THACHER PARK NOT OUT
OF THE WOODS YET

As long as the state legislature is in town
we are not safe.

The weekend outing in the park was
cancelled. Perhaps, organizers found
it hard to get a crowd on Palm Sunday
weekend, and when Spring break is
in full sway.

Cautious observers would not count on
Thacher Park, and other parks and
historical sites being spared.

The Governor and State Legislature are
avoiding dealing with the budget shortfall
until after November 2 when they hope to
be returned to office by the voters.

Even if they are not reelected a lame duck
Governor and State Legislature can be very
dangerous.

In either case, they might pass a budget
that includes big tax increases and still close
Thacher and other parks/historical sites.

So, Thacher supporters - beware and alert.

*********

Margaret, Mick, Paddy and me spent both
weekend days roaming the woods. The snow
was gone from most fields and open spaces.
However, in the woods, the snow was still
a foot or more deep. However, it was still
possible to walk, without snowshoes, and
without breaking through the surface snow
which was still frozen enough to support
our weight.

Saturday, was sunny, and the nicer of the
two days. Sunday , South winds were gusting
to 25-30 knots, and we had to be on the look
out for falling branches/trees.

Nevertheless, we went to walk in the woods
because, in all probability the weather will
warm significantly later this week, and that
will be the last of the snow, unless we have
a Nor'Easter or a few lighter snowfalls in
April.

So, our winter Transhumance is coming to
and end. It was one of our best winters ever.

Come Spring and Summer we will have to be
content with lowland walks and occasional
journeys to the uplands of Delaware County.

Our focus is now toward growing vegetables
and flowers.

I planted potatoes, turnips, lettuce, spinach
swiss chard, broccoli, beets and parsley in
mid March during before the pleasant
weather arrived with Spring.

Carrots, parsnips are next to be planted
followed by pole beans, summer squash
and cherry tomatoes when the weather
warms.

The raspberries are mowed and we are
looking forward to a good harvest July
through September.

The Fall planted garlic is emerging.

All the planting beds have been insulated
with straw and leaves to protect the crops
from frosty weather than can occur until
mid May.

The flowers include the usual perennials
Daffodils, Tuips, Iris, Coreopsis, Coneflower
Bee Balm, Astibile, Roses, Native and Asian
Lillies, Yarrow, Lambs Ears and Black-Eyed
Susans; as well as annuals including Celosia
Cosmos, Blue Batchelor Buttons, Butterfly
Bushes and Marigolds.


Joe Sullivan

CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY
POSES HEALTH RISKS FOR
HUMANS, PETS AND POND

Excessive use and dependence on lawn
chemicals and flea/tick treatments pose
health risks for humans, our pets and
Buckingham Pond.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=912858&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=3/19/2010

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=912858&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=3/19/2010


Add to this, excessive dumping of road
salt, which drys and become airborne
mixing with exhaust fumes of the growing
vehicle traffic on neighborhood streets.

Dying street trees are the canaries in our
urban environment, but we are not paying
attention.

Health risk warnings are clearly posted
on alcoholic beverage and cigarette labels.

What about the lawns, sidewalks and streets
we tred? The air we breathe?

Does Obamacare address these issues?

How about personal responsibility?


Joe Sullivan

TU EDITORIALS
RE: NYSP
NYS LEGISLATURE
AND EDUCATION

http://lonerangeralbany.blogspot.com/

Joe Sullivan

ALBANY CITY SCHOOLS.
FEEL LUCKY PUNKS?

The TU reported March 5 , that Albany
City school officials have proposed a
school property tax hike as high
as 10 percent.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=908003&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=3/5/2010

March 18 the TU reported that the
Albany City School District is considering
a 5 percent school property tax increase.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=913312

The Albany City School Board and
Administration appear to be suffering
from a severe case of ADD.

Nothing less than ZERO percent school
property tax increase will be acceptable
this year!

Go ahead and make our day!

Joe Sullivan
posted by J P Sullivan 8:55 AM

THIEVES/VANDALS
INCREASED ACTIVITY
WITH WARMER WEATHER

Be alert, observe and act when you spot
punks casing our hood, or hanging out
at Buckingham Pond Park , Greenway
and Crestwood Plaza.

Expect an increase in home/ car break
ins and street robberies.

Every resident of our neighborhood is
part of our neighborhood watch.

