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Wrecking-Ball
Blues
Local
historic preservation groups make a last-ditch attempt to
save two Albany school buildings
If
you looked at just the
school buildings themselves, you could imagine that nothing
is wrong: There are still student drawings and colorful construction-paper
cutouts taped in the windows. However, all the trees around
the buildings are gone.
That’s not all. Asbestos has been removed. Chain-link fencing
is up, and the heavy equipment is ready to move in. According
to Albany City School District spokeswoman Erica Ringwald,
Schools 16 and 18 are coming down—soon. Reached by phone on
July 26, Ringwald explained that School 16, located at 41
N. Allen St., will be leveled sometime within the next few
weeks. The demolition of School 18, just off Delaware Avenue
at 43 Bertha St., began yesterday (Wednesday, July 27) before
9 AM.
Two grass-roots organizations have tried, in recent days,
to stop the demolitions and save the schools. On July 18,
the Troy-based Historic Action Network joined with a new Albany-based
group, Friends of Albany’s Historic Schools, in writing a
letter of protest to the city school district and the state
education department.
The letter, signed by Russell Ziemba (of HAN) and Mark Ferran
(of FAHS), protested the demolitions as a “waste of Albany’s
past capital investments and the loss of the scenic quality
and intrinsic value of historic public buildings,” and raised
a number of issues—issues to which the groups are seeking
a prompt response from the school district.
Their main points? They suggest the former Eden Park nursing
home site, near the corner of Delaware and Holland avenues,
as an alternate site for a new School 18. They question the
absence of a “federally mandated review for the historic preservation”
of these buildings; an “apparent” bias against preservation
by the planners; the loss of the value of the historic buildings
to the taxpayers; inadequacies and inequalities in the designs
for the replacement schools; and the failure of the facilities
plan to examine the historic value of each school separately
(the schools plan looked at the buildings in the context of
the entire district).
Unfortunately, the Albany City School District did not send
its official response to the letter in time for this article.
However, Ringwald pointed out to the Times Union yesterday
that the facilities program was “five years in the making.”
It is certainly true that school district has not been deterred
at any point in the process: It sparred with Mayor Jerry Jennings
over many aspects of the plan, and fought hard to earn voter
approval.
Many people have staked the future of the system to this plan.
As Albany City School Board member Patricia Fahy told Metroland
last year, “I’m hoping it will completely revitalize the school
district.”
Still, the letter writers argue that the current buildings
are essential to Albany’s revitalization: “Neighborhoods that
keep their historical integrity have a better chance at viability,
as neighborhood revitalization is closely tied to the preservation
of its stock of historical buildings.”
While it may indeed be too late to save School 18, it is likely
that the groups will continue their effort to save School
16.
—Shawn
Stone
sstone@metroland.net
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| What
a Week |
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Free
Trip to Iraq? Anyone?
The Pentagon asked Congress to raise the maximum
age of Army recruits from 35 to 42. The age increase
is designed to make up for the deployments to
Iraq and Afghanistan and the fact that the Army
and the Army Reserve have both missed their year-to-date
goal for recruitment and seem to be on track to
miss their annual quotas. The Air Force, Navy
and Marine Corps are meeting their goals and are
unlikely to accept older recruits. The Pentagon
has also recently taken steps to make boot camp
a little more inviting by aggressively prosecuting
instructors who make life hard on trainees.
Say
It Again, Anonymous!
The Pentagon seems to be recycling quotes attributed
to anonymous Iraqi citizens in press releases
about insurgent attacks. A release about a car
bombing on July 24 has a nearly identical quote
as a story about an attack on July 13. Both articles
feature a quote from an unidentified Iraqi who
says “The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure,”
calls the insurgents “enemies of humanity,” and
finishes with, “They have attacked my community
today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists.”
Hey
Big Brother, Look My Way
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy
Thompson is going to have a VeriChip microchip
implanted under his skin. While the chip is touted
as a way to have easy access to medical records
and as a means to track people in case of an emergency,
Thompson is having the chip implanted for promotional
reasons: He recently joined the board of Applied
Digital, the company that owns VeriChip.
How
Convenient
Since
members of the region’s Family Planning Advocates
were already in Washington, D.C., on a lobbying
trip when Bush’s pick for the Supreme Court was
announced, they were able to join a rally on the
steps of the court calling for a thorough inquiry
into Judge John Roberts, who has argued for gag
orders to prevent doctors from discussing all
reproductive health options and has been a member
of the hard-right Federalist Society.
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| Overheard |
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Overheard:
"So
I gave him $50 for 'cheese' from Vermont, and
he brought back $50 worth of actual cheese! It
was damn good cheese though."
—late
night at the Old Songs Festival campground
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|
 A
Mighty Wind
Further
empowering their off-the-grid home in the Montgomery County
town of Glen, Dave Smalley and Sarah Johnston last weekend
added a Bergey 1,000-watt, 104-foot-high windmill to an array
that includes equipment both modern—collectors for solar-heated
water and electrical conversion—and tried-and-true, like their
solar-powered clothesline. Their house will be part of the
Oct. 1 Green Buildings Open House, sponsored by the Northeast
Sustainable Energy Association, which has more information
at www.nesea.org.
Photo: B.A. Nilsson
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| Loose
Ends |
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After
many months of ignoring the lawsuit, Third Ward
Albany Common Councilman Michael Brown finally
gave a deposition in the year-and-a-half-old case
regarding alleged misuse of absentee ballots
in the 2004 county elections [“Redistricted,
Reprimaried, Retried,” Newsfront, April 15]. Brown
invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination
in response to 172 questions, including where
he went to high school, what his job title is,
and whether he’d heard of the lawsuit against
him. Frequently he asked for a question to be
repeated or clarified, and then declined to answer
it. He seemed to be taking a cautious interpretation
of the court rulings that have said one can’t
start answering a line of questioning and then
invoke the Fifth partway through; after providing
a few basic facts in the beginning, Brown took
the Fifth on every single subsequent question.
Well, all but one. In response to a question about
whether he was aware of any instances of vote
buying, he strayed from his pattern to accuse
Wanda Willingham, one of the plaintiffs, of vote
fraud from 1999. . . . After getting a bill to
allow non-patient-specific prescriptions of emergency
contraception through both houses of the New
York State Legislature, reproductive health activists
are now trying to make sure Gov. George Pataki
signs it. They point to a study by Comptroller
Alan Hevesi, which found that the bill could result
in 122,000 fewer unintended pregnancies, 82,000
fewer abortions, and a savings of $452 million
for the state. The governor is facing pressure
from anti-choice groups not to sign the bill.
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Columns
& Opinions
