chance, I got my first interview last night.

I was grocery shopping in Latham, and I ran into Shaker's star center, 6' 11" senior Brad Sheehan, who is being recruited by national basketball powerhouses, and also happens to have a summer job working at the grocery store. So I took the opportunity to find out if he had settled on a college yet for next year. Rumor had it that Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Providence, and NC State were all in the running. Brad told me that he hadn't made any kind of decision yet, but that Georgia Tech was his current favorite. [And they say bloggers aren't real journalists - what a scoop!-ed. Give me a break, we were in the check-out line. But one little sorta-fact? That's it?-ed. I didn't want to bother the kid.] Maybe Paul Hewitt will start reading my blog this winter.

'Toga wrap-up

2005-09-06T04:13:00.000-05:00

Bag it, Tag it, Send it to the butcher: Another 'toga summer has come to an end. Overall, it looks like the Saratoga Race Course was down a bit this year. Overall attendance this year was down 3%, but on-track handle was up overall. A quick glance through the TU today will give you a multitude of good and not-so-good expalantions for this: Tim Wilkin thinks they should bag the final week of the season from now on and end the meet Travers weekend:

Keep the meet at six weeks but start a week earlier and end on the Monday after the Travers.That way, there are two days of racing left following the biggest race of the summer. And everyone goes home with that Travers high.

During the final week, some track restaurants closed, a lot of the help went back to school. Box seats were empty.It just seemed like the Summer Place to Be wasn't that. Saratoga should not be running races in September. That's when people are putting the covers on the swimming pools, sharpening the snow shovels, buying the school clothes for the kids.

Well said. The cap region section of the paper is blaming high gas prices:

High gas prices overwhelmed all other factors and brought attendance down, said Bill Nader, senior vice president of NYRA. "I thought about this a lot. Short-distance travelers still came, but those on the fringe may have come less frequently," Nader said. Increased ticket prices on Travers Day and a constant spotlight on NYRA's legal woes did not affect the numbers, Nader said. "Gasoline is a real tangible variable in the decision-making process. People can relate to that," Nader said.

I guess so. But wouldn't high gas prices reduce attendance and reduce the on-track handle? I assume that even people who do manage to come to the track figure real tangible variables into their expenses, no? [Shouldn't all this be another gas non-story from WNYT? -ed. You'd think so, but instead their running this insightful anti-conventional wisdom gas story...] I feel like "high gas prices" have become the "el nino" of 2005 - just blame anything that happens on it.

Of course, if they didn't move the Hopeful to Travers Day, they might have been able to cut down on post-Travers blues, which put an even greater than usual sag in attendance the last week:

Post-Travers malaise is a Saratoga standard, as top-shelf thoroughbreds and their owners leave town. Weary turf writers start counting the days to their departures.

On Monday, with just 21 reservations for the Carousel patio, a space that normally seats 600 to 800, track concession operator Centerplate stopped service and shifted diners to six other restaurants, regional vice president Mike Billows said.That meant early dismissal for a handful of Centerplate's 750 track employees. Bartenders staffed trackside taps alone rather than in pairs.

"It's been dead all meet," moaned one longtime bartender who asked that his name be withheld.

No job at 'toga is unaffected post-travers:

Low numbers didn't help bathroom attendants. No people, no tips, said Gladys Frere, a ladies room assistant for 26 years.

I doubt it helped that they raised admission prices for Travers Day, although it probably didn't have that much of an effect.

As usual, the track season went pretty smoothly. Things did get off to a bad start when the power went out opening day, costing NYRA some rediculous amount of lost on-track handle. But the track was pretty good - again, as usual - at quickly implementing patron suggestions when things did get rediculous. This year's key headache - the blanket day fiasco - will be alleviated next year by an EZ-Pass lane for patrons who don't want to spin. This was directly suggested jus weeks ago in a letter to the TU. Nice job, SRC.

The downtown scene was as alive as ever, although many people did note that the "trashiness" level had increased a notch over past years. I didn't mind. The revitalization of the IceHouse was a pleasant surprise, i suppose.

Ah, Saratoga. You did it again. We'll see you next year.

Clemens / Valley Cats...

2005-09-05T16:03:00.000-05:00

A poor man's Ron Guidry Night: I wasn't in town, but I'm not sure I would have gone over to the Valley Cat's game just to see Roger Clemens in the stands, as 5200 people did on Thursday night. Just seems a little bit too much of a stretch. My brother-in-law was surprised at the lack of coverage, espeically compared to RGN in 1986, but i actually thought it was overblown. The guy was just sitting in the stands. We're not that provincial here in SmAlbany. Then again, I wasn't in town. Maybe I'm just jealous I didn't get to go.

On the other hand, it is probably worth it to go over there and catch Koby Clemens before the season ends. That way you can give it the old "I saw him way back when" when he's in the majors. [Don't you do that all the time? -ed. Yes, that's why i suggested it. So that wasn't sarcastic?-ed. Take it how you want to.]

