Featuring the Number 3

I love the Number 3 bus line. The Number 3 provides a glimpse of the cultural and economic diversity of Albany's neighborhoods; connecting Arbor Hill, Pine Hills, Park South, Center Square and Mansion Hill all for the price of a bus fare. This little loop of a bus line goes up Clinton Avenue from the Palace Theatre to Quail Street, across Quail Street to Madison Avenue, down Madison Avenue all the way to Grand Street for a mini tour of Grand Street, then across Pearl Street back to the Palace. The line also runs in the opposite direction, but on a slightly different route Monday through Friday until about 6 p.m.

Unfortunately, like so many CDTA lines, it does not operate on Sundays at all.

Catch a Number 3, and it will take you many places in the City of Albany -- some functional, some fun including financial institutions, museums, churches, laundromats, a whole bunch of restaurants, a huge art collection and quite a few performing arts venues.

For instance, the stretch along Clinton Avenue gets passengers within four blocks of:

• Federal Building
  
• Family Court
• Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center
  
• United Tenants Association
  
• Ten Broeck Mansion
  
• the building on Orange Street that houses Capital District Community Loan Fund Affordable Housing Partnership, and the Albany Community Land Trust
  
• Salvation Army
  
• SEFCU
  
• Way too many abandoned buildings.

While the stretch along Quail Street gets passengers to:

• The Linda
• Last Vestige Music
• Mr. Pio Pio
• Mild Wally's
• Mary Jane Books
• Pepper Jacks
• Many blocks in need of a neighborhood clean-up
  

And along Madison Avenue, passengers can easily get to:

• Washington Park
• Scratch
• Debbie's Kitchen
• Albany Art Room
• NYS Museum
• Tandoor Palace
• Price Chopper (a couple of blocks down Delaware)
  
• Empire State Plaza Art Collection
• Grand Street Community Arts
• Lincoln Park and Lincoln Park Pool (just behind the NYS Museum)
• The Governor's Mansion
  

Finally, the Grand Street and Pearl Street stretch connects folks to:

• Cafe Capriccio
• The TU Center
• A lot more restaurants
• Cap Rep
• Melville's Mug
  
• More banks than you ever thought were necessary
  

Unlike 14 other bus lines that stop at the Albany bus hub -- Washington Avenue and Lark Street, the Number 3 doesn't utilize Washington Avenue at all, yet you can still transfer to all of the lines that stop at the Washington-Lark hub down on Pearl or State Street.

I highly recommend buying a $3 Day Card on your next day off and spending the day hopping on and off the Number 3 line.

May "To Do" List

May is a great month to appreciate and take steps to improve our quality of life! Below are just a few things to do in (or just outside of) the City of Albany during in the beautiful month of May.

• Support our schools. Support our libraries. If you live in Albany and are not registered to vote, REGISTER NOW. If you know people who aren't registered to vote, do a good deed and get them registered immediately! Residents have until May 6 to be registered at their current addresses, and be eligible to VOTE in the May 20 Albany School Budget vote and Albany Public Library Trustee and Budget Vote.
• Buy some furniture, have some fun, and help our libraries. Attend the May 7 auction at the Howe Branch at 6:00 p.m., and the May 14 auction at the Pine Hills Branch at 6:00 p.m. Lots of information here.
• Ride your bike! May is National Bike Month. In honor of Bike Month, I fixed my link to the Albany Bicycle Coalition on the sidebar of this blog. I need to get a bike, and a helmet. And a fellow blogger sent me this interesting article about bike sharing in D.C.!
• GET YOURSELF TO A FESTIVAL

1. UPDATE: POSTPONED UNTIL RAIN DATE: May 17 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. New Scotland Avenue Spring Spree brought to you by the Helderberg & New Scotland/ Woodlawn Neighborhood Associations. To participate: visit an Information Table in front of Anthology Florist or Isn't it Sweet! (Activities include: face painting, sidewalk chalk art contest, the Big Purple Bookmobile, Children's Art Show, Pet Adoption Workshop, Folk Dancing, and more!)
2. 60th Albany Tulip Festival - May 9-11. Washington Park, Albany. And if you're looking to be a super team player and volunteer, let Beth know now, you can also call her at: 434-5411.
   
3. 2008 St. Sophia Greek Festival, May 16-18.

• ATTEND A CONCERT-- concerts in Albany for all kinds of tastes and price ranges. Here are just a few:

1. Look up concerts here or here
2. Go to the mall and hear a great town band! Colonie Town Band plays Colonie Center, Monday May 5, 7:30 p.m.
   
3. Ron Eliran plays Temple Israel at Albany's celebration of Israel's 60th birthday on May 8th at 7:00 p.m.
4. The Albany Symphony closes their season with this Choral Spectacular that includes special guests and is sponsored by Bea and Bob Herman on May 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Palace Theatre.

• GO FOR A RUN!

