A heartfelt welcome to all of our out of town visitors to our great city. If you arrived this past weekend, and you like all this white stuff, you arrived just in time. Just take a look at a map of the state of New York. If you are a lover of outdoor winter activity, Albany pretty much sits right in the middle of some of the best skiing in the Northeast, if not the country. So bundle up and get outside. Enjoy.
If you have recently moved to Albany from say Phoenix, or San Diego, I might just understand. But if you have lived here all your life, or some sizeable portion of it you must have realized by now IT SNOWS HERE. If you were to turn on the television and tune to any local channel the days before the snowstorm and definitely all through the weekend, you were subject to coverage ad nauseam. Yes it’s not yet winter, and yes we received some significant snow –22.6″ recorded at the Albany International Airport . Just be glad you do not live in Syracuse where they record an average of 124″ per year. As the 5th snowiest metropolitan city in the world, yes the world, they once received 192″ of snowfall in one year. For those without a calculator that is 16′ of snow. In comparison, Albany receives on average a measly 52″. So stop your wining. A good majority of the wining comes from the folks who live downtown, especially in the area around the Empire State Plaza. Those who live in this part of the city chose to live there, and I don’t want to hear “you don’t know what it’s like” because I do. You all know that sooner or later, one thing the city is good about it’s usually sooner — except for the uptown neighborhoods — they start removing all the snow one side of the street at a time. Here is where the media outlets are of some use. They do a good job letting the public know about the snow emergencies, not only in Albany but throughout the Capital District . They usually give ample time to dig out your car and move it. I have even seen workers go door to door in a final effort to get the vehicles moved. Don’t blame the workers who drive the plows for burying your car. Where do you expect them to put it. The city does not want to tow your car any more than you want to have it towed. And yes, the operators who tow your car and ultimately charge you ridiculous fee’s for storing your car if you don’t pick it up in a timely manner are making a killing on your misfortune. There are words for such entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, for my own good I can’t mention them here. So suck it up my fellow Albanians. We have been blessed as of late with some pretty mild winters. As for snow removal, just be glad you don’t live in Schenectady. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonmazur
From the segment of this Blog I like to call “I Just Can’t Help Myself”: More times than not in the foreseen future this segment will involve our sitting president. I don’t know if it is customary or not that the president, as Commander in Chief of our armed forces salute the brave Marines who stand at the foot of his helicopter as he boards and exits. President Obama did not. George W. Bush did as did his father H.W. Which is OK because they were both veterans of military service. Donald Trump probably did his best, in my opinion to avoid serving in the military. Now every man or woman including Mazur who has served should be offended by this. Maybe I’m wrong; It won’t be the first time.