Zenectady - An Electric City Side Walk

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

These words from Henry David Thoreau fit this new experiment of my life quite aptly. The difference is that I left the woods, or the farmlands rather, of the Helderberg Hilltowns and moved instead deep into the heart of a city. The city is Schenectady, nestled along the banks of the Mohawk River in Upstate New York, and I now reside in its oldest neighborhood, known as The Stockade.

The 1712 Yates House, the oldest fully intact house in Schenectady. (c)2014, Richard Vang.

The Stockade is THE original neighborhood of Schenectady, which The Stockade Association claims is America's oldest residential neighborhood, though Taos Pueblo probably has the better claim to that distinction. Regardless of the claim, it is New York's first historic district, and it is beautiful beyond compare. For me, as a writer, photographer, historian and folklorist desperately in love with Upstate New York, it is an absolute treasure. But it also holds other characteristics that made it an ideal location in which to carry out my life experiment.

For many years now I have had the realization that we in America are living a crazy life, or Koyaanisqatsi, a life out of balance. We drive incessantly, consume way more than we need, and generally destroy the planet which provides us with life. I am not a vegetarian, or an ardent environmentalist, but it just seemed to me that we have forgotten how to live as humans, and not just as an extension of our cars or lavish, over-sized  homes. As I began to look around me and see the big box buildings and strip malls being rubber-stamped all over America, all while our cities and small towns were dying, life just seemed out of balance. But I couldn't quite put my finger on it, or express what I was feeling about our society. And then I came across a book by James Howard Kunstler titled The Geography of Nowhere.

In his book Kunstler describes how America had become oriented to vehicles, not to humans, where everything we do in our daily lives requires a car: vast shopping centers ("consumer square" some are named) that cannot be walked because their parking lots are so huge, sprawling housing developments built miles away from anything useful and which require a half hour or more in a car to access, and cities and downtowns cut up by boulevards, thruways, and access roads that restrict human activity and make it dangerous to walk.

But he also describes examples of where human life still exists, such as still-walkable downtowns and multi-use new construction that allows for people to live, work, shop and play right near their homes. What a concept! America used to be filled with places like these, and Schenectady is one of those places. It is "a place worth caring about." (I encourage you to watch Kunstler's 20-minute TED Talk. Careful -- there is some strong language.)

Statue of Lawrence the Indian in the Stockade neighborhood. (c)2011, Richard Vang.

Now, Schenectady is not perfect, and for a long time it has been the focus of many jokes and frankly, a prime example of the decay that hit all of Upstate New York's cities. But that is changing for many places like Troy, Binghamton, and especially Schenectady. In better times it was called “the city that lights and hauls the world.” Today, "The Electric City," as she is now known, is undergoing a downtown revitalization that might be unmatched anywhere. Its beautiful old architecture is being rehabbed and reused, including old factory or industrial buildings, which are now housing technology companies that do business with industrial giant General Electric. And they are making a focused effort to keep Schenectady livable. And walkable.

For me, The Stockade is ideally situated. Everything I need for daily life is within a 10-minute walk, which is good, because I chose to give up my car. That break had other related traumas which I must deal with personally, but as for the car, so far I do not miss it. I chose The Stockade for this experiment because it is a 2-minute walk to the CDTA bus stop, which I use to get to work and pretty much everywhere else. Also at that bus stop is the Greyhound bus terminal, which I have already used to visit my hometown of Painted Post. 5 minutes In another direction and I am at the Schenectady Amtrak station, which I intend to use for other travel, including places like New York City and Montreal, or even further. The CDTA bus can take me directly to the Albany International Airport, if I need that. Already I have cut down my daily commute to Plug Power in Latham from 55 minutes to about 30 minutes. And for me, with a full-time job and a book publishing and information consulting business to run, I can now work on the bus instead of getting stressed out, and I can avoid the pains in my shoulders and legs from driving two or more hours each day.

So this experiment, and this blog, is about living deliberately in an urban setting, and to try and “suck out all the marrow of life” in Schenectady. I want to show that life can be lived and enjoyed without a car, that we can consume less, and that we can be fulfilled by being human -- an animal that by nature lives in a "polis", as Aristotle said. 

But I don’t want us to get TOO serious, I want to have some fun too. The title of this blog comes from the nickname I have given to the city, “Zenechtady.” I call it that because it has a vibe that might best be described as “quirky,” and I have seen some things around here that make you just stop and say, “what the ... ?” and "WOW!"

Schenectady's amazing City Hall. (c)2013, Richard Vang.

What I won't be doing is keeping a list of public events, reviewing music venues, or things like that. There are some really good places to get that information, and I've listed them as links in the sidebar. I'm more interested in a casual stroll.

In future posts, as I walk the sidewalks of The Electric City, I will be writing about what I do, where I go, what I see, or the history of some building or place; but in general, just brag up Schenectady as a great place to be. (Though I might take some time to rant about something that bothers me too.) I also plan to write about other “side walks” too: trips out of Schenectady to other towns or cities in the Capital Region, or Upstate New York, and even beyond when the situation presents itself. I will have my camera along, so you can look forward to some great photographs as well. I plan to post weekly, or if something really exciting happens, a little earlier.

Let's go for a walk, shall we?

Side alley in the Stockade neighborhood. (c)2013, Richard Vang.

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(c)2015, Richard Vang, All Rights Reserved. No text, images or other content may be copied, reproduced or otherwise used without the expressed written permission of the author.