Bringing Home the Bacon

The former Clara S. Bacon Elementary School at 40 Henrietta Blvd is again creating controversy in Amsterdam.  The building and grounds owned by the Amsterdam School District was to be sold to the World Peace and Health Organization for a whopping $460,000.  When that organization backed out of the sale, a proposal was put forth by City Recreation Director Rob Spagnola to have the City buy the property and turn it into a Recreation Center.

With no professional business plan or marketing survey done, the Common Council acted on the purely speculative proposal by placing a bid on the property for $150,000. Spagnola’s proposed start up cost have ranged wildly from $130,000 to $650,000. for building repairs and equipment. The City’s plan is to bond for the building cost, ultimately paying $420,000. over a 20 year period. There was no discussion of how this building will be staffed or maintained nor was there any mention of the cost of liability insurance.

To top it all off, City Government wants to rush the purchase so it will be on the same ballot as the Amsterdam School District Budget.  Woah, stop the presses! The school isn’t going anywhere. If this plan is worthwhile as stated, get a professional opinion about its feasibility as a business. Get a professional building survey and estimate for repair. The last thing this City needs is another drain on the taxpayers. We already have the golf course that fails to produce revenue.

The Amsterdam School District has made a counter offer to the City of $250,000. for the property. That is $210,000. less than the Chinese Buddhists were charged for the same property less than 6 months ago.

How can the City of Amsterdam afford to finance this pipe dream when we cannot even balance an annual budget or fix our failing infrastructure. We still have fire hydrants that fail, buildings in need of demolition or repair. We have too many projects waiting to be completed to take on another. Chalmers Building demolition, the Tonko Bridge, the Via Ponte Project, sewer and storm drain project etc.

If the City is serious about this project, at least hire a professional to determine actual cost of rehab and a market study to see if such a venture would be profitable before acquiring yet another unmanageable tax-free property.  Better yet, market the site as a profitable recreation center to a private investor so the City can profit from the taxes and utility fees as well.

Perhaps the Mayor could ask Uri Kaufman to invest in Bacon, or wouldn’t that be Kosher?

Jesus Take the Wheel

Whether it comes from Jesus the central figure of Christianity or Jesús a political candidate from Amsterdam’s rapidly growing Latino community, the City of Amsterdam is seriously in need of direction.

The local government of Amsterdam has been floundering, unable to become the cohesive unit necessary to move our City forward. Indecision and a lack of transparency has caused much infighting among the Common Council.

The whole Chalmers deal has put scheduled demolition on hold with a court battle for control of the property at a cost to the taxpayers. Personal prejudices of City Officials were revealed in emails about the project, made public through the FOIL process. In a recent talk radio interview, Uri Kaufman reveals that Peter Thane, husband of Amsterdam Mayor Ann Thane, worked as a subcontractor on Kaufman’s Harmony Mills project. This fact both Kaufman and the Mayor deny having any prior knowledge of.

The recent rushed decision by the Common Council to purchase the former Bacon School property in order to create an athletic complex, comes at a time when the City cannot even afford to repair our failing infrastructure. BAD IDEA! Where will the money come from?

Mayor Thane’s leadership ability is lacking with it’s ignore it and it will go away policy of refusing to answer citizen inquiries or FOIL appeals. The Mayor has employed censorship in an attempt to control public opinion, both in her personal blog and on the official City of Amsterdam Facebook page by blocking people who don’t conform to her everything is beautiful mantra. An article in yesterday’s The Recorder quotes the Mayor as stating “…I think it’s wonderful news that we are 26 percent Hispanic and I think we need to celebrate our diversity.” Yet the Mayor has done little to foster any kind of dialog with the Latino community.

This was one of the recommendations from the Comprehensive Plan:

Capitalize on the City’s Diversity (Integration and Tolerance):

Take advantage of, and invest in the talent of, all segments of Amsterdam’s population. For example, Amsterdam could capitalize on a relatively large Spanish-speaking workforce, using this as an asset to attract businesses that cater to the country’s rapidly expanding Hispanic markets (importing/exporting,call centers, entertainment, communications, etc.). Centro Civico has established training, educational and cultural programs targeted towards integrating Hispanics into the local economy. These efforts should receive continued support. Nationally, there could be many as 2 million Hispanic-owned businesses, generating more than $300 billion in business (Hispanic Trends, Vista). Amsterdam can position itself as a community of choice for immigrants, with special programs designed to attract them and to facilitate their personal and professional integration in the community.