Jennings and political winds...

2005-09-05T15:17:00.000-05:00

2009 just heated up: Someone - let's just say he's got a really good tan - knows damn well how to read the tea leaves. Looks like the tanman is planning to get out right as the Democracy in Albany crowd is planning on getting in:

"Most likely, this will be my last term," Jennings, 57, told the Times Union's editorial board.

Not that I think the progressive coalition is necessarily going to win the mayor's office. But they'll certainly get the fight they want. Paging some moving trucks to get Soares a city address? Or not - The TU seems to think that there are obvious non-Soares front-runners:

Jennings didn't seem concerned about leaving no heir apparent. He said he is not backing any of the four candidates in the Democratic primary for Common Council president, a citywide post that is next in line to become mayor should the incumbent leave or otherwise be unable to serve.

A few points here about "heir apparents":

point #1: We don't have a whole lot of data to work with - since 1942, we've had exactly three mayors - Corning, Whalen, and Jennings. It's hard to justify using "heir apparent" language when you have no data. It's true that the Common Council president becomes mayor if the mayor is assassinated or dies, but that doesn't really speak to his/her political future. It's not like the vice-presidency of the United States is a particularly extraordinary stepping stone to the presidency. It's not - only 5 VP's have won presidential elections in 225 years.

point #2: Jennings himself was not the annointed candidate of the machine in 1993, Harold Joyce was. It may seem like Jennings represents a political machine, but it isn't the political machine. True, Jennings was common council president - but at the time it was the conventional wisdom that the "heir apparent" was not the common council president, but the hand-picked party man!

point #3: Albany politics is still in the denoument of the strong machine era. The political culture is changing at a rapid pace, and to try and predict the power posts and the power people based on anything from the past is rather silly. Here's a nice Metroland piece from a bit back on the slow fall of the machine over the past generation. Of course, if you want to see the machine in action, just get Oh, Albany! or Mayor Corning.

I guess my point is that there is absolutely no telling what is going to happen in 2009, except that it will be exciting. One theory is that a strong progressive coalition will finally re-open (or just "open") the door for the rise of two party politics in Albany, instead of a factional one-party system. I suspect that the stronger the progressive coalition, the more likely this becomes. And I guess that's something of which I would be in favor. I don't love the progressive coalition, but I admire their interest in shaking up city politics, which can only be for the better of everyone who is skeptical of a stagnating machine.

On the other hand, I'm no Jennings-hater either. He certainly has connected Albany to a endless slush-fund of state money, and I generally think his revitalization program for the city has been a positive. It's hard to see Albany as worse off than it was 12 years ago, and that counts for a lot.

But I guess the tanman doesn't want to go for the longevity record. Then again, he'd need another 25 years just to pull even with Erastus.

Geisel, Soares, and witnesses

2005-09-05T15:01:00.000-05:00

Geisel, Soares, and those mystery witnesses: So yes, it has come to fruition. Kinsella's early trial balloons of blackmail and victim status for Sandra Geisel have become a full-blown defense. As reported over the weekend in the TU:

A former Christian Brothers Academy teacher accused of raping a 16-year-old student waived immunity Friday, testifying for two hours that she was the true victim in the case, courthouse sources said.

Wearing a wrinkled black business suit, Sandra Beth Geisel, 42, came from the Albany County jail to voluntarily testify to the jury. In doing so, she gave up any protection against her testimony being used against her.

As you might imagine, Kinsella's spin-machine was on high:

"She testified about her situation," he said. "Alcohol is a very significant factor. She is an alcoholic."

Kinsella refused to confirm or discuss Geisel's defense strategy, nor would he comment on whether she has blamed her former students for the incidents during the last school year.

"That is a hypothetical question," Kinsella said. "Although you could infer that."

"It's a situation fueled by her alcoholic condition," he repeated. "Clearly, everyone involved in this was wrong. She's not interested in having these young men prosecuted for anything. She needs to be in rehab. But, right now she's in jail. And she's going to be there for a while."

Yawn. This isn't anything we didn't see coming - a predicatable outcome of a stalled grand jury and stalled negotiations between the DA and the defense. However, this was far more interesting:

An insider also said prosecutors learned Thursday that Geisel planned to claim she was a victim in the sexual scandal. Subsequently, prosecutors doubled the list of potential witnesses, resulting in the need for another day of testimony. Soares said testimony will continue next Friday.

Doubling the list of witnesses? Who does it make sense to pull in front of the grand jury now that Geisel is talking, but was useless to the case prior to her talking? I'm not sure, maybe the phantomjournalist? Unfortunately, for the first time in what seems like ages, P. David Soares is tight-lipped:

District Attorney David Soares would not discuss the matter.

