Our Parks need Historic Preservation Too

I have been blessed to enjoy every major public park in Troy. Each is special. I learned to swim at Knick; my son at the South End Pool. I climbed the monkey bars in Beman. My wedding reception was in the pavilion at Prospect park.  I've spent more than a few bucks at Powers Park Flea Markets.  I played baseball at Frear Park and have even golfed a couple of rounds. The history each park carries forward requires her owners – the real citizens of Troy – to tend to their needs attentively. It requires the highest level of stewardship. Groups like the Friends of Prospect Park and Frear Park Conservancy have been showing us the way for many years.

These green spaces and historic structures tell the recreational story of Troy. The 1920’s era Art Deco swimming pool at Prospect is a prominent example of craftsmanship and design from the Roaring ‘20’s. Closed in the mid-1990’s as a cost savings measure, that pool is one of only a few that remained in the US still standing. It’s use as a pool is long past yet the structure could be re-purposed perhaps for skateboarders. What a great way to get the newest generation using, enjoying and appreciating Prospect. The locker area could be rehabbed and that wonderful structure could be put back to good use.

The Arcadia Pavilion’s splendor and beauty are being wasted at Frear Park. It was built as a community-gathering place. City of Troy’s Parks and Recreation Department currently uses the space as a storage facility. The golf course lost its clubhouse years ago when the city chose to lease out that space to a private entity. It has since lost its pro shop too. How grand it would be if the pavilion were to be re-purposed as the course’s 19th Hole and Pro Shop.

She woke a sleeping giant

As a 10-year-old sixth grader at Lansingburgh Elementary School, my attention was focused on family and friends with school being a necessary evil. Although attentive in class, I never did homework. I passed the tests anyway, so saw no need to bother. Homework repulsed me. Homework took me away from my friends. That is until Ms. Kathleen Tivnan (my history teacher) convinced me, that at least for her class, it was worth doing. When I failed to turn in an assignment, she kept me after school. “Write ‘I will do my homework’ 100 times” she would say in her ever eloquent manner. I caved after about a week of this and started to do her homework assignments.

Many of the reading assignments were on ancient Greece. Before long, the stories of the city-states and the gods they honored became enjoyable for me to read. I wasn’t only reading what she told me to, I was checking other history books out as well. The more I read, the more interested I became in current events. I figured, someday these events will be history. Since my parents sheltered me from world events taking place in 1971, (the Vietnam War was still being waged and campus riots seemingly a daily occurrence) I turned to my grandparents. I asked them about events that occurred in their lifetimes like The Great Depression and World War II.  What was history to me was life for them.  How cool it was to learn their lives.  The family historian was born.

Had it not been for Ms. Tivnan’s insistence, my love of history may never have been awakened. Ms. Tivnan woke the sleeping giant. To her I owe my passion for history: my family's and Troy’s in particular. It was this passion for history that made me rail during the Urban desTroyal that occurred here in the ‘70’s. I carry that same passion today. Historic preservation and restoration are necessary, vital. They are keystones. For it is in our history that the real citizens of Troy will find their future.

Time Passes

Time passes,
Memories remain.
Thoughts collide with present times.

You are gone.
Yet you are here.
Never again and ever near.

Stay, Stay live within me.
Love remembers
Times past.

Real Citizens of Troy - Part II

This is your last call to action, my fellow Real Citizens of Troy! Today’s the day. Yepper. Sure is. Today is the last day that we can comment on the proposed expansion of the County Waste Transfer Station down on Main & Water Streets in South Troy. And we’ve been raising quite a stink about the whole process. And, yes, the pun is intended. And, no, I’m not talking about the stench of trash. I’m talking about the stench from the incompetence that allowed the process to breakdown in the first place.

I figured out a long time ago that issues don’t go away when one ignores them. Instead, what happens is that they grow fungus. I’m just saying that issues tend to mushroom when you ignore them. If an issue is not properly dealt with upfront, there can be a peck of difficulty trying to eradicate the spreading spores. 

I’ve taken my stand. It’s time for you to take yours. Click to email Nancy Baker or call the Region 4 permitting office at 357-2456.

Will the Real Citizens of Troy Please Stand Up

The proposed expansion of the County Waste Transfer Station, located at the South Troy Gateway into Troy, is on the fast track and it’s all because of a lack of response from our mayor’s office to a letter from NYSDEC that they may or may not have received. Let’s throw the blame here right where it belongs. The mailroom clerk. You know, the one who may not have DONE THE JOB THEY WERE HIRED TO DO by delivering the mayor his mail back in June. Gees, you just can’t get good help these days. Someone's ineptitude has put the city and her citizens right into a big trash bin.