These recommendations have been ignored for too many years. With a growing Latino community comprising over 1/4 of the City population, we have no Latino representatives in City government.

This City needs leadership and direction. Will it come from the Latino community? Could we get the much needed direction from declared Mayoral Candidate Bill Wills? Only time will tell, but we need change now!

2010 New York State Census Data

Super Moon Before the Vernal Equinox

Taken from Grove Street at 9:50PM March 19, 2011

Looking Back

Meeting the City Historian Robert von Hasseln last week got me thinking about historic preservation.  How can the average homeowner in Amsterdam afford any type of restoration that is keeping with the original design plan?

I discussed briefly with Mr. von Hasseln about the possibility of preserving any architectural detailing or trim from old homes that were set to be demolished, so they could be reused in home restorations.  He stated his group, the Historic Amsterdam League did discuss such an effort, but put it on the back burner for now for lack of storage space and the necessary labor to recover such items.  I believe the cost of storage and recovery could be offset by resale of these items to those wishing to restore homes and possible receive some type of historic tax credit for doing so.

Restoration can be a very costly process and although it may be more cost effective to demolish,  we lose a bit of our history with every building that is taken down. The detailing on the trim of older homes just cannot be replaced today. This is evidenced by the stripping of detailing and bastardization of older homes by slapping on plastic siding, often removing transoms and porches forever altering the original design plan.

I did some research looking into the history of my house on Grove Street, pictured below as it appeared last summer.

This very prevalent design housed Amsterdam’s working class. This particular home dates back to the 1860’s and is one of the oldest of its style remaining on Grove Street. Brittle asbestos siding covers the original wood and decorative window transoms along with shutters have been removed. The original staircase is missing decorative balusters. All of these items exist in properties slated for demolition.

This image of the same house was scanned from a Xerox copy of an old property record card in City Hall. This was before urban renewal. Notice the close proximity of the house next door and behind. The car and antenna wires date the photo to the late 40’s or early 50’s.

The next undated photo was the home of David S. Dunlap located on 33 Grove Street, which no longer exists. It was located in the area that is now a parking lot on the north side of the Amsterdam Mall. This similar style home has a wrap around porch that we do not see in other homes of this style.

According to the 1900 census, Dunlap lived in the residence with his wife and children while operating the Dunlap Dry Goods Company on 51 East Main Street. As Dunlap became more prosperous, he moved to 280 Guy Park Ave and became a member of the school board.

I discovered an 1868 Map of Amsterdam from Ancestry.com which is a great source of documentation for places as well as people. Notice how Amsterdam only occupied a very small section of the map. This is before Amsterdam was chartered as a city in 1885, before the Sanfords, before it acquired Port Jackson and Rock City and other surrounding properties. This is how Grove Street looked in 1868. My house is highlighted.

The next map is Amsterdam in 1905. In the 37 years that separate the two maps, the City of Amsterdam experienced the greatest increase in land, population and housing that it will ever have.  This is how Grove Street appeared in 1905.

1868 – The earliest owner I could find of my Grove Street home is listed on the 1868 map as F. Burke, although there were no other details available.

1870 – Prior to 1880 the US Census did not include street information

1880 – John Kennedy, his wife Mary Ann, daughters Mary and Kittie, twin sons George and John lived in 63 Grove Street. John was a carder at a woolen mill, his wife kept house and the children attended school.

1890 – US Census records destroyed by fire.

1900 – Checking the US Census information from 1900, I found the McNally family, born in Ireland, occupied the single family home at 63 Grove Street. Thomas McNally was a printer, his wife Elaine a homemaker, daughter Loretta a milliner, Catherine a dressmaker while Jessica and son Thomas were still in school.

