Talk:Albany, New York

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Contents

[edit] Mayors List

What's up with the partial list of early mayors only? Is there no complete list? And if there isn't, why list only those early ones? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Gnhn (talk • contribs) .

Sounds like a good thing for you to go ahead and add!  :) —Wknight94 (talk) 16:04, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
I was more inclined to delete the oldies! --Gnhn 17:06, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
Well, if there isn't currently a list of old Albany mayors, I'd say keep this or else the info will be lost completely. But I agree that it might be better to have them in a separate list article, esp. if someone wants to make a complete list rather than the sampling that is here now. Basically, it's good info - just not necessarily presented in a good way. —Wknight94 (talk) 17:31, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
I found a list and posted it. Is it too many? Should it migrate to its own page?--Gnhn 17:46, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
Ouch. Yeah, I'd vote to move the list to its own page and then have a link from here. I don't know what others would say. I'm assuming the past mayors of Albany would be a notable subject for an article - individually and as a list - but maybe there's a standard that says otherwise. —Wknight94 (talk) 18:04, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

(resetting tab) I second the vote to move the list to it's own article. Based on the US Cities template, the Mayors list should be a part of the Law and Government section possibly with details on notable mayors in the 'Notable Natives' section. More generally, I propose restructuring the article to this template and add the {{WikiProjectCities}} tag. Antonrojo 14:44, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Okay, finally got around to moving the list of mayors to its own page. Based on resources Wknight94 and I have found, I feel very comfortable about the accuracy of this list through 1800 and for recent history, but the late 19th Century and early 20th Century information is still incomplete (e.g. there are gaps in the dates where no mayor is listed). If someone can find a source for completing that list (other than Political Graveyard, which I have deleted as a reference since it has proven to be very inaccurate), it would be great if you could finish this list and double check the period from 1800-present.--Gnhn 12:08, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Density?

If the population is 95,658 and the area is 56.6km², how does the density work out to be 4000+/km²?

[edit] Picture Request

I'm an Albany resident, and live quite close to downtown. If there's specific pictures you want, let me know, and I'll take 'em for whoever asks. E-mail address on my page. --GaidinBDJ 18:30, Jan 7, 2005 (UTC)


I added two photographs I took a few months ago from State Street. Let me know if anything else is needed.--Youngtwig 17:35, July 19, 2005 (UTC)


Hello Albany people. Is there a place we could all find each other on here anyway? Is there a list of Albany editors or something? Anyway, I know we're shooting for NPOV here, but does the picture of the Agency buildings really have to feature such "typical" Albany weather? Maybe, if it ever clears up, we could get one on a Sunnier day? Billy P 19:12, 19 July 2005 (UTC)


Yeah. I plan on shooting more photos sometime soon, but it's not easy as I don't drive and I live in the suburbs (Guilderland). Hopefully I can get some less "artsy" photos, too. ;) Youngtwig 23:52, July 20, 2005 (UTC)


Do you know what the copyright situation would be on postcards? The New York State Museum sells plenty of Albany postcards that I could easily scan in if they'd be usable. Billy P 16:03, 21 July 2005 (UTC)


It's just as easy to take the pictures, and it avoids any possible entanglements. --GaidinBDJ 16:13, July 21, 2005 (UTC)


Alright, I shot some more photos in Albany yesterday. I think I got a pretty good picture of the capitol building, although someone walked into the photo. There's also some construction going on. At least there's no snow.

I still don't have a skyline photo, though. Anyone have any recommendations for a photo spot? Thanks. Youngtwig 17:49, August 5, 2005 (UTC)

If you want the Egg/ESP I'd take it from the other side of the river with a good zoom lens. Otherwise, somewhere on the 787/downtown interchange. --GaidinBDJ 14:50, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Added a better skyline photo - the same one that the County is using in promotional material --Mets 06:26, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

The images on this page look great! I am removing the image request. -Dr Haggis - Talk 05:08, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Northern HVAC?

Why is there an external link to Northern HVAC? Seems more like an attempt at advertising than a useful addition. Or am I missing its relevance? Bbpen 18:54, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Deleted link. Bbpen 16:04, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Government?

