Downtown Albany

Between South Swan And Eagle Street Albany – 1952

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Ortho Between South Swan And Eagle Street Albany - 1952

This 1952 aerial photo shows the neighborhood in Albany that would be demolished for the Empire State Plaza, between South Swan Street and Eagle Street. Long forgotten streets, like High Street and South Hawk Street can be found in this dense urban neighbohood which within 10 years would be out by the state, and within 15 years would be entirely carted off to dumping grounds in Glenmont behind Erastus Corning's house near the intersection of US 9W and NY 32.

Daily Update – October 5, 2022

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Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. 🐫

I’m old enough to remember when a week was longer than a few blinks of the eye. Then you start to push forty and the next thing is Facebook is selling you advice on how to enjoy family trips visiting grave stones.

Rain showers and 50 degrees taking the express bus downtown. ☔ There is a north-northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The skies will clear around 6 pm.

While I was aware of the forecast, I really did not expect the heavy rain 💦 to be pounding on the roof most of the night or that it would be raining too hard for the morning walk 🚶. Though it did let up for the walk down to the express bus 🚍.

Last night was a fairly late night at work 🏢 it’s just been so busy lately though a lot of things are getting done. I feel a lot better about the list of things to get done today compared to a few days back. Things are just coming together. 👣 With the morning walk yesterday I got my steps in and I’m hopeful tonight too.

I still need to get to the laundromat. 👖 I’ve been rewearing my jeans twice and I have enough other clothes but I want to go tonight if at all possible to the laundromat. But first I need to get one dollar bills. 💵 That mostly stopped me last night from going as I didn’t get to the bank.

I’m hopeful to get up north on Friday before work ⛰ and remote work Friday and set up camp fairly early for the long weekend. ⛺ It looks like there is still some decent color up north for one more weekend. Columbus Day Weekend is early this year. I want to do some hiking and sight seeing though Sunday looks cold and gray. Winters coming. But it will be a new year before you know it.

It was fun, I ride one of the electric buses 🚍 ⚡ home yesterday. They have eight buses now or at least seven, and they’re planning to upgrade their garage to handle up to 65 charging at one. They’re not that much of a novelty at this point, especially having riden the Nature Bus which is basically always electric but still.

Weather Update – July 15, 2022

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The week ahead … 😎

Today.
Feels like …
July 15th.

Sunny

Sunny.

Light north wind.

and

84 degrees , 57 max dew point, 8:32
sunset.
Tonight.
Feels like …
August 20th.

Partly Cloudy

Partly cloudy.

Light and variable wind.

and

60 degrees , 5:30
sunrise.
Saturday.
Hot !

Partly Sunny then Slight Chance of T-storms

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Partly sunny.

Southwest wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

and

86 degrees , 61 max dew point, 8:32
sunset.
Saturday Night.
Hot !

Slight Chance of Showers then Mostly Cloudy

A slight chance of showers before 11pm. Mostly cloudy.

South wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

and

65 degrees , 64 max dew point, 5:31
sunrise.
Sunday.
Muggy !

Chance of T-storms

A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Partly sunny.

South wind 3 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

and

89 degrees , 68 max dew point, 8:31
sunset.
Sunday Night.
Muggy !

Chance of T-storms

A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 8pm. Mostly cloudy.

Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

and

67 degrees , 68 max dew point, 5:31
sunrise.
Monday.
Feels like …
July 15th.

Showers is likely

A chance of showers, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. Mostly cloudy.

Chance of precipitation is 60%.

and

84 degrees , 70 max dew point, 8:30
sunset.
Monday Night.
Muggy !

Showers is likely then Chance of T-storms

Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 8pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 8pm and 2am. Mostly cloudy.

Chance of precipitation is 60%.

and

68 degrees , 70 max dew point, 5:32
sunrise.
Tuesday.
Muggy !

Mostly Sunny then Chance of Showers

A chance of showers after 2pm. Mostly sunny and hot.

Chance of precipitation is 30%.

and

90 degrees , 69 max dew point, 8:29
sunset.
Tuesday Night.
Muggy !

Chance of Showers then Partly Cloudy

A chance of showers before 8pm. Partly cloudy.

Chance of precipitation is 30%.

and

69 degrees , 68 max dew point, 5:33
sunrise.
Wednesday.
Muggy !

Mostly Sunny then Chance of T-storms

A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny and hot.

Chance of precipitation is 30%.

and

95 degrees , 69 max dew point, 8:29
sunset.
Wednesday Night.
Muggy !

Chance of T-storms then Chance of Showers

A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy.

Chance of precipitation is 30%.

and

70 degrees , 68 max dew point, 5:34
sunrise.
Thursday.
Muggy !

Chance of Showers then Chance of T-storms

A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny and hot.

Chance of precipitation is 40%.

and

91 degrees , 69 max dew point, 8:28
sunset.

Daily Update – July 15, 2022

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Good morning! Happy Friday. ☀

Sun is bright and warm this morning. Not a whole lot of breeze. It certainly could be a lot more humid and will be come Sunday.

Mostly sunny and 65 degrees at the Downtown Albany. ☀ Calm wind. The dew point is 57 degrees.

Two weeks from now I should be well on my way to the Finger Lakes. 🏖 I want to leave early so I can start setting up camp by noon ⛺ and have the campsite I want for both weekends. As much as I hate driving that highway between Sidney and Ithaca with gas prices I want to take the most direct route.

Texas Traffic Lights in Albany

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Texas-style horizontal traffic lights — this how most traffic lights are aligned in Texas, because they like to be different and they got tired of over-height trucks assaulting traffic lights.
Rare in New York these days, only used in areas when height or sight line issues.

It seems a bit odd to see Albany’s skyline without the ANSWERS smoke-stack

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It seems a bit odd to see Albany’s skyline without the ANSWERS smoke-stack … 🏭

Forty years the dirty old and trash burning plants smoke stack remained a fixture of the skyline, a tailpipe of a crude mass-burn garbage machine and later oil-burning factory. It might have been an improvement over the previous heavy-oil burning plant, but hardly was a clean air plant, with emissions equipment limited to the electrostatic precipator and a “high burn temperature” of the millions of tons of heavy, residual fuel oil and shredded garbage. It had minimal pollution equipment that was hardly designed to screen out lead (from solder from burned television sets and scraps of painted wood), polyvinyl chloride packaging and discarded appliances, sulfur-rich industrial wastes and furniture or a dozen other things that you probably shouldn’t burn in mass quantities downtown with minimal pollution controls. You can definitely raise a toast to the end of this terrible dirty era in Capital Region’s history, even if the plant hadn’t burned garbage in 30 years, and hadn’t burned oil in 15 years.