1910 – A native NY family, the Dutchers lived in my house and converted the single family home into a two family, sharing it with the Powell and Calary families.  John Dutcher was a carpenter, his wife Sarah a homemaker. Son Fred Dutcher worked as a laborer, John Jr worked as a needlemaker in the needle factory. Alfred Powell (son in law) worked as a cutter in the knitting mill with his wife Alvirah a folder. Their three year old son Dewitt stayed home with his grandmother Sarah. Fifteen year old daughter Ida worked as a lacer in the knitting mill while twelve year old Hattie did not work. Ross Calary worked as a stainer in the knitting mill and his two sisters Sarah and Tressie worked as finishers. There were twelve people living in the house now occupied by me and my two cats!

1920 – The Hopkins family from Germany occupied one floor of my house. August Hopkins worked in the broom factory, his wife Frieda kept house while Lawrence and Charlotte worked in the knitting mill, daughter Grace worked as a clerk in ten cent store and Reinhardt, Elisabeth and Alice attended school.  Alexander Dressler, also from Germany lived on in the other half of the house with his Irish wife Helen and American son Sammy.  Alexander was an engineer who worked in the knitting mill.

1930 – Joseph Rios from Spain lived in my house with his Italian wife Lorrie and her brother Joseph Campanile.  Rios was a caretaker at the cemetery, his wife worked as a waitress in a hotel and her brother a clerk. The second apartment was occupied by Philip Webber from Russia who was employed as a retail clerk.

This map shows how the Grove Street area looks today after major restructuring from urban renewal that eliminated Maple Street, most of Liberty Street and the homes on either side and behind my house.

I have tried to illustrate the historic significance of the buildings that housed Amsterdam’s working class by describing the variety of ethnicities and work contributions of the people that passed through a single home. These are the people comprising the fabric of Amsterdam.

Can a home be considered historic even if it is not a mansion built by a millionaire? Do you know the history of your home? Is historic restoration even a possibility in Amsterdam? The answer is up to you.

Freedom of Speech

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Speaks at George Washington University on February 15, 2011

The internet has become the public space of the 21^st century – the world’s town square, classroom, marketplace, coffeehouse, and nightclub. We all shape and are shaped by what happens there, all 2 billion of us and counting. And that presents a challenge. To maintain an internet that delivers the greatest possible benefits to the world, we need to have a serious conversation about the principles that will guide us, what rules exist and should not exist and why, what behaviors should be encouraged or discouraged and how.

One year ago, I offered a starting point for that vision by calling for a global commitment to internet freedom, to protect human rights online as we do offline. The rights of individuals to express their views freely, petition their leaders, worship according to their beliefs – these rights are universal, whether they are exercised in a public square or on an individual blog. The freedoms to assemble and associate also apply in cyberspace. In our time, people are as likely to come together to pursue common interests online as in a church or a labor hall.

But of course, governments also have a duty to be transparent. We govern with the consent of the people, and that consent must be informed to be meaningful. So we must be judicious about when we close off our work to the public, and we must review our standards frequently to make sure they are rigorous. In the United States, we have laws designed to ensure that the government makes its work open to the people, and the Obama Administration has also launched an unprecedented initiative to put government data online, to encourage citizen participation, and to generally increase the openness of government.

Some take the view that, to encourage tolerance, some hateful ideas must be silenced by governments. We believe that efforts to curb the content of speech rarely succeed and often become an excuse to violate freedom of expression. Instead, as it has historically been proven time and time again, the better answer to offensive speech is more speech. People can and should speak out against intolerance and hatred. By exposing ideas to debate, those with merit tend to be strengthened, while weak and false ideas tend to fade away; perhaps not instantly, but eventually.

Now, this approach does not immediately discredit every hateful idea or convince every bigot to reverse his thinking. But we have determined as a society that it is far more effective than any other alternative approach. Deleting writing, blocking content, arresting speakers – these actions suppress words, but they do not touch the underlying ideas. They simply drive people with those ideas to the fringes, where their convictions can deepen, unchallenged.

But when it comes to online speech, the United States has chosen not to depart from our time-tested principles. We urge our people to speak with civility, to recognize the power and reach that their words can have online. We’ve seen in our own country tragic examples of how online bullying can have terrible consequences. Those of us in government should lead by example, in the tone we set and the ideas we champion. But leadership also means empowering people to make their own choices, rather than intervening and taking those choices away. We protect free speech with the force of law, and we appeal to the force of reason to win out over hate.