Added short info about current mayor -- will need to be updated after the upcoming election. Would it be useful to have a Government subheading? BCampbell 18:05, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "...most beautiful" contradicts the doctrine of NPOV

The article states: "The State Capitol building... ranks... as one of the most beautiful state capitol buildings in the country." According to whom? Without attribution, this is an unsupported opinion. If an authority made that statement, please reinstitute the phrase and give attribution. (I think it's beautiful too, but we have to maintain the golden NPOV. :) ) --tgeller 23:02, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Recent changes

I'm not sure I agree with the recent changes to this article. (First off, I hate "United States state of New York" but that's not why I'm here). Some of that school stuff was interesting. Admittedly, it needed to be made more aesthetically pleasing and clearer in some spots but removing it entirely isn't what I would have done. This was just about the only link to Doane Stuart School so you might as well remove that article altogether. If the school section was taking up pages and pages, I might agree but it was a nice compact chunk of interesting facts IMHO. --wknight94 17:55, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

And why was the link to Erastus Corning removed? Wasn't it the right link? Did I miss something? --wknight94 17:59, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
I apologize if some of my edits were awkward (especially "United States state of New York," which on second thought is pretty bad.) I removed school stuff if it was only an external link (WP:NOT a phone book or directory) but I left it if there was a WP article about that school...if I made a mistake on that one, then I apologize and please revert the error. Thank you for informing me of this and make the changes you think should be made; I will comment on them in this space. (Incidentally, thank you for your non-abusive tone, which is different from virtually all comments on my talk page I have received about edits I've made :) ) Paul 18:05, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
Incidentally, about the "United States state" thingy, if it were up to me I would address each U.S. state on its own and not make references to it only as a component unit of a larger entity (which of course is important to mention, but IMHO states are primarily units unto themselves and not subdivisions). This goes along with my whacky decentralist-secessionist tendencies, and is basically irrelevant, but figured I'd share. Paul 18:08, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
I'd agree about the removal of U.S. completely. I think that's sometimes the result of people outside the U.S. saying, "I have to say Queensland is in Australia so 'they' should have to say New York is in the U.S.!!". I'm not sure if that's people being paranoid or me being paranoid about people being paranoid... Remember, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you! Regardless, I usually leave it in unless it sounds ridiculous like "Schenectady is an American city in Schenectady County, New York, United States" (American and in the United States - which is what that article used to say). No offense, but "United States state" qualifies as needing to be fixed...
I'll take your thoughts about school stuff sounding like a directory under advisement - but I'll probably put it back in some very short form (unless someone else objects) and maybe make a request for new articles for them. And I'll assume removing the Erastus Corning link was a mistake and put it back as well. And don't worry about me being abusive which only happens if someone is abusive at me first. --wknight94 18:53, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
That sounds fine...my advice would be to at least create stubs for any schools mentioned (assuming of course that they meet notability criteria). They're easy and look better than external links in articles. Paul 19:11, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
Sounds reasonable.  :) --wknight94 19:16, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spectrum?

From the article: Lark street area has many hole-in-the-wall shops like the daily grind, the lark street bookshop and the spectrum 8 film theatre.

The spectrum is a hole in the wall? Also, it's rather far from the daily grind and the lark street book store... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.194.181.143 (talk • contribs) .

I'd say Be bold and re-word it to be the way you'd like. —Wknight94 (talk) 20:11, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The Spectrum 8 is not only far from the Daily Grind, It's on Deleware Ave. (http://www.spectrum7.com/about/index.html) and not Lark St.

[edit] Population of the metro area???

The population for the city itself is given; however, as everyone knows, the population within the legislative boundries of a city is not what many people would generally consider the true population of the greater metropolitan area. The Albany-Troy-Schenectady Metro area is what many people in other places of NY would consider just "Albany", or more appropriately the Capital District. It'd be nice if here, as in many other city articles on Wikipedia, we could put both the official population stat for the city AND the population of the greater metro area (in this case the Albany-Troy-Schenectady metro area), which is according to the capital district article, the 135th Largest in North America (though no actual figure is given there). Thelastemperor 07:38, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

