518Life April 2014

Little Free Libraries pg.36 Ethnic Eateries Everywhere pg.53 A TIMES UNION PUBLICATION

Pr em ie re Is su e

E-Cigarettes What we don't know might hurt us pg.80 APRIL 2014

Ride & Drive special section pg. 59

The Changing Face of the

Capital Region

pg.26

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3. Cook liquid in skillet over medium-high heat until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in lime peel and drizzle over shrimp.

Hannaford Dietitian Tip: Add 2 cups of Fresh Express® Spinach to the skillet in step 2 for about 2 minutes to bump up the flavor and the nutrients!

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Get Ready for Weddings, Proms, Reunions & Graduations

Publisher

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Editorial

Before Acne Treatment

After

Janet Reynolds Executive Editor Brianna Snyder Senior Editor Genevieve Scarano Editorial Intern

Contributing Writers

Steve Barnes, Alan Bisbort, Chris Churchill, Laurie Lynn Fischer, Jennifer Gish, Alistair Highet, Claire Hughes, Elizabeth Floyd Mair, Kerry Ann Mendez, Stacey Morris, Traci Neal, Akum Norder, Cari Scribner

Design

Tony Pallone, Design Director Colleen Ingerto, Emily Jahn Designers

Contributing Photographers

Before

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Vincent Giordano, Colleen Ingerto, Emily Jahn

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Kurt Vantosky Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing Kathleen Hallion Vice President, Advertising Tom Eason Manager, Display Advertising Michael-Anne Piccolo Retail Sales Manager Jeff Kiley Magazine Advertising Manager

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TimesUnion.com

Paul Block Executive Producer 518Life is published monthly. If you are interested in receiving home delivery of 518Life magazine, please call (518) 454-5768 or e-mail magcirculation@timesunion.com.

For advertising information, please call (518) 454-5358.

518Life is published by Capital Newspapers and Times Union 645 Albany Shaker Rd, Albany, NY 12212 518.454.5694 The entire contents of this magazine are copyright 2014 by Capital Newspapers. No portion may be reproduced in any means without written permission of the publisher.

Capital Newspapers is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hearst Corporation.

Spring at last!

HEWITT’S

Photo by Peter Bowden

Home of the Lifetime Nursery Guarantee Visit hewitts.com for more information

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Rt. 9, Saratoga 580-1205 Feura Bush Rd., Glenmont 439-8169 Rt. 4, East Greenbush 283-2159 Quaker Rd., Queensbury 792-3638

CONTENTS 518 LIFE MAGAZINE

|

APRIL 2014

10 12 90

What’s Online Editor’s Note Photo Finish

Up Front 14 16 20 24

In Other Words Trending Where & When FYI with David Alan Miller

Home 38

When Worlds Collide

44

What’s Growing?

48

Maximum Minimums

53 pg. 80

26 36

The Changing Face of the Capital Region How globalization is changing our ethnic mix — the way we eat, the way we communicate, and who we meet. And that’s a great, great thing.

Book Swap!

Little Free Libraries let you share books 24/7 — right outside your house

RIDE & DRIVE SPECIAL SECTION 59 Green Machines Is an eco-friendly car in your future?

64 New Order What today’s auto mechanic needs to master 70 Futurama What’s coming in car technology

56

Garden and lifestyle trends for 2014 Making space in small children’s rooms

Bon Appetit!

Ethnic restaurants broaden our area’s culinary diversity

Sporting Wines The rediscovered grape of Castile and Leon

Health 75 76 80 85

Trainer Tip Correct your Crunch

The Third (Fourth?) Time Around Looking for love in the Capital Region

E-Cigarettes What we don’t know might hurt us

Flex Time Flexitarians put a positive spin on eating less meat

On the Cover Cover design by Emily Jahn Photos by Getty Images 8 518 LIFE

Car Illustrations :artvea/GettyImages

Is vaping harmless?

Or harmful?

The Gilmores and their place of rural serenity

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What's

ONLINE 518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM

More on the Changing Face of the Capital Region We talked with Vicky, Florian, Pradip and Iza about their experiences in the U.S. since moving here. Check out their stories online, and also look for extended and ongoing coverage in the Times Union — Chris Churchill is going to be chronicling the way the region is growing and changing throughout the year, so keep an eye out!

more

ONLINE On the Edge blog.timesunion. com/ontheedge What we’re talking about in the 518.

YouTube youtube.com/ TimesUnionMagazines Watch our video supplements to this issue’s stories!

Twitter @518LifeMag

Ethnic Eateries We’ve got more photos of tasty and interesting food to feast your eyes on. Also, check out the Times Union reviews on these restaurants so you don’t miss the really special dishes.

VIDEO

The best tweets this side of the Hudson.

(Either side, really.)

Facebook facebook.com/ 518Life Pictures and events and videos and more!

