Like most towns in New York State, Bethlehem doesn't have Wards. All elected officials are elected at-large.
But could you draw equal population districts that represent actual communities of interest? Not looking a demographics or political competitiveness, but actual communities of interest based on my knowledge of the town -- like Slingerlands, Delmar, Elsmere, Glenmont or South Bethlehem, and have them come out to be equal population? I tried, and here was the results.
There are different ways to look at this problem. One could use an algorithm to draw districts, although I've yet to find one that does a particularly good job. Turns out it's hard to automate district drawing, as often different demographics live next to one and another, and you get stuck with pockets of similar demographics living on opposite ends of the town. You end up packing and cracking or splitting similar demographics, unintentionally. It always seems like equal population is enemy of building communities of interest.
Drawing districts is a fascinating GIS question. But often the best districts are still drawn by humans, watching the totals add up in redistricting plugin, and then looking at maps of demographics. And that involves a lot of acceptance of the fact that districts you have drawn still have a lot of problems with packing and cracking. I don't like how this ultimately came out, but the equal population constraint really causes a lot of problems. Having more districts, might help solve the problem.
The qgis plugin I used for this was the Statto Software Redistricter, using a PL 94-171 Census Data joined against the block-level files. I didn't load any political or demographic graphics, just raw population along with my knowledge of what the neighborhoods look like from a map and having explored them in person, with a goal of grouping highly dense and very rural neighborhoods separately. A goal that was largely a failure in this effort! But it is a fun thought experiment.
One of the things I find myself spending a lot of time lately is trying to understand the rural landscape and people’s relationship to land and property. The architecture and barns, the livestock raised, how people piece together a living in the country.
Methods of study vary. One is the simple just traveling to rural areas, riding rural roads on my bike. Climbing mountains and peering down into the valleys. Things I’ve done for years now, but now with a much more careful eye, trying to figure out what I actually want to some day not that far in the future incorporate into my life. Styles of architecture, layout of homesteads and gardens, livestock and even toys like ATVs, tractors and trucks.
But at the same time I’ve been doing a lot of reading and listening to e-books about farming and homesteading, books about the wilderness and how people relate to the land. In many ways it’s taking off my rose colored glasses on the topic. I grew up in the country, I know about barnyards and breaking ice to water ducks and feed dogs in the winter and all the smells and hard work that go along. Still maybe I didn’t think as much about stewardship and how much farmers of all stripes struggle to stay on the land, and the hustle to stay afloat selling what they can. Often it really is a fight for life against markets, pests, disease and weather. Or how 5 acre homesteads chew away at once vibrant farming lands. YouTube videos are good to get a look at every day operations of farms and homesteads but sometimes five hundred page books give you a lot more of the back story.
People will say I’m wasting my time in analysis and study, years of my life are rapidly fading away while rent checks fly out the door padding my landlords pockets. But I want to do it right, build the right homestead in the right location, be thoughtful not rushed. The time is not now but will come and armed with facts on all aspects of rural life, I will make better decisions. I grew up in the country and went to school in a small town, yet there is much more to learn.
Regular readers of my blog, may have the impression that I’ve already decided on the truck I will buy come the spring, that I’ve all but picked out the color of Ford F-350 I’ll be driving home in a few months. Then getting a camper shell, moving the kayak rack, camping gear, solar panel and batteries over, adding a cellphone booster, and other equipment. It’s not that I’ve been thinking a lot about what my next rig will be like if I get another truck.
Maybe that’s true or maybe it’s not. Really I’m undecided.
For other audiences like my liberal friends and those on Facebook, I’ve been playing up my new urbanist ideas, with a healthy dose of skepticism about owning a vehicle. Trucks are so damn expensive! Truth is I’ve always enjoyed taking the bus or riding my bike to work, I would be loathe to have to drive to work every day. The commute is a big reason I refuse to buy a house, beyond all of other costs associated with owning a house such a maintenance and utilities.
