Flippin' Amsterdam NY

A link if you need help finding a champagne recommendation (here).

Best place to find these is probably at All-Star Wine & Liquor (here).

Happy New Year.

I just noticed that the Recorder’s much heralded blogs rolled out as part of the new direction of the paper and the Recorder’s ‘exciting’ online business model and presence no longer exist. Que pasa?

Sadly the blogs contained one or two posts at most and had not been updated with more than an announcement that they would be updated and that it was exciting to be part of the online community.

I find this a bit odd on several levels. First, the Recorder’s product and brand is suffering from the disconnect between the promoted product and the delivered product. Second, the online gap between the Recorder and its competitors grows wider as the online features of the Recorder diminish or fail to develop.Third, and this is conjecture, it may show a lack of commitment to online technology and business models as part of its future business model.

As most newspapers experience declining print circulation, the Recorder will face a difficult future if they cannot pull together an online strategy.  What may be most troubling for the Recorder is if they rely too much on a print circulation customer base versus an online customer base. If the reason for the withdrawal of blogs and a backburner approach to online stems from a lack of customer demand, the Recorder faces a truly daunting challenge in regaining readership in the days ahead.

My favorite screen version of the classic tale is ‘A Christmas Carol’ with Alistair Sim who plays a splendid Ebenezer. Here is a short clip with Marley’s ghost:

Merry Christmas.

I should trust my better instincts and not listen to local radio during this season. So in the spirit of the season, I’d like to pass along the following links so you do not endure the unendurable and I’ll leave it at that.

Wikipedia – The Epiphany

Wikipedia — La Befana

Italian Santa Claus– Babbo Natale

Let me explain why I’ve not posted over the past several days: simply put, I’ve been waging a war on Christmas.

My liberal colleagues and I have been working in elfin haste to banish the spoken or written form of the phrase “Merry Christmas”. Farewell “Merry Christmas” and hello “Happy Holidays”! As the reviled “liberal intellectuals” we know that to win the war against the true meaning of Christmas we must wage the battle where the Christmas holiday retains its greatest spiritual significance: retail.

That’s right, if we’re to win the war, we need to attack it at the source– Target and its brethren. For it will surely mean the end of days for our liberal movement if we allow the phrase Merry Christmas to be uttered upon your completed purchase of a plasma TV or Xbox. Worse yet, if we allow those dastardly retail associates to proclaim “Merry Christmas” with every purchase of inflatable Santas, inflatable penguins and reindeer, our movement to vanquish Christmas will be lost. Christmas will win.

Enough snark.

If your celebration of the season relies upon the frequency and veracity of the phrase “Merry Christmas” at your favorite shopping  destination, I get why you need a scapegoat. And what better scapegoat than the uber-evil “liberal”. I don’t need “Merry Christmas” or  “Have a nice day” from my retail shopping experience– it’s rarely authentic and frequently trite. I prefer the authenticity of Merry Christmas from a dear one than the unctuous greetings from the many.

Have a nice day

Mayor Thane posts on her decision (here) concerning zoning ordinances and the hire of consultants to execute the project. Here is the salient part:

I must express my discomfort with awarding this critically important task to two of the chief advocates for locating the overwhelmingly unpopular C&D landfill (aka, “the Dump”) within City limits.

As this process is critically important to future development in the City, I assert that this project should be objectively directed by an entity that is experienced in the technical and legal concerns necessary to draft a lawful zoning ordinance and new maps.

I could not agree more as zoning matters profoundly in preserving and building home values, quality of life and sustainability of a community. Look where we stand today with our neighborhoods and ask if thoughtful zoning may not have helped mitigate the damage. $50K for proper zoning avoids many times that from improper zoning policies.

I do not have a published comment policy as I’ve only had to filter spam comments. Otherwise comments fall where they may whether I agree or disagree as one aspect of a blog is creating a wider debate on a host of issues. Of course, my posts are always brilliantly witty and erudite so I don’t know why you’d choose to post a different view at all  but if you absolutely must you’re welcome to do so.

Today however I’ve had to delete my first non-spam comment as I felt it crossed the line. I will not edit or reedit comments to make them not ‘cross the line’– the commenter bears full responsibility for any posted comments in their entirety and I will accept or delete posts in their entirety.

Enough soapboxing: let’s keep a healthy debate going and I do look forward to your comments.

Update 1

No need for angst: if your comment appears, it passes the threshold. If you do not see your comment within a short time of submission, it may have been deleted by me or may be in queue for review.  Again, I expect the deletion  policy to apply to a very very small number of comments so please do not refrain from commenting.

And no, I cannot share the comment for you to see what crossed the line without disclosing the comment itself. I’ll admit it’s a Catch-22 but for context, I have deleted one comment of the 78 comments posted so again this is by far the exception than the rule.

I’m crunched for time today but I wanted to get some numbers out given Paterson’s budget cuts specifically to state aid for school districts. Here are some facts and figures and rough analysis (caveat emptor).

For the Amsterdam school district overall, the 2008-2009 budget (here)
was $52.9 million. Of that, $17.3 million was property tax levy.

Per the Gazette today (here), the proposed reduction in school aid to the Amsterdam school district will be : $718 thousand.

The Greater Amsterdam School District is facing a $718,000 cut under the governor’s proposal. Aid would go from $29.88 million to $29.16 million.

So to make up the shortfall of $718K, the baseline tax levy would be on the order of 4.15% on taxpayers. Again this is a baseline figure with no adjustments for use of fund reserves, no adjustments for increases in salaries/benefits, no adjustments for budget cuts and no adjustments for the underlying property assessments.

