Comments on: NY Senate Appointment: “I Don’t Do Utica”

By: DLS

DLS — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:38:42 +0000

It was removed.

To recap _briefly_, another person who might be qualified for the Senate seat, but who is unfit for it, is liberal mayor Bloomberg of New York City, the darling of the non-”moderate” liberal set. Anyone who wants to misuse the courts to shake down the gun industry is unfit. More broadly and pertinently to the “state of the state” of New York (and other states), the same ridiculous set of new taxes that Paterson includes in his budget proposal (tech kids will _love_ the “digital download” tax) include some taxes that already exist in New York City, with Bloomberg's approval. The states' problems remain mainly that of excessive spending (which is what bankrupted liberal “jewel” New York City by the mid-1970s) and the bloated, redundant government and subservience to demanding, at-times-militant unions (with a vast multiplicity of municipal-government fiefdoms in New York and other states like New Jersey, that bloat governments more than ever) is the same kind of failed model that coincidentally we've seen with the Detroit auto makers and the UAW, as well as with cities in addition to New York City.

By: DLS

DLS — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:50:38 +0000

I hope my longer posting didn't get removed by mistake by Disqus. We'll see…

Incidentally, the place I lived and worked for a while was Binghamton. I visited all the classic Upstate cities — Utica-Rome, Syracuse (closest B of A was in Cortland, on the way north), Oswego, Watertown, Rochester, Buffalo-Niagara (eat at Oliver's at least once, even though it's very expensive!), and also Ithaca (hint: bang) and Schenectady (should qualify, too, even if Albany often doesn't). I also headed north of Albany frequently (Plattsburg is mighty cold and looked bleak after the “Quebec” ice storm that actually affected New York, New Brunswick, and other places, too).

By: Jazz

Jazz — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:06:03 +0000

Ah, Elrod brings back fond memories. I grew up in Schuyler, just down the road from there and his description is very accurate. And yes, the Arterial should have been called the Mafia Cash Grab Express.

Well… I mean, if there really WERE such a thing as the mafia. Which I'm very obviously not saying there is. Far from it, actually. Errr… I need to get going.

By: DLS

DLS — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:29:19 +0000

New York City metro is a feast for the eyes (not only SFO on steroids, but also giving us Gritty City stuff no modern-US-location metro area can approach), but so is the Upstate New York countryside. My rad-lib friend in DC, when she'd visit me there in Upstate, found the city I was in “dreary” (I even predicted what word she would use), but she loved the countryside, too.

I said it then, and I repeat here: If it were only possible to make an economic success of it, a separate State of Erie would be nice, indeed.

By: elrod

elrod — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:27:57 +0000

Hilarious. I went to Hamilton College, which is about 12 miles from Utica. There is no more iconic rust belt city than Utica. Drive down the mighty “Arterial” through the heart of the city and you pass blocks and blocks of abandoned warehouses. I'll never forget attending the Oktoberfest “celebration” at F.X. Matt's Brewery in the largely-Polish west side. My friends and I were the only people smiling the whole time – except a priest who came out of the brewery doublefisting a few Utica Clubs.

The Arterial, by the way, is the biggest piece of mob-kickback useless concrete in America.