Bertha Street Chicken Missing

After weeks of regular wake-up calls with the chicken (we called it "Spot") on the fence by the Delaware fire station back lot, Spot has turned up missing. We and the firemen fed the chicken regularly. For a while our neighbor Joe fed the chicken before us. We watched week after week as the chicken flew from yard to yard in search of grubs, worms, and scrap food. We had found the chicken was actually roosting under a table behind our house. It produced a dozen eggs while there but none of them were good. Yesterday the chicken did not come back to its nest and is not there today.


Was it captured by someone? Did it meet with an accident by a dog or vehicle? Did it just decide to seek another home since its eggs were not hatching? We just don't know.


Perhaps a few weeks of free range drama is all that we will be blessed with in this perplexing poutry episode!

Candidate's Night

I was pleased to attend the Neighborhgood Association's Candidate's Night yesterday evening. It was good to see all the candidates in one place for the 7th ward Common Council race. I would like to offer several observations on the candidates and what they said. I think a public discussion of the candidate's positions and qualifications is a good thing and something that should be encouraged. A blog is as good a place as any to do that.

1. The candates provided opening satements that were quite revealing. Cathy Fahey, the only woman running, provided an upbeat and positive feature focused statement about her qualifications and credentials for running. While her education was focused around her profession of teaching and some of her experience was that of the average middle class mom (cub scouts and PTA) she more than made up the difference by a demonstrated record as a community advocate who was involved in the public policy process of the community. Dan McGinn showed the kind of educational credentials one might expect from someone aspiring to public office but showed he seemed to rely on phone calls to officials and friendships rather than direct public policy work of attending public meetings, comment, and public advocacy. Ford McLain presented a clear interest in public policy formation at the community level but didn't seem to have a good understanding how public policy gets formed within the existing system. He also did not demonstrate a history of community involvement. Richard Melewski presented a picture of a businessman who has ignored public policy and therefore felt unconnected to the public policy process and then accused the process of ignoring community concerns. He didn't appear to understand how laws come into being and had a fear driven dooms day outlook on community life. Brian Scavo was a no-show for the presentation.

2. Of all the candidates I really feel that Kathy Fahey and Dan McGinn were the ones to pay attention to. Not just because they are contesting in the democratic primary. The other candidates did not demonstrate a good reasonable understanding of the community planning or governmental processes. A case in point was the issue of Charter Schools and education in general. These two referenced what has been done to oppose the charter schools while the others said "There's nothing that can be done". There's a good deal that can be done and I believe this will unfold in the coming months. The vote the Common Council took to put itself on record, and the referendum on the school ballot are among the kinds of things that can be done. Laws are good and bad and come in to existance through public processes and go out of existance that way. Just accepting them is never the proper response to bad laws.

3. By far, Kathy Fahey really showed herself to be the candidate that understood planning and community participation and was not simply a reactionary who let the community and its issues drift by. It was telling when the question was asked, "Have you ever spoken before the Common Council in advocacy of any issue?" Only Cathy Fahey had. In fact most of the remaining candidates seem to say they had never even been to a Common Council meeting! I would think that that would be part of a pre-requisite in understanding how the local government process works!

There is one more point. Personally, besides Helena Heath Roland who had come as part of her campaign effort, my perception was that I was the only person of color in the room. Our community is made up of many different types of people. Where were they all? There are many asian, black and latino people in our community. None of the candidates referenced anything that touched on this. Though I did submit a question regarding this, it did not get asked. What is being done to "include" other elements of our community in events like the Candidate's night or even in the agendas of the candidates. References to "affrodable housing" and "community safety" are often subtexted as having race relations included in them. No explicit mention of the economic divide or human relations needs of the community was even hinted at apart from references to "affordable housing" or "safety". Those candidates that were biggest on the "fear" factor often use it as a cover for discussions of poverty and race (Scavo and Melewski I have in mind). If they do not mean this they should be explicit in saying so. Otherwise they make themselves out to be posturing to gain the support of racist elements in our community.

Next Meeting - Tuesday the 26th at 6pm

Our next Neighborhood Watch meeting will be Tuesday, August 23rd at 6pm. We’re going to be holding the meeting at the Delaware Ave Branch of the Albany Public Library in the conference room at 6pm.

The library is located at 465 Delaware Ave. (In the strip mall across from Stewarts.)

We’re hoping to have someone from the city come talk to us about Codes. This seemed to be a hot topic at the last meeting.

School 18 Down

In several successive waves of clouds of dust today and particularly between 12pm and 2pm school 18 disappeared.

A layer of dust coats everything in the immediate neighborhood.

