Aaron forgot to mention the collection of New York State minerals at the New York State Museum. Easily one of the best exhibitions in New York, and worth taking the three hour drive for. 

Khristina

Trying to find a decent bar in this town

Jeff Mann, Juliet Linderman and I are in a sports bar in downtown Albany, wondering where the hell everyone else is. The legislature reached a tentative budget agreement over the weekend, there was a press conference with the governor at 11 AM, and it looks like the legislators will hug it out over the next three months before the budget gets approved. That means, all the staffers and pols will want to hit the bars to celebrate, right? Nope. The scene here is as dead as Clarence Norman's career (We hear he's out of prison now. Anybody out there know how to get an invitation to the Norman post-prison afterparty?).
The rest of the day was fairly slow. We had a decent half hour meeting with Martin Dilan and Matt Trepasso and mostly talked about transportation. Dilan strongly opposes installing bridge tolls but thinks his transportation committee could push a revised plan with other provisions to make up the MTA's deficit. He also wants to take a ride on the G Train to see how the state could help with capital improvements in the future. Oh, and finding the full financing for the 2nd Avenue subway is about as likely as finding a clean glass at the 2nd Avenue Deli.
Other than that, we were very impressed with the New York State Museum, easily one of the best museums in the entire state. They had a very moving September 11 exhibit, which is hard to do with the political and media posturing that continues to surround the site. Also, the town has gorgeous Victorian architecture and the row of brownstones on State Street looks almost like Cobble Hill.
Big day tomorrow. Codes Committee hearings, then lunch with Joe Lentol, and hopefully we run into Vito and Dan Squadron at some point too.
-Aaron

New Issue Online Now!

The latest issue is up on http://www.greenpointnews.com/ This week we wrote about rezoning plans, bike lanes, charter schools, the St. Stan's science fair, Newtown Creek, Bloomberg at Brooklyn Brewery, the Great Mac (and cheese) Off, the nabe's newest beer store and outdoor concerts in East River State Park. Also in this issue, please enjoy the first installment of reporter Aaron Short's new column: Short Takes.

Hope you had a great weekend, Greenpoint. And be sure to check us out tomorrow, when the Gazette staff sets out for Albany to catch up with our State legislators and watch the magic happen first hand. We'll be blogging steadily all the way from the car to the capitol and back, so stay tuned!

Welcome to The Greenpoint Gazette Blog!

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greenpoint Gazette blog. Here, the Gazette staff will post breaking news updates, follow-ups to previously published stories, letters to the editor and goings on around the neighborhood. Check regularly for the hottest happenings around the nabe, and enjoy!