Metroland News

Boston-based Community Builders Inc. prepares to embark on an ambitous project to bring new life to neglected and forgotten buildings on Albanys Grand Street

In the afternoons, the groups of young men start gathering on Albanys Grand Street. They sit in clusters of four or five on the stoops of the abandoned houses, or stand on the corners, their faces deep inside their hoods, but always watchful of who comes and goes.

Along these same blocks, children play on the sidewalks and run in and out of doorways leading up narrow, and often poorly lit, stairwells. At the corner of Grand and Elm, neighborhood people duck in and out of Grand Street Imports, where a haphazardly rolled red-and-green awning makes a splash of color on a street that has far too many lifeless buildings.

Fifty years ago, Grand Street was one of Albanys most solid neighborhoods, with mostly ethnic-Italian, working-class families owning and living in the brick townhouses. Now, whole stretches of Grand are abandoned or so run-down that it is difficult in some cases to tell which buildings are still inhabited. In the last decade, drug dealers worked openly on the street, and certain houses were magnets for loiterers and unruly sidewalk gatherings. While longtime residents say the drug dealing has noticeably decreased in the last couple of years, Grand Streets reputation as a tough and dilapidated area has survived.

The roof of 89 Grand Street caved in some time ago, and the top bricks on the outside wall have loosened, a signal that the buildings shell is near collapse. The interior of 106 Grand is crumbling, the ceiling lath is exposed where chunks of plaster have fallen, and the entrance foyer is strewn with debris. The rear of 97 Grand is still scorched from a long-ago fire.

At any other time, these buildings would be on Albanys hit list for demolition, too unsafe and unsightly to leave standing even on a street long known for neglect and abandonment. Instead, these three buildings, and six others on Grand Street, will be renovated and leased to low-income working families, probably within the next two years.

The renovation project is being undertaken by Community Builders Inc., a nonprofit housing construction and redevelopment organization that originated in Boston; the organization now has projects scattered throughout the Northeast, but has never before worked in New York state. Community Builders recently secured the grants for the project, which could cost nearly $5 million, and the renovations may start in June. Community Builders will buy nine dilapidated buildings, repair them, and lease the new apartments to low-income working families.

Grand Street crosses Madison Avenue five blocks from the Hudson River, in the citys Mansion neighborhood at the very edge of the South End. It starts at the Pepsi Arena and stretches almost to Lincoln Park at the other end. It is just blocks away from many of the citys major landmarks and busiest areas: the arena, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the Empire State Plaza, and the dozens of small businesses downtown along Pearl Street.

Yet Grand Street might as well be all the way across the river for all the good its location has done. The home-renovation movement that stabilized or even revived other nearby streets in recent yearsMadison Place, near the cathedral, for examplesomehow eluded Grand Street.

The Community Builders effort is the closest thing to a social experiment Albany is likely to see this year. Cities dont do these renovations on their own: They dont have the means, the time or the expertise to rescue entire streets, or even individual blocks of old buildings. Instead, they try to get someone to do that for them, but even thats not always easy.

This is the second time in the last five years that someone has come into Grand Street with promises of improvement. Another Boston redevelopment company pulled out of the original plan after failing to get state funding for the project, and Community Builders kind of assumed the project from them, says Christopher Betts, Community Builders project manager in Albany.

Community Builders got a $2.5 million grant through the federal Housing Tax Credit program, which provides tax credits for those investing in affordable housing. Another $1.1 million comes from a state-housing trust fund. A federal tax credit program for historic houses is providing an additional $750,000. Community Builders has asked the city of Albany to kick in $375,000, and Betts is optimistic that the city will come through on that request. The group already has the solid backing of the Mansion Neighborhood Association, the two Common Council members whose districts cover Grand Street, and a number of residents.

With the money finally settled after a long, touch-and-go waiting periodhousing grants are notoriously prone to
inexplicable delays and administrative quirksBetts is ready to talk redevelopment philosophy.

On Grand Street, its easy to say these buildings should be saved, he says. We wanted to target the worst buildings, to not only provide quality housing, but to remove the physical blight on the street and address some of the social ills on the street.

The city has been trying to figure out how to do that for years. Betts has seen it done before, in other cities. And he believes it can be done here. You almost want to ask him if hes been out lately to look at any of the buildings hes describing.

This is fixable, he says, standing next to 89 Grand, where theres nothing between the cellar and the sky. Its going to be a beautiful building when its done.