I suppose that Soares now has the upper hand, with Geisel in jail and all. That really puts pressure on the defense to get a disposition, whereas beforehand they could have stalled and stalled as long as there was no indictment.

Impressive Katrina Donation

2005-09-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

This is impressive: A decent-sized donation to Hurricane relief in the Gulf from...the backstretch workers at the track! As the TU reports today :

Even though they need it for themselves, Saratoga Race Course backstretch workers gave the proceeds of a fund-raiser this weekend to hurricane relief efforts.

The contribution from the backstretch was about 40 percent of the nearly $14,000 WTEN Ch. 10 and the Red Cross raised Saturday and Sunday at the track. The organizations will continue to take contributions today.

All summer, Nick Caras, recreation director for the New York Racing Association, has been raising money for workers by selling a book produced by the the Daily Racing Form Press, "Saratoga: The Ultimate Racing Experience." Riders such as Mike Luzzi, Chantal Sutherland and Edgar Prado stopped on their way to the jockey room to autograph books, drawing attention and patrons' dollars to the backstretch workers' cause.

Most people prefer not to think about the conditions in which the workers at the track live. If you really want to understand the magnitude of a donation like this, consider this:

The local industry would not exist without the 1,300 backstretch workers. But in this short season, programs like day care and English classes are sometimes dropped.

Along the shed rows, workers rise before dawn to ride and walk high-strung thoroughbreds, sometimes for as little as $200-a-week.

Backstretch employees work for trainers. NYRA provides free housing. The dorms, designed for single men, would not meet code as a permanent dwelling. The backstretch is a village, but not a home.

Most sleep in 10-by-12-foot concrete rooms, two to a room, and share smelly three-stall bathrooms with dozens of others. There is no heat, no laundry, no dressers and little cross-ventilation.

Impressive donation indeed.

Short break again...

2005-09-02T09:59:00.000-05:00

Well, you can sleep when you're dead: I'm still in DC, off to a wedding in western New York this afternoon - my 6th wedding this summer. At least these people had the courtesy to get married somewhere close to SmAlbany. Paging the open bar!

Posting will be sporadic - although not gone - between now and Labor Day. Anything that does go up will be below this message. [What about that "state of the SmAlbany economy" piece your promised earlier this week? -ed. It'll have to wait. See, this is why you could never be a real journalist. -ed. Shut up.] See you soon.

Giesel's defenders...

2005-09-02T07:48:00.000-05:00

You knew it was coming: A published argument in favor of not prosecuting Geisel, this one claiming that not only did the boys blackmail Giesel, but the parents of one of the boys tried to blackmail CBA with the story after their son was expelled for various criminal mischief. Lovely. The final analysis:

We don’t believe that the 16-year-old in this situation is any victim or guiltless in this situation. In fact, we think the district attorney’s office should take a hard look at possible criminal charges against him.

Ouch. I'm not ready to approach that point of view yet, but my evaluation of the case is definitely shifting. More on this when i get back to SmAlbany next week. [are you finally ready to get off Soares' back about this?-ed. I didn't say that...]

Tech Valley...

2005-08-31T03:50:00.000-05:00

Tech Valley [fill in the blank]: I can't speak to how well "Tech Valley" is doing in the global information economy, but I'm pretty sure that Summer 2005 will be remembered as the period of time that the phrase "Tech Valley" exploded in SmAlbany. We now have Tech Valley Homes Real Estate signs everwhere, I'm seeing Tech Valley Times newspapers lying around like they're Metrolands, and even the mousepads at the Colonie Town Library now have ads for Tech Valley Communications. And, of course, the proposed Tech Valley high is already running tons of summer programs for kids. Basically, the region has been able to reach critical mass with the catchy hi-tech name. Now we just need to get there with the actual hi-tech. Luckily, I feel like there's a decent amount of inertia working in our favor - the media, the politicians, the universities, and the tech companies seem to be gung ho about SmAlbany.

Of course, I might just feel this way because my wife just finished a six-week internship down at the Albany nanotech business incubation park at SUNY Albany. She's a schoolteacher, and apparently the Albany-Colonie chamber of commerce - who coined the phrase tech-valley in 1998 - is willing to pay healthy sums so that teachers can get some tech experience and bring it back to the classrooms to excite the kids about jobs in the tech industries. She had a great time working for Infineon, but what amazed me was the media coverage - it seemed like everyday she was either on TV or in the newspaper, talking to someone about her summer job in tech valley. She's even got her picture on the cover of Business Review Albany this week. [Nice plug -ed. For who, Business Review?]

Next week, I think I'm going to take a serious dive into the changing economics of SmAlbany. I already promised a major piece on the Colonie Comprehensive Plan, and there's lots, both good and bad, to be said about all of this Tech Valley stuff. Stay tuned. [I'll get my pillow -ed. Now wait, I can make it exciting. Not this stuff -ed. We'll stick to the scandals, agreed?]

Mayor Soares...