Speaking of budget cuts, let me be the first to advocate closing an elementary school as a way–the only way– to close the budget gap. I’m sure we can dust off the Consolidation report to make a strong financial and academic case to do so.

Finally, as an advocate for the Walter Elwood Museum, I envision a difficult challenge, not insurmountable as of yet, to garner monies to support the museum or to prevent the sale of the building in the current and likely economic environment of 2009.

I’m woefully behind in posts for a number of reasons so let me try to quick hit a few issues:

–Golf Course: The Recorder loves the word ‘posture’ when editorializing on the golf course. What they fail to notice in their haste to move past the issue is the abandonment of the public interest in the golf course by the council .

–Economic downturn: It’s quite clear that we face a difficult economy at least until late next year especially in the retail sector. Given the challenges in retailing, I’m all-so-nervous about retail based development in the city unless we’re staging and planning for 2010 and beyond.

–The Pedestrian Bridge: I have to admit to a twisted, convoluted rationale for my position on the bridge: I’m for-it and against-it. I’m for it in the sense that money is available and that it does have the potential to tie the downtown with the south side to create synergism between the two. At the same time, I see a classic case of supply sided thinking with no comparable demand side thinking: why do I want to go downtown if I’m in the all-so-hip Via Ponte? Or why would I start in the dismal downtown to walk across to Via Ponte?

–Downtown Revitalization: I posted a while back that we should find a new downtown for the city away from the Frogger-like maze of highways that currently entombs downtown. Unless we radically change the architectural landscape of downtown which I do not see in the plans, I just do not see how you could have a walkable, vibrant downtown given the  current landscape. Anything is possible but this requires radical repurposing of a huge swath of our city. Why not choose a more readily adaptable section of the city as the ‘heart’ versus the historical section that has been nearly decimated architecturally, aesthetically, and many adverbs more.

–AIDA: Given the recent article on AIDA and looking to ramp up in 2009, I hope the new board view their role as more than the ‘Industrial Development’ part. I hope they jump on the bandwagon that if you want to attract businesses here especially in knowledge intensive industries, the community and community quality of life matter too. It’s more than just funding and sprouting shell buildings.

–Too much sappy Christmas music? I’m listening to this lately:

I’m posting the comment below in full as it’s the City Charter section dealing with the Golf Commission.

Dream Weaver makes a valid counter point to my statement of “We should care when executive and legislative oversight is passed to a non-elected advisory council”.

I accepted the characterization of the Commission as an advisory council based upon the Sunday Recorder Editorial that is mentioned in my prior post here. Based upon the Charter, I do not see where the role of the Commission is advisory but rather it is a strong operational role in the management of the course. Per the Charter, the Council’s role falls under this:

E. The Common Council reserves the authority to enter into agreements for the use of facilities, such as concessions and restaurant, at said golf course.

Given the need for the Council’s approval on the pro contract, I believe the requirement rests under this clause.

As far as my statement of “when executive and legislative oversight is passed to a non-elected advisory council“, I believe my statement still stands given that this contract wrests authority formerly granted to the mayor back to the commission and cedes legislative oversight given the sentiment of approving agreements “regardless of the contract” by the council.

What’s baffling, or better yet most troubling,  to me is that the charter details no oversight requirements, no reporting requirements and no financial requirements for the Commission to the Council or Mayor. I have no financials upon which to comment or analyze so let me present a plausible hypothetical. Let’s say the operations for the course run in the red for the year. Who picks up the tab? If we have large capital projects “looming” (using Mayor Thane’s word), how do we assure the sound management and financing of such initiatives given the lack of oversight and given the laissez-faire approach of the council?

Contracts matter so if the only way to pry into the operations especially the financial operations of the course is via a single clause in a contract, then it should matter that some level of oversight remains in place regardless of how limited it may be. And it is indeed limited.

I appreciate the forward of the Charter and I’m thinking the Charter needs some retooling.

Dream Weaver Says:
December 4, 2008 at 2:24 am e

“We should care when executive and legislative oversight is passed to a non-elected advisory council”

But the Golf Commission is not an advisory council.

From the city charter (see http://ecode360.com/?custId=AM0234):

Section 28-3:

“A. It shall be the duty of the Commission to organize, manage, operate, maintain and govern said golf course and appurtenances.

B. The Commission shall have full authority to manage, maintain and operate said golf course and appurtenances, to establish proper fees for the use of the golf course by players and to do such necessary things and adopt such rules and regulations applying to the use of such golf course as may be necessary for its proper operation, maintenance and protection.

C. All revenues thus received from operation shall be deposited with the Controller of the City of Amsterdam, who shall maintain a separate account of such revenues.

D. Purchases made by the Commission shall be made in like manner as other purchases made by the City of Amsterdam. All money expended incidental to the management, maintenance and operation of the golf course shall be made upon submission of proper vouchers or claims, signed by the Chairman of the Commission, approved by the Director of Recreation and after audit by the Common Council in accordance with the provisions of the City Charter, all such expenditures and all such payments shall be chargeable to and payable from the fund and account maintained by the City Controller for this purpose.

E. The Common Council reserves the authority to enter into agreements for the use of facilities, such as concessions and restaurant, at said golf course.

F. Purchases of capital items shall be done by the Common Council upon recommendation of the Commission and within budgetary appropriations.

G. The consent and approval of the Director of Recreation shall be noted on all appropriations for operational functions prior to any commitment made therefor.”

Note the above under “G” – it could be that the Golf Pro’s contract was not properly before the council or, if it was, approval of the contract may still be needed by the Director of Recreation – who reports to the Mayor.