New York Cowboy.org: New Fodder

Just Another Fire

2008-05-12T00:00:00-06:00

At hundreds of farmsteads and rural residents across New York State it is just another day. People get up in the morning and have their breakfast, make a lunch, and off they go doing their work. They unwrap their pop-tart and put the wrapper in the trash can. They get the mail and dump half of in the trash. The finish off the peanut butter and it goes in the trash. The styrofoam wrapper the hamburg patties are wrapped are tossed.

Just a typical day in our over packaged and wasteful society. That afternoon, like many that proceeded the person takes their trash out back to the burn barrel, strikes a match, and sets some of the paper on fire. The fire flames up as the trash starts to melt and burn and be disposed off. Unbeknown to that person, things are about to be very different today.

Today the ground is dry, and there is a slight warm breeze coming from the south. A brush fire starts and burns nearly fifty acres of pasture and woods alike. This was the news story of the day last Friday when an out of control trash fire burned nearly everything in it's path. It was pure luck that no houses or other valuable property where destroyed in this fire.

One has to wonder how one could be so careless with fire. Then you think about how often that person – like many others – goes outside and burns their trash. It's probably a bi-weekly routine, as they go through their consumables and dispose of their packaging. People sometimes get careless when they do something over and over again.

People need to realize the real danger of fire when it's uncontrolled and can burn valuable property. The same fire that destroys and disposes of trash also can destroy a house. Fire is dangerous, and we always must be aware of our surroundings whenever we start a fire, and make sure that it is unlikely that the fire will spread to items that we do not want to burn.

Bikable Buses

2008-05-09T00:00:00-06:00

I often enjoy riding my bike to work or around downtown. Biking is one of the fastest ways to get around the city of Albany, and it's green and healthy. Sometimes though it's too dark to safely ride home, it's too cold or wet, or your too tired.

That's when CDTA's bike racks can be a great asset. You can easily put your bike on all CDTA buses and for a buck ride wherever you need to go. It's cheap and combines a no-carbon impact activity with a no-new carbon impact activity. It's also a lot of fun – you get around the city easily on a bus, then can quickly get to or from your destination on your bike.

The nice thing about riding your bike is you get around nearly as fast as a car, but don't have to worry about parking. It is expensive to park on the streets in downtown Albany, especially if you can't find a free spot. With a bike you ride anywhere you need to go, then just tie your bike up to light pole or tree.

There are so many places one can go with a bikable bus. You can go to stores downtown or up, go to Five Rivers, the Pine Bush, the Stockade, or even Saratoga. All for $3 or less for a whole day of getting around. Not only do you save money, you can lose weight, be healthy, and get around and enjoy the great outdoors.

Admittedly, riding a bike isn't a good thing when you have to haul bulky packages around or go to the grocery store and buy a lot of things. It's also not particularly a lot of fun in the rain, and riding in the snow and ice can be tricky. I wouldn't try it when you have to be dressed up for work in a suit. Yet, there are plenty of occasions when none of those things are true.

Now that gasoline is reaching towards $4 a gallon, it's time to think about another way to get around our cities. On a bike maybe one just way for many of us to get around.

Albany, 2058

2008-05-05T00:00:00-06:00

Albany in recent years has been undergoing quite a renaissance thanks to a change in the economy that made urban real estate much more desirable. The lower part of Arbor Hill is once again tree lined, and owned by mid-level bureaucrats who decades ago purchased up former apartment houses and turned them into quality housing.

Many structures in Albany during that period where either demolished or significantly renovated as new wealth floated into the city. The wealthiest bureaucrats and the whos who of the Albany elite all purchased homes in Center Square, while nearby neighborhoods came dominated by mid-level legislative and executive branch bureaucrats who make New York State government function. Indeed, several former state office buildings have been turned into condominiums and rental housing for the many state employees who continue to work downtown.

A lot of people no longer come downtown to work as their work has been digitized and provided on computers in people's homes. Regional offices for state agencies still buzz with a limited number of top level staff administering their functions, while rank and file work at home. Fiber-optics and widespread digitization means formerly paper forms move in and out of offices quickly. While technology has lead to a moderate decrease in the state workforce, most still are employed, a bit working from all corners of our state.

Today, with gas prices exceeding $25 dollars a gallon in most parts of our state, regular commuting is out of the reach of most New Yorkers. Modern cars are quite fuel efficient getting around 40 miles per gallon of gasoline, and can drive the first 50 miles all on electricity, but even that is expensive in New York State, with going rates exceeding $2 a Kw/h. Driving indeed is a luxury for most New Yorkers – something people do on the weekend for pleasure.

Due to the high cost of energy, houses and commercial structures are vastly more efficient then those of 50 years ago. Insulation is thick, and green roofs are the norm. The average structure consumes half as much energy as years ago, but remains comfortable in the summer and winter alike. Most houses don't heat above 55 degrees Fahrenheit, but without drafts they remain comfortable. Modern clothes, using advanced materials keeps people warm at this temperature, but is not bulky like sweaters of the past. In the summertime, a combination of highly-efficient fans and vent shafts. Incandescent lighting disappeared nearly 40 years ago from the market, and many houses use advanced lumeneres that use T-5 and T-8 florescent to provide lighting at actual rates exceeding 100 lumen for watt. Houses are designed to let in as much light as possible, and it rare that lighting is used at all in the day time. To turn lights on in the daytime, requires the resident to press a special override button that overrides the automatic switch that ensures lights are not on during the day time.