2005-08-31T03:48:00.000-05:00

Mayor Soares?: A number of readers have asked me why I continually intimate that David Soares wants to run for mayor. First off, I'm certainly not going on inside information - i don't have any clue whether David Soares wants to be mayor or not. I suspect he does, but I don't have any evidence that isn't available to anyone else.

However, I personally believe - for better or worse - that an Albany mayor is eventually going to come out of the progressive coalition that put Soares over the top lastfall. It seems to me a question of when, not if. If you agree with that, it seems to me that David has to be the odds-on favorite right now - he's a proven winner, a good campaigner, and has the right biography for the job. If any one face symbolizes the movement that is going to tip the establishment apple cart, it;s Soares, no? It must be in the back of his mind that higher office is within his grasp. Even with no knowlege of him personally, I can't help but see him as apotential mayoral candidate, can you? Has anyone ever gotten to the DA's office at such a young age and not been interested in higher office?

That said, he really needs to do one thing before he runs for mayor, and that is to be an effective DA for a minimal stretch of time. That's why I tease him about it - it hasn't been - how should I say this - ~~the best~~ ~~a great~~ a particularly helpful year. His high profile cases have not been easy ones, and he hasn't been able to flex his "tough on crime" muscle yet. Everyone knows the DA's office is a political job - and it's even more so when the occupant is the young leader of an insurgent coalition that opposes the machine. I'm sure Soares cares about Albany and the safety of its residents - but he's also now a politician, one that can go reasonably far if he plays his cards correctly.

And that's exactly what I think he's trying to do. And thus it's a natural extension, in my mind, to evaluate his actions from the "he's jonesing to be mayor" point of view. It sures beats discussing the Archie Goodbee challenge to Jennings.

Google Earth

2005-08-31T03:47:00.000-05:00

Holy mapquest, batman: If you haven't downloaded Google Earth yet, I highly recommend it. It's like Mapquest or Google Maps on steroids. And it will make your SmAlbany experience better. I guarantee it. One example:

I was looking for a cool place to eat lunch on my way out to the Guilderland Public Library on Route 20 today. So I punched in my current location and the library's location to get the directions, hit the button to overlay all the local restaurants, and pushed the play button. Voila - all of a sudden I'm slowly flying at 2500 feet (you can adjust your altitude) over a 3D satellite map of SmAlbany , tracing the path from my house to the library, with all the possible lunch spots pointed out along the way. And I mean all the spots - i counted over 150 restuarants noted by Google Earth along the 10 mile route.

I ended up eating at a familiar place - Wings Over Albany - but that's besides the point. Once you've tried this program, you'll wonder what you did without it. Get yourself in on it. P.S. What's so great about the Guilderland Public Library? Free wireless access, reasonably nice study area, and a whole boatload of excellent CD's in the music section that you can "borrow" to listen to on your laptop.

Upscale McD's

2005-08-31T03:10:00.000-05:00

Your McSmoking Jacket, sir: So I heard about the new upscale McDonald's on Wolf Road via the Times Union article from last week. Now, I'm not a big McDonald's guy, but this quote from the TU article caught my eye:

"Many people will go to eat at a McDonald's because that's where their kids want to eat, not where they want to eat," said Britt Beemer, founder of America's Research Group, a Charleston, S.C.-based marketing firm. "I think McDonald's is thinking, 'what do we do to make the adults feel comfortable in the restaurant?' "

So when I was doing some grocery shopping yesterday at the Hannaford next door, I simply couldn't resist a peek. I'm something of an adult. I feel somewhat uncomfortable eating at McDonald's. I had to see.

I must say, the first impression is even funnier than you would imagine. Words just can't describe how silly a faux(?)- stone fireplace looks in the middle of a McDonald's. And the thing is huge, it dominates the entire eating area. But I gave it a chance. I ordered a milkshake, grabbed a TU from the vending machine, and sat down. Just strange. Of course, the fireplace wasn't on, it being August and all. And my inquiries about a February marshmallow roast were greeted with aboslutely blank stares. We'll have to wait and see. P.S. - The TU quote was accureate - the restuarant is definitely more comfortable. But that's because, for once, it's actually clean in the sitting area.

Heritage Park Auction...

2005-08-30T04:58:00.000-05:00

The fat lady has sung: The Heritage Park auction has been held; there goes the neighborhood. There were apparently some goodies:

What would you pay for a case of Diamond Dogs bobbleheads?Pete Phelps, a retiree from Amsterdam, decided $4 a case was such a good price, he bought 36 cases.

It won't be too long - say, 2015 - before someone is paying decent money for these things on ebay, right? If you doubt me, look at this or this. I just may have to invest in that latter item - it would probably make you one cool cat down at the Armory this fall...

Whirlwind SmAlbany tour...

