Regional description
The
Capital District, or Region, is the unknown heart of New York State, with New
York City stealing the spotlight. The
Capital District includes New York States Capital city, Albany, which is a
place for not only politics, but for entertainment with the Times Union Center at the
center of all of the action. But let’s not forget about the always-exciting
Saratoga down town nightlife, which is something everyone needs to experience
at least once. There is, of
course, more to the Capital District than Albany and Saratoga, like part of
Lake George. There are plenty of wonderful cities surrounded by beautiful
landscapes that make the Capital district a great area to work, live and enjoy.
There is an issue, however, concerning
what counties make up the Capital District. The dispute seems to be about where the Southern, Western,
and Northern edges of the Capital District are, with the Eastern edge being
decided by the Vermont boarder. Do you include Warren, Fulton, Montgomery,
Schoharie, Greene and Columbia County? The counties that seem to be in every
Capital District map, being Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Saratoga
Counties, are automatically included in this region without question.
Going
to the Capital District Regional Office, on the Empire State Development
website, help end that dilemma.
Their area includes the counties of Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga,
Rensselaer, Warren, Washington, Greene and Columbia.
Now,
lets go into some quick fire facts about the Capital District. According to the Empire State
Development Website, the area covered by the Capital District is about 5,332.97
Square miles and its population, in 2009, was 1,065,402 people. The average annual labor force and per
capita income were 568,600 and $28,644 respectively.
According
to the Blueprint Blog the Capital Regions demographics, in 2008, are as
follows: Whites equal about 91.7%, Blacks equal about 4.7%, Native Americans
equals about 0.2%, Asian equals about 1.2%, Hispanic/Latino equals about 2.5%,
and other equals about 0.9%. The
median age for this area was giving 38.1.
For
education, the percent with a High School diploma or a GED were 83.5% and the
percent with at least a Bachelor’s Degree were 28.3%. Those numbers were for people whose age was 25 years old or
older.
There are many
notable features about this region, which includes history, interesting facts,
and other things that might be of interest. Some of the most notable history of
this region can be tied back to a turning point in the American Revolution and
that being at the battle at the Saratoga
Battlefield. Another couple of interesting historical events that happened
first in this region includes America’s first railroad, America’s first female
labor union, called the Collar Laundry Union, and America’s first radio
broadcast, which happened at Union College (“About the Region,” Cultural
Blueprints). There is a lot more on the notable features of this region and
those can be found at the Cultural
Blueprints website, if interest in more about this region.
This region is
unique in what it offers in every aspect of ones life. It has something for everyone, booming
cities full of life, rural areas with breath taking views, and everything in
between. It is a place that has
everything one may need in a comfortable driving distance and with some of the
counties being located so close to Vermont, you could stop over the boarder to
get ten to twenty cents off gas, if you deem it worth the quick detour. If only we could do something about the
winter, well it seems that could be true of every place in New York, but it still
seems to be something worth wish for.
Annotated Environmental links
The first thing that
came up in searching about the Capital District environment was about the Save The Pine
Bush. The Pine Bush is located
between Albany and Schenectady, New York.
Apparently there are people who want to use some of the Pine Bush
preserve for a landfill
and others who want to save the Pine Bush as it is today.
In the Times Union newspaper there was an article that has to do with a very controversial topic, hydorfracking in the Albany region. This article talks about the millions of dollars spent on advertising and other activities by energy companies wanting to drill for natural gas via hydrofracking. It also talks about how local groups, who are not so well funded as energy companies, are fighting back by warning communities about the dangers of hydrofracking.
A very interesting website that came up during
this search was a website of Naturalist cartoons by Don Rittner and Raoul
Vezina. This website
only has one page but it has cartoons that reflect environmental topics in the
Albany area. The headline at the
top of the page is “Capital District Issues!” and all of the cartoons are for
different things, like the Pine Bush.
