Thank you Joe Allen

For the last eight years or so, my wife Pat Davidsen was President of the College Park Neighborhood Association, and on many occasions had discussions with members of the Schenectady City Council about both the issues of the association and other city policies of interest to taxpayers. She had strong opinions about many of the members of the council, which she shared with those council members on occasion when she felt that one or another of them was not putting the best interests of the residents first in their decision making.

She passed away recently, and perhaps she was not as outspoken with the council members who did do a good job, who did return phone calls, and who did make an effort to listen to arguments opposing the direction of the city policy. Councilman Joe Allen is retiring after this council term, and I would just like to say that if she never told you in person that she approved of the way you served, let me say it for her, thank you Joe Allen, and have a pleasant retirement.

Have a beer with Chuck

Sen Chuck Schumer has recently been talking a lot about craft beer in New York State. As he points out, the 75 or so New York microbreweries employ 59000 people in the state, and generate $1 billion in taxes, state and local. Sen Schumer is urging retail outlets, both bars and retailers selling for home consumption, to carry more craft beers. He notes that in Oregon small brewers represent about a third of the market while in New York they are under 10%.

What's a craft beer? Is it the same as a microbrew?

In general a craft brew is made to have a particular taste, color, aroma, and overall impression. The brewer is making a beer in which he (or she) takes pride, and price is not the determining factor, buyers of craft beers generally are willing to pay for good beer. Just as wines vary a lot in price, craft beer might cost $10-15 for a six pack, and $10-20-up for a 22oz bottle. You can still buy 32 cans of swill for $15 at the big box stores, so clearly craft beers sell to the type of person who buys a fine wine instead of gallon bottles of "what's on sale?" wine. Because craft beers have a distinctive style, which leads people to strongly like or dislike them, but differentiates one from the other gaining customer loyalty but limiting the number of potential customers. Sad to say, many of the national brews are enough alike that they are hard to tell apart without a label.

The term microbrewery properly should be used for very small brewing operations, while craft brewing is possible at larger scale, as long as the quality drives the price and not the other way around. The Saranac label within Matt brewing behaves like a craft brewer in many ways, releasing "brewer's choice" small batches, seasonal brews, and occasionally a brew made in very small quantity with a special brewing method and distributed only locally. Other brewers, like Harpoon and Samuel Adams also have similar small batch offerings, keeping the "craft" in the brewing even though their operations are no longer "micro" in volume.

Where do you buy craft beers?

In the Capital District it's not hard to find craft beer, in addition to a number of brew pubs where the brewing takes place on premises, and pubs which own a brewery (Brown's Brewing in Troy comes to mind), beverage centers like Glenville Beverage in Scotia, Oliver's in Albany, and the rest of the "Brew Crew" stores, the three major regional markets carry a selection of craft beers in bottles.

Many brews are sold in "growlers," half gallon or gallon containers which are filled with fresh draft beer from a keg and taken home. Others carry beer in bottles, usually the traditional 16oz or 22oz size, and good brews are now available in cans. Unlike mass market canned beers, craft beer in cans usually has a distinct style, meaning that it is far from the mass market brands which have a style of "cold, foamy, contains alcohol." Craft beer provoke a strong reaction in most people, instant like or dislike. That promotes consumer loyalty, not trying to please everyone. One canned brew, Dale's Pale Ale, was picked in a NY Times poll as the best Pale Ale of the year.

Suggestion for the state legislature: Sen Schumer is correct, this is a growing part of the state economy, and should be encouraged. Things which traditionally help very small businesses include tax breaks, seed money in grants and/or loans, and publicity.

Some low budget helps to craft brewing:

• low/no interest loans for capital expense and expansion. Limit the loans to 50% of the cost to identify the entrepreneurs who can manage to raise the rest of the capital themselves.
• No sales tax on equipment purchased to do the actual brewing.
• A state craft brewing website listing retailers who have some minimum display space for NY state brewed beers. Provide window and shelf signs retailers can use to draw attention to their NY brewing affiliation.
• A state owned trademark our brewers can add to their label, packaging, and advertizing to allow customers to easily identify NY brews.

I would love to see some politician or party pick up on this with elections coming and job creation a hot topic.