I believe the populations here come directly from the U.S. Census and so they come with the complications of that data. I think the best you could do for the "metropolitan area" you're looking for is add up the populations for Albany, Schenectady and Rensselaer Counties. The Census web site will give all the gory detail for exactly what areas correspond to which population figures. Often, towns are located inside cities, etc. which makes things very confusing. —Wknight94 (talk) 21:42, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
The Wikipedia article for Capital District is specifically about this "metro area" (the article is not "Capital District (New York)". I corrected a typo in the original comment (since it was wikified, being misspelled caused it to appear un-linked). New York is unique, at least it seems, to have this "Capital District" moniker about the area of three "major" cities (one of which is the capital), three smaller cities, and several villages and suburban development all served by the same broadcast media and a significant amount of print. It would be there that the total population would be given and, since those outside the area might mistake an article about Albany to miss the greater impact of this District, to have that article mentioned. Fwgoebel 22:02, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New region edits

I'm tempted to revert the latest regional edits. Those seem like good comments to put into the Capital District article, not the Albany, New York article. Anyone else have an opinion? —Wknight94 (talk) 16:09, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

I actually got them from the Capital District page, but am fine if you want to pull some parts of them back out. Main thing I was trying to do was get the consistency between terms on the pages related to MSA, region and district, and between the ranking of the market size. Rather than revert wholesale, perhaps trim to keep cross-links and terms consistent? --Gnhn 17:05, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
I'll confess to not reading super close. All I'll say is that we want to avoid having a lot of information stated in two articles at once. If you think there is an inconsistency, I'd say go ahead and remove it rather than trying to clarify by pulling over a lot of content from a separate article. Duplicate info requires duplicate maintenance. Like I said, this is just from a quick review, but it looked like there was a lot of region-specific info that was not really appropriate for a city-specific article. I.e., there was probably already too much and the recent edit added even more!  :) —Wknight94 (talk) 17:27, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
I'll trim it.--Gnhn 17:46, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


[edit] US Cities Template

I propose restructuring the article to this US Cities template with the addition of the {{WikiProjectCities}} tag. Antonrojo 14:47, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alternative Newsweeklies

Metroland is a proven local commodity and resource, but I'm not sure that Valley Voice merits being included here at all, or even having its own wiki. There are LOADS of free newspapers (Parent Pages, etc.) that float around this market that have more reach and tenure than Valley Voice, so including it with Metroland gives it far more prestige than it deserves thus far. I would recommend that it not be listed here until (a) it's been around a little longer, since there have only been about four issues to date, and (b) it gets recognized by an organization like Association of Alternative Newsweeklies as being a legit alternative paper. Follow the link to its page; I would also seriously question whether that wiki merits a delete as non-notable, or at least a SERIOUS review for NPOV. Thoughts? --Gnhn 17:52, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

If you don't think it looks qualified to have its own article, go ahead and send it to Afd. (It's definitely a vanity article but I found a few Google hits for it or else I would have sent it there myself. I did change its publishing company article to a redirect since having an article for that seemed like overkill). As long as it does have its own article, it's clearly associated with Albany and so it belongs in this article. I.e., if it's in WP, then it's worthy of a mention here. —Wknight94 (talk) 18:04, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
I decided to edit the Valley Voice page to get closer to NPOV, and to see if anyone can come up with a valid explanation for notability at this point.--Gnhn 16:27, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
No one came up with anything that would lend notability to Valley Voice in the past two weeks, so I sent to AfD this morning. --Gnhn 14:21, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Neighborhoods

I haven't been able to find much information on Albany's neighborhoods online. I'd really love to see some kind of resource for this. The best stuff I've found so far is the Albany Neighborhood Revitalization Plan (http://www.albanyny.org/business/econdev/revitalize.asp), but you've got to piece it all together, and it only focuses on 5 or so neighborhoods. Others are mentioned in the PDF files, though. --Youngtwig 17:18, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Performing and Fine Arts/Reorganization

I took a stab at redoing the culture section to include stuff that was really Albany specific, not just that we had tattoo parlors and piercing shops (which every city of this size has). I also dropped the Truman Capote quote, since it also isn't Albany specific. I'd like to see this section expanded further if folks are so inclined. I did some reorganizing to cluster like subcategories together, hopefully so it makes a little more sense when you're trying to find something.--Gnhn 19:40, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image/Text Formatting Glitch?

