….and have a Happy Thanksgiving
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$1.7 million in federal stimulus funds will pave all of Van Vranken Avenue. This road in our neighborhood is one of the most neglected avenues in the city and runs through the heart of North Schenectady or “Goose Hill” as it is known. This, along with several facade grants that have been recently approved should have us seeing quite a different street within a year. The curbs will be made handicapped accessible but the sidewalks will not be replaced. Mayor Brian Stratton is now trying to arrange a partnership with Union College — which is at the edge of the district — to replace the sidewalks during the project. He’s also asking Metroplex for funding, selling the idea as a “creative project” in which each entity would shoulder one-third of the total cost, which is expected to be at least $2 million.
A six mile long ice jam has formed on the Mohawk River. An ice jam forms when the ice melts and starts moving down the river and then gets caught on something. The water can then start backing up behind it. The snow this morning is doing a big time melt and it’s giving me flashbacks because it’s the same thing that happened the day before I broke my leg. That night it froze back up much like it’s gonna do tonight. I gots the hee-bee-gee-bee’s. The owner of a 60 year old Schenectady gay bar died a couple of weeks ago. Here is a link to the story and it’s interesting history.
Schermerhorn’s the guy who in 1691 rode to Albany in the middle of a blizzard to tell them the Indians were burning Schenectady and killing them all, late to become “The Schenectady Massacre”. I like Brian Stratton and I love Jerry Jennings but seriously, he’s riding a half a block. What I would like to see is both of them riding the same horse or even better, Brian Stratton getting thrown off. Not getting hurt mind you, but I’m hoping the cameras are there. Link
Seeing how, after today, we’re not getting out of the twenties for at least 10 days and not out of the teens for the next five, the parks department was readying Iroquois Lake for ice skating when a city truck fell through for the second time in a year. See video Our next door neighbor gave us a gift certificate to Brandon’s Ritz Terrace so we decided to use it tonight. It’s only three or four blocks from the house but we’ve never been there. This place has been there a long time and seen a lot of changes in the neighborhood. Dinner was good and the inside of the restaurant was exactly what you’d expect after several remodels over the years. What was cool was the 1950′s tile foyer. You walk in the glass door into a small room then up two steps into another glass door with no landing. The entire floor and both steps were covered with 1950′s one by one tile. Inside in the corner was a white piano being played by a man dressed for the 1970′s, sport coat and all with 1970′s hair backing up that look. Backing him up on the piano was a cool synthesizer heavy on drums and lite on style. It was fairly crowded but I think we were close to being the youngest except for a couple of kids. Barbara Hoffman (Thora Birch) is a brilliant, beautiful college student by day working as a “masseuse” at a local massage parlor by night. In this true-life murder, mystery Barbara finds herself accused of poisoning two of her clients, men who had named her beneficiary in their wills. Police Detective Lulling (Keith Carradine) works diligently in trying to solve this intriguing, complex case and the results are fascinating. This is the plotline for the not yet released film Winter Of Frozen Dreams shot in Schenectady in early 2007. In the trailer you can see a location two blocks away on Avenue A, inside beautiful City Hall, outside our weekend haunt Mike’s Hot Dogs, and The GE Plot. The film was shot in Schenectady but takes place in Wisconsin in the 1970′s. I assume Schenectady looks like Wisconsin in the 1970′s. Synecdoche, New York, is the new Philip Seymour Hoffman film coming out next month that was filmed in new York and takes place in Schenectady. Synecdoche: a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole. Wow, for the fifth straight year, Schenectady’s population has increased instead of decreased. From a high in the 1950′s of almost 100,000 to a low in 2000 where the population was around 61000. Sure last year’s gain was only 50 but it’s a celebration up here. As people aged and kids move away leaving houses with one or two people instead of four or five people and the massive job losses from the 60′s, 70′s, and 80′s, maybe this city is finally coming around. All the land in New York is incorporated so all cities are land locked and can’t expand as suburbs grow and that has also lead to a decline in upstate cities. If you want a direct correlation, this is the same exact time we moved here, hence, it can be extrapolated that people are following us here, and who wouldn’t? Duncan’s niece is flying in later today for a visit so he’ll be on vacation while I’m at work this week, but I’m not bitter. Got this endless itch to ride Shake your body Mister
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I had the day off so of course I picked some stupid project to work on instead of doing the Christmas shopping that I had promised myself that I would do so tomorrow, I’ll probably be out in the snow doing just that. I started putting in shelves and organizing the basement. I’ll be surprised if the trash guys actually take all of the stuff. Maybe somebody else will think it’s interesting. More good news for the neighborhood. I’m no fan of tearing down old buildings in favor of putting up new, but there may come a time when there is so much decay and need for renewal that any spark you can throw a neighborhood is worth it. As more new development takes place, older buildings in the area tend to benefit. An old school (6th picture on page) down the street from 1875 that has served as County DSS in recent history has been sold and will likely be torn down. It’s very exciting to see the changes happening after many years of decline. |
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