Tag: Albany

What Albany winters used to be

no singing?

December 17, 2020 – Albany, NY – Albany digs out after an early winter storm. (Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

Having lived in the New York State capital since 1979, I recall what Albany winters used to be: colder and snowier. Here’s a February 2024 news article about another mild winter.

Most of this winter wasn’t terrible, but February 2025 sucked. On February 9th at church, the education classes were canceled, and the choir didn’t sing in anticipation of a forecasted snowstorm. It wasn’t that bad in Albany. I ended up reading the prayers of people.

The following weekend, choir and education hours were canceled again, less because of the snow but the threat of ice. I ended up being an usher. Somebody said after the service, “Isn’t it nice having time off from choir?” NO! I miss the singing.

The ice continued throughout the week all over the city, with high winds and subzero wind chills. When I had to go to a drugstore, trying to climb over the intersections of solid ice was treacherous. If not for using my cane, I would surely have fallen more than once.

I take pride in keeping my sidewalk clear, but it took two days and multiple applications of deicer to get down to the pavement. It didn’t matter much since most of the rest of the walks weren’t clear for several days when it finally reached freezing.

More bus stories

The whole month was messy. Early in February, I was waiting at a bus, and this relatively short woman was terrified of stepping off the bus into water that would probably be halfway up to her shins. She was paralyzed about what to do, so this guy said, “Okay, we got you,” and, with each of us holding an arm, got her across the gap between the bus and the curb. She was so happy. The bus driver waved the guy and me onto the bus without having to pay.

A couple of days later, it wasn’t snowing, but no one had shoveled the entire walk to the curb. The bus driver wanted to put down the ramp for a person in a wheelchair, but the ramp wouldn’t lie flat. So he wheeled up the small snow bank, and two other people pushed him into the bus—think tush push.

Another time, I was waiting for a bus on Central Avenue, and I had just missed what appeared to be a three-car accident. The vehicles were sitting in the left lane heading eastbound. When the cops came, they stopped in the right lane, making it almost impossible for any vehicle to get by, even as we saw the bus on the horizon. Cleverly, the bus driver drove into the Hannaford grocery store parking lot and managed to pick up the customers anyway. The passengers were praising the CDTA driver for their ingenuity.

The Catholic tradition

Jesuit

When the movie Conclave came to the area, I had to go see it because it was all about the popes. For a Protestant kid, I’ve been oddly obsessed with the Catholic tradition.

As a kid, I was probably trying to understand the difference between my traditions and Roman Catholic ones at some level. At my African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, we recited the Apostles Creed. There’s a line about the “holy catholic church,” and I was confused by that because we were Protestants. They were talking about the universal church, small c catholic, not big C Catholic.

“The term comes from two Greek words that together mean ‘throughout the whole.’  This single word, ‘catholic,’ means throughout all time and places and also points to the essential unity or wholeness of the church in Christ. No one English term captures that dual sense of this ancient Greek term quite as well as ‘catholic.’ So when the creed states, ‘I believe in the holy catholic church,’ it refers to the wholeness of the whole church in all times and places rather than to any specific branch of Christianity.”

When I went to public school, Daniel Dickinson in Binghamton, NY, at the bottom of a wide driveway was Saint Cyril’s parochial school, with the church nearby. The kids from Dickinson and Cyril’s would occasionally get into mild skirmishes. Dickinson kids would call them St. Cheerios, and I’m sure they also offered some nicknames.

The ashes

But I was fascinated that some of my Catholic friends at Dickinson would go out at lunchtime on Ash Wednesday and return with dirt on their foreheads. Or so I thought.

During the decade before 1982, when I wasn’t attending church very much, I’d occasionally attend a Christmas Eve service. As often as not, it would be at a Roman Catholic church. I liked the ritual, and I tended to love the music.

Around 2005, I attended a FOCUS churches’ Ash Wednesday service at Israel AME church in  Albany. They applied ashes to the foreheads of the congregants. Huh. I thought it was a great idea because I’m pro-ecumenicalism. My current church follows this tradition.

It’s like when I went to the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany for an anniversary concert, and they allowed, even invited, the Protestants to take communion, something that was otherwise not done. As I noted, some of my Protestant friends refused, but I felt that if they offered, I’d accept.

Pontiffs

This morphed into knowing all of the popes in my lifetime. When I was on JEOPARDY in 1998, there was a question in the category PUT ‘EM IN ORDER. The clue was  Paul VI, John Paul I, Pius XII. Easy-peasy.

I wrote about them back in 2013. The first pope in my lifetime was Pius XII (1939-1958). There’s been a reevaluation of his papacy  regarding his attitude toward the Holocaust.

He was followed by John XXIII (1958-1963), who named the first cardinals to Africa, Japan, and the Phillippines. Paul VI (1963-1978) was followed by John Paul I (1978), who was in office for five weeks before he died.

John Paul II (1978-2005) was the very popular Polish Pope in many circles, particularly for his anti-communist cadence. He tended to oppose the death penalty. He did apologize for many of the sins of the church, from complacency in the African slave trade to, late in his tenure, the first recognition of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and others.