2005-08-30T04:52:00.000-05:00

Whirlwind SmAlbany tour: Just sent the last of my relatives packing from the weekend that was my sister's wedding. My west-coast cousins had come in for an extended stay (Thursday to Monday) and we took on the charge of entertaining them in SmAlbany during the non-wedding portions of the weekend. The wedding ate up the chunk of time from the rehersal dinner on Friday right through brunch on Sunday, so we had two full days - Thursday and Monday - plus a few half days to work with.

We settled on the following itinerary: took them to Saratgoa Thursday (track during the day, dinner and drinks in town at night), sent them on their own walking tours of historic Schenectady and downtown Albany on the half-days, and then took a day trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on Monday. It seemed to work well: my cousins enjoy sightseeing, love walking around small towns, and had never been to 'toga or Cooperstown. All in all, somewhat of an eye-opener for California-types.

And yes, we considered a duck-boat tour, but couldn't pull the trigger -I'm just not daring enough for something like that, especially without pre-testing it for the possible embarressment factor. And to answer your other question: yes, we really are uber-dorks who really are obsessed with SmAlbany.

One blogger's fascination

2005-08-30T04:51:00.000-05:00

Strange fascination, fascinating me: Hey - I love Dave Lucas' Capital Region People blog as much as the next guy, but i think it's time we all call him out on his near-obsession with young female Asian bloggers - here, here, here, and here(?). You want to head that direction once a month, fine. A few extended posts or an expose now and then, go for it. But I can't endorse it as one of the running themes of a blog. Not a blog called Capital Region People.

It's just too - i don't even know the word for it - ~~mysterious~~ ~~strange~~ creepy. I'd go back to 24/7 Geisel coverage - wasn't that boosting your traffic numbers through the roof this month, Dave? [didn't you use the same trick? -ed. Since when do i care about hits? I guess that would explain the posts about LeBrun's columns...-ed. Ouch. Low blow.]

And look - I'm all for running themes and obsessing about silly things to excess on a blog - god knows I've written a couple thousand too many words about saratoga this summer. But Lucas is really starting to break me down. I almost clicked-through to one of those Asian-babe-blogs this past week. And that's cutting it too close.

REVIEW: El Mariachi

2005-08-30T03:43:00.000-05:00

RESTUARANT REVIEW: Believe it or not, I had never been to El Mariachi ($$$, 1, 92, Washington Ave., east of Lark Street) until last night. Don't know why. I guess I've never been finicky about my Mexican food. But then one of my wife's co-workers - who has a Mexican wife of his own - found out that we were frequenting El Loco, and they had to set us straight. Which they did. I thought it was just grand. (We went to the El Mariachi on Washington; we hear the one on Hamilton is not as good, but has an outdoor patio; they are also soon expanding to Saratoga). The menu at El Mariachi is quite varied, and the food was absolutely delicious. The experts who brought us there add that it's very authentic. We started off with some Tamarindo and Fresa to drink while we chowed down on real fried tortilla chips. The chips came with two types of salsa, as well as cream, which was certainly a surprise. SJC got a chicken enchilada; I had some steak fajitas and a chicken taco. We thoroughly enjoyed it all. Most recently ate here: August, 2005.

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How we rate restuarants

Short break...

2005-08-26T13:01:00.000-05:00

Low production for a few days: My sister is getting married Saturday - no, not on the infield at Saratoga during Travers - and that means it's a busy week for me. So there's a good chance blogging will be reduced till Monday.

Between now and Monday, occasional posts will appear below. mg

Colonie plans it out...

2005-08-26T10:21:00.000-05:00

Blue Sky Mining: The town of Colonie adopted its comprehensive plan last night. I actually went to the town website and read the plan. Next week, I'm going to go through the whole thing and have a serious discussion of it. But for now, a few first impressions:

thought #1: Not a bad town website. Who knew! [it gets 215 hits a day, that's the same as you -ed. Yeah, but my readers are the movers and shakers. Of what? -ed. I'm not sure. Nevermind.] Definitely a solid B+ for content, although the web design could definitley use the advice of - how should i say this - someone more interested in aesthetics. Not that I'm complaining! P.S. How about those GIS maps of Colonie? Very fun.

thought #2: A 94-page plan? That seems a little long-winded. But hey - it's actually an easy read. Better yet, it mostly makes sense. Again, who knew! And they weren't kidding when they said comprehensive. They studided towns in Tennessee!

thought #3: My favorite part of the report - from a design perspective - is the goofy pictures of the CDTA bus and the Colonie cop car on page 9 and 17, respectively. It's stuff like that that makes me enjoy going through town comprehensive plans. I mean, who decided that was a good idea? Let's spruce up our dead-serious plan for economic growth in the town by adding some local clip-art that makes it look like a science fair project. Works for me - i like keeping it light.

thought #4: It's not going to be as easy to discuss this thing as I first thought - they put it in .pdf form! They must know about bloggers going "cut and paste" crazy on this sort of stuff - [you're too layz to just re-write the text? -ed. Apparently they know about that stereotype of bloggers as well. What a journalist. -ed. Hey - they get paid over at the TU.]