After I moved the big list of Mayors to its own page, I am now seeing bleedover of the images over text, and also that the "edit" buttons for the first few categories and subcategories are getting pushed down into the article by the image files. I've tried to play with some fixes but my coding skills here aren't all that great and I don't want to mess something up . . . if someone better knows how to get the image files distinct from the text/edit bars, help would be much appreciated in getting the page looking right again!!--Gnhn 12:13, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I've seen that several times and I think it's a Wikipedia bug. Currently, I'm not seeing that since I must be running at a different resolution but it does happen at various times. If someone knows of a mistake on an editor's part that causes that, I'd like to know as well. —Wknight94 (talk) 13:31, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
I think I figured out the problem; moved some images around to ensure they weren't breaking over edit boxes.--Gnhn 12:30, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, moving them around sometimes helps - but I think it still depends on what screen resolution people are using. I haven't figured out what the pattern is but I'm guessing they're aware of the problem. —Wknight94 (talk) 12:53, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Syracuse DAB

Editors of Albany, New York: I thought that you would be interested in looking at the talk:Syracuse page. Currently, a group is attempting to remove the disambiguation page located there in favor of the article for Syracuse, Italy. Seeing as this change might have precedence affecting other upstate New York articles, I hoped that you would be interested in chiming in. Thanks for your interest one way or the other.

[edit] Arbitron ratings

I removed the Arbitron ratings from the main page for a variety of reasons:

  • Their presence on the main Albany, New York page is very clunky and out of place. I could make a case for having them on the Media in Albany, New York page though.
  • The official Arbitron name for the Albany market is Albany-Schenectady-Troy-Saratoga and much of what goes on in the ratings doesn't reflect the tastes of Albany proper. Anyone who has spent considerable time in Albany proper (or lived out of town and heard the Andrew Wilkow take on the city) knows that there is no way that WGNA-FM is #1 in the city limits.
  • It could be slighty risky to put rankings in an article given the veritable witchunts Arbitron's legal department has gone on in the past given threatening letters to certain message boards (but not others) that even posted rankings. I should mention that I am against such practices (given it falls into the area of potential fair use violations on their end) and left a position for one of said boards for that among other reasons.

Besides, other cities don't have their Top 10 stations posted on their city pages. Why should Albany be so different, especially with the demographic differences between city and suburbs? Scrabbleship 11:42, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree with your edit 100%. That had been bugging me too, and as it got more and more out of date, it looked worse and worse on the main page.--Gnhn 13:57, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the Arbitron name for the Albany market is Albany-Schenectady-Troy, not Albany-Schenectady-Troy-Saratoga. --Kuroki Mio 2006 12:14, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Note on image deletion

Unfortunately, it appears that we have had many of our images deletion due to two reasons, the first being that many people have forgotten to properly cite their images and apply the correct licensees. The second is the fact that we have some people here at Wikipedia who go out of there way to make life difficult and have become the self-nominated imaged police. Since their actions have had a significant affect on this article, we need to be extra cautious to make sure that we follow proper guidelines. However, if you see images missing, please do a Google search or check answers.com, download them, and restore them, as they are most likely legal but improperly cited.

[edit] Pronunciation

I am wondering how the name of Albany is actually pronounced by natives of our capital city. I am from Orange County, NY and have alway pronounced it "aul-buhnee" with the "al" sounding like the word all. but whenever I travel out of state people pronouce it "al-bahnee" with the "al" sounding like the name Alan. So I'd like to know which is correct. Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Strideranne (talk • contribs) .

The way you're saying it is correct. —Wknight94 (talk) 17:42, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Crossroads City

I've lived and worked in this area for 15 years and never heard that term, whereas most anyone who has spent time here has heard "Smallbany". You can't claim people are "pouring into" a city that has lost population steadily for several decades. (The growth in our MSA is primarily in Colonie and Clifton Park . . . and I presume that those newcomers aren't generally the underground/independent artists you're citing). All of the text about "some people moving from Boston or NYC" is unencyclopedic and anecdotal . . . people have ALWAYS moved between the cities in the Northeast. While I applaud your efforts to promote Albany's arts and culture (I've been working to do so for years myself), you can't make something so just by saying it, as you appear to be attempting via the "Crossroads City" moniker. "Tech Valley" has caught on in the local media and vernacular, but until I hear or read "Crossroads City" used in the same sort of "everyone around here know what we're talking way" that "Smallbany" or "Tech Valley" or "The Collar City" are, I can't see it being listed as having replaced any other marketing/discussion tags to describe Albany. Gnhn 13:34, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Who ever wrote this obviously does not know what they are talking about. 2007 census shows that the city of Albany population has gone up (not alot, but still). So, please stop deleting or "editing" the section