I didn’t like Benedict XVI (2005-2013) from Germany as pope or afterward. But I didn’t know one could resign.  “In 2019 [as Pope emeritus], Benedict released a 6,000-word letter that attributed the Church’s sexual abuse crisis to an erosion of morality driven by secularization and the sexual revolution of the 1960s. The letter was in sharp contrast to the viewpoint of his successor, Francis, who saw the issue as a byproduct of abuses of power within the Church’s hierarchical structure.” He died in 2022.

The current guy

Francis (2013-) from Argentina “is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian pope Gregory III.”

“In December 2019, Francis abolished the pontifical secrecy privilege in sexual abuse cases, clarifying that bishops do not need authorization from the Vatican to turn over to materials from canonical trials upon request of civil law enforcement authorities. The lifting of the confidentiality rule was praised by victim advocates, but did not require the Church to affirmatively turn over canonical documents to civil authorities.”

While progressive in many ways, “Francis has categorically rejected the ordination of women as priests. Early in his papacy, he initiated dialogue on the possibility of deaconesses, creating in 2016 a Study Commission on the Women’s Diaconate to research the role of female deacons in early Christianity.” But his position seems to have hardened. 

Anyway, that was part of the reason I had to see a movie about selecting a Catholic pope.

Shopping carts

newspapers

In mid-October, I went to the Price Chopper/Market 32 grocery store nearest my home on Madison Avenue, but I couldn’t find any shopping carts.  I used a basket they had in the store that I hadn’t seen for a while.

I did my shopping. When I checked out, I asked the cashier. They told me the store had done some work on its entrances and exits. Someone had turned off the mechanism that locked the shopping cart wheels when the carts reached the parking lot’s perimeter.

As a result, many shopping carts disappeared. When I went shopping the next week, I found a single cart outdoors. As I finished my shopping, I passed along my cart to a customer seeking one. It took about a month, but they have been replenished,

Evening Press

I thought about this a lot because shopping carts always hung out on the street when I was a kid. When I had a newspaper route when I was 12 and 13, I often used the shopping cart. I never took it from the store, but they would always be available, like a community resource. That was probably the delusion of a tween.

One day, as usual, I was taking a cart to the pick-up point for the Evening and Sunday Press in my section of Binghamton, NY. Some guy stopped his car and said, “Oh, that cart belongs to our store. Do you wanna get arrested?” I said no, and I let him take the cart. In retrospect, I don’t know that he worked for the supermarket since there was nothing on the car indicating that. But by the time I reached the pick-up point, I had found another cart.

Cities now have abandoned cart regulations, which I reckon is a good thing. Albany has such legislation, but it’s been not as successful as hoped. 

Speaking of crime, my Price Chopper store has had an armed security guard at the entranceway for about the last year. It startled me initially, but now I see the person and shrug. It does not make me feel any more secure—in fact, it is probably the opposite—but I know many other stores in the area have hired armed personnel.

The neighborhood and other questions

webslinger

JEOPARDY.Albany clueMary, who I know from two different churches, asks, in response to Ask Roger Anything:
What do you like about the neighborhood where you live? What do you not like? Ever think about living elsewhere?

One very snowy winter’s evening, probably in  1997, the power was out in parts of the city. I visited my then-ex-girlfriend, now my wife, on that stretch of row houses on Manning Blvd., about six blocks from where we live now. We found a nice restaurant to eat at—they had power!

When we bought this house in the Pine Hills section of the city, I recalled how much I liked the last block of Madison Avenue, filled with restaurants. Some have gone (Bruegger’s bagels), but others have replaced them (Kismet, the Mediterranean place).

I like that my bank, a branch of the Albany Public Library, and a Price Chopper grocery store are all within walking distance. At the junction of Madison, Allen, and Western, one can catch many buses going uptown and downtown. I can get to church, the uptown or downtown SUNY campus, the bus and train stations, two hospitals, the Capital Rep theater, and several other places with one bus, and many more with two buses.

When we moved into this house, we figured my daughter would go to the elementary school that was very close by, but they tore down the 99-year-old School 16 and built the Pine Hills Elementary School in its place. My daughter had a very, very short commute. She would get up 20 minutes before school started and still get to school on time.
However
But the bad thing about the neighborhood is that it’s changed, which neighborhoods do. The big two changes are the closures of the College of Saint Rose, where we attended concerts, and the Madison Avenue CVS. I hope the Madison Theatre really reopens.

When we first moved in, I knew my neighbors better. A few doors down were the Ellenbogans; I particularly liked Mrs. Ellenbogen, but they died tragically.

As you know, Harry and his family lived right next door, and I liked them. Then Harry died, and the family moved away. Now, that house is owned by an absentee landlord who is quite terrible. He picked some really bad tenants early on, some of whom I’ve written about. But he also pumped poop from his basement down our common walkway, which ended up on our sidewalk.