Carry your cell phones, keyed in to the
APD Center Station 458 5660, when
you are out and about walking your
pets, jogging or driving. Key in the
Anti-Terror Hotline number too.

Keep the above number, and NYS Anti-
Terror Hotline number :
1 866 SAFE NYS (723 3697) next to your
land line home phones.

We have been warned to expect Al Qaida
attacks on the Home Front. They have
already occurred and more are in the
works.

What are potential targets in our hood?
Think, hospitals, schools, gas stations
power lines, natural gas line, water and
sewer infrastructure, churches, synagogues
and more.

Al Qaida, and related groups, attack at
symbolic times and places. Think Passover
and Easter.

We have to crack down on domestic street
thugs, drug dealers and violent predators
because they are the natural allies of the
foreign terrorists, who are sworn to destroy
us, our way of life and America.

Here is the latest alert fom the APD:


Neighborhood Association Presidents and Addressees,

Please read and forward the following information to all of your members, students, employees and local businesses:


Broken Windows of Vehicles

Since Saturday, March 13th, there have been a number of incidents involving broken windows on vehicles. In all of the incidents, windows were broken, and in (9) of the incidents various electronic items were stolen. In (2) incidents, the methods of breaking the windows were determined to be a brick and a sparkplug. In (2) of the incidents suspects were described as 2 black males, 14-15 years of age, approx 5'4" and 140 lbs. Most of the incidents occurred during the evening hours.

Vehicle Safety Tips
ü When parking your vehicle, be certain to lock your doors and windows.
ü Secure your valuables. Thieves are frequently attracted to items such as GPS Systems, IPods, Cell Phones, Loose Change in Holders, Laptop Computers, etc. that are left exposed in a vehicle.
ü When possible, please take any valuables with you.
ü During night hours, please be certain to park your car in a well lit area.
ü Have your key ready when you go back to your car.
ü Do not leave your car running and unattended!



“If you see something, Say Something.”

Please report all suspicious person(s) or activities to the Albany Police Department
at
438-4000


Your neighborhood association and neighborhood
watch works ....when you do.

Joe Sullivan




Thanks,

Janet

Officer Janet Parker
Albany Police Department
Community Services Unit

Center Station
536 Western Avenue
Albany, NY 12203

Office: (518) 458-5668
Fax: (518) 458-5662
Email: jparker@albany-ny.org

BUCKINGHAM POND PARK

The trees have not begun to leaf out, yet.

Dead trees, many of them large, stand out
clearly, particularly when looking South
across the pond from the North Shore.

Many pose a hazard to people and pets
who use the wooded paths on that side
of the pond on windy days.

Dead trees are also clearly visible in the
wooded Western side of the park bordered
by Davis Ave.

Now is the time to remove the dead trees
decayed limbs, vines and underbrush that is
strangling the younger trees.

The newly formed Buckingham Pond
Conservancy should have it's members
marking vines and underbrush to be
cut and cleared, with orange ribbons.

Young trees that form the next generation
of mature trees, should be marked with
green ribbons.

Dead or severely decayed trees that present
a hazard to people and pets using the paths
should be marked with red ribbons.

Ideally, this should have been done before
the weather turned warmer and the ticks
beneath the leaves began to hatch. Howver
previous posts on this site have been ignored
as have other specific recommendations to
improve Buckingham Pond Park.
(See numerous posts in the archives of this
site)


Members of the Conservancy and city
workers who tend to the above tasks
should be alert to the presence of ticks
when working in the woods.

Additionally, leaves and brush should be
cleared from alongside paths so that ticks
do not hitch rides on people and pets, who
bring them back to homes and yards, thus
spreading the risk of Lyme Disease and
other diseases carried by ticks.

Joe Sullivan

EDUCATION, LEARNING
AND CITIZENSHIP

Education may be defined as a life long
process of learning the knowledge and skills
required to make a living, to lead a satisfying
life, to be a responsible, productive member
of society and an informed participant in the
constitutional form of government which we
have inherited from the Founders of our nation.

This definition fits our particular
circumstances.

The definition of education for a bushman
in the Kalihari Desert would be different
with more emphasis on learning survival
skills and staying alive.

Come to think of it, learning survival skills
applies to us as well.

To become educated, one must want to
learn, make the effort to learn and apply
what is learned to one's life.