Zoning Update Meeting

Doug Greene and Ken Rose of Montgomery County Business Development Center anxiously wait for the public to arrive on Wednesday evening  in the Council Chamber at Amsterdam City Hall where proposed zoning changes illuminated the wall with the aid of a digital projector.

Doug Green dutifully covered each of the major changes explaining the reasoning that went into the process. He explained the major proposed change of eliminating the historic districts and implementing a city wide design guideline plan that would require new building and construction to comply with the basic guidelines that compliment their respective neighborhoods.

As with the other public meetings held for the proposed zoning updates, just a smattering of people were present. The local press wasn’t even interested.

Mayor Ann Thane tried her hand as videographer for the evening meeting, panning and zooming the camera to cover all the “action”.

St Mary’s Hospital CEO Victor Giulianelli thanked the Zoning Update Committee for their dedication and reminded us of the close relationship they maintain with the local neighborhood.

5th Ward Alderman Richard Leggiero inquires about historic building designation and the Chalmers Property. He is reassured by City Historian Robert von Hasseln that the designation has absolutely no bearing on the State approved demolition.

The most interesting segment of the night was presented by von Hasseln, who had a wealth of knowledge about historic districts, historic preservation and tax credits. He opposed the Committee plan to eliminate the Historic Districts from the zoning plan, suggesting instead to ease the historic regulations to a degree that is tolerable by the citizens residing in those districts. He further suggested that the Historic Amsterdam League could play a part in any needed input or even enforcement of basic guidelines for historic preservation that could earn the property owner tax credits or a tax break over a period of time.

The City Historian’s input was well though out and will be considered by the Zoning Update Committee after more input from the Historic Amsterdam League.

When approved by the Zoning Update Committee, the plan must be approved by the Montgomery County Planning Board and Amsterdam Common Council with another public meeting before it can be incorporated.

Censorship Rears Her Ugly Head

There is a difference between open communication accomplished through discussion and outright censorship.

Censorship is suppression of speech or other communication that may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body.

The City of Amsterdam Facebook page, created and maintained using public funds, has whitewashed comments to only include those that favor or praise the Mayor’s opinions. I have personally had all of my comments removed from the city run Facebook page and I have been locked out from commenting. 
The page, labeled as a governmental organization, started running advertisements for local business owned by those who support the Mayor. Two of the local business owners advertised are also elected city officials. My inquiries sent to the Mayor about the comment policy have not been answered. Corporation Council G. DeCusatis sees no ethical violation advertising local business owned by elected officials on a Facebook page created and maintained using public funds.

On March 5, 2011 Mayor Ann Thane made the following statement on the Flippin’ Amsterdam NY blog:

As I’d mentioned to Charlie, I pick and choose where I will post online. I’ve posted here (Flippin’ Amsterdam), at Pars Nova, Upstream, Krabcakes and Football, and even Mark Robarge’s now defunct site. I post regularly on FB. I appreciate discussion with individuals I respect (but don’t necessarily always agree with me) that have opinions I value. The rest of the local offerings are so relentlessly negative and devotedly misinformed, why bother even reading them? The last Amsterdam blog that espoused a continuously embittered harangue, slowly died of its own poison. Even the host couldn’t stand it anymore. Any one of us can complain and I am not beyond this practice. I aspire to better myself and get beyond this self-indulgence. It will take vision, optimism, research and thoughtful discourse to orchestrate a beautiful future. I prefer to join with the singers in that chorus.

What the Mayor fails to realize is that the world is not all songs and roses.  This city has real problems that cannot be solved with a rose garden, a coat of paint or new curtains.  Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi used censorship by controlling local media. He only broadcast news of the Libyan people singing, dancing and praising him, while his citizens were storming the center square demanding his ouster.

You cannot effectively run a city government with blinders on. Our elected officials must uphold ethical standards that apply to everyone equally. You cannot pick and choose who the city will serve, our government must serve every citizen regardless of the degree to which they faun over the Mayor.

Social media sites are the new town square where government gets feedback from its citizens and the same standards should apply.

I believe that a city run site should not censor or discriminate, that every taxpaying citizen has a right to voice their opinions whether or not they agree with the Mayor. I further assert that a governmental organization should not be advertising private business unless every local business is afforded the same opportunity.

Calm After the Storm

What a Difference a Day Makes!