Grand Street was in the wrong place at the wrong time 30 years ago, when the Empire State Plaza changed whole neighborhoods in Albany, improving some and setting off the slow decline of others. Even when the Plazas South Mall was built, Grand Street was still a solidly middle-class section, with Saint Anthonys Church on the corner of Madison and Grand at its hub. The parish school for the church was at 8 Elm St., just off Grand; the building is now the home of the Free School.

The memories of that time are vivid. Grand Street residents who have moved there in recent years find that people who remember Grand Streets glory days are still around.

I keep running into older people who say, Oh, I grew up on Grand Street, says Lillian Mulero, an artist who has lived on the street for 17 years and whose whimsical street art often decorates the façades of surrounding abandoned buildings. When they see my address, they tell me about their childhood here.

They are people like Mary Brandon, 67, a retired Albany Housing Authority manager, who has watched the slow decline of Grand Street with despair.

When I moved into this neighborhood, you could eat off the ground on Grand Street, recalled Brandon, who has lived in a house on Elm Street a half-block from Grand, since 1962. You have to give credit where it is dueit was Italian. I was a little nervous when I moved in there, because I was only the second black there, but they treated me like their own.

Brandons daughter, Renay, attended preschool at the Catholic Dioceses Masterson Day Nursery at 115 Grand, which now houses a soup kitchen and mens shelter. Later, she graduated from the Saint
Anthonys parish school. Brandon remembers Italian festivals at the church and Friday nights when anyone could walk along Grand Street and feel safe.

Im telling you, the Catholic supervision is the way to go, she says. Its just so disheartening when things change so bad.

Albany Common Council member Carolyn McLaughlin grew up on Philip Street, one block west of Grand. Her 2nd Ward stretches from Madison to Morton avenues on Grands east side, and from Myrtle to Morton avenues on the west side.

Grand Street was a lively Italian community, centered around Saint Anthonys Church. Maybe with this type of rebuilding, some of that can be re-created, she says. I hope it can be that way again.

Dominick Calsolaro, the Common Councils newly elected 1st Ward member, shares McLaughlins support for the Community Builders project. He knew Grand Street from years back because his parents had grown up in the surrounding neighborhood, and he lived on nearby Madison Place in the late 1970s.

The construction of the South Mall just destroyed neighborhoods, Calsolaro recalled. They just tore the center out of the whole area. They took the heart out of people.

The longtime families and small businesses began to leave. The membership of Saint Anthonys Church dwindled, and the church closed in 1973. The Catholic Diocese of Albany sold the building, and the church, noted for its distinctive, ornate Northern Italian style and square bell tower, eventually stood vacant. The diocese has since resumed ownership, but the church remains empty. The enormous three- and four-story single-family homes started to get carved up into apartments.

There were brief flares of hope in the long decline, short-lived periods when determined homeowners began buying brownstones in the area and renovating them. The early 90s, when the Mansion neighborhood was hot and houses there were selling for twice as much as they would a decade later, was one such time. But most of the urban pioneers stayed on the streets around the Cathedral, and never got quite as far down Madison Avenue as Grand Street.

Were so close to the Pepsi Arena and the Empire State Plaza that years ago, when the neighborhood was being renovated, we expected more of a spill effect, says Harry Harder, who has run Harders Beauty & Barber Supplies Co. Inc. at 66 Grand, near the corner of Madison, since the early 1970s. His father founded the business 40 years ago.

It seemed like people took an interest, came and went, Harder says. Were here. Were definitely staying. Were part of the neighborhood.

Others have arrived more recently and are equally determined to stay. Among them is Lina Kouchpileava, who bought the corner market on the northern intersection of Madison and Grand six years ago, renaming it Stephanies Deli Store after one of her granddaughters. A Ukrainian immigrant, Kouchpileava lives in Rensselaer, but puts in such long hours at her store that she could qualify as an honorary Grand Street resident. She just bought the empty storefront on the opposite corner of Grand and Madison that used to house Panettas Market, and she is about to open a liquor store there.

When I came here, it was many loiterers outside the store, Kouchpileava recalls. I tried to fight it. Id see somebody outside the store, Id ask them to leave.

The street is noticeably quieter now, she says. Like others on Grand Street, she credits an increased police presence with the change in the last couple of years.