[edit] "Smallbany"

This section was recently restored and while I had no part in it, I wish to voice my support for it being a part of this article and staying here. Many times I have welcomed someone who has moved here from Lon Guyland (Long Island, as some of us pronounce it around here) and like its urbanesque nature, yet at the same time complain that it's too small. Several years ago, I welcomed a Norwegian Jaycee to the area and drove her around Center Square. She remarked how similar it really is to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Fwgoebel 19:15, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

So what's the protocol here when someone just keeps deleting something legitimate from a page without justification? (I've had to put the Smallbany info back in three or four times now, and whoever keeps deleting it never offers any discussion or valid justification). I haven't had to deal with this before. Any tips? Gnhn 03:15, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
Generally, it's a good idea to leave a note on the talk page of the user (or IP address) removing the content. If it seems clear that they're just blanking sections left and right, one of the {{test(n)a}} user warning templates may be appropriate (see WP:UTM under "Removing content" for more info on those templates). Or, you can leave a more specific message, as I've done at User talk:144.211.195.112 (for the last particular IP who has removed this), and hope that they stop or join the discussion. Other than that, just keep restoring the section, and other editors will probably do so as well, as long as they see this discussion and agree with keeping the section (which, to add my two cents, I do). And, of course, always remember to be civil, no matter how annoying these repeat changes get! :) —Krellis 03:38, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
I just did another restore. This time though, I broke the section into three smaller ones, and put Smallbany at the bottom. At least, those who are in favor of keeping it here are participating in this talk page, whereas those who are not, do not. A "Tech Valley" sub-section can easily go below the "Smallbany" sub-section. I added a "See also" List of city nicknames in the United States that also supports the inclusion, albeit at the bottom of the article (where a See also belongs). Fwgoebel 12:45, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
I for one don't see Albany this way and don't want to create this sort of discourse around the city. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 141.140.6.114 (talk) 17:37, 19 February 2007 (UTC).
This article isn't "creating" it. It's acknowledging it. I think it's better to embrace and explain it than it is to pretend people don't talk about it. Google the word "Smallbany" or "Smalbany" . . . the number of hits will demonstrate that it's a long standing part of our cultural history, whether you personally like it or not. Gnhn 03:01, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
But the "Smalbany" mentality is not a LOCAL one. It's from the college students who en mass come here to Siena, UAlbany, Skidmore, and the rest of the colleges from downstate. They think that compared to the NYC metro area we have less to do and see. And yes we do have less if you compare metro area to metro area. We still have lots more than their individual Long Island towns have, its unfair to compare Albany to NYC. Compare us to Yonkers or Hempstead and we have a much better standard of living and nightlife and shopping. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.206.97.30 (talk) 15:31, 22 February 2007 (UTC).
I completely disagree that "Smallbany" springs from the colleges . . . you'll hear it more among oldtimers in town on Lark Street than you will on the Uptown Campus. If the college kids use the phrase (I work at one local college, and attend grad school at another), then they have learned it from the locals. It is definitely a home-grown inferiority complex, and oftentimes in the local arts and music community (both of which I have been heavily involved in for 15+ years) it is used as a crutch or an excuse when the local community doesn't support something worthwhile and worthy. The word can be used fondly as well as derisively, and I think the article is clear about that. It's great that certain segments of the arts community are exploding downtown, and I'm thrilled to see/hear that . . . but suppressing/stifling the word "Smallbany" isn't what made those things happen, and it won't hurt those things in any way either. I get a sense that at some of the resistance to the phrase in this article is from people who have moved here from elsewhere, and don't want their friends in their former cities seeing it and thinking that they've moved to some provincial backwater or little unimportant place. I don't know many locals who are bothered by the phrase. Small can be charming. Embrace it. Gnhn 19:33, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
A promotional website for anything "Albany" would very likely stay away from the "Smallbany" term, but this isn't a promotional website. This is an encyclopedia article, and that means that anything good and bad, as long as presented with a neutral point of view, that exists is fair game. Some other articles with which I've been involved have had subjects having their own good and bad points. As of now, "Smallbany" is not an article unto itself, nor does the name redirect here (maybe it should? Not a decision I'm going to make). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Fwgoebel (talk • contribs) 20:29, 22 February 2007 (UTC).
I was born at St. Peter's hospital in Albany and have lived here ever since all the days of my life. My father lived here from the age of 10 until 18 and then again from age 38 on to today. I have never heard anyone say "Smalbany" —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 148.78.243.24 (talk) 19:34, 26 February 2007 (UTC).
One of the reasons why one consults an encylopedia is to learn something one doesn't already know. Including something like that here serves that purpose. While it may reinforce that which one already knows, it also educates about those things previously unknown. Fwgoebel 19:52, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
If everyone is so hung up on being honest and showing the bad, then how about adding to either this section or making its own section for all the references in movies and tv that Albany has. Shows include- all the law & order series, the simpsons, seinfield, guilding light and MANY more. the movie damnation alley is all about going TO albany after a nuclear war. the character olivia benson on law & order svu is supposed to have gone to college at siena college in loudonville! lets put out some positive too and not tear down only. how about the films that were made in and around? the time machine, war of the worlds, ironweed, the many books that take place in and around albany —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.206.59.120 (talk) 16:57, 17 March 2007 (UTC).
I'm a lifetime resident of Albany, not Smallbany, who ever keeps putting that in, needs to stop.:::