Coming next week: a serious discussion of the plan.

Charter reform misses...

2005-08-26T10:07:00.000-05:00

Off the ballot: It's now almost certain that city charter reform will not be on the ballot this fall, as the ACA's petition signatures were affirmed to be invalid by the courts yesterday. But as I've said before, this is a classic long-term win-through-losing situation: it wasn't clear charter reform was going to pass anyway, and now the pro-charter groups have some extra time to build their case, with the additional advantage of being able to leverage the anti-democratic nature of the recent defeat. This is particularly true since charter reform is only a portion of their agenda. Defeat at the polls would have been a death-blow to the pro-charter groups. Defeat at the institutional rules level is almost certainly a catalyst for their wider movement.

And, lest we forget, it gives Democracy In Albany more grist for the mill.

Times Union bloggers

2005-08-25T07:57:00.000-05:00

Taking their own advice: It wasn't but three weeks ago that the TU ran a story about corporate blogs - companies that hire bloggers to write for them. Now it looks as if the TU is going to start hiring bloggers to cover local high school sports:

Timesunion.com is looking for creative, compelling people from the Capital Region to write weblogs for the upcoming 2005 high school fall sports season.

It doesn't matter if you are a first-string student-athlete, equipment manager, student, parent or spectator - all that matters is a love for high school sports, writing, and originality.

Your focus can be narrow or wide, your experience can be first-hand or third-party, and it can center on the fall sport of your choice. Just send an email to webmaster@timesunion.com.

Wow. That's qute a shift in the tectonic plates of journalism, no? It will be interesting to see how it goes. P.S. They weren't kidding when they said hyperlocal! P.P.S. I'm not sure this bodes well for the longterm health of professional print newspapers. Who cares, though, I'm signin' up! P.P.P.S. Will we finally get decent in-depth high school sports coverage, or is this going to be a deluge of bad writing from bad journalist? The latter is a very scary thought....

Latham and Saratoga...

2005-08-25T07:46:00.000-05:00

The other thoroughbreds of August: Up in Saratoga, it's a big thing to attract trackgoers to your local business, as the TU reports today. Farther away from the track, it's a little more difficult to do with a straight face, but they still try it. It's definitely a running joke in Colonie that a lot of local businesses try to cash in on 'toga in August by promoting their "relationship" with the track. Cheap motels on Route 9 in Latham advertise themselves as "minutes from the track" or "just south of Saratoga." Restuarants occasionally offer discounts for people who bring in losing betting slips. And every newstand sells the Post Parade for the month. But I think we may have a winner this year for "most desparate attempt to tie one's business to the track." Without further ado, the sign currently out front of Night Moves gentlemens' club, at the corner of Rt. 155 and Rt. 9, a solid 30 miles from the track:

Indeed.

Porco and Party Schools

2005-08-24T08:02:00.000-05:00

Party Schools and Porco news: I know that I'm the last person on earth to blog today about Joan Porco's letter to the TU and UAlbany's party school status - for god's sake Albanyeye was on it hours before I woke up, here and here. And I think everyone gets the main jist of what's going on - a lot of what needs to be said has already been printed. But I still have my two cents to throw into each story. We'll start with UAlbany's party school status, which fell from #1 to #6 in the rankings:

Point #1: That top-ranked status was always bullshit anyway, and everyone knew it. It's still bullshit that they are even on the list. You can't be the top party school with local grouper laws that prevent real frat houses from existing. You also can't be the top party school with the Lamp Post as your signature bar. That's just absurd. I mean, has the Princeton Review ever been to Arizona State? Or Colgate for that matter? Albany's not even the top SUNY party-school in my mind - unless things have radically changed in the last 5 years, Oswego or Oneonta has to be king. And face it: no one goes on spring break from the University of Kentucky and comes back saying, "Wow, I just can't get over how attractive those guys/girls from SUNY Albany were!" That happens all the time in reverse. Part of being the top party school is having the runway models and hunks that Florida State, Arizona State, and UK can provide. No one in Albany is even tan. Look - I've been to Fountain day. UAlbany is not a top party school. Nevertheless...

Point #2: Could the SUNY administration be more out of touch with college life? Here's the relevent text:

Typically, schools dismiss the survey as lousy science UAlbany officials took that tack last year -- but this time around, officials acknowledged that even if the survey is flawed, they could learn things from it.

For example, students complain professors aren't available (UAlbany's rank: 1). And students say they rarely study (rank: 5).

Hall said the consistent message is that "students wish they had greater access to faculty." Part of that could be achieved by adding professors, he said.

Steven Messner, the incoming chairman of the University Senate and a distinguished sociology professor, agreed that the results could be a useful window into students' thoughts.

