City must protect architectural legacy
One of my favorite things about the city of Schenectady has always been its rich architectural history and how that has evolved through time.
Neighborhoods that were historically built for GE workers, whether white- or blue collar, were thoughtfully designed and crafted for their owners.
In downtown, your institutional buildings were designed by some of the most influential architects in American history, including McKim, Mead & White, and Schenectady’s own Feibes & Schmitt’s mid-century modern and sculptural designs are considered to be among the most important in New York state history.
Even more modern additions by Michael Roman and JT Pollard retain great interest and remain appropriate to the aging cityscape.
Please tell me then how the lifeless box dropped on the corner of State and Clinton on the site of the old Albany Savings Bank was ever allowed to become a part of this story?
The façade looks to have been built with materials I wouldn’t use to build a doghouse and appears to be falling apart already before the building is even commissioned.
I don’t blame a developer. I blame a planning board for allowing it.
Shame on the city of Schenectady for not realizing the importance, positive or negative, of a building. If this is progress, you can keep it.
Jeremy Douglas
West Charlton
SPAC crew outfits disrespect women
I attended a recent concert at SPAC, and as most times, I parked on the Route 50 side using the cross bridge to enter.
Upon entering the parking lot, there is now a $10 fee that was implemented the year of SPAC’s 50th anniversary (Thank you, Live Nation.) The parking lot attendants were young ladies who appeared to be around the age of 16-18 years old and were all dressed in bright red shirts and inappropriately short shorts.
This was shameful and disrespectful to these young women.
I did ask one attendant if this was a required dress code and she replied “Yes, it is.” It is shameful that Live Nation requires these female employees to dress in this manner. It is 2022 and I will pay the $10 parking fee. But Live Nation needs to stop the disrespect of young women.
Robert Thorpe
Galway
Liberal media needs to get more balance
If you have listened to or read most news media outlets over the last week, including The Gazette, Times Union and the Associated Press — all left wing biased — you would think that U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin was assaulted with a relatively harmless keychain.
Monroe County sheriffs went along with that bias when the assailant was only charged with attempted assault and promptly released without bail.
Objections by Republicans and conservatives have been portrayed by the likes of John Figliozzi’s (see his comments in the July 24 Gazette “Compared with the Tories, GOP is falling short”) as showing how unprincipled we are.
This “keychain” is actually a deadly self-defense weapon as described on Google: “at first glance (the self-defense cat keychain) looks harmless. It is actually used as a deadly self-defense weapon. It is known as a plastic knuckle duster, falling under the umbrella of brass knuckles. They are illegal in California.”
Beware of the media you listen to and read. The bias is shocking. If you start looking for it, you will see it.
Start to think for yourself. The Gazette and TU could do all of us a favor by printing columns that feature conservative and moderate Republican columnists. You must consider alternative points of view to truly understand an issue.
Claudina Ashelman
Saratoga Springs
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Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion
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Well said Ms. Ashelman. Extreme left or right biased ‘news’ reporting, many times outright lying, editing of video and sound clips, and omission of very pertinent facts is exactly why our country is in the mess it is in. Factual, un-biased reporting, I would think, would be a non negotiable tenet of a responsible news writer. However, their college brainwashing re extreme left wing views and horror of appearing politically incorrect are apparently much more important than unbiased truth. Certain reporters writing for this very paper are quite guilty of this, and to be fair, certain reporters are not. It needs to stop. Editors, who are ultimately responsible for the public face of their respective newspapers, should be dismissed for allowing biased ‘news’ stories to be printed. Facts need to be reported with no bias. Good luck to me on that one.
So, here you dump on the supposed biased media (and a lot of it is, especially rightwing, what used to be known as “conservative”) and have all manner of demands on them. But elsewhere you blame the voters for the state of politics and have demands for smarter voters.
Maybe for the sake of consistency you should be pushing readers to learn better critical thinking skills. 1st Amendment and freedom of the press and all that, right? Maybe many just need to be able to better discern truth from fiction, and get their information from multiple sources, instead of staying locked on Fox (or OANN, or NewsMax, or Facebook) 24×7.
I remember when Walter Cronkite just read the news with zero bias. Back then before this blatant left-wing liberalism, we were read the news and able to form our own opinion. Now the left believes that we are too smart to form an opinion that supports them so they lie, and edit photos and videos. Remember Kyle Rittenhouse and The Covington kids?
Nick Sandmann: “A federal judge struck the cases filed by Sandmann against The New York Times, CBS News, ABC News, NBC Universal Media, Rolling Stone, and Gannett”-Business Insider, 7/28/2022 Walter Cronkite did opinion pieces as well, as did Edward R. Murrow, and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. You’re exhibiting left wing derangement syndrome if everyone who disagrees with you is a leftwing fanatic. You people are even accusing Republicans calling you to be leftwing extremists. You’re not making any sense. (Does that concern you at all? I’m not sure…)
Huntley had some interesting things to say about journalistic objectivity back in 1970:youtu.be/-ViBf2Riqqo
Ms. Ashelman, I am so glad you wrote that letter. As a matter of fact I wrote a draft on the same topic that I was going to submit. My main point was going to be about the lies, disinformation, and misinformation being spewed by the so-called main stream media including and especially this newspaper’s main national news source the AP.Thank you for your courage.
Ms. Ashelman, I find it interesting that you stated a “fact”, that Rep. Zeldin’s attacker was released without bail, in your letter on page C6, while a story on page C3 clearly states that he is still in jail. I know how you made this totally factual error. Zeldin’s used this episode to revise a conservative negative talking point about bail reform. Your statement was just plain old hogwash that you either got from Zeldin’s remark, social media or some disreputable news outlet. Yet you stated it as a fact. You decry an item in the paper by John Figliozzi as an example of media bias when it was clearly an opinion piece. If you read the front page above the fold of the today’s paper, you will see a piece that is unflattering to the current President. We are all entitled to our opinions, but kindly get the FACTS straight.
Another uncomfortable fact that’s been underreported is that the DA for Monroe County is also Zeldin’s campaign co-chair (predictably she denies actually doing anything and claims she recused herself), but where do you think the intial charge originated? The Monroe County Sheriff who, as most know, must keep an unhealthy close relationship with the DA.And how convenient that it enables Zeldin to make hay out of the bail reform Republicans have fixated on. It wasn’t until the feds stepped in and applied federal charges that he was remanded to jail, pending a detention hearing.
She stated total fact, he was released under the no-bail law but because Zeldin is a Congressman the feds stepped in and arrested him. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
I submitted a comment yesterday that adds facts to this story; that the DA of Monroe County where this occurred, is also co-chair of Zeldin’s campaign. Numerous news sources point this out in cluding the Albany one. And this tripe from Mr. Parker was apparently “chosen” for posting. “Liberalism is a mental disorder”? Seriously?
I’m certainly not going to stoop to accusations of bias, I see posts from myself and other known liberals and progressives showing up, but I know I’ve posted other commnets recently that never show up (despite email notification that “your comment has been successfully posted”).
When your selection process for comments is so opaque, one can’t help wonder what the story is there.