Albany County

Albany County (/ΛˆΙ”ΛlbΙ™niː/ awl-bΙ™-nee) is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is from the title of the Duke of York and Albany, who became James II of England (James VII of Scotland). As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204.[1] As originally established, Albany County had an indefinite amount of land, but has only 530 square miles (1,400 km2) as of March 3, 1888. The county seat is Albany, the state capital.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany_County,_New_York

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Harmful Algea Bloom in Lake Myosotis

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In the news … “The Lake Myosotis Beach is closed because of a possible harmful algal bloom.”

I was surprised about this news as the Lake Myostis watershed doesn’t seem like it would have much excess nitrogen or phosphorous in it. The 4,252 acre watershed for the lake is according to the 2024 National Land Cover Dataset, 76.5% forested with only 5.8% of it developed most of which is Developed Open space 5.1%. Pasture/Hay accounts for 10.6% land cover and there is no Cultivated Crop land shown on the NLCD. But it has been a warm summer.

Here is the acreages and percent land cover for the 4,252 acre Myosotis Lake Watershed based on the 2024 National Land Cover Dataset.

ID Class Acres Percent
11 Open Water 100 2.4%
21 Developed, Open Space 216 5.1%
22 Developed, Low Intensity 30 0.7%
23 Developed, Medium Intensity 2 0.0%
31 Barren Land (Rock/Sand/Clay) 0 0.0%
41 Deciduous Forest 2,364 55.6%
42 Evergreen Forest 167 3.9%
43 Mixed Forest 725 17.0%
52 Shrub/Scrub 7 0.2%
71 Grassland/Herbaceous 6 0.2%
81 Pasture/Hay 451 10.6%
90 Woody Wetlands 157 3.7%
95 Emergent Herbaceous Wetlands 28 0.7%

Artery Art, Albany

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I sometimes like to call these maps Artery Art. The simple, clean layout doesn't provide much information but is appealing to the eye

Artery Art, Albany

The Gut

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The federal government didn't have much good to be said about the D4/D5 redlined neighborhood known as the "The Gut" of Albany in 1930s.

This area deserves to be classified  as a slum neighborhood. Many former two family houses are now used for  three families by use of the basement as a separate unit.

Favorable Influences: All city facilities and adjacence to center of city and industry.

Detrimental Influences: Age  and obsolescence. Close to railroad and Hudson River- cellars are  flooded with high water. Green Street is known as the "Red Light"  district."

https://dsl.richmond.edu/socialvulnerability/map/?fbclid=IwAR0uUC4ehHe299krVvUdiU8VHZ7cJzMMow9RKdEgxgbpKLyQiy7smZPmp-o#loc=14/42.685/-73.836&city=albany-ny&tract=36001002500

The Gut