The Albany school graduation rate is
somewhere between 49 and 51 percent
depending on what sources one relies
upon.

Albany spends more per "student" while
having the lowest graduation rate of any
school district in the Capital District.

Perhaps, school property taxes should
be indexed to student performance and
graduation rates?

A fifty percent decrease in school property
taxes would delight Albany City homeowners.

The State Education Commissioner has
warned that poor performing schools will
be closed.

This is not the answer.

The problem rests squarely with the
"students" and their parent(s) who do not
value learning and with an education
curriculum that fails to prepare them to
be responsible, productive members of
society.

The social services system and related
government programs, like Section 8
housing ,enable and encourage these
behaviors.


Graduation and diplomas have become
meaningless. Endless testing and
proccupation with test scores is an
exercise in futility.

For learning to take place requires
motivation, effort and application of
that which is learned, by the learner.

Permissiveness and lack of discipline
in dysfunctional families and in schools
and colleges yield predictable results.
Consider the behavior of college
"students" locally:

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=909861

An educated person can be identified
by his/her behavior - not by how many
years of schooling or how many diplomas
one has.

Personal responsibility for one's behavior
is an attribute associated with being
educated.

Schools must offer a safe environment
for learners who are motivated to learn.

Those who are not motivated and
disciplined learners must be culled out
and placed in alternative settings where
they can learn knowledge, skills, attitudes
and behaviors that will enable them to
become responsible productive citizens.

Give them limited classroom sessions
with more vocational -life skill training
including performing public service
cleaning and rebuilding blighted
neighborhoods, maintaining parks
roads, bridges and railroads, working
in hospitals or providing home health
care for seniors.

After a full day of learning and
contributing these learners will hit the
rack early rather than prowling the streets
becoming gangbangers, drug dealers
druggies, thieves, and violent anti-social
malcontents who wind up incarcerated
in prisons., or unwed teens who become
lifers in the government social services
system.

A burgeoning dependent population that
takes from, but contributes nothing to
society, can not be sustained in the hard
economic times that have befallen our
cities, towns, counties, states and nation.

Homeowners, small businesses, farmers
can not be expected to pay ever increasing
property taxes to fund a failing education
system.

New York State Legislators and the Governor
must enact real property tax relief now, and
revise the state educational curriculum
requirements to allow for more local
control and more innovative learning that
produces productive citizens who are a
benefit, rather than burden, to society.

Joe Sullivan

ALBANY CITY SCHOOLS.
FEEL LUCKY PUNKS?

The TU reports today, that Albany City
school officials have proposed a school
property tax hike as high as 10 percent.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=908003&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=3/5/2010

Nothing less than zero percent school
property tax increase will be acceptable
this year!

Go ahead and make our day!

Joe Sullivan

SAVE-A-LOT MARKET
COMES TO CTY OF ALBANY.

March 3, the new neighborhood market
held a grand opening.

493 Delaware Avenue 462 0381

Great staff and some real grocery price
bargains.

Check it out!

Joe Sullivan

SECTION 8 HOUSING
SLUMLORDS , BLIGHT
AND BLIGHTERS

Section 8 housing, slumlords, blight and
blighters are destroying one neighborhood
after another in the City of Albany.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=908012&category=BUSINESS&TextPage=1

The Park South urban renewal project
disperses the blight and blighters up the
New Scotland Avenue corridor into the
9th, 8th and 14th wards.

This further erodes the city property tax
base by driving homeowners to sell and
move out.

Notice all the 4 sale signs?

The rational way to renew the city is to
stabilize the uptown residential
neighborhoods which are the city property
tax base, and work downtown securing one
neighborhood after another.

Contain and eradicate blight neighborhood
by neighborhood, starting with saving the
uptown residential and property tax base.

This is not unlike the surge strategy employed
by the U S military in Iraq, and now in
Afghanistan.

Are we not fighting a war on blight and
associated crime on the homefront?

Why are there no meetings of the Mayor's
Task Force to select a new Albany City Police
Chief being held uptown?

Uptown residential neighborhoods pay the
lion's share of the property taxes that support
the police fire department and city schools.

The Uptown neighborhoods provided the
Mayor with his margin of reelection votes.

Are we being taken for granted?

As uptown residents say nothing - they will get
nothing in return for their tax dollars.

Joe Sullivan