The Saratoga Mess: Spa’s Nightlife is Under the ‘Scope (Part One)

The Saratoga Mess:

Spa’s Nightlife is Under the ‘Scope

(Part One)

By Jack Flash

The stream of headlines relating to incidents of violence and mayhem originating from Saratoga’s renown Caroline Street nightlife district is nearing ‘barrage’ status. One can most-certainly look forward to a Monday morning media fix that details the preceding weekend’s blotter of ugly incidents, injuries and arrests.

The Chorus of the Chattering Class – which has an out-sized membership within the Spa City itself, mind you — then chimes in:

“What exactly is going on down there?” “Why oh why?” “Who’s to blame?” “What’s the solution?’

It’s a loud chorus, for sure. But it’s not a chorus that is singing the same tune. For there a lack of general agreement on all of those questions. Some folks even deny that that there is a problem down there, period! But most others do, then proceed to point fingers in multiple directions while offering fixes that are all over the map. Everyone seems to be an expert, but no consensus is emerging.

So who’s got the best handle on this situation? Who can lend thoughtful analysis in a Cause & Effect manner, eliminate many of the prevailing myths & propaganda that hover over this topic and conclude by putting some sensible solutions on the table?

We shall attempt such a difficult mission, in three parts …

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Part One:

How Did We Get Here? A History Lesson

For better or worse, Saratoga Springs is the greater Albany metro’s go to nocturnal playground.

That’s because things change and time doesn’t stand still. What was once that proverbial sleepy little college town which uniquely kicked into city mode each and every race meet of four weeks now owns the title of being the 518’s Party Zone as part of its civic brand.

That point is – surprisingly to many – a relatively recent phenomenon. Additionally, it invites an interesting analysis of both “how did we get here?” and “what else changed along the way?” Both exercises are important as a preface to better understanding the current situation and putting a finger on what exactly is causing this passionate community commotion.

While the Spa City’s glorious history has long included an outward-facing economy focused on attracting visitors to within its bounds – whether for its mineral waters, social scene, gambling & racing, SPAC or downtown vibe – there has also been corresponding changing demographic patterns along the way. Students of the game can then proceed to identifying just WHO? those visitors have been over time; Who? in the collective sense.

To wit, we can outline a fascinating timeline:

It all begins with indigenous travelers making trail stops locally to sip from the mineral springs scattered about the trees …
Followed by energetic Euros that were good with an axe in service to adventurous lodgers jones’ing for those very same waters…
Then the northeast’s blue blood society showed up for the elbow room and the fresh air, gathering here because it was far enough upstate without being too far up into that wild forest named after natives that allegedly dined on tree bark…
With gambling and a race track eventually popping up to entertain not only those Blues but also the sporting gentry from an even wider radius…
Then parallel eras where both the track and the waters were marketed towards the masses – with the track being the big success story while the waters faded to what is now its basically being a quirky historical footnote in the city’s history books.

That brings us closer to the Big Now. Zeroing in on the more recent half century, interesting cycles are further observed, especially in the pressing matter here at hand of the city’s nightlife scene. Specifically, here to be recognized is a series of shifts over the recent decades as relates to that critical WHO? component.

1970 is an appropriate starting point, for that is where the figurative flag was planted. This is when Caroline Street (dead center in the middle of downtown) began its modern journey of catering to what we might call Youth Culture.

It was here and then that a drinking establishment named the Tin & Lint Company took over the bar space at the very top of the hill. It wasn’t the first saloon on the strip, but it was the first that catered to a decidedly young constituency, with often-derogatory tags such as college kids, hippies, freaks, radicals and the like being directed at them by Saratoga’s then-conservative, Archie Bunker-like majority of the day. Soon thereafter, a similar joint with the equally-curious name of Desperate Annie’s arose, just a few doors down while positioned to do business in much much the same way as the ‘T&L.’

Their shared clientele was dominated by locals and Skidmore students (and their pursuers), with mere sprinklings of out-of-towners — at least for eleven months out of the year. This seemingly narrow economy survived because of two major realities of the time: the fact that there was a healthy number of young people actually living in town back then and that they could legally drink via the 18-yo drinking age of the era. Caroline had a bit of a bohemian vibe to it. Despite the convenient mythology and the current spate of revisionist history, it was generally problem-free.

Regardless, the cork was popped and the “go young” strategy soon went into overdrive. As the 80’s kicked in, the number of gin & beer joints increased. Live music even became a part of the neighborhood scene, at spots such as 17 Maple/The Metro and Aiko’s right on Caroline. The Parting Glass, around the corner on Lake Ave, emerged as a destination music spot as well.

This revised scene, in turn, slowly but steadily attracted more young people from the surrounding areas, which was well-timed in that it helped minimize the pain inflicted on local hosts by 1984’s raising of the drinking age to 21.

