Over the past week I’ve literally spent 17 plus hours sorting through wet, smokey and increasingly moldy papers trying to save whatever Albany history I can before it’s forever gone. While maybe John Wolcott will never be as famous as Erastus Corning or Nelson Rockeller, the truth is activists like him preserved some of the city’s most important history and lands, raised important questions made a difference again the Democratic machine, often at great personal cost.

While he did pretty well when “Republican” Theresa Cook (ala that time Rezsin Adams ran as a “Republican” for county legislature) was running the county clerk’s office, other times he was attacked tooth and nail for his performance as a title searcher for the county, even though he was probably the best title searcher and researcher of deeds and history the county ever had. I came across his lawsuit today drying out his papers along with the numerous exhibits on Albany County corruption and sneaky misdeeds or the Erastus Corning machine and by that time Jim Coyne’s county operations. The Corning machine was only really interested in punishing male dissidents, they couldn’t see in their minds that women could have any influence of politics. Ultimately it was the federal District Court that sided with him and had him reinstated but he fought for years to get the pension credit he deserved going back to the days when he was a consultant for Fort Orange 787 dig. The Fort Orange file got wetter than I thought but we got it apart drying. It will be saved. And while, maybe the history books write differently, certainly it was John Wolcott who helped to take down Jim Coyne through alerting the FBI to Coyne’s crooked deal over the Knickerbocker Arena, although like with Fort Orange and Paul Huey, the credit can’t necessarily be just his own.

And then as I was going through the papers, putting dried ones away I heard a screech and bang, and a car crashed into the traffic light pole at South Swan and Morton Avenue, causing the 100 plus lb traffic light to break free of the wire. The clearly fleeing car then took off leaking what appeared to be coolant. Police showed up, hauled the broken stop light off the road, talked to the neighbors and took off. Not sure what happened to the fleeting crashed car, I was too busy sorting papers. Albany is going downhill rapidly, things were looking up in the city not that long ago. I’m just glad I’ve been taking the bus there rather than driving especially with the neighborhoods getting so rough. I still remember that last time I walked down to Sheridan Hollow to visit John, a firearm rang out as somebody shot out a car window.

While working on John’s papers, I’ve been going through the EIS for a project in Troy and some Pine Bush issues in Guilderland with some tax data and GIS Mapping. People have gotten to know all the amazing things that I can do and I get more and more requests. It seems like everywhere I’m going I’m getting sucked into fights against City Hall everywhere, me with public records and free software, going up against million dollar reports with expensive professional software, internal only data and decades of training and experience. But if we don’t raise questions and fight development then who will? It’s tough as these professionals have big budgets and skills, but if house wife Jane Jacobs could stop Robert Moses, then so can ordinary people like myself. Not going to win every fight but it’s good to raise questions and stop bad development where we can. Even if it’s a pain to the local Bob Moses of today. It’s important we protect open space. Even if it involves some risk to myself and makes me not trust or respect most government workers.

Beyond all those wet and smokey papers and battling City Hall it’s been a crazy week for sure. The legislative session is wrapping up and I’ve been swamped with work, I was going through agendas for work well into the night on Saturday night. It’s been a crush at work and when I’m not in the office most of the time until late I’ve been drying out papers. I did get some bird watching in at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center this morning – saw a red tailed hawk being harassed by a few sparrows on the way out walking out there. I continue to back up, photograph and store important documents electronically in case of a disaster.

And then I’m also finally dealing with some of my own issues in my life. The counseling I’m getting is helping, it seems consistent with the advice I’m reading from trustworthy sources and publications on the internet. But change comes hard especially with bad habits of both negative thinking and repeated thoughts in thinking I’ve had ingrained for two decades now. I’m trying to change but it’s hard. I’m certainly learning a lot, becoming a better person because of counseling.

And I was doing better until the mixed emotions of Mr. Wolcott’s house fire – grief and sense of lostmy work sorting and carefully cataloging documents would be forever lost. But we saved a lot. But the shock and horror of it all, seeing that house in such disarray and burnt – that only a week ago before the fire when I was sorting and filing papers things looked so different. Plus all that stuff going to the Rensselaer landfill to be buried and forever viewed from my downtown office as a dirt and grass covered hill. Fire can be so bad, especially in the urban areas. Then I saw the other side tonight out in the country, the place I grew up. My parents neighbors, the ones who live in trailers and raise pigs and cows, were having a big ol bonfire, drinking beer burning an old couch, mattress and pallets with lots of black smoke. I’m so jealous of their homestead, even if they are what the government calls poor people who live in rundown trailers and barns. Kind of like that film about Appalachia I’ve been watching. But the country life is a life I’ll get to eventually, saving a bit each paycheck.

… Fire can destroy but it can cleanse too. That’s what my therapist reminds me.