Last year, Public Safety Commissioner John Nielsen moved the police departments outreach office on Grand Street from a
second-story location at the far end, near Morton Avenue, to a street-level office at 73 Grand, near Madison and Grand Street Imports. The two beat cops who have covered Grand in the last few yearsKevin Raducci, who was promoted to a different position last year, and his replacement, Eric Spraguehave gotten high marks from the Mansion Neighborhood Association and other residents for their visibility and low tolerance for street crime.

Zone 102 in the police departments coverage area, which includes Grand Street but also takes in a wide swath of streets around Grand, had the second-highest number of arrests in the city last year, at 1,463. Still, drug dealers are far less visible, people on Grand Street say. And although memories of a shooting 18 months ago that injured a woman are still vivid, the most typical police responses are similar to those in many other neighborhoods in the city: noise complaints, domestic disturbances, abandoned cars.

I think a lot of people get the wrong impression that its a bad street, says a man who gave his name simply as Delaware. He lives nearby on Madison Avenue but knows Grand Street well. At one point, it was pretty hectic around here, but it has changed a lot, Id say within the last year. It has slowed down a lot.

Nielsen is aware of criticisms from some residents that the police were heavy-handed in their approach to the drug dealing on Grand Street, but said that police were doing their job properly. Grand Street needed help, he said, and the police department was not about to philosophize on the inequities of the Rockefeller drug laws while Grand Street residents watched drug deals get finalized outside their windows.

While those who criticize the Rockefeller drug laws raise legitimate issues, Nielsen says, their criticisms of those laws should be directed to the Legislature.

If they want reform of the Rockefeller drug laws, Im not the guy to talk to, Nielsen says. Our responsibility is to administer the law and try to do it in a fair and equitable manner.

Grand Street residents are an eclectic mix of young and old, of longtime tenants and recent homeowners, of artists and musicians and young social activists. There are professionals and laborers on Grand Street, and more than a few older people who have lived quietly for years in basement apartments, hanging onto their homes despite the considerable activity going on just outside their windows.

This is a street where a building façade is likely to sport a mural or a spontaneous chalk drawing, and fliers urging people to oppose capitalist oppression can be seen on the utility poles. A group that has posted a sign identifying itself as the Ironweed Collective is a recent arrival on Grand Street. Although Ironweed Collective members said they werent ready to talk about their work, other residents said that the young and socially conscious collective members have been good neighbors who have fit in well on Grand.

The local corner market, Grand Street Imports, has been on the street for 130 years. Owner Jerry Huchro claims it is the oldest grocery store continuously operating in one location in the city. Narrow and cozy, with a worn red-and-white linoleum floor and painted wood columns in the aisles, the market is one of the busiest spots on the street.

Huchro and his staff know most of their customers by name, and Huchro does a brisk business in specialty meats that appeal to many of the black customers who make up a sizeable portion of his business: thick bacon with the rind, sliced by hand; smoked ham hocks and pork necks; smoked turkey wings.

Huchro remembers when his nearest competitor was Panettas Market, which used to be a few doors away on the corner of Grand and Elm; the former market is where Lina Kouchpileava plans to open her liquor store. Panettas closed six years ago as nearby residents left, and some of large downtown businesses, such as IBM, moved away.

Further down, at 115 Grand, the St. Charles Lwanga Center has quietly operated for the past 28 years in the circa-1928 building that once housed the Masterson Day Nursery. A service of Catholic Charities, the centers soup kitchen feeds about 40 men and women every day, and gives homeless men a place to sleep at night.

Around the corner, at 8 Elm, is the Free School, in the roomy building that once housed the Saint Anthonys parish school. The independent, tuition-based Free School has 55 students and has been on Elm Street for almost 34 years. The school runs on a democratic system, with students having a strong say in their curriculum.

The mix of social services and social activism on Grand Street, combined with the over-the-counter joshing that goes on in Huchros market, gives Grand Street a comfortable feel despite its bleak appearance. Walking down Grand, you can see young mothers out with their children, and hear the sounds of an impromptu jam session by jazz musicians drifting out of an apartment window on a Sunday afternoon. At its best, Grand is a little bit of everything that a city street should be, and at its worst, everything that gives a street a bad name.

Its a really diverse crowd on the street, and its nice, because everybody brings a little bit to the area, says Jesse, 25, who works days as a pharmaceutical compounder, and nights as liquor store clerk as he saves for pharmacy school. He moved into an apartment on Grand six months ago, despite the raised eyebrows of his coworkers at both jobs.