Many houses and apartment structures generate a significant portion of their energy needs. With such high electricity rates, it is quite profitable to sell as much electricity as possible back to the grid. Many houses with solar cells on their roofs can make their occupants as much as $30-$50 a day in energy, much of which won't be consumed immediately and will be sold be back to the grid to provide energy to major industries in our cities.

In the past 30 years the suburbs around our city have seen a collapse and failure. Many former suburban structures have long been abandoned. Many shopping malls have been torn down and the soils under them reclaimed for agricultural purposes, providing reasonably priced food to the cities nearby. Other suburban developments have been purchased by the state after most of the former owners have abandoned their property for the cities or towns where there is more community. Large tracts of suburbia are now wild forests, reverting back to their natural structure after a series of demolitions and controlled burns by the state.

Walk around what used to be Colonie and you will occasionally find foundations from old suburban housing. Dig in the soil you might find abandoned sewer lines. But what you mostly see is grown up woods, and a variety of farms producing virtually every kind of food product one could grow in our region to provide low cost food to the city. You can still see the remnants of the clover leafs of the south bound carriage road of the Adirondack Northway, although those three lanes have been converted over to electrified railroad tracks, and provide light rail service from Saratoga to Albany. The former northbound carriage way on the Adirondack Northway provides sufficient capacity for a two-lane highway that carries the remaining automobile traffic on the road.

Nobody would have guessed that suburbia would be a reversible condition that within 50 years would start to collapse, while cities saw gentrification and new life as never before seen. With such high fuel costs people find it cheaper to live in the city, where they can reach out with a diverse group of people. At the same time, small towns in are growing as they provide low-cost living and easy access to products and culture, and access to work through high-speed Internet.

Despite the increasing cost to travel across the state and the nation, people are well aware of what is happening in the world. The Internet brings in customized information from all kinds of people, from blogs to professional news organizations. Thanks to low-cost wireless internet technology, everybody from anywhere can quickly send information over the internet.

While we still rely on a variety of advanced technological devices, due to their cost of creation and importation to our country with high energy prices, we consume a lot less of them. Many people have computers that are over a decade old, but they still work reliably, as today's computers are much better built, and are too expensive to replace. Technological advancement happens slower now, but has reached maturity so most people are happy with their computers for a long time.

Cities and small towns in our country are flourishing. They are filled with inspired people who now have the time and resources to invest in their communities. Local community organizations are growing, as people have the time and money to invest in their communities. Pollution levels in our country have dropped to lowest levels since the beginning of the industrial revolutions, swimming and fishing are popular pass times in our rivers, which are largely lined with lush parks, particularly near urban areas. Without so much petroleum and other fossil fuels polluting our city skylines, cancer rates have dropped.

Senator James Wright, Redo?

2008-05-02T00:00:00-06:00

Democratic State Senator Aubertine won the seat last February in a special election after Senator Jim Wright stepped down to become a lobbyist/consultant. Aubertine won in a district whose enrollment is heavily Republican, and won largely based on geographic lines, running against Barclay who lived far south in the district.

The Republicans want the district back, and they know that Aubertine is vulnerable if they get the right candidate. This is their key target seat, as they know Aubertine is the most marginal member of the Senate Democrats at this time. Senate Republicans, in their campaign committee, SRCC have most liklely started working on developing a campaign strategy.

The first key to developing a strategy is to find out what the public is thinking by commissioning an opinion poll at a cost of around $50,000 to a major election consulting firm. While these opinion polls are periodically reported to the Board of Elections periodically and are public records subject to FOIL, candidates usually respect each other and do not request them. Most opposing candidates will commission their own polls and find out similar information—weeks before the FOIL request is fulfilled with old data.

The poll probably asked what issues most concerned voters such as the economy, jobs, healthcare, property taxes, milk prices and so forth. It probably also asked what voters thought of Aubertine's integrity and his performance in office so far. Most interesting would be the theoretical match up races the poll would ask voters about. Most likely the poll compared Aubertine to Barclay (as a baseline), Aubertine to Scozzafava, Aubertine to Wright, and Aubertine to a few other possible Republicans.

Most people probably don't know much about Scozzafava except for those who reside in her Assembly district. Aubertine to Barclay probably didn't change much since the election, although it might have more positively shown Aubertine, as people remember their incumbent Senator's name better. Long-time Senator James Wright probably did best against Aubertine, possibly with Wright beating Aubertine in the poll.

Does that mean the Republicans should rally behind Wright, and start throwing SRCC money at him? Not if they are not politically foolish. Senator Wright probably has more name recognition then Aubertine, and would be the obvious choice for registered Republicans to pronounce their support for publicly on the phone. People could learn a lot more about Aubertine or the other opponents before the election. The poll probably didn't even scratch the surface about the publics' opinion about their former Senator deciding to quit his job so he could cash in on his years of experience as a lobbyist. On the other hand, the poll also would not reflect the recent scandal about Aubertine putting his sister on the payroll, contrary to ethics law.