Truth is a car, even a little Honda Civic, isn’t a great way to get around a city with all the parking restrictions, speed traps and cops every where. A bike is really a liberating way to get around the city. It’s rare even when you break a law in front of a cop on a bike that you get stopped. Run a stop sign in front of a car, you’ll get stopped in a car but probably not on a bike. You’re the one in danger on a bike if you a crash into another car after violating a traffic law, after all.
Or I could put Big Red back on the road in the spring.
People keep asking questions – how do you plan to travel without a car?
How do you plan to get back to wilderness? Out to country? How about the Albany Pine Bush? Pine Bush meetings in Colonie or Guilderland? Doing your wash at laundromat? Taking your trash to transfer station? Going grocery shopping? Getting to work? Honestly, so far I’ve survived, I’ve found work-around that are fine at least during winter. Never did drive more then a few miles in the winter, and truth be told I think I would be fine without camping and traveling. I am sure there are other ways to travel like buses, trains and rental cars. Certainly, I don’t just want a Honda Civic for driving around town, like some kind of mindless drone hauling plastics from the Shopping Maul to the landfill.
Honestly, right now I’m kind of having fun this winter not having a vehicle. It’s nice not having to clean the snow off my truck or warm it up. It’s nice not having to go to the car wash and get all dirty washing off the salt in vein. And nothing gets me as pumped up as riding my mountain bike when it’s cold out, though it’s lame that it’s still too dark in the evening to ride all the way home and Albany County Rail Trail is still snow covered.
“Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true There’ll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty Before the last revolving year is through And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We’re captive on the carousel of time We can’t return, we can only look behind From where we came“
Honestly, I like the Ian and Sylvia version of the Circle Game better than that of Joni Mitchell version. And I can’t help but be a bit sad to think of how fast those days have gone by. It’s also exciting to think of the days to come today, my 43rd birthday. The math doesn’t seem quite right in my brain to think in twelve years I’ll be fifty-five. Officially an old person, though when I talk to my colleagues in their early sixties, it’s not that much of a milestone, and I’ll need a year beyond age 55 to get 30 years in Tier 4 Retirement, and who knows what’s beyond that but I do want to retire young so I have time to build that off-grid homestead.
I was on the fence about riding my bike to work but ultimately caught the bus in as it’s like negative one outside. Traffic is all jammed up heading downtown, I had to run like crazy through the State Capitol to the Bus Turn Around in about 5 minutes. Yesterday it was so bad that I missed the shuttle over to the suburban office building and had to catch the later shuttle. It’s fine, I didn’t have rush projects though I did have a busy day. I stayed and caught the later shuttle which was late because of a crash on the South Maul Arterial. Living up to its name. Today I caught the normal shuttle over but it was 4 minute run from the Capitol over to the bus turn around.
They fixed the big stink in the men’s room yesterday in the office by mid-day. It was so gag worthy in the bathroom, pretty sure it was sewer gas or maybe it just was a plugged drain or urine and poop somewhere it shouldn’t be but it was also wafting into my office on the other side of the building. I’m kind of used to the stink of the landfill and sewage treatment plant next to my suburban office but this was far worse. Good they fixed that though as I drink a lot of coffee, and with all that fiber from the carrots and veggies I eat, I find myself pooping a lot.
The Guilderland Planning Board Meeting was as long as usual, though fortunately the one project we weren’t interested in was pushed to the end of agenda. Like usual I was pretty intimidated by the developer stroding around in his cowboy boots and western bull-riders style shirt, though I did like his big SuperDuty truck. Maybe I have too much respect for people who smell like cow crap, own land and burn their own trash. Or at least play that roll in my mind. I don’t know if it was one of the Hershberg & Hershberg engineers or somebody from Sandell Manfuacturing. AIt’s a funny world opposing development in the Pine Bush. On the way back, we got stopped by a Guilderland cop, as we got talking and Lynne didn’t dim her headlights for a passing car, but the officer was polite and sent us on the way after reminding us to dim the lights. Maybe we were targeted, Lynne said it’s the first time she’s been stopped by a cop in 40 years. It was dark and there were a lot of deer out there.