Rufinno Santiago, 44, who works at the Freihofer Baking Co., says his three years on Grand Street have been pretty good. He got to only one Mansion Neighborhood Association meeting to hear discussion of the Community Builders plan, but liked what he heard.

Not everyone is as enthusiastic. A faction of tenants on the street has spoken out against the way Community Builders publicized the project, saying the explanations were delivered mostly at Neighborhood Association meetings that the streets low-income, minority residents felt uncomfortable attending. There are a few worries, too, that redevelopment might be a first step toward gentrification and a loss of Grand Streets funky but distinctive identity.

I dont think you can walk into a room of working professional people and feel comfortable unless you are a working, white professional, says Deirdre Kelly, who rents on Grand Street. I dont think you can walk into a room of older white men and feel comfortable if youre a person of color.

Putting up a flier is nothing, says Victorio Reyes, another Grand Street tenant, referring to one way the Mansion Neighborhood Association publicized meetings to discuss the Community Builders proposal. Youre putting up fliers, youre asking people to come to you. There has to be a true dialogue, at the very least. Thats step one. Step two, the people making decisions in this initiative should have been people on the block, should have been poor, working people, and that isnt the case.

Betts, who has heard the criticisms before, said Community Builders tried to be as inclusive as it could in the planning stage.

We know our project doesnt do everything for everyone in the neighborhood, he says.

The houses slated for renovationnumbers 76, 88, 89, 97, 104, 106, 109, 121 and 127will be converted to mostly one- and two-bedroom apartments, with a few larger units. The units will be designed as affordable housing, geared toward families making no more than 50 percent of the median income for the area. For a family of four, the median area income is $53,000. Rents will range from $386 for a one-bedroom apartment to $556 for a four-bedroom unit. Some of the tenants may include families who qualify for Section 8 housing assistance, the federal rent-assistance program.

Other residents are taking a wait-and-see approach, with a willingness to give Community Builders the benefit of the doubt.

When Lillian Mulero, the artist, moved to Grand Street 17 years ago, it looked much the way it does now. Her husband, Jan Galligan, had bought the house on Grand a few years earlier. The couple raised their daughter there.

When they started out on Grand, they thought the neighborhood was going to rise and shine, Mulero recalls. The Mansion neighborhood was stirring, people were starting to buy homes and fix them up, but it just didnt make it down this far, Mulero says. It got to Elm and Philip but it just didnt make it down to Grand.

Mulero supports the Community Builders plan as long as they keep their word that theyre going to try to maintain the buildings and not let them sit there and rot as some of them are already doing, she says.

Last year, when the grants for the Community Builders project were still not certain and residents following the effort wondered if Grand Street would lose out, Mulero draped the front doors of 11 abandoned buildings with iridescent plastic curtains. At a time when it seemed Grand Street might never get another such chance at revival, the gesture was a visual pun, drawing on the symbol of curtains as a homey touch, while reminding passersby that the loss of the grants could literally be curtains for Grand Street.

Eight months later, tattered remnants of the plastic curtains, which Mulero considered a single installation spread out over a whole street, are still hanging from a few buildings.

At this point, I would call it activist art, Mulero says. This piece had a specific purpose.

One of the nicest things about this neighborhood, it still has professional people who own their own places, it has working people, trades people, Mulero added. Its a pretty interesting mix, and I would like to see that maintained. Homeowners, not people who just want to buy a place and fix it up to sell it to somebody else.

And Throw Away the Key

Critics worry that Patakis call to end parole for all felons will kill prisoners incentive for rehabilitation and education

It came as no surprise that Gov. George Pataki renewed his call to end parole for inmates of the state prison system during his State of the State address on Jan. 9. However, his newest attempt to limit parole opportunities casts a wider net than his original proposals, which sought to end parole for violent felons only: Now the governor would like to see an end of parole for all felons, violent or not. New York states largest employee union and a number of parole officers in the state are urging him to reconsider.

Susan Jeffords, who has been a parole officer in Albany for nearly 20 years, said that without the prospect of parole, inmates will have no incentive to take part in educational, vocational or rehabilitation programs while serving their time, and no incentive to actually display good behavior once they get out.

