Travels in the 2nd half

Delaware River near Narrowsburg NY   When I take a road trip, I love to travel on small roads, avoiding the major highways. It helps that I am retired, and rarely on a tight schedule. One of the things I look forward to is discovering the small towns that the interstate passes by. I am often surprised by what I find. A recent trip through the Catskill Mountains of New York brought me just such a find.  In the northwest corner of Sullivan county, where the Delaware river serves as the border between New York and Pennsylvania, is the town of Callicoon . The town sits in a valley along the river. It was founded in 1842, when the Erie Railroad came through this part of the state. This part of the Catskills was already a center of the timber industry. In 1849 a tannery was built, taking advantage of the local hemlock trees, whose bark played a key role in preparing leather for boots and industrial belts. The railroad allowed for an influx of farmers, offering them a reliable way to...

  The summer of 2020 has been one of both static lives and major changes. COVID-19 has kept us at home while the struggle against racism and police brutality has gotten many of us out of the house and in the streets. In June, New York City was filled with daily protests involving tens of thousands of people.  Many of the stores in the SOHO neighborhood, stores that were already closed due to COVID, boarded up their windows. Artists saw the blocks and blocks of blank plywood as an opportunity. They showed up with their paint, and their stencils, and their posters. They created works that were both beautiful and gave voice to a growing movement. When New York entered “Phase 2” of reopening, I decided to head to SOHO to record some of this artwork before the stores took them down and hid them away. Here is some of what I found.     

  The term urban renewal is very charged. To some people it is the replacement of “urban blight” with new, clean, and useful centers. To others it is the destruction of the working class neighborhoods, replacing them with places that do not serve or welcome them. In either case, it involves displacing thousands of, usually poor, people and the neighborhood they live in. Nelson Rockefeller In the early 1960’s, then-governor Nelson Rockefeller decided that the area surrounding the New York State capitol building, built in 1898, was unsuitable for showing visiting dignitaries. He took control of one hundred acres of buildings, that housed around seven thousand people, by eminent domain.  In 1965, he began construction on his grand scheme, The Empire State Plaza , to build a governmental mega-complex. Architect Wallace Harrison designed the seven buildings, using the brutalist style was popular at the time. These include the New York Legislative Office Building, the Cultural Ed...

Geyser Creek Usually, if you was to take a long hike in nature, you have to out of town. That is even true when you are in a smaller town or city. However, in Saratoga Springs there is a place to go for just such a an experience that is still in town, Saratoga Spa State Park . Roosevelt Baths Saratoga Spa State Park is located at the southern end of the city and sits in between two major roads, routes NY-9 and NY-50. It is home to a golf course, The Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the National Museum of Dance and the Saratoga Automobile Museum. But I went there to take advantage of its miles of trails. There are also six of Saratoga’s mineral springs in the park. Back in the 19th century, the area was a center of manufacturing, bottling to naturally carbonated water to be shipped and sold. In 1907, evidence in a court case showed that all of the springs in the area were interconnected, and many of the plants were forced to close. In 1909, a law was signed that made the springs and sur...