New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Hugh Carey

The Adirondack Park Agency At 50: State Leaders Are Missing The Point

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Gov. Nelson Rockefeller signs the APA ActWell, it’s happened again. Another state budget is proposed by the Executive, wherein the Adirondack Park Agency’s legislated job is mischaracterized by this Governor’s (and former governors’) budget divisions as working “to achieve a balance between strong environmental protection and sustainable economic development opportunities for the residents of the Adirondack Park” (2023 Executive Budget Briefing Book).

Balance is an important goal to strive for in our individual lives. However, nothing in the Adirondack Park Agency law, now reaching 50 years old in May, calls for “a balance between strong environmental protection and sustainable economic development.” [Read more…] about The Adirondack Park Agency At 50: State Leaders Are Missing The Point

Peter Quinn’s Cross Bronx: A Writing Life

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cross bronxCross Bronx: A Writing Life (Fordham University Press, 2022) is Peter Quinn’s forthcoming one-of-a-kind account of his adventures as an ad man, archivist, teacher, Wall Street messenger, court officer, political speechwriter, corporate scribe, and award-winning novelist.

Quinn is a New Yorker through and through. His evolution from a childhood in The Bronx, to his exploits in the halls of Albany, to his decision to walk away from it all — is evocative, enlightening, and most of all, entertaining. [Read more…] about Peter Quinn’s Cross Bronx: A Writing Life

Ogden Reid: A Link to Another Era in New York Politics

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ogden reidOgden Rogers “Brownie” Reid, the six-term former congressman, ambassador, and New York Herald Tribune editor who died recently, was a link to a bygone era.

Reid led an eventful and historic life. He grew up in a McKim, Mead & White-designed stone castle in Purchase, New York, built by his grandfather – himself a Republican powerbroker, ambassador, and 1892 vice presidential nominee. After service in the Army during the Second World War, at the age of 30 in 1955, Brownie assumed leadership of the “family” newspaper, the voice of moderate, internationalist Eastern wing of the GOP. And, like fellow New Yorkers Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits, and John Lindsay, Reid was forced to uncomfortably straddle a Republican party morphing rightward; like Lindsay, he eventually switched parties. [Read more…] about Ogden Reid: A Link to Another Era in New York Politics

Governor Hugh Carey Photos Go Online

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In an ongoing effort to make records more accessible, the New York State Archives collaborated with former New York Governor Hugh L. Carey’s director of communications, William F. Snyder, and the Carey family to create an online digital collection from the Archives’ gubernatorial records of Hugh Carey in celebration of the governor’s 90th birthday in April 2009. [Read more…] about Governor Hugh Carey Photos Go Online