For some of the people that I work with, having parole hanging over their heads is what has kept them on the straight and narrow, said Jeffords. Without it, they know, come hell or high-water, they will be released and once they are out, there is no particular incentive to have extremely good behavior because again, they know they are not going back for violating parole.

Roger Benson, president of the Public Employees Federation, a union that represents 1,500 parole officers, said the plan is financially irresponsible and bad public policy.

Good behavior in jail makes for a safer environment for those who are incarcerated and for those who work there, said Benson. At a time when they [the state] are in a budget crunch, releasing those who are eligible for parole is a wise thing to do. Parole only costs the state $3,000 per year, per inmate, as opposed to incarceration, which costs $30,000 per inmate, per year.

Currently, there are two types of sentencing that a convicted criminal may receive: indeterminate and determinate. The governors proposal would abolish indeterminate sentencing, under which a person could receive a sentence of, for example, three to nine years with the opportunity to go before a parole board after three years to seek early release.

The governors recent proposal (first introduced in 1998 as Jennas law, a proposal to end parole for violent felons) would require judges to sentence all convicted felons under determinate sentencing, meaning that a judge would decide at the time of the trial how much time a person would serve. This would require that at least six-sevenths of the sentence be served. Determinate sentencing lengthens the prison term and shortens the parole period after an inmate is released.

Caroline Quartararo, spokeswoman for Gov. Pataki, said that the bills intent is to make New York state safer by taking the discretionary-release powers out of the hands of parole boards that may not be familiar with a particular case. She said that it does not completely eliminate parole because an inmate would be required, once released, to comply with a period of post-release supervision of anywhere between one and five years.

Determinate sentencing, said Quartararo, means that the judge who is there during the trial, who is in the best decision to make a determination, fixes the sentence rather than a parole board who may or may not be in possession of all the information. The governor believes that New York would be safer if the discretionary release powers of the parole board were eliminated.

Tom Grant, assistant to the chairman for the New York State Parole Division, said that he supports the governors proposal.

We feel it introduces fairness into the system, said Grant. We feel more confident in the judge and the district attorney making these decisions, rather than a parole board who only interviews the inmate for 10 to 15 minutes.

But Jeffords said that a parole board works closely with the parole officers, who are inside of the prison and have a good idea whether an inmate is ready for release.

The parole officers on the inside are the ones who know how these people have been behaving, if they have been staying out of trouble and if they are ready to reenter society, said Jeffords. People who have earned their parole and earned their right to be released early do better when they are out and on parole because they have invested interest in it, rather than those who just wait out their time on the inside.

Nancy Guerin

NEWSFRONT

Free To Be He or She

As Albany lawmakers prepare to address the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, some advocates protest the exclusion of transgender individuals from the bills language

This could be the year that the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act gets signed into law. After 30 years of heavy lobbying by supporters and 10 years of the bill passing in the Democrat-controlled Assembly (in fact, on Tuesday it passed by a record 115 to 27), it looks as though the Senate may finally bring it up for a vote. Even Gov. George Pataki called for SONDAs passage in his State of the State address on Jan. 9.

So why isnt everyone in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community jumping for joy? And why is this causing such a rift between many LGBT advocacy groups?

Jamie Hunter, cochair of the Metropolitan Gender Network in New York City, said that the problem with SONDA as it reads now is that it doesnt include transgender people or address their communitys needs; as a result, several transgender activists are demanding that an amendment be added that extends protection to this population and specifically includes a provision to protect individuals based on sexual identity and expression, in addition to sexual orientation.

If this bill gets passed without inclusion for transgender people it will almost be impossible to get it in later, said Hunter.

The passing of SONDA would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public services. Supporters of the bill fear that any amendments will hurt its chance of getting passed this year.

Joe Tarver, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, the states influential advocacy group which has been at the forefront of the movement to get SONDA passed, said his organization doesnt want to risk losing this opportunity to see the bill pass the Senate.

After 31 years of trying to provide protections for gays and lesbians in this state, we are not willing to kill the bill by amending it, said Tarver. We dont want to delay passage of this bill one more year. It has taken us 31 years and we are now at the point where we think it is going to pass, and we are just not going to accept any kinds of amendments.

He said that the political climate in Albany is very conservative and more education is needed before putting transgender issues before lawmakers.

But Hunter strongly disagreed. She said she has found that most lawmakers that she has spoken with would be open to a transgender-friendly amendment.