Final note: I have used the term "beer" loosely here, to include all fermented beverages. Distinctions of beer vs. ale, barleywine, lambec, mead, and other beverages were left out for clarity. There are other articles online which are precise and pedantic, if someone wishes to learn more. The topic here is the economic benefit, with just enough context to help casual readers.

A difference in outlook between papers

Being a "news junkie" I get both the Schenectady Gazette and the Albany Times-Union every day. I was interested in the handling of the story on the death of North Korea's Kim Jung Il. The Gazette had the story on page one, right edge, with a color photo of the late leader. I thought that was about right, a change in leadership of a major nuclear anti-American nation is going to cause uncertainty in the region, and certainly given the number of cars and other goods we get from Korea and Japan any possible disruptions in that area could cause economic disruption locally on some scale.

The Times-Union gave about an inch of coverage on the front page in the "Other News" listings on the fold edge of the page, about half of which was occupied by a picture of a woman dancing around a Christmas tree. The actual news coverage was inside, and was also just a reprint of the same wire service story which appeared in the Gazette.

Same story, but very different treatment. It certainly shows differences in production policies, and as the son of a newspaperman I probably find it more interesting that the average reader.

Recalls, member cards, and Privacy vs. Safety

I got an email from Hannaford today, advising me that there was a recall on hamburger. After I texted my kids to alert them, I started thinking about food safety vs. privacy for the consumer, and the policies of local markets. I also noted that I had the recalled meat in burritos last night, and took a quick mental inventory of how I felt, and concluded that other than having eaten far too much last night I had no symptoms. This may be because I always cook hamburger very thoroughly although I like my steak rare.

While Price-Chopper and Shop-Rite use a customer card system for discounts and other benefits and got my telephone number and an email address when I got the card, Hannaford doesn't, and I have no idea where they got my email address unless it came from a customer comment card. In any case they don't swipe with every sale, so I don't see how they knew I bought that meat. I suspect they notified everyone they could. Score one for being careful to let customers know, and another for not keeping a record of every purchase I make.

So the other two major chains can (and presumably do) track my shopping habits, I'm not really happy about that, but I accept the loss of privacy in return for convenience and savings. Neither market sends me advertising email, and if they tailor their coupons sent by USPS to match my shopping habits, I appreciate the effort but in many cases a waste of postage and doesn't match my shopping preferences. I know Price-Chopper has occasionally recalled products I buy, they haven't mailed me, but that doesn't disturb me either, they are respecting my choice on email.

It would probably be a good thing if retailers who track purchases were required to remind the customer once a year that tracking is being done, for as long as the consumer is reminded that he has made a choice he can match it with his privacy requirements. It's important to understand that privacy is no longer the default today, and to be aware that if privacy is important to you it will take a little effort and thought.

The Nanny State is trying to strike again

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is recommending that states ban all use of cell phones and other hand held devices while driving, including hands free operation. This is largely due to an accident in which a pickup slammed into the back of a large truck, and the driver had sent ten or so texts in the past few minutes. Then not one but two school buses full of kids crashed into the back of the pickup. Several people were killed, many were injured.

The NTSB recommendations seem to be an overreaction coupled with questionable evaluation of the causes of the accident and some really odd exceptions added for unknown reasons. Let's look at why I think that, bearing in mind that I have only news reports for data.

What part did texting play?

Assuming that the pickup driver sending a text a minute or so was distracted seems to be reasonable. But it appears that the bus which then hit the pickup so hard it rode right over the top of the pickup and ended up on top of the semi must have been tailgating, and as my mother used to say "going like the clappers of Hell." And the second school bus which ran into the back of the first at the very least was following far too closely. So while texting by the pickup driver could be assumed to have contributed to the initial accident, and he might or might not have survived hitting the back of the larger truck, the two school buses involvement was unrelated to texting, based on all reports.

Strange recommendations

I fully support banning texting while driving, as well as any other activity which takes the hands and attention off the road (I'm talking to you, guy with the shaver in one hand looking at yourself in the mirror on the back of your sun visor). The NTSB would ban the use of all cell phones, including hands free phones, unless they are built into the car. Why is a phone built into the car any less distracting then one in your ear? Why is a hands free conversation worse than talking to the passengers? NTSB mentions a study which says passengers in the car keep quiet when traffic is heavy, is there somewhere the public can see that study? Is a conversation more distracting than talk radio or screaming kids??

