Went to Manhattan yesterday, and on the way back this morning was on an Amtrak car to Albany with what seemed like every small-time pol and appointee from Gotham. They were headed north to hear Gov. Paterson's state of the state speech. (He failed to mention rail, except for lip service for the MTA.)
What did the small-time pols talk about? New York development deals--Atlantic Basin, Atlantic Yards (and the what's-JayZ-smokin' Brooklyn Nets), Coney Island's stalled Xanadu, something on Staten Island, Mayor Bloomberg's now-dead Yankees suite--and whining about how the budgets for their small-time offices are being cut. (Did you know borough presidents still have 50-plus-member staffs?)
In other words, they don't seem to realize the world has changed.
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Such a physically beautiful area, the Adirondacks, Lake Champlain, et al, to be ignored for "develop-
ment." (maybe the term has been re-
defined over the past three or four
decades...) When one considers the wasted opportunities up here, the ignoring of its benefits and its enormous "invitation" to partake of the "outpost" of useful isola-
tion that it is, the nature of its remedial cues to our survival thru stress and crud, and learns of the "response," the "attention" proffered by its so-called "pro-
tectors/defenders/benefactors" that one has to be past disillu-
sionment, even disappointment, but on to insult. Not to belabor a per-
sonal incident, but: I migrated to northern NJ in the late 60's, was of the "flower children" mindset (even placing a flower on the badge of NYC police officer who was part of the department's human barricade in front of Central Park during the 1969 peace rally). On one occasion I responded to an in-
vitation to attend an "under-
ground" "meeting" on Canal Street in NYC (I missed my subway exit as I was across from a terribly at-
tractive young lady on the subway car and deviated from concentrat-
ing on the lighted signs indicat-
ing MY stop), and entered the
meeting hall and was cordially
greeted with, "Where are you from?"
When I answered that I lived in the
Adirondacks, there convened a minor
crowd of young,...shorter-haired individuals, each and everyone re-
questing whether or not I knew what
property was going for, what the property taxes were like, etc, ET
AL. I remember only grabbing a few bites of the marginally health department worthy food set out, listening for, maybe, several minutes, then exiting in remorse, yet with the resolve that any com-
mitment toward a belief or belief system has to be arrived at on one's own. Counting on encourage-
ment from those of financial mind-
sets is subtraction. It would ap-
pear that NYC's interest in this splendidly picturesque part of the planet remains of a taxation bent.
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