The legislators that we have faced are really open to the idea and most of them dont make a distinction between the LGBT communities, said Hunter. They sort of lump us all together as one gay vote.

Hawk Moon River Stone, board member for the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, said that transgender-inclusive language in SONDA would protect both gay, straight and transgender people; as the bill reads now it does not include any protection for gender expression. Although SONDA would make it illegal to discriminate against someone based on whom they sleep with, it still doesnt protect a person from bias due to the expression of masculinity or femininity. So, for example, if a woman acts too masculine or butch an organization still has the right to fire her.

Primarily when people get fired from their job, it is based on shifting their gender expression from more masculine to more feminine, he said. Historically, members of the LGBT community have shifted their gender expression to either more masculine or feminine.

Hunter added that in other parts of the country, where a gay civil-rights bill passed without transgender inclusion, there was a rise in violence, discrimination and harassment against the transgender population.

Our fear, she said, is that more harassment will happen statewide if the message from Albany is that it is OK to discriminate against some queer people.

N.G.

NEWSFRONT

People or Profits?

Photo by Leif Zurmuhlen

On Tuesday, a group of patients gathered in front of the pillars at Albany Medical Center on New Scotland Avenue to protest the hospitals plan to cut one-third of its full-time faculty. The cuts will affect the jobs of 98 doctors and up to 250 health and support staff, such as nurses, clerks and technicians in the family practice, infectious disease, medical oncology, ophthalmology, radiology and pathology departments. Services in these departments will still be provided at Albany Med, but each department will be restructured and some services will be outsourced: Services will be provided through outside partners with the hospital, rather than through full-time doctors and hospital staff.

Up until December 2001, Albany Medical Center had been embarking on a plan to beef up its oncology department, and the hospital began recruiting some of the nations top cancer doctors and researchers; administrators had hoped to create a regional cancer center certified by the National Cancer Institute. The move could have brought Albany Med millions of dollars in federal funding and grants from the NCI and National Institutes of Health. However, the changes planned for Albany Med will probably mean no NCI center for the hospital, and patients will be forced to travel to larger cities, such as New York and Boston, to have access to experimental drugs, cutting-edge treatments and the best oncologists.

As his body twists and turns, head bobbing, legs and arms moving unpredictably due to his Parkinsons Disease, Rafael Joseph Gonzalezs philosophy, spirituality, wisdom and intelligence tumble out impressively, making it a challenge for a listener to process the monologue. An interview with this artist resembles a lecture titled How to Succeed Despite Overwhelming Odds.

Surrounded by 50 paintings on the first floor of the Invisible Spectrum Gallery, on Quail Street in Albany, the 54-year-old Albany watercolorist describes himself as a spontaneous, seat-of-the-pants artist. For me, painting is a journey into myself and into paper.

Before discovering the therapeutic qualities of making art two years ago, Gonzalez waged an 18-year struggle with Parkinsons. I started limping on my right leg, which I attributed to stress, fatigue and overwork, he recalls. Gonzalez was working in retail sales, standing on his feet much of the time; thus, the explanation for the limp seemed reasonable. But in subsequent years, other symptoms appeared. I could barely stand, walk or even sleep very much, says Gonzalez. In 1988, he stopped working full-time, living off his investments, Social Security and occasional research-typing jobs. Interestingly, Gonzalez twin brother also was battling Parkinsons at that time: We were both in denial then, he asserts, before [being] officially diagnosed with the disease.

In the early 1990s, after crashing into a full-length mirror, Gonzalez finally visited a physician, but the Parkinsons remained unidentified. Gonzalez recounts that it was not until a later visit to Neurological Associates that he was diagnosed with early onset of Parkinsons Disease. Gonzalez was given a prescription for L-Dopamine, and within a week, his symptoms vanished and a positive attitude emerged. God had given me a second chance, he stresses.

Gonzalez used that second chance to rekindle a childhood dream: Flashing back to his youth in Puerto Rico, he recalls his early interest in art. When I was 4 or 5, he says wistfully, I dreamed of becoming an artist. That desire persisted after Gonzalez moved to the United States (first to New York City, then to the Capital Region), but after completing a semester of figure drawing in his 20s, Gonzalez believed he lacked the talent. Instead, he earned a bachelors in biology from the College of Saint Rose, which led to a succession of high school teaching jobs. (He left teaching in 1976, and now describes it as a profession in which you dont see results right away.)