Finally, the NTSB suggests an exception for use of a GPS. Even those which talk to the driver are distracting, and there's always the temptation to sneak a peek at the map, so you are in the correct lane for the next turn. Why is a GPS safe and my smart phone, which has the same features and as good or better directions, unsafe?

While I'm asking "why" about NTSB suggestions, why no suggestion for stronger laws about speeding and following too closely for school buses? If the existing laws governing all vehicles are not enough, perhaps stronger penalties for both the driver and operator of school buses would improve safety.

A suggestion for lawmakers: The distracted driving law should stop trying to ban this and allow that, because as technology improves and devices change,  any specific device law will become obsolete. We need to ban any activity which requires the ongoing use of one or both hands, which requires taking the eyes off the road, and any media device which doesn't leave at least one ear free to hear sirens, horns, or other alert signals. Additionally ban any activity which can reasonably be expected to distract the driver's attention from the road.

That last may seem vague, but after one of our local Congressmen was stopped driving with a woman on his lap I don't think we want to be too specific about what are prohibited activities. A general prohibition of distracting activities would also cover painting fingernails, reading the newspaper, tying a necktie, or putting on a fresh blouse, all of which I saw on I90 coming into Albany from the Thruway when I was commuting.

I agree with the NTSB that a better and more inclusive distracted driving law is appropriate, but that's really not what they proposed. I'm tired of bad legislation justified by "It's better than what we have" excuses. Only if a new law addresses behaviors rather than devices will it work properly and not need tinkering again in a few years. Now is a good time to rip out the old laws and put in a good new law, rather than putting band-aids on the laws we have.

 Edited 12-16-2011 to reflect the claim of a study on cell conversation vs. in-car conversation.

Road hazard warning

If you are a news junkie as I freely admit I am, you know that in California cutting someone off or making the wrong hand gesture on the freeway can result in disproportionate retaliation. Even locally, a few years ago on one of the bridges over the Hudson, either mid-Hudson or Rip Van Winkle, a tailgating disagreement lead to a shooting. And although the victim called 911 and reported the incident, including the license of the shooter's car according to news reports, the shooter was not found and the victim died. If the shooter was ever identified and caught that information didn't reach any news program I heard.

But when I heard that someone had yelled "Slow down!" at a passing motorist on Bader St in Schenectady and been fired upon multiple times in return, I was sad and a little surprised to hear that this mentality has become more common in our region. Glad no one was hurt, and I hope this was an aberration and not the start of a new trend

The old saying was "Drive safely, the life you save may be your own," it seems that we might consider the general case of safely interacting with drivers, even if we aren't in a car. Some people just don't take suggestions well.

This really stinks

I see that the city of Schenectady is preparing to take over operation of the sewage treatment plant, and hopes to save a million dollars doing it. The plant's neighbors have expressed reservations about the ability of the city to control noxious odors from the plant. Some say it has been better since an outside operator took over, while others say that problems, while fixed quickly, are still common.

Odor has been a problem elsewhere in the region in the past, there was a time when the Albany dump would make nearby Washington Ave nearly unbearable when the wind blew the wrong way. Small recurring problems really anger people more than a major problem which happens only once. A single big problem makes people angry and provokes a reaction which fades with time, and eventually becomes a "Remember the time when..." story, A small problem which happens over and over is like the famous Chinese Water Torture, where the discomfort is small but repetition breeds desperation, you seethe in anticipation of the next time, and often develop a "This is never going to stop!" feeling.

Consider the neighbor's dog who comes into your yard, digs up your flowers, and uses your wading pool for a commode. If it happens once, the anger fades, the damage gets fixed, and life goes on. But if that dog barks under your window in the middle of the night almost every night, disturbing your sleep time after time, eventually that is likely to bring out a reaction which might make the newspapers. The constant anticipation of something unpleasant never lets you have a "Glad that's over" moment, and you get madder and madder.

Suggestion of the day: When the city takes over, put some serious effort into problem prevention, and be proactive rather than reactive. Eliminating a problem which has been driving people crazy will probably save money in the long run and generate a lot of good will.