Viewing from the sky along Hurlbut Street somewhat from the south

Roughly across from 54 Bertha

Bertha Street looking south

View Down Bertha from Delaware Avenue

Pictures of the Future School 18

I don't know if people have seen these pictures (the next five postings). These are the architect's drawings of what they plan to have school 18 looking like when they are done. I think I said I would post these so here they are. The surface in the pictures is supposed to be a kind of brick that is colorized. I suspect it is like the materials that have been used on the Sheridan Avenue (old OLA school location), and Clinton Avenue near Bleeker Stadium schools. It was really hard to tell from the samples that were passed around in one of the community meetings just how it will actually look up close on the buildings.

Kelton Court School Becomes Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School

It is certainly old news by now since it was on the television and in the newspaper but one decision the school board made after I left the meeting the other night was to name the Kelton Court School the Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School.


Stephen and Harriet Myers were a husband and wife who worked to abolish slavery and worked on self-help issues for African Americans in the mid 19th century in Albany. A good bio of Stephen is on www.ugrworkshop.com.


I am curious how this will affect the history of the Kelton Court School. The school was part of the initial facilities plan and on the drawing board before a couple of the planned charter schools were announced. So there was public discussion regarding if the school was really needed. Then there were people in the neighborhood that opposed the building of the school. The Mayor opposed the building of the school. There were vandals in the Whitehall Road neighborhood that inflicted tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of dollars in damage on contractor's equipment and work materials and the cost of materials went up. Finally the school was completed and a principal appointed. Now the school is named and it is an outstanding name. Will the opposition and controversy continue?

Can of worms

We've already got politics on this blog, so why not religion. The Mormons were making the rounds today. I probably see them about 6 times a year. I really like talking to these guys (as I write this I realize I've never seen a Mormon girl make the rounds). They're generally very nice and I'll typically invite them to sit a spell and give me the spiel.

Today we hit on a rather interesting point. They told me their path is defined through divine revelation given to the prophet (located in Utah). The prophet then passes this on to the flock (do they call it a flock?) When asked what divine revelation meant, they said it was God giving the prophet a truth (what others may call grace).

So...this confused me a bit because I've read quite a bit of the Mormon D&C which is a record of revelations. In the D&C section 132, Joseph Smith is given the divine revelation about plurality of marriage. My visitors weren't really familiar with this, but they gave me the benefit of the doubt. I was also aware that section 132 had been overturned in recent history. They said that was correct. Plurality of marriage is no longer sanctioned as a result of divine revelation.

This got me pondering the meaning of truth. I asked if a truth can change? The reply… no, a truth cannot change. So if revelation is a truth, why are there conflicting sections in the D&C? The answer was that God changed his mind. I thought that was a bit weak and said maybe the prophet mis-understood the revelation. Following a bit of silence, they asked if anyone I know might be interested in their message. I couldn’t think of anyone, so they moved on.

It was a short visit, but I enjoyed every minute of it. If you are indeed interested, I have their card.

National Night Out, Kids On Bikes, Woods, Chickens

1. I missed the National Night Out. I went to the school board meeting. It was very interesting. They asked for comments on naming the Kelton Court School. They also reviewed a plan for renovating Albany High School. It will go to a bond vote next year. There was an article in the paper this morning about the high school plans. This is likely to be another long process. Those who might have an interest should get involved now. There are advisory committees and board members are very accessible regarding comment and input. The members and their contact information are on the school district web site. The district is also very open to sharing information about this project.


2. I was walking to work this morning around 9 am and at Mona and Delaware there was an apparent accident between a small bike and a van. Apparently (based ont he type of bike) a youth was injured. Someone was taken away in an ambulance. Any one know what happened? Is the child okay?


3. Has any one heard anything about the woods on Hacket Boulevard? Two lots have been cleared of woods near that doctor's office across from the Girl's Academy Gym.


4. The chicken...well I found where it is roosting. We are in eggs up to our necks. We are consulting chicken experts.

National (Neighborhood) Night Out

Tonight (Tuesday) is Neighborhood Night Out. The Delaware Area Neighborhood Association is having their annual ice cream social at the Farmers Market beginning at 5:30.

[The] "National Night Out" (NNO) program [is] held on the first Tuesday each August, [and] has been extraordinarily successful in promoting involvement in crime and drug prevention activities, strengthening police-community relations, and encouraging neighborhood camaraderie as part of the fight for safer streets. Since 1984, "National Night Out-America's Night Out Against Crime" has grown to involve over 30 million people from more than 9,000 communities. -- http://www.nationaltownwatch.org/nno/index.html

Found Cat

The cat's been found. We can now turn our attention back to all of the strays.

Lost Cat

Be on the lookout for a black and white cat (Sylvester style) by the name of Jemmi(?). The cat escaped from 15 Summit when the windows were open for construction. If you see Jemmi, contact Ed at 17 Summit.