After teaching, Gonzalez held a number of jobsjobs involving use of my hands instead of my brain, he says. He put in time as a house painter, bartender, carpenters helper and even a stationary engineer at his alma mater, Saint Rose. Those positions provided a sense of accomplishment, but when he was diagnosed with Parkinsons, Gonzalez became eager to determine if his passion for art was as strong as it was during his youth.

Unschooled in art, except for the one course in charcoal drawing, he plunged into beginners books, completing exercises and producing one painting a week. I am mainly self-taught and learned from the bottom up, declares Gonzalez. Painting only from memory and inspiration, the artist loves depicting mountains, landscapes, volcanoes and abstracts. Of late, he has produced a series of paintings called Lady Bugs of the New Millennium, an unusual subject that he initially was reluctant to pursue. But, he says, I soon found that these little insects brought me and other people happiness, laughter and a bit of warmth in a sometimes cold and harsh world.

Gonzalez says that a book by Julia Cameron, The Artists Way, exerted a profound influence on his artistic efforts. It provided a means of self-healing, opened up my creative juices and enabled me to discover who I was, Gonzalez says.

In a sense, he believes discovering the therapy of art was like a religious conversion. In his own words, [Parkinsons] became a motivating challengea commitment to self and to God. Religion is a big part of my life, and I will attend any church. When he described his life to a Mormon church group, he recalls, Many people were in tears. They take more from me than I from them.

I paint because my biggest thrill is when someone comes into the gallery, I put a smile on peoples faces, Gonzalez says. God truly has given me more than I have lost.

Salt Lake City is the home of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in February and, since 1847, has been the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, unofficially known as the Mormons. When I was there this past February, people were grumbling in the press and in person about both: The idea of the world coming for the Olympics didnt sit well with some locals who suffer from the state of the constantly-being-upgraded highway system circling the city, and the roads that are always closed due to the new rail line between Olympic venues. People were also grumbling about Mormon officials dropping the of Latter Day Saints from the churchs name, so that it would be known simply as The Church of Jesus Christ.

Some things to know about Mormons: They dont smoke, drink alcohol or caffeine; they arent polygamous anymore (which might explain not drinking or smoking, but polygamy was dropped when the Prophet had a revelation from God thatfor Utah to be admitted into the United States in 1896polygamy had to end officially, until the afterlife); they arent Jehovahs Witnesses (those are the guys with the Watch Tower), the Amish (19th-century dress-up), or the Mennonites (Amish spelled differently).

Salt Lake City is surrounded by the beautiful Wasatch Mountains, which form great canyons from which great downhill skiing comes. Theres a spot in the mountains memorializing when the empty basin of Salt Lake City was first sighted by Brigham Young, the Mormon prophet who moved the utopian 19th-century sect ever westward, as established religious groups chased them out. The Mormons were looking for a place nobody else wanted, and when they saw Salt Lake, they said, This is the place.

Skiers say the same thing about the seven major ski resorts (Alta, Snowbird, Snowbasin, Brighton, the Canyons, Solitude, and Deer Valley): huge vertical drops, 500 inches of snowfall per year, and dry, powdery snow. Utahs license plates read the greatest snow on earth, and its hard to argue. The snow in the Wasatchespecially to the east of Salt Lake City in Big Cottonwood Canyonis lovely, dark, and deep.

However, not being a downhill skier, I had to find other things to do in the great basin city of Salt Lake.

Some things to know about Salt Lake City: There are the official places that draw visitors to the dominant Mormon society, and there are unofficial places where an equally vibrant culture lives. There are official newspapers, like the Deseret News (founded and run by the Mormon church), and unofficial newspapers, such as Salt Lake City Weekly (sort of a Metroland West); official industries, like the ZCMI Center, and unofficial industries, anything without Deseret in the title.

People who like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir can visit Temple Square, a huge 19th-century stone temple that non-Mormons cant enter, but which has various visitor centers and a performance space (thats the Tabernacle) that non-Mormons can enter. There are numerous historical houses and tracts, like the Beehive House and Daughters of the Utah Pioneers; and genealogical warehouses, such as the Family History Library (Mormons baptized the dead into their faith in a symbolic ritual in their temples) in Salt Lake City for the Mormon experience; if you see people who look like theyre playing Agent Smith from The Matrix, youve got official Mormon places. There is a funky gold angel Moroni with trumpet atop the temple at Temple Square that is supposed to turn when the Second Coming is at hand, but I wouldnt wait around for it to twitch.