One of the more interesting websites that has
to do with the New York State and the environment is a website devoted to the
historical records of environmental activism. The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and
Archives put together, with the help of New York State Archives'
Documentary History Project, put together an Environmental
History Documentation Project. It has stuff on the Crossgates
Regional shopping mall and other locations in the Capital District.
This next group CRAAB, or the Capital Region
Action Against Breast Cancer, is a community based, non-profit organization
trying to bring support to those women fighting breast cancer. They also offer educational programs on topics such as
primary prevention of cancer, environmental links to cancer, potential risk
reduction through nutrition and exercise, and the genetic factors of the
disease, which they all offer for free.
Annotated Economic links
The first thing that was found in the research
on the Capital Region economy brought up the Capital Region
Economic Development Council website.
This one website has everything that the Capital Region is planning to
do to improve the area to provide better educational opportunities, better
growth opportunities, as well as a better environment that might attract
businesses to stay with in or move to the Capital Region. Also on this website
there was a hyperlink to this video
that describes the total plan that the Capital Region has for itself.
The major thing that the Capital Region is
trying to do, which was also located on the website hyperlinked above, was
their 5-year plan. Here is the link
that shows that whole plan in a very long 88 page strategic plan for the plan.
The next thing found about the Economy of the
Capital District was a newspaper article from the TimesUnion,
a local newspaper for the Capital Region.
It talks about a turnaround or some light at the end of the tunnel of
economic troubles. The article
talks about how there is a rise in the local housing market and the jobs market. The article says that those numbers
haven’t been that good since 2008 when the whole economic crisis started.
The next website that came up was on that had a
bunch of charts and data on different aspects of the economy in the Capital
Region. It is a link off of the Capital District Regional Planning
Commission. Here is the link to the Capital District Regional Planning Commissions collection of economic data. There is a lot of information that could be very helpful for
anyone wanting to research economic indicators of the Capital Region.
Another website that was discovered during the
research for this assignment was the Capital Region Local First
website. It is a website that gives
a voice to local owned businesses, with some resources that people may find
useful, like some job listings. It
is a website devoted to trying to get people from the Capital Region to Think
Local First, instead of thinking about other areas of New York.
Annotated Social links
There are many social issues out
there in the world and there is a need for places for people to try to change
or improve their lives because of social issues. The Capital District is no different in the
fact that they want to help by having those places. A socially responsible place that the Capital
District is the YMCA. The YMCA is a place for everyone to be active
not only in their community but also active in that it is also a place of
activity to help your body feel better or get better.
Still sticking with the social
responsible places in the Capital District and discovered a website for AFCR, or Adoptive Families of
the Capital Region Inc. This group of
people is there to help families actively looking to adopt a child in the Capital
Region. They offer social get-together’s
in order for families and children alike to get in one place and try to make
bonding connections. It seems to be a
great website for people who are looking to adoption to grow their family.
A lot of social issues occur around
the youth of the world. They are the
ones who have a world that has a lot of pitfalls and many escape to try to help
the out of those pitfalls should they fall in.
On this topic, there came up a paper on the youth of the Capital Region
called, “Understanding the Youth in the Capital Region.” This paper
goes in-depth about the youth ages 12-24 and what they may be going through as
well as how one might go about helping them out if a youth has fallen on hard
times. This paper primarily focuses on the physical and mental health of the
youth in the Capital Region.
Today a big social issue surrounds
the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender population. With all of the talk about gay marriage today,
with President Obama coming out and saying he is for gay and lesbian marriage,
there is an opportunity for people on this subject to get their voice
heard. For the Capital District there is
Rainbow Access Initiative,
Inc. that is trying to establish a Medical clinic in Albany for the lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population there. The President of this association,
Chad Putnum, is very focused on this and other issues for the LBGT group.
The last thing that stood out that
had to do with social issues and the Capital District was this political
movement for the Libertarian
Party , whose tag line is “Get Liberated! - Not Regulated.” It seems to be a party completely against the
Capital District government, well at least finds that the government has had
many more failures than successes. This could
be of interest for both people looking into getting into the Libertarian party
and those looking to see what that party, locally, is up to.