Regardless of why the city administration’s office didn’t respond to the letter, they didn’t. And since that letter to the Mayor’s Office from NYSDEC regarding lead agency status for the proposed expansion back in June wasn’t responded to, NYSDEC assumed lead agency status of the project. On July 20th - as lead agency - NYSDEC made a negative declaration, clearing the way for the expansion to proceed WITHOUT a full and complete Envirnomental Impact Statement. It appears that no one in the city administration, on the city council or the citizens who will be directly impacted by this expansion were notified of this declaration either.  We can only assume that, if a letter notifying the City of Troy of this was sent, it found it’s way to the same place the June letter did.

Since the letter may or may not have been received, the city administation wasn't able to notify the city councilmen about this lead agency status either.  After all, if the mayor's office didn't receive the letter, they couldn't have shared the information, right?  As far as I know, no public hearings regarding the proposed expansion were held.  Until the citizens spoke out at the council meeting on August 5th (including one who suggested that the city take lead agency status), no one in city government apparently was aware that anyone other than the "trash talkers" from South Troy were concerned. When it became apparent to the council members that many residents outside of South Troy were also concerned, the councilmen agreed that more thought needed to go into the process.  They said that they would explore taking lead agency status. No one at that meeting seemed to be aware that the NYSDEC had already assumed that role or that a negative declaration regarding the expansion had in fact already been made.

NYSDEC had only received a handful of comments regarding this during the regular comment period.  Given that no informtion regarding this was made public, it surprises me that NYSDEC received ANY comments at all.  They were not aware that the real citizens of Troy were against the expansion.  Because of the outcry of at that council meeting, (and I suspect at the request of our city council) NYSDEC has extended the time period for public comment through August 19th. This is the final week that anyone will be able to comment on the proposed expansion.

Now this is where the trash talking REALLY has to start flying. This expansion will bring increased truck traffic to EVERY neighborhood in the city. This increased truck traffic will further strain our already teetering infrastructure, both above and below ground.  It will further degrade the appearance of one of our cities MAIN gateways. It will further erode property values throughout our fair city. It will give the City of Troy federal slum status. No real citizen of Troy could want any of this.  I certainly don't.  It's time for the Real Citizens of Troy to STAND UP.  Are you a Real Citizen of Troy? If you are, please contact Nancy Baker at NYSDEC or call the Region 4 permitting office at 357-2456 to make your opinion known.

Be Accountable

Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes we get caught. When we do get caught, it can be difficult to confirm that we did anything wrong. We fear the consequences of admitting guilt. Yet it’s through taking responsibility – owning up - for our actions and behaviors that we show fellow humans that we are accountable for our behavior. It’s how we build respect and that leads to trust.

Maybe that’s why it’s a challenge for us to trust politicians. It’s considered savvy in political circles to blame someone else, the other party or another department whenever the opportunity arises. Taking such action may move their agenda along, sometimes by deflecting the public’s attention away from a particular situation, especially if it’s a mucky, murky, mired messy situation. Only someone with something to hide does this and it’s tough to respect someone who does not accept the consequences of their actions.

The message these politicians and their handlers think they are sending is that someone else is responsible for the inaction or the situation. The message that their constituents are receiving is that the individual they elected to represent them is not taking responsibility for their decisions, actions or deeds. They are not being accountable. And accountability does matter.

The Lessons We Must Learn

Before we can talk, we can figure out how to get what we need or want. If an infant is picked up and cradled at the slightest fuss or a toddler throws a temper tantrum that results in getting what they were originally denied, they learn to repeat those behaviors. For them, they worked as their goal was achieved. Conversely, should the infant be allowed to fuss for a little while (as long as they’ve been fed and their nappy is clean) or the original denial stands in spite of the tantrum, they learn not to do that again ‘cause it didn’t work.

We progress through life by process of trial and error. We explore our world and learn what we like and how to get it. When we try or do something new or different that then satisfies a need or gives us pleasure; we’ll do it again. We’ll do it regularly. We also learn how to avoid those things that we don’t like. Each of us learns what works for us in our environment.

As school-aged children, we start learning the lessons of what is acceptable socially and what is not. We learn right from wrong. We learn to take responsibility for our actions. As adolescents we start to understand how decisions we make will affect other people. We learn to be accountable to others for how we behave. It’s the lessons we learn from our missteps that we learn best. They inform our mental processes, our mores and our character. It’s the learning of those lessons that grow us into adulthood.