My wife is bugged by the fact that he hit her car while it was parked. He denies it, of course, even though there are a couple of witnesses. He’s not a pleasant person. I do not like him; the good thing is that I think he’s slightly afraid of me.

If we were to move somewhere else, it would almost have to be near the Delaware, Madison, or Central Avenue bus routes. My mother-in-law is living at the adult residence Beverwyck; I hate the idea of living there. The bus that goes near there runs extremely infrequently and stops a mile away. I lived off of Lark Street a lot when I first lived in Albany, at five different places, and I liked it. It’s not that far from church or downtown.
Fruit pie
Favorite desserts?
I like carrot cake and strawberry shortcake, though I haven’t had them in a while. My general go-to is fruit pie—apple, cherry, or blueberry—with vanilla ice cream.

Absolute top favorite superhero?
From fairly early in college, when I first started reading comic books again, it was Spider-Man. I related to Peter Parker or whatever iteration of Spider-Man was behind the mask. I managed to see all of the Spider-Man movies I had not seen before during the pandemic. I’ve seen the animated Spider-verse movies. Spider-Man is probably the only Marvel movie line I’ve managed to keep watching after The Avengers Endgame was over.
2025?
Your assessment of candidates for Albany’s next mayor?
I haven’t given great thought to the campaign, being more focused on the 2024 presidential elections, Congress, et al. There’s no info yet on Ballotopedia for the Albany mayoral contest.

In June 2025, there will be the Democratic primary for mayor. For those who don’t know, Albany has been a Democratic city for over a century. It hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1921. I don’t think this is good, but there it is.

So, the primary will, in all likelihood, determine who will be the mayor in November 2025. The incumbent, Kathy Sheehan, is not running for a fourth four-year term.

Albany’s chief city Auditor, Dorcey Applyrs. was the first candidate to announce.
Dan Cerruti is a political newcomer who one of our mutual friends is very fond of.
Carolyn McLaughlin, a county legislator and former city council member, recently announced.

I’m vaguely surprised that I haven’t seen Corey Ellis, Albany City Common Council President, hasn’t announced.  He’s raised a good amount of money already. Does he not want to challenge Applyrs and/or McLaughlin?

Andrew Joyce, who failed in his attempt to take the Assembly seat, or others might enter the race.

I have no strong political feelings yet about most of them. However, I didn’t warm up to one of them personally. So ask me again in March of 2025, and I’ll give you a better answer than this, especially after the lawn signs go up.

The 2024 APL trustee candidates

school budget

On Tuesday, May 7, at the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library, I attended an event introducing the 2024 APL trustee candidates, who will be up for election on Tuesday, May 21.

I was relieved. When I declined to run myself, I worried that there wouldn’t be enough candidates to run for the three slots. It turned out that TWELVE people got enough signatures to get on the ballot.

  1. Daniel Schneider, 12208
  2. Zachary Cunningham, 12208
  3. Carlos Velasquez, 12210
  4. Paige Allen, 12210
  5. Jennifer Marlow, 12208
  6. Bradford Lachut, 12203
  7. Kirsten Broschinsky, 12203
  8. Paul Collins-Hackett, 12202
  9. Marsha Lazarus, 12208
  10. Tia Anderson, 12203
  11. Mary A. Rosch, 12208
  12. Daniel Plaat, 12210

Eleven of the twelve, all except Velasquez, were present. All of the candidates available loved their library and would bring specific skills to the job.

My picks

I won’t tell you who to vote for, but I will note who I am selecting. Kirsten Broschinsky has served with me on the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library Board before being selected to fill the unexpired term of a person on the APL Trustees board.

Mary A. Rosch has worked on the FFAPL gala and other activities. She has been a speaker at the Tuesday book talks and will be again in August. At the event, she noted that she was involved in other community activities. She said she would willingly give up many of them if she were elected, suggesting she understands the scope of work.

My third vote will go to… I don’t know yet. I have eliminated three. Of the remaining, one lives on my street, and one reads my blog (which would NEVER affect my decision). Most have compelling narratives.

However, I enthusiastically support the $7,864,740 budget, which “reflects a two percent increase in the annual total tax levy.” As  APL Executive Director Andrea Nicolay notes, “The increase supports our staff and core services, and positions us to leverage partnerships and grant opportunities. We are mindful that, these days, public libraries and civil liberties are under attack. We strive for excellence, and we don’t take community support for granted.”

School daze

The library vote coincides with the City School District of Albany budget.  The board has “unanimously approved a $326.2 million budget proposal for the 2024-25 school year. The proposal includes no tax-levy increase for the second year in a row and the fourth time in the last nine years…

“Voters also will be asked to consider three additional school-related propositions, none of which would have any additional tax impact.”

The term of board member Hassan I. Elminyawi expires this spring. The Board of Education clerk told me he is running unopposed for reelection.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. on May 21.  Please note that the voting locations do NOT necessarily correspond to those where one votes in the primary and general elections, and at least two venues have changed since the last school/library vote. Mail-in ballots are also available.

School board and school budget votes will be voted upon throughout New York State on that date. 

Ramblin' with Roger
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