Across both of these decades, of course, was the annual influx from the massive August racing crowd. As the I Love NY commercials kicked-in, the race track’s popularity soared with both the regional (Capital District) and the national target audiences. It is important to note here how that massive, state-paid ad campaign branded this town as being not only a major destination, but also as a key municipality for Upstate New York. The old Albany – Schenectady – Troy municipal axis was now known as the Albany – Saratoga region. Quite simply, the whole thing worked; probably beyond expectations.

Now, much of that new throng that was suddenly keen on horse racing was (logically enough) sticking around for nighttime fun. Downtown became more crowded, progressively more rowdy and slowly less and less local.

That momentum continued—and lengthened – going forward into the 90’s as The August Place to Be became The Summer Place to Be. Again, as we know how that advertising and promotional gimmick worked, as well. Combine that with Albany’s one-time ‘Cool Music Town’ rep fading to black and the disappearance of many other popular destination establishments from the regional map, and suddenly it was more common for a Clifton Park twenty-something to drive northbound to the Spa for a nighttime fix than for him to be heading in other directions, as was the case in the past.

The scene grew in size and problems naturally increased along with it. The annual Caroline Street Block Party is a good case study: it began innocently enough in 1980 as a tidy, manageable, mostly-locals summer-welcoming celebration, morphed over its twenty-year run into its final editions of Idiots Behaving Badly. As per the trend line, most of those idiots were of the non-locals variety. In 2001, the City said “enough” – and that was that.

Mark that down in the scorecard as being the modern era’s Caroline Street Hassle #1.

By then and beyond, the one-time dominant cool kids/hip crowd was pushed out too, as original live music gave way to the outdoor patio scene of retro cover bands. Suggestions of “let’s meet after work” gave way to “we’re heading up to Saratoga tonight.” The demographic subset of young resident locals was nearing extinction city-wide, due mostly to gentrification, housing inflation, and limited career opportunities. The result was increasing swarms popping-in from distant towns, with a somewhat older age demographic reporting for duty, keen to groove on the hits of their youth into the near-wee hours. In July and August, they were joined by the track bunch, eager to do the same. Shake, shake, shake — and stop hitting on my wife and spilling your drink on me.

It was here, a tad into the new century, that the shit hit the fan once again, for what we can call Caroline Street Hassle #2.

This chapter, however, was mostly centered on the single issue of Noise. The high volume of electrified music from even just the handful of outdoor patios of competing venues created a cacophony of sonic pollution that was negatively effecting the quality of life for households within a radius measured in blocks, if not (on some nights) miles. It became a major talking point across the town, especially at the Council table.

Years of debate on this subject can’t so much be judged as having resulted in total inaction, but it can be deemed to have bequeathed nothing more than half-ass solutions that to this day are inadequate. Victimized neighbors eventually surrendered to the flow, beaten-down by the hassle. Most of them gave up on the neighborhood entirely by shifting the burden to either new owners, rental tenants or (increasingly) Airbnb party animals. Meanwhile, the downtown monster rolled on; with wink-wink blessings from the city’s governing, tourism and real estate interests. Ya gotta love those sales tax receipts!

But that beast is a tricky fellow, always eager to show off its superpower Transformer capabilities. This leads us to that most recent wave-change, where the scene rather quickly shifted into what can best be tagged as Nightclub Mode.

Here the emphasis is not on live performing musical acts but on pre-recorded beats, samples and effects – or what is deemed as EDM electronic dance music; along with doses of various hip hop and rap sub-genres. It was now the cover bands’ turn to be the ousted ones, replaced by DJ’s. Despite the prior and supposed fixes, it is even louder. This, at least, is the late night / weekend scenario – as the earlier and weeknight time-frames are still host to a limited amount of the old legacy formats. Happy Hour, anyone?

But credit where due: this new formula can certainly be judged a success — at least from a demand side perspective of business attraction and cash register transactions. Take your pick in describing the typical weekend head count on any given summer night: a throng, a mass of humanity, a mob, an army? Fine, they all work. Plus, they spend way above the former norms. Ding ding!

But as seen in the past when crowds get big / bigger / too big, problems are sure to follow. Bulletin: problems have followed. Cue those headlines mentioned above at the very top. They have now reached the point of being front and center in the Spa City’s public consciousness and debate forum. Caroline Street Hassle #3 is upon us. Welcome to the Shitshow.

But why? Is crowd size the only variable to blame here ? Good question; and a logical conclusion to make. But: we will suggest the answer is NO.

See how we get to that conclusion – as a means of best offering fixes to the problem – in the next two parts of this series.

Jack Flash is Saratoga-based serial entrepreneur and observer of matters of the national and local social condition and political order. Depending on his workload and leisure calendar, he occasionally publishes thoughts and opinions on his semi-active Saratoga Flash News page.