"Administrators and faculty have an obligation to continually monitor quality of education," said Messner, who added that most faculty he's met really like students and like to be around them.

Memo to SUNY: you're not going to change a party school by adding more faculty. The students giving SUNY its reputation are not the ones who wish they had more access. And if the faculty wants to be "around students" they should head down to the corner of Western and Quail some night, we'll see how long that lasts. I'm pretty sure you have to change the type of student coming to the school, not just their experience at the school, if you want to alter your school's social image.

On to the Porco letter:

Point #1: Who else had an "OJ" moment when they read Joan Porco's "search for the real killers" line at the end of her letter? I almost spit out my breakfast. Whatever lawyer vetted that letter should be fired - you can't use the most famous "I'm guilty but there's nothing you can do about it" line in recent history as part of your statement. You just can't. P.S. I can certainly sympathize with anyone who was almost murdered, had her husband murdered, and thinks her lead-supsect son is innocent, I can. It's horrific. But I can't buy the "although I have no memory whatsoever of the attack...I am positive that my son was no way involved." It just defies logic.

Point #2: How's that first year going, David Soares! Last week, he's on national TV arguing with an anonymous internet blogger about media responsibility, and now he's got the victim of his other major case - and the only hope for a witness against his prime suspect - telling him to take it somewhere else! Any sympathy for Paul Clyne yet, Dave? P.S. When is the grand jury going to meet again on this one? Or the Geisel case for that matter? P.P.S. - Is the whole world watching this case, too?

Jockeys...

2005-08-24T07:48:00.000-05:00

I was wondering when this would come out: The annual "check out how little the jockeys eat" article was published in the TU this morning. :

Norberto Arroyo Jr. takes a seat at one of the vacant tables in the jockey dining room at Saratoga Race Course. He holds in his left hand a small paper plate with two slices of toasted white bread, a cup of coffee with milk in his right hand.

He takes a plastic container of mayonnaise, squirts a thin film over one slice of toast and makes a sandwich. A smile creases Arroyo's boyish face as he takes a bite.

"I'm lucky. I'm light naturally," says the 110-pound jockey. "A lot of the guys, they don't eat during the day. It's not really a problem for me."

My lord. The ones that don't have a problem are eating mayo sandwiches! At least the TU didn't get into the vomitorium aspect of the jockey lounge this year.

Lebrun and common sense

2005-08-23T05:29:00.000-05:00

How not to make an argument: Fred Lebrun writes a particularly muddled column - even by his standards - in today's TU. His subject is the state's abolishment of "Class C" driver's licences, which are for vehicles like tow trucks and dump trucks. According to Lebrun:

On its face, a quietly enacted but profound recent change in the state's motor vehicle licensing law is nothing short of insane...any yahoo off the street with a passenger vehicle license can [now] operate a tow truck in the middle of a snowstorm on I-90. Very comforting.

Yes, he calls it insane. As in "you'd have to be insane to agree with this change if you knew the facts." Now let's go to the facts Lebrun presents:

First, he recaps the types of licences in New York:

An ordinary passenger car driver's license is a Class D license.

A Class A license is what tractor-trailer drivers have, requiring training, specialized road-testing, extensive written tests and a pretty high level of scrutiny by most employers.

A Class B license is for trailers and heavy trucks like cement mixers.

A Class C, which has just been largely done away with, is for vehicles from 17,990 pounds to 26,000 pounds. Let's call this the semipro level. That's for a vehicle up to 10 times the weight of the average passenger car, like moving vans and modest-size dump trucks.

Ok. So the huge rigs are Class A and Class B, Class D covers ordinary vehicles up to 17,990 pounds, and Class C covers vehicles between 17,990 and 26,000 pounds. As Lebrun puts it (quoting someone against the change):

"As of now, anybody with a regular Class D license, like my 18-year-old daughter, with no training, no experience and no road test in a truck can legally get behind the the wheel of a dump truck up to 26,000 pounds,"

Ok. That's true. But prior to the change she could have gotten behind the wheel of a vehicle that weighed 17,989 pounds, no? A Honda Accord weighs about 3,100 pounds. A Jeep Cherokee weighs about 3,900. So before the law change, anyone could have driven a vehichle six times as large as a regular car. Now they can drive a vehicle up to eight times as large. It just doesn't seem like a big deal to me - doesn't LeBrun have to argue for a lower weight restriction on the Class D licence if he wants to make this case?

But wait, there's more. At this point in the article, Lebrun strangely begins to make the case in favor of changing the law:

New York was the only state in the nation that had anything like a Class C license. The federal licensing system starts commercial licenses at 26,000 pounds. Anywhere else in the country, a regular driver's license is all you need up to 26,000 pounds.

In other words, every other state, as well as the federal government, has an insane licensing policy. But wait, there's more yet. Lebrun speaks with a man who is knowledgable about why the change was made:

"Originally, it was the moving industry in New York City that came to us on this," Joyce said. "They were having a hard time finding qualified drivers. New York tried a two-year pilot project with movers in New York City, and found no statistical difference in the number of accidents or incidents.