[edit] city seal

The image of the city seal was removed due to licensing issue:

Can it be replaced with: http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/historic/btlflags/artillery/AlbArtReg.htm —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mathieu (talk • contribs) 00:11, 3 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Auto peer review

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You may wish to browse through User:AndyZ/Suggestions for further ideas. Thanks, Mal 04:51, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Architecture?

I think a nice addition to this page would be a section on the architecture of the city (unless one has already been written and I missed a link or something in the text). There are quite a few notable buildings, especially historic ones - the capital, State Street (Wellington, the church), the Gov's mansion, the amories, etc. etc. - unfortuntely, I am really not the guy to do it though, and know very little about the subject. I can, and will, try to contribute in other areas. Oaxaca dan 15:53, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Great idea. Albany is known for both its historic (NYS Capitol, Executive Mansion, SUNY Central, State Education Building, City Hall, cathedrals, etc.) and modern (Empire State Plaza, UAlbany) architecture. On Wikipedia, some cities have entire articles on their architecture, but a section on the Albany page is a good place to start. --Albany NY 01:12, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "European founded city"?

Is there any city in the US that was NOT founded by Europeans? The opening paragraph I believe would sound better if it just said "Albany is the fourth oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States", seeing as how there are not today Native American CITIES. I know some people want to be sensitive, but the fact is that there is a definition of city, and we should not have to clarify things to the point of stupidity.

Albany is the second oldest continously inhabited city, it is the fourth oldest city. jamestown and st augustine have not been continously inhabited, the original jamestown is today abandoned and has malarial mosquitos, the modern day reenanctment of the town is built across the river. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 148.78.243.24 (talk) 02:21, 18 March 2007 (UTC).


[edit] Albanian???

I see we have a section on Famous Albanians - is that the correct term for someone from Albany (i.e. the same term used as that for someone from Albania)? Do we have some reference to that? It seems confusing. I don't live there so can't verify it easily. If this is really true we should add it to the disambiguation page at Albanian -- Alucard (Dr.) | Talk 15:16, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I've heard it used informally, but have no idea where a citation could be found for that. I definitely don't see it used in more formal settings, due to the confusion with people from Albania and the fact that it just sounds a bit weird in reference to people from Albany. It might just be easier to title it "Famous people from Albany" or "Notable people from Albany"-- Oaxaca dan 15:50, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
As a reference, Binghamton uses "Famous residents" while Buffalo has the page Famous people from Buffalo, NY. Utica uses "Utica people." Syracuse uses "Famous Syracusans" but has a separate page for List of people from Syracuse, New York. I prefer the Buffalo Style, but would use "notable," because some of the historic people are notable, but not necessarily "famous." But in the end, it really doesn't matter to me -- Oaxaca dan 15:59, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Another possibility would be "Notable Albany Natives". I agree to using the term "notable" though. Maybe "Notable residents" would be best. -- Alucard (Dr.) | Talk 16:06, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

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