Schodack Island State Park
Often a great place to go skiing when there is enough snow, which doesn't seem to be the case this January.
The Cherry Valley Turnpike by Richard Palmer
The pioneers poured in from New England in droves after 1800 to settle this new land in upstate New York then known as the "Western Country," and one of the primary paths they followed was the Cherry Valley Turnpike.
This road, which is more than 200 years old, is today's Route 20 from Albany to Cazenovia, and Route 92 from there to Manlius. Here it connected with the south branch of the Seneca Turnpike.
Building such a lengthy road more than 70 miles long through the wilderness was a tremendous undertaking, requiring large sums of capital and manpower. Eventually, the promoters were able to secure both, but not without considerable effort and more than $100,000 in capital. The initial goal was to construct a highway from the old Revolutionary War frontier settlement of Cherry Valley, westward.
The Third Great Western Turnpike Company was chartered by the State of New York Legislature in 1803, and was organized on Nov. 16th of that year. The name was derived from the fact that the First Great Western Turnpike was from Albany to Duanesburg and the Second Great Western was from there to Cherry Valley. Eventually, this system of roads was nicknamed the Cherry Valley Turnpike.
East Springfield
Heading down US 20 towards East Springfield with Cape Wycoff and the Cherry Valley Bypass in the distance. Four lane road ahead!
Taken on Monday January 16, 2023 at Great Western Turnpike.Looking Off Tassell Hill
Brilliant blue skies made for some nice views off Tassell Hill on Martin Luther King Day.
Taken on Monday January 16, 2023 at Alfred J Woodford State Forest.January 18, 2023 Morning
Good morning! An icy start to this Wednesday. β Slip sliding our way into the mid week. How icy are the sidewalks? Well maybe not the dire emergency that the news π° media is proclaiming but they were bad enough that after slipping and falling on the driveway and then trying again with the microspikes which suck on asphalt and concrete I just gave up on the walk and went back inside. Put on my suit and tie π§π»βπΌ showered πΏ and walked very carefully down to the bus stop πthough not exactly in that order.
Cloudy, icy and 34 degrees in Bethlehem, NY. β There is a southwest breeze at 6 mph. π. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 2 am. βοΈ
Today will have a slight chance of showers before 9am. Mostly cloudy π¦, with a high of 43 degrees at 12pm. 11 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 9th. Southwest wind 6 to 14 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. That should help with the ice. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 34 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1973. 7.9 inches of snow fell back in 1891.β
Solar noon π is at 12:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.8Β° from the due south horizon (-44Β° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour π starts at 4:07 pm with the sun in the southwest (235Β°). πΈ The sunset is in the west-southwest (242Β°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:51 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 16 seconds with dusk around 5:21 pm, which is one minute and 13 seconds later than yesterday. π The best time to look at the stars is after 5:56 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies π and temperatures around 42 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 13 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 32 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 47 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be partly cloudy π€, with a low of 30 degrees at 5am. 15 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 27th. Northwest wind 5 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 20 degrees. The record low of -28 occurred back in 1971.
The weekend forecast is everything you can expect of recent January’s. π₯ I’m giving the month ownership of the weather not the warming climate. Saturday, cloudy, with a high near 35. Sunday, a chance of rain after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 39. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees.
Some good news is that l, next Wednesday is the 5 PM Sunset πΌ/strong>σ° when the sun will be setting at 5:00 pm with dusk at 5:29 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 29 and 5 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 1938.
Rethinking Affordability Measures | HUD USER
The 30-percent rule for measuring affordability can be traced back to an amendment passed in 1969 by Senator Edward Brooke, the country's first popularly elected African American senator and a vocal advocate of affordable housing. He and then-Senator Walter Mondale coauthored the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race.
The Brooke Amendment, which was passed in 1969 as a response to rent increases and complaints about services in public housing, capped public housing rent at 25 percent of a resident’s income. Representative Barney Frank recounted that “[the amendment] said originally that the poorest of the poor who get housing through various public programs shouldn’t be expected to pay more than 25 percent of their income for housing, precisely because they have so little.” Congress raised the cap to 30 percent in 1981.