Didn’t sleep well last night. đģ Maybe I’m having second thoughts about the big truck, and maybe it’s I get amped up after all these meetings or I abuse caffeine to much, though lately I’ve been cutting back. Except may for today, as I was so tired I popped two caffeine pills after I drank through all the coffee in my peculator. I was up at 3 AM, flipping through Facebook, put on a podcast regarding Inside the Trump administration’s effort to reverse climate change policies. And thinking more about do I really want a Ford F-350 or not? It will use so much gas, and cost so much money forever gone, and soon enough to be run through the smasher and landfilled. I mean, it would be nice though to have a big, reliable truck based on solid, old fashioned technology, but even base SuperDuties have a lot of high tech crap in them. But on the other hand, I don’t drive to work. Maybe I should talk to AI about that.
And I can’t help but be a bit sad 
to think of how fast those days have gone by. It’s also exciting to think of the days to come today, my 43rd birthday. 
The math doesn’t seem quite right in my brain to think in twelve years I’ll be fifty-five. Officially an old person, though when I talk to my colleagues in their early sixties, it’s not that much of a milestone, and I’ll need a year beyond age 55 to get 30 years in Tier 4 Retirement, and who knows what’s beyond that but I do want to retire young so I have time to build that off-grid homestead.
but ultimately caught the bus in as it’s like negative one outside. Traffic is all jammed up heading downtown, I had to run like crazy through the State Capitol to the Bus Turn Around in about 5 minutes. Yesterday it was so bad that I missed the shuttle 
over to the suburban office building and had to catch the later shuttle. 
It’s fine, I didn’t have rush projects though I did have a busy day. I stayed and caught the later shuttle which was late because of a crash on the South Maul Arterial. Living up to its name. Today I caught the normal shuttle over but it was 4 minute run from the Capitol over to the bus turn around.
yesterday in the office by mid-day. It was so gag worthy in the bathroom, pretty sure it was sewer gas or maybe it just was a plugged drain or urine and poop somewhere it shouldn’t be but it was also wafting into my office on the other side of the building. 
I’m kind of used to the stink 
of the landfill and sewage treatment plant next to my suburban office 
but this was far worse. Good they fixed that though as I drink a lot of coffee, 
and with all that fiber from the carrots and veggies I eat, 
I find myself pooping a lot. 
though fortunately the one project we weren’t interested in was pushed to the end of agenda. Like usual I was pretty intimidated by the developer stroding around in his cowboy boots and western bull-riders style shirt, though I did like his big SuperDuty truck. Maybe I have too much respect for people who smell like cow crap, own land and burn their own trash. Or at least play that roll in my mind. I don’t know if it was one of the Hershberg & Hershberg engineers or somebody from Sandell Manfuacturing. AIt’s a funny world opposing development in the Pine Bush. On the way back, we got stopped by a Guilderland cop, as we got talking and Lynne didn’t dim her headlights for a passing car, but the officer was polite 
and sent us on the way after reminding us to dim the lights. Maybe we were targeted, Lynne said it’s the first time she’s been stopped by a cop in 40 years. It was dark and there were a lot of deer out there. 
after I drank through all the coffee in my peculator. 
I was up at 3 AM, flipping through Facebook, put on a podcast regarding 
And thinking more about do I really want a Ford F-350 or not? It will use so much gas, 
and cost so much money forever gone, and soon enough to be run through the smasher and landfilled. 
I mean, it would be nice though to have a big, reliable truck based on solid, old fashioned technology, but even base SuperDuties have a lot of high tech crap in them. But on the other hand, I don’t drive to work. Maybe I should talk to AI about that.