1. Albany YMCA 5K Run and Walk - Sunday, May 4 - 9:00 a.m.
2. If you're a woman, join my daughter and me on May 31 at 9:15 for the 30th Freihofer's Run for Women.

• TELL US ABOUT OTHER GREAT THINGS I FORGOT TO MENTION IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THIS POST!
  

Who will be impacted by a Fare Hike?

I wasn't surprised to see this story in the TU. According to the article, CDTA hasn't raised their fares since 1995 -- wow! Of course, they restructured the fares not so long ago when they phased out oh-so-20th-century transfers in favor of the very cool $3 day cards. Apparently the revenue earned from that change isn't enough to cover increasing costs and demand for service.

Too bad it's not looking like service will be expanding soon, because there sure is a need. One recent Sunday evening at about 7:20, I was waiting for a bus by the
View Larger Map'>Hannaford on Central Avenue. As usual, I had given myself very little wiggle room, and I was supposed to be at my daughter's friend's house off of New Scotland Avenue near the intersection of View Larger Map'>Ontario St. and New Scotland Avenue by 8:00. The bus was late. I must say, I've found late buses to be unusual during my travels around Albany. Not that it doesn't happen -- it does. Finally, at about 7:35, a 55 came chugging down Central Avenue, I wasn't expecting a 1 since after 6:40 p.m. on Sundays, it's almost 5 hours before another bus is scheduled to get to the Northway Mall stop at 11:20!

The bus was PACKED.

I got on, but there was no room behind the "yellow" line. The bus just sat there. Those of us who had boarded at Hannaford were trying to squeeze in. Now, where I come from -- this is not an issue, as one of my fellow new passengers and I were telling the people, "I'm from New York, there's plenty of room." You see, in NYC, there's an understanding that sometimes you need to "make like sardines in a can and squish together", it's only temporary, and it will get you where you need to go. That's not the philosophy, however as you travel north along the Hudson. People on the bus started yelling at us, "Get off the bus, I need to go home!" I asked if the bus was always this crowded, simultaneously, I got 2 opposing answers. "No," said the bus driver, "Not my bus!" and "Yes," from a bus rider...I turned to the bus driver (who looked a wee bit stressed), and asked if I should get off the bus. She explained to me that, at this point the issue was that she couldn't leave the bus stop while there was a person in a wheel chair waiting to get on.

Yes, that's right. There was a woman in a wheel chair who had been waiting for the bus, but there was absolutely no room for her. The bus is not allowed to pull away while there's a wheel-chair bound person waiting to board. So the driver had called her supervisor and was waiting for instructions. That's why the bus wasn't moving. I asked if CDTA would send a STAR bus for her, the driver said that she didn't think so, but didn't know.

Feeling guilty about trying to squeeze myself onto the bus while someone waited in her wheel chair on the sidewalk, I got off, called to say I'd be a bit late, and waited on the sidewalk to see what happened. It wasn't too long before a supervisor showed up and told the bus driver to leave. It was already after 7:40 and another bus would be along "soon" to pick up the woman in the wheelchair. Soon, according to the schedule, meant departing Northway Mall at 8:03. Given that the bus that departs Northway Mall at 8:03 was scheduled to reach Central and Allen at 8:11 --it seemed to me that I'd be more productive walking. Since my friend in the wheel chair had the attention of the CDTA supervisor, I decided to get walking.

It was 8:06 when I got to the corner of View Larger Map'>Central Avenue and Ontario Street and turned to walk towards New Scotland Avenue. If I had waited for the bus... I'd still have been waiting for the bus! Saved time. Got some exercise. I hope that supervisor made sure my friend boarded the next bus, or gave her a ride if there wasn't room.

Wild Flowers brought to you by CDTA

I read in the newspaper today that we can all ride the bus for free on Earth Day.

Good promotion. Good marketing. Good for the earth.

Pick up a pass at one of the locations listed here ... while supplies last.

I called the CDTA information line listed in the article to ask about the promotion. It sounded like I was my operator's first caller asking about this subject. Hopefully, I'm not the only. She had the information at her fingertips and shared it well, though -- she had no idea what the "DABID" was. I gave her the 411, and she was thankful. A trained employee will take you far.

When you're done with your pass, don't forget to plant it or donate it to Capital District Community Gardens.

CDTA Needs More Consistent Service on Number 13 Route

Yesterday, I had an appointment at the doctor's office here. The bus goes into the parking lot, sometimes. But, not all times. The stop is called Mercycare on the bus schedule, the bus system and Trip Planner even though the name of the building is Slingerlands Medical Arts. Once upon a time, I believe there was a building there called Mercycare, and I think it was affiliated with St. Peter's Hospital. But, that's about as relevant to the average CDTA bus rider today as what the bus fare was in 1990. What's relevant now is that it's confusing to have a stop named Mercycare throughout your system, but no building at the location with such a name. A pet peeve of mine that I've called CDTA about, to no avail.

