SARATOGA REPORT

Column as I see ’em – Saratoga Report Publisher Dan De Federicis shares some thoughts

 

Hello everybody – and awaaaaaayyyyyyy we go!

  • I am writing this Thursday evening.  The temps are dropping but we had a couple of mild days.  I think it’s been a relatively nice fall considering October and November weren’t bad at all and we haven’t received much snowfall in December yet either.  Considering the large amount of snow my hometown of Buffalo received the weekend before Thanksgiving, let’s count ourselves lucky.
  • You’d think post-election day and going into the holidays the politics around these parts would die down a bit until January, but it’s amazing what a Broadway shootout will do to stir the pot a bit.  Wow, how quickly new issues spun off of that – 2am closing, press conferences resulting in gag orders and battles with the DA, etc.  Ahhh the Spa City never sleeps, and it’s never boring.
  • Is it ever a good idea to pick a battle with the District Attorney?
  • I jotted a note to write something about the Saratoga Dog Park on Crescent Street.  I have no idea what I wanted to write about that, other than it serves me and my dog Dexter well, and there are nice dog owners to talk to.  As I wrote “Crescent Street” here I said to myself “why does Saratoga Springs have a ‘Crescent Street’ and ‘Crescent Avenue’ so close to each other?” Doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’ve lived a lot of places in NYS and I’ve never seen one municipality with so many duplicative street names.
  • Did you cast your vote in Participatory Budgeting yet?  Kudos to Commissioner Minita Sanghvi for introducing this – what a great way to get citizens involved!  Please vote for my proposal – a $2,500 pilot program to introduce the sport of curling to Spa City Residents (it’s a great all-ages sport and when I curled 20-years ago – the Senior Citizens I played with owned the ice).  I am also partial to the dog park water fountain, but all of the proposals are worthy and you can vote for up to 5 of them.  Please vote!  If you want to read a comprehensive article about the Participatory Budgeting, click here.
  • Pssssst.  My Buffalo Bills are doing pretty well, even with the injuries.  Don’t say that out loud – don’t want to jinx them.
  • The Greenhouse Salad Restaurant, next to the now-closed Railroad Avenue Price Chopper, hasn’t been open since September and they just recently removed all the furniture and equipment.  I guess that (now empty) space is for rent.
  • The multi-functional business going in next door to the former Greenouse space – PDT Market –  will occupy most of the footprint that the Railroad Ave Price Chopper was in.  It’s coming along slowly but surely – it was supposed to open in the fall but I peered inside and it’s got a ways to go – so I’m guessing a late January or February opening.  I’m looking forward to it’s arrival because according to a TU article from June it will reportedly offer a lot, to wit: a specialty grocery, a full-service bar, private events, cooking classes, as well as gifts and home goods.
  • Has there ever been Thursday night Bingo at the Congregation Shaara Tfille on Weibel Ave?  I shop at Hannaford across the street a lot and it’s a running joke between me and my wife, as the “NO BINGO” sign seems to be a permanent fixture.  With all the gambling options these days, God bless any entity that can make a profit from Bingo.

  • FWIW: I do believe that synagogue is the only Saratoga Springs location with a bonifide Frankenpine!  Cool!  I love that moniker to describe a “pine tree” cell tower that, well, towers above the trees it is supposed to look like.  Brilliant.
  • It seems like everytime there is a modest rain in the area, that little creek that goes under Gilbert Road overflows.  Over the past couple of years this seems to happen with more frequency and the solution seems to be for crews to simply put up signs, cones, and barrels to warn drivers.  What, are we in Split-Ditch West Virginia?  Maybe it’s time to fix that.
  • Don’t look now but with 2023 around the corner it’s…LOCAL ELECTION SEASON AGAIN!!!! (DUN, DUN, DUUUUUUNNNNNNN!)  Uggh, didn’t that just end like four months ago?  Here’s my $64,000 question: Are the city Republicans going to get their act together and put up good candidates, avoid the gimmickry of taking over minor parties, and run (local) issues-oriented campaigns?  On that note, Assembly candidate Dave Catalfamo lost his challenge against Carrie Woerner, but for the most part he ran an issues-based campaign and differentiated himself from what many feel are the strong negatives associated with today’s Republican party. This is Saratoga Springs and the politics here are unique and changing.  It says here that Catalfamo created a template for other Republicans running in 2023, and city Republicans should take heed.  The fact that he still lost is due more to the strength of Carrie Woerner, not anything he did wrong.  We need competitive elections and the Republicans had a few good candidates in November 2021, led by the late Skip Scirocco, but some were weak in the qualifications department.  There are many well-qualified Republicans out there that would be attractive candidates, so I hope they make it to the ballot.  This is not a push for a Republican council, in fact, based on my feelings today, I would guess I’ll vote to reelect a number of the current Commissioners next year, but we need competitive elections and one-party rule is a bad thing.
  • I admittedly haven’t looked closely at the proposal to build apartments at the Wilton Mall, but at a glance how can that be a bad thing?  I was shopping at J.C. Penney’s last weekend – now it’s December mind you – and there was still almost nobody in there.  The food court is almost empty, heck they don’t even have a pizza counter (but I’m told one may be coming).  The movie theater is long gone.  The mall has bunnies hopping in a prime corner location – which my daughters think is great. In fact I appreciate Hop on Home (please consider a donation) but it’s not exactly an A-list tenant exemplifying healthy rent receipts. There are many other tenants that couldn’t afford mall rent say 10 years ago, but it’s a (commercial) renters’ market these days.  So I say add some life to that forlorn mall and build the apartments.  Geez, in addition to a pizzeria maybe they can even get a full-service restaurant in there.  OH RUBY TUESDAY’S HOW WE MISS YOU SO.  OK, maybe not, but it would be good to see an actual restaurant go in to the mall somewhere.

OK that’s it folks.  If you’re looking for me I’ll be hiding with the bunnies at the mall avoiding those on both sides of the spectrum who will be sore at me for (egad!) espousing moderate-Republican ideology.  Go Bills!