Ok. So right smack in New York City - some of the worst driving conditions available - the change was test-run and there were no problems. Insane. And finally, the coup d'grace:

In the past, obtaining a Class C license required obtaining a learner's permit, passing a written test and taking a $40 road test in a truck.

What? No specialized training? Just an extra road test? If the old Class C licencing involved the specialized training that the A or B licence requires, Lebrun might have a point. But it didn't.

Ok, so let's recap this thing:

1) Lebrun thinks it's insane to get rid of Class C licences becuase
2) it will allow the average driver to operate vehicles like tow trucks
3) which are between 19,990 and 26,000 pounds, even though
4) the average driver can already drive a vehicle that is 19,989 pounds,
5) a full six times bigger than a normal passenger car.

This is a problem even though:

6) every other state already allows it, and
7) New York pilot tested it for two years with no problems.

Therefore:

8) we should keep a worthless written and road testing system that
9) is a nusiance that most people don't ever bother with
10) and creates an economic problem by shorting the number of people
11) who can drive moving trucks in New York City.

Yes, Fred. Insane.

Times Union Changes

2005-08-23T05:26:00.000-05:00

The Times they are a-changing: The Times Union launches it's new "Communities TU" section today. I actually went out and bought a hard copy of the paper this morning so I could see how it looked. Let's do a walk-through breakdown of everything I noticed:

1) Page A1, banner headline, letter from Rex Smith: Rex describes the changes to the paper - expanded local news coverage of neighborhoods, local government, and people (including "hyperlocal" news such as "school honor rolls"), a format shifting that moves some news to different sections, a "Communities TU" section that will apparently - although it's never clearly stated - be tailored to where you bought the paper (i.e. you don't get the 'toga section if you live in Albany and vice versa), and increased staffing at the TU for coverage of such things. Sounds pretty good. I like expanded local coverage, god knows I'm not reading the TU for it's national reporting. Albany Eye and Dave Lucas have already put in their two cents about this as a general issue, i won't say more. Instead I want to...

2) Open up to section B, Capital Region: Feels thicker than normal, that's a good start. Lebrun's still on the left column of front page, check. No other noticable changes, excpet the littler banner in the top left directing me to...

3) B3, Communities TU: Ok, now I bought my TU in Latham, and it's apparently the Albany county "community." The whole communities TU section is 3 pages long. Sounds good.I see a lot of "hyperlocal" stuff, which is definitely a good sign. The left column has a "meetings" list that today is highlighting the Watervliet City Council meeting from last Thursday. Good. Below that we've got some "local notes" type stuff you might see in the Colonie Spotlight. Good. And then we've got the following community stories: Bethlehem voting on master plan. Good. Revised zoning laws. Good. Kids playing chess in the park. That works too, I guess. Overall, very nice. But wait a second...

4) It's actually only two pages of "community" stuff: What's this caving story doing in the Albany community section? And parking in Troy? In the online edition, those are Capital Region and Rensselaer stories, respectively. But they are under the "communities TU" banner in the print paper. Ok, I get it. The hyper-local stuff is not quite as big as they want it to appear. That's fine. So they threw some regular local stuff into the "communities section." I see.

5) Overall, I'm not sure what to make of this: Since I read the online edition, it's disconcerting to pick up the print edition and know that i'm not getting everything they published today. Then again, they've been doing that for years with the 'toga and Rensselaer 'metro' editions. I like the thrust toward more local coverage, that's great. I'm not sure about the bulletin boards and meetings postings - that's seems more the job of the hyperlocal papers, like the Spotlight or Loudonville weekly. But i'll take it.

I don't say this much, but good effort, Times Union. I hope you can keep it up.

Soares hyperbole

2005-08-22T06:13:00.000-05:00

The times that try mens' souls: Here's your Monday quiz. Who said this quote over the weekend, and what was he/she referring to?:

The eyes of the world are watching this drama unfold

A) President Bush, in reference to Constitution-writing in Iraq.
B) Cindy Sheehan, in reference to the almost 2,000 American deaths in Iraq.
C) David Soares, in reference to the Geisel case.

I like that. It's like Soares is in his own personal Truman Show here in Albany. And the truth is, Soares' whole world - or at least his reputation as a tough-on-crime-but-compassionate DA and thus a lot of his political future - is going to be significantly shaped by this case. If he wants to be mayor someday, the conventional wisdom coming out of last fall was that he needed to show some serious tough-on-crime credentials in office. Unfortunately, the twists and turns of the Geisel case have made it a lot less clear that simply lowering the hammer on her is going to be a sure-thing best move for a politically ambitious DA. Once upon a time, Soares was probably relishing taking this thing to trial. Now I think he wants to cut a deal ASAP.