Instead, stroll through to Trolley Square, a 1908 trolley center turned into a shopping center. Downtown Salt Lake has a Victorian-industrial look to it, despite the renovations and Olympic buildings. Trolley Square, with its wrought iron and tall water tower, is surrounded by brownstones and has some great shops and nice eateries. But beware: Brigham Young ordered Salt Lake City to be set up in straight lines from Temple Square, hence most of the streets have compass-point addresses like 602 East 500 Southwhich is helpful if you are a Boy Scout or cartographer, but even Eagle Scout mapmakers soon learn that the streets arent always straight, and sometimes what starts out as 2800 East becomes 3200 without warning.

Theres also a funky street of clothing, antique, and craft shops, a coffee cafe with the second-best coffee in the area, and a Spectrum-type movie house, Tower Theater, at 800 East 900 South. Its a regular spot for students from the University of Utah, the secular counterpoint to Brigham Young University.

Its even possible to get a good meal and some microbrewed beer in Salt Lake City on a Sunday evening: at Squatters Pub Brewery, for example, which has the ambiance of the Albany Pump Station. But, as with the streets, not all is as it seems: The beer is watered down, by official state law, so that it is less than 3.2 percent alcohol. You can have your beer and drink water, too. Mixed drinks can be had only at private clubs, and the out-of-town Olympic officials were already grumbling about no alcohol at Olympic events. A skier friend told me this is why après-ski in Utah is strictly a private-home event.

Salt Lake City does offer a variety of restaurants, with an ethnicity not reflected in the state populace. Utah is the whitest state in the union, and more than 70 percent of the state is Mormon. However, even with such homogeneity, they do like different colors and flavors in their foods, and the choices are surprisingly rich. The city itself is evolving, with the Mormon base moving out to the tract housing of the suburbs that spiral out of Salt Lake. Brigham Young had a plan in 1847, but there doesnt seem to be one anymore. As more and more people move to the area for its natural beauty, the canyons and mountains are scarred by some of the ugliest suburban blight Ive seen outside of Las Vegasthere is neither a recycling program nor a greater basin plan. (If you like strip malls, the suburbs of SLC are the place to be.) An increase in newcomers, especially of Mexicans and Polynesians, brings some spontaneity to an otherwise-very-staid place. Restaurants like the Red Iguana, the Mikado and House of Tibet offer real food at real prices in real places; these are anti-chain restaurants, the unofficial places to eat.

Theres also a surprisingly lively arts scene, again split between the Deseret-approved theaters presenting wholesome plays (even in the secular press, a controversy raged over a Mormon student at the University of Utah who sued the school over having to perform an unexpurgated David Mamet scene) and theaters acting plays. I caught a great production at the Salt Lake Acting Company of Two Sisters and a Piano, a contemporary play that just had a run off-Broadway at the Public Theater in New York City. Its a play about two sisters living in the repressive society of Castros Cuba during the 1970s, and SLACs production took on added resonance in Salt Lakes bustling barrio area, which is two blocks from Salt Lakes best coffee, the Stonewall Center. SLACs look and approach is similar to that of Berkshire Theatre Festivals Unicorn Theatre. SLAC is organizing an all-Utah play festival to run counterpoint to the Olympics officially sanctioned Arts Festival at the Pioneer Theatre Company at the University of Utah (which presents more staid productions with Equity actors; for example, I caught a pleasant production of a new play, Laughing Stock, about summer-stock theater in Vermont, that wouldnt offend a flea).

SLC also has a passable planetarium near Temple Square, the Hansen; a zoo in the canyons, the Hogle; and an excellent aviary near the center of town, Tracy Aviary, home to more than 1,000 birds and a view of Salt Lake and the mountains that is beautiful. Its one of the few places in the area where the sight of spruce trees and snowcapped mountains with blue skies as the backdrop is not marred by tract houses in the foreground. If youre not downhill skiing, its unofficially the second-best way to see the mountains.

Now might be a good time to book a flight to Salt Lake City, because Northwest, Southwest and Continental Airlines all are offering a round-trip base fare of $178 from Albany. Seven-day advance purchase is required, and you cannot travel on Friday or Sunday. The fare is good for trips through April 5, 2002, so you can travel cheaply to the Olympics, which will happen Feb. 8-24, 2002.