Yesterday, I missed the bus that goes into the parking lot at 1240 New Scotland Road, otherwise known as Slingerlands Medical Arts. I probably missed the bus because I was sitting at my computer for too long ending my short-lived love affair with CDTA's Trip Planner .

I took the next bus, the bus that doesn't go into the parking lot and I had to get off here. Hopefully you can manipulate the view to see that there is a sidewalk to cross the bridge, and then that's it-- the sidewalk ends. Just the side of the road where you hope the cars won't cross that white line. There are signs posted with a speed limit of 30 mph, but I didn't sense a single car whizzing by me at such a speed. It was dangerous, yet I made it to the office without injury.

When I was finished with my doctor's appointment, I had a choice, I could do the safe thing and wait about an hour in the parking lot for the next bus, or walk back out to the bus stop, and only wait about 10 minutes. Would you like to guess which option I chose?

When I made my way to the stop heading back into Albany, there was a bus on the other side of New Scotland Road, someone getting out at the same stop that I had used a little while before -- obviously, he also missed the bus that goes into the parking lot. The passenger was taking a long time getting off the bus, cars were lining up behind the bus, and I was watching, wondering what was going on. When he finally got off the bus, I understood what took so long. He had a limp and a cane... and he crossed over to my side of the street-- very slowly. I think my heart skipped a beat watching him, I was quite worried about him making it across the road, worrying that a driver of a car behind the bus might be getting impatient and decide to gun it. He crossed the street without incident and he hobbled off down the dangerous road towards the doctor's office. The road with no sidewalk, holding his cane. A few moments later, a good Samaritan noticed him hobbling, turned his car around, and gave the man a ride to his appointment. I know this because that same good Samaritan drove up to me when he finished good deed number one to see if I wanted a ride. I graciously declined since the Number 13 bus was right behind his car, and I'd have another opportunity to be sure I milk my $44 per month for every penny it's worth.

I do wonder if it's time to re-route all Number 13 buses into the Slingerlands Medical Arts Building parking lot.

The Drive to drive

I LOVE driving. I've always loved it. Short drives, long drives, country road drives, maneuvering through a city, heck, I even enjoy parallel parking on the left side of a one-way street. I think there are only two kinds of driving I don't like (i) sitting in a traffic jam and (ii) wandering around a city I'm not familiar with... lost. Overall, I'm in a special groove when I'm behind the wheel. I'm seemingly in control of my destiny... or at least my destination.

So, why did I stop doing it on a regular basis?

In the short term, economics.

In the long run, a lesson for my kid -- a challenge for myself. A healthy dose of self-torture. And doing my little part for the environment, of course.

Some Disparaties in Shopping

I do love my shopping cart, but it's been out of commission lately




















thanks to the icy sidewalks like this one.
It's been a little easier to shop lightly with a back pack and a couple of canvass shoulder bags than to risk balancing on the ice while pulling the cart along behind me. With today's rain melting away the ice, I could be bringing the cart out for a trip this weekend.

Usually, when it's time to go the store, I head to the food co-op, one of the Price Choppers or Hannaford, but the other day, a friend of mine was taking her mini van to go grocery shopping and asked if I'd like to join her. I thought about the near-luxury of buying a jumbo pack of paper towels and perhaps some laundry detergent and having it driven right to my front door, and I didn't hesitate to take her up on the offer. When I got in the car, she asked if I'd like to go to the Price Chopper on Central or the one in Slingerlands. Decisions, decisions. We went for Slingerlands, and BOY what a difference -- what good service they've got in the suburbs -- we were astonished.

There were two major points of exceptional service that we both noticed.

1. Upon walking up to the store's entrance, a Price Chopper employee in charge of carts was wheeling back a number of carts from the parking lot, and putting them into the location for shoppers to use. The employee saw us coming, pulled us each out a shopping cart, checked the cart for debris and removed the debris from the carts, then handed us each a cart. Wow. Here in Albany -- this just doesn't happen.
   
2. During checkout they have quite a system of packing. Each cash register station must start off their day with an extra cart. So, when your items are being bagged, you don't have to wheel your cart to the front of the cashier to be loaded with your bags because they already have a cart there ready to go. It's a little thing, yes -- but the system is what's noticeable. I really noticed a team spirit among the people I saw working there. Granted, I have seen this type of packing before -- but NEVER at a Price Chopper or Hannaford in the city of Albany (and it wouldn't happen at the co-op because there just isn't room...yet.)

Of course, the store was also more brightly lit and much cleaner than the stores we have here in the city.

Why is it that folks in the suburbs are treated to brightly lit stores with better service than those of us who reside in the city?

Well, I had fun on my outing, but I'm not moving out of this pretty city any time soon. Of course, the Number 13 bus does go to the Slingerlands Price Chopper, so I could return on my own, and bring my shopping cart along for the ride!