There Go The Neighborhoods

I attended the grand opening of the new Delaware branch of the Albany Public Library on Saturday, January 9, just as I attended the event for the Pine Hills branch (a/k/a, MY branch) five weeks earlier. Also, on Tuesday, January 5, I went to the sometimes contentious meeting about the closing of the Washington Avenue YMCA (a/k/a, MY branch) at, not coincidentally, the main branch of the APL. And it brought home the fact that the issues of the branch libraries, the urban Y and also the post offices that have been threatened to be closed, including the South Allen location (a/k/a, MY post office) are all part of the same issue: the livability of the city of Albany. However, there have been quite varied outcomes.

First, let's look at the good news. You MUST go to the two reopened branches of the library

Battle Cry: Save the Y!

Since I last wrote about the possible plan to close the Albany YMCA on Washington Avenue, the place of my membership for over a quarter century, there have been some interesting developments.

The Times Union had a front page story YMCA'S PLIGHT STOKES EMOTIONS. The subtitle was "Albany site's possible closing sparks accusation that organization is 'abandoning' its urban roots -- a claim CEO hotly disputes". Of course, disputing something, even hotly, doesn't make it less true. That article and the previous piece led to at least three published letters, here and here and here in support of keeping the facility open. Also one current Y member accusing Y management of WILLFUL NEGLECT, a characterization I'm not willing to dispute. See also the Metroland piece.

But I do have a modicum of hope that I did not have before. The mayor's representative has indicated the city's desire to save the Y, and that's nice. However, that's not what gotten me stoked. I'm excited about the movement of ordinary citizens rallying over this issue through petitions at the Y and, interestingly, through Facebook; it is the Save the ALBANY YMCA Facebook group whose logo I have appropriated.

There are some specific strategies that seem viable to me in this battle. One will be a letter campaign to the national organization, I suspect, questioning the Capital District's commitment to a core element of the Y mission, serving the urban community. I'm sure I'll learn more when I attend the
DON'T CLOSE OUR Y! meting
Tuesday, JANUARY 5 at 6 pm
ALBANY PUBLIC LIBRARY, Main Branch


ROG

The power is off, on, off

The fact is that I often write a little bit here and there on my blog. Without any computer, though, that becomes tricky. If I don't get to your site as usual, I will, I will, if/when the problem's solved.

Yes, the lousy weather came. I decided to write the events of the last couple days in Twitter-sized bits; don't know why.

I have stuff for tomorrow, but future postings may be disrupted by lack o' access.

Th 6pm - Bible study xed by forecast, Indian food @ Shalimar. To corner; next walk so slick, need to grab lamppost to not slide into rd.

Th 8:30pm - short choir rehearsal. Friend Deb gives ride to store-rock salt- & home, inc. sleet. Take out trash. Read, sing to daughter.

F 3am - power out, then on. Wife up to reset clock. 2 min. later - power out, then on. Up c 5:30-computer won't turn on, tho' monitor is.

F 5:45am - can't get school closings: computer, cable-attached TV whacked out. Use 7" set. Most closed, not ALB, day care, wife's school.

F 6am- ALB, day care closed, wife's school not. I'll stay w/Lydia. 6:20-wife's school finally closed. She'll stay with Lydia. To Y, work.

F 7:30am- no rball players @Y. Lock missing frm locker, buy new. Paged - wife calls. No power @ work, no one authorized to close office.

F 8:15am-call lib dir from Y @ his cell -no power means no phones. Call 9:15 on MY cell, it died, then pay phone. ALB lib open @ 11. Home.

F 1:15 pm- Go to ALB lib in midst of windstorm. W/ melting, brought down chunks of ice onto cars & people. Write this.
***
Well, that was going to have to be the post, but I went home, tried to figure out the computer again, and realized I could get it to work if I didn't run it through the surge protector, but rather plugged it into the power strip directly. Good news - computer operates. Bad news - no less protection, which might fry the computer sometime.

The wife and daughter had taken a nap, but the wife got up. This would have been just the perfect time for us to watch together those programs we planned to watch together (Earl, Office, 30 Rock), except for one little thing: the cable was in this minimalist mode. We had no DVR service and had but five channels to watch : community access, some advertising channel, NASA, TV Guide Channel and, fortunately, the PBS affiliate. so I read and Carol did Christmas stuff.

This also meant I watched the news and JEOPARDY! in a way I'm unaccustomed - in real time, on the 7" set. Did I mention it was in black & white? I prefer the time shifting.

All in all, a good day.

Could have been worse. Over 200,000 homes in the area were without power in my area, but we weren't one of them - well, except for an hour around 6 p.m. last night, which seems to have fried (temporarily? permanently?) the DVR.
ROG