Weekend opinion: Redistricting, school mergers and Chef Gordon Ramsay in the North Country
Good Sunday morning to all. Here’s some of the opinion writing swirling about in the region.
The Watertown Daily Times lambasts the legislative committee that cooked up new district lines for the North Country’s Assembly and state Senate seats, decrying the impact on Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence Counties.
The Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Redevelopment carved up Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties and put portions of them in five Assembly districts and three Senate districts. Where two senators and two members of the Assembly now represent the tri-county region, its unifying, common interests will be fractured and parceled out among eight lawmakers under the maps released last week.
The Plattsburgh Press-Republican says Ticonderoga and Crown Point are on the right track exploring the possibility of a school district merger.
Both schools face declining enrollments. Ten years ago, Crown Point had about 350 students; it now has 280. Ticonderoga went from 1,100 students then to 900 now. The drop in students isn’t unique to those schools; many districts in the North Country have seen similar declines.
Those two factors — proximity and fewer students — are indicators that the districts would be wise to consider whether joining together would make them a stronger entity.
During this winter-that-never was, the Glens Falls Post Star’s Ken Tingley ponders out loud about the possible upsides of global warming.
I’m a fan of global warming. No, I don’t want the earth to fry into a cinder while I’ve still got some breathing to do, but I sure wouldn’t mind winter ending some time in March or a long, lingering fall that gave way only begrudgingly to winter so we could have a brief, white Christmas.
Imagine the impact on the tourist industry if tourists could swim without risk of heart attack from the shock of a summer dip in the lake.
Imagine the money to be made if the tourist season were extended from 10 to 20 weeks because of warmer temperatures and more sunshine.
I’m probably just getting old and since I don’t relish the idea of moving to Florida anytime soon, I’m kind of hoping my generation is the first ever where Florida comes to us.
Finally, the Times-Union’s food writer checked out the fare at the Cambridge Hotel in Washington County, following Chef Gordon Ramsay’s make-over, and declares the reinvention a success.
The food we had Saturday night at the revamped Cambridge Hotel in Washington County was so far superior to the execrable fare I was served there about 10 days ago that the transformation is nothing short of astonishing…
Ramsay has done the obvious and necessary thing to the menu: focus on local purveyors and make everything in-house that isn’t otherwise sourced locally. The menu names farms and local producers featured in items, including Flying Pigs Farm for pork, 3-Corner Field Farm for cheese and Battenkill Creamery for cream for swoon-worthy homemade vanilla ice cream for apple pie a la mode.
Given that the hotel has been surrounded by these farms and producers for years, I don’t know why it took a tyrannical, foul-mouthed British chef to get them on the menu, but at least it happened.
So there you go. Even some foody stuff to argue about this Sunday morning. Hope you all have a great day…
Tags: opinion
Tingley announcing he is in favor of global warming is one of the main reasons why I have always been against using the fear of global warming as the main reason to promote curbing the pollution said to be the cause of global warming.
The two issues should not be connected. In fact, the only issue should be the pollution.
Consolidation! I have to laugh. The politicians want everyone to consolidate everything until it comes to redistricting. There they want more districts and they want to carve everything up to make the state map look like a bowl of noodles. Geniuses at work, I guess.
Imagine if Ken Tingley would think before he wrote. The tourist season 10-20 weeks longer? What, are they going to move to a 60-70 week year?
Last I heard, aside from mud season we have year round tourism.
Was that commentary tongue in cheek?
A warmer winter will not resemble the tourist summer. It will resemble the nastiest parts of spring and fall. Late fall after the leaves turn and things are cold and icy and blah… and early spring before the green and when things are muddy and nasty and blah. Generally, these are the times when people avoid the park.
An entire season of that will be good for no one… especially the folks who rely on the skiers, ice climbers, and snowmobilers.
Yes, if you’ve ever suffered through a Connecticut winter, that’s what we’ll be looking at. Besides, it’s really not global warming, it’s global climate change– big storms, big winds, big temperature changes… bleh!
How much income comes into the North country from winter activities versus summer season? Increasing the summer season may not be worth losing the entire winter season.
Mervel, I recently asked this question of a local town supervisor and he said that as near as he can tell by the sales tax figures, winter is a better season than either fall or spring.
It also should be noted that in terms of vacationing, the summer season is the biggest not just because of the weather but also because that is when schools are out.
If anyone wants to mess up tourism, all they need to do is have school 12 months a year.
Yeah, 12 months of school when we can no longer afford 10. Seems like that’s a double whammy for some parts of the North Country at least. Bankrupt districts and less tax revenue from the summer tourist season. Good point, Pete.