We don't even know if the Republicans have approached Senator Wright about running. The rumors swirling around him getting back into the election may be a result of this poll. People may have gotten a poll asking about people's thoughts about former Senator Wright, and assumed that he was considering running. It might not have even been a SRCC poll. It could have been one commissioned by Senate Democrats to test the possibilities. At any rate, former Senator Wright certainly wouldn't dismiss such allegations that he is running. If people consider him a potential candidate, it gives him incredible clout and power, even if he has no serious prospects of running this year.

Former Senator Wright has no real reason to run unless the Senate Majority and Senator Bruno has promised him and the people he represents a massive gift that we don't really know about. But I really doubt it. It would take a lot for Senator Wright to make up for the lost potential income he would get being a consultant and eventual lobbyist for major energy, oil, and telecommunication companies that would likely hire him. The most former Senator Wright could make as an Senator is in the low six digits a year, while as a lobbyist, he could easily have an income exceeding a half million dollars.

The only reason I could seriously see him running, is his fear that his lobbying career could flounder if Senate Republicans lose their majority. Big energy, oil, and telecommunication companies have no reason to hire a former Republican Senator if all branches of government will be controlled by Democrats next year. While occasionally Democratic lobbyists will lobby Senate Republicans, there is no room for a Republican lobbyist to prosper when all branches of government are controlled by Democrats.

Republicans are busy analyzing this race to see who will be the best candidate for them. Yet, I strongly doubt no formal decision has come down from the top of the Senate Majority's political communications bureaucracy. We may have to wait this one out.

Demolish the Howe Library, Save Troy City Hall !

2008-04-30T00:00:00-06:00

Tear it down! It's so ugly! ( No save that building. It's historic and pretty. It would be a shame if we tore down such a neglected building. )

People say that all that time about buildings. Today, it is trendy to banish the buildings of the 1960s as ugly, outmoded, and inefficient. In the 1960s, it was trendy to demolish buildings from the 1920s and 1930s as being ugly, outmoded, and inefficient. Now we say save those buildings—they're historic and have character.

I don't understand why people get so riled up about the Howe Library windows. First installed in 1920s, they are old and inefficient and contaminated with asbestos. Indeed, the whole Howe Library is old, small, inefficient, and would be probably cheaper to replace with a modern 1 or 2 story building then it would be to renovate it. So why don’t we just tear it down?

People are excited about the prospects of tearing down the Troy City Hall. They say the building is ugly and outmoded. They say it has no value to keeping that building, and it would be cheaper just to move Troy City Hall into a new building and demolish the old.

Why is brutalist architecture seen as inferior as turn of the century architecture? Many of buildings of the 1950s and 1960s were quite technologically advanced for their time and have distinctive features. Indeed, brutalist buildings like Troy City Hall are in far more danger of being demolished then some of the older buildings in the South End.

The Historic Albany Foundation seems quite upset about relatively minor modifications to so-called “valuable” buildings, but has nothing to say on it’s website about the significant renovation of the historic Empire State Plaza, that when completed, will forever alter the Albany skyline. The entire Llenroc façade (brown rough rock) is going to be replaced with granite, due to safety concerns.

Sixities-era architecture is trash to the preservationists. Buildings that are decades older then that are considered wonderful, even when they are in terrible condition and are incredibly energy inefficient. The Knitting Factory is unique, but not Troy City Hall.

What If Gas Gets Cheap?

2008-04-28T00:00:00-06:00

Everybody just assumes that gasoline will continue to go up in price, driven by world demand. They assume that the economy will continue to roar ahead and that both China and India's citizens will put more cars on the road and burn more oil in their factories.

A Big Assumption

Yet, that's a big assumption. There is no guarantee that fuel prices will go up or that China and India will demand more. Already, the high price of oil is pushing more factories and electric plants to coal and other fuels. Automotive standards world-wide have increased fuel economy requirements, leading to lower consumption as new cars are purchased.

People will not be able to afford to drive as much. Economies that are just breaking out and modernizing may be stagnated by the high cost of oil, and consume less. Cars might not be as popular as predicted in China and India, when people realize the costs. There may restrictions on roads constructed, or even driving due concerns over pollution. Global warming concerns might reduce energy consumption.

More likely though, they might just discover new sources of oil. Higher prices force more exploration and investments in oil, and will encourage more production. That production in a few years could flood the market and cause prices to drop down from their sky high rates to something more affordable. This is not unlike the price drop we saw in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Result

If prices go down, there will be a big disincentive to conserve. Even if prices only go down a fraction what they have currently risen, the higher costs have been accepted as the norm and there is little acceptance to change our policies towards consuming fossil fuels.

If we don't choose to conserve, that will reduce our ability to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It also will mean more pollution, and less of demand for people to return back to communities where people are together, rather then stuck in isolated suburbs, living in fear of the violence in our cities.