Photo Finish timesunion.com/ photofinish Submit your photos!

Yours could appear in this magazine or on the website.

WHY DO YOU LOVE THE CAPITAL REGION?

FIX YOUR CRUNCH!

We asked you and filmed your answers!

Now see the video online!

Fitness trainer James Rigney showed us how to do our crunches right, and then he showed us how to take them to the next level. Go watch it now!

10 518 LIFE

After back surgery elsewhere, this patient didn’t expect more pain than he went in with.

Unfortunately he ended up with a condition known as “failed back syndrome” which made walking a challenge and running impossible. Our spine specialists suggested a minimally invasive procedure. After a brief recovery period he quickly reached his goal of walking pain free and was soon on his way to reaching his next goal—running his first 5K.

New patient appointments available within 24 hours (518) 439-4326 CapitalRegionNeurosurgery.com 1220 New Scotland Road, Slingerlands, NY

Capital Region Special Surgery offers personalized extended payment programs for patients who are challenged by high deductibles and out-of-network fees.

At 43, when he was left immobile by back pain, he asked us to help him walk.

Instead, we helped him run.

Editor’s Note

Welcome Home

C

oming up with an idea for a magazine and then working with a great creative team to translate my ideas onto paper and online is one of the most satisfying things I do. So it is with great excitement that I introduce to the world the newest magazine in the Times Union’s magazine division — 518Life.

The plan is for the magazine to be your go-to resource for in-depth stories about local goings-on and trends, as well as the home and health coverage you’ve come to love in our other magazines.

But the really exciting part is that 518Life will be more than a magazine: Instead, many of our stories will encompass the full multi-

media platform that makes the Times Union company unique in the marketplace. We will collaborate with our award-winning newsroom and create unique online material as well. The result will be stories that reach more people than any other product in the Capital Region.

You’ll be able to pick up 518Life at any Price Chopper or Hannaford supermarket in the four-county area, as well as at local Starbucks and Bruegger’s And be sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter too. Can’t wait to hear what you think.

JANET REYNOLDS jreynolds@timesunion.com

Three things you’ll learn in this issue: 1. Nationwide the percentage of middle and high school students who use e-cigarettes more than doubled in the U.S. from 2011 to 2012.

2. 24% of the region’s foreign population has a graduate degree.

3. ASO Music Director David Alan Miller wishes he could dance like Fred Astaire!

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In Other Words

BY AKUM NORDER

Breaking Barriers

A

moment on an Albany playground, to illustrate something the city school system is doing right: My daughter scoots across the top of the blue plastic tunnel like you’re probably not supposed to, because she sees another girl who’s climbing onto the tunnel from the opposite side. She doesn’t know her, but they look about the same age and she wants to say hi. They sit there, straddling the tunnel and talking before swinging down to show each other their climbing skills.

“

native speakers of English; half are for native speakers of Spanish. While the English speakers are learning Spanish as a second language, the Spanish speakers work on their English skills. In this classroom, diversity is given a central role: The program is built on the idea that we each possess different skills and each have things we need to learn. Maybe, even, from each other.

The Spanish our kids have learned is great.

It’s knowledge I hope they can keep all their lives. What’s even better is the attitude the

Diversity is important, because it’s our life experiences that shape our creativity and inspire solutions to the problems we encounter.

”

“So who’s your new friend?” I ask her afterward.

“Oh, her name’s Elena. She’s 9 and she just moved here from the Dominican Republic.

She doesn’t speak any English yet.”

It’s thanks to the Dual Language Program, a Spanish immersion program that’s one of the crown jewels of the Albany school system, that my daughter knows enough of the language to strike up a basic conversation. The bilingual staff teaches every subject — writing, math, science, etc. — in both Spanish and English, on alternating days. Plus, the kids get extra instruction in Spanish and are required to use it in the classroom. It works: My daughters have learned a lot, enough that when they ask for homework help I have to run and call up Google Translate.

But that’s not the best part.

Half the seats in each grade are reserved for 14 518 LIFE

school has instilled in them: They meet difference not with suspicion or awkwardness but with acceptance. To them, it’s the norm.

New York State has always been fairly diverse. It’s one of our strengths, something that makes it such a vibrant and innovative place to live. But my children’s school is ethnically diverse in ways my own schools never were.

Important memos from the principal come home in English on one side, in Spanish on the other, and in handwritten Burmese at the bottom. One day I counted five languages spoken among the parents waiting outside for after-school pickup. Five languages barely scratches the surface: District-wide, instructors in English as a Second Language teach students who speak one of 41 different languages, according to Gloria Savino, supervisor for ESL and foreign language study in the Albany school system. What’s more, the

AKUM NORDER Akum Norder is an Albany writer.

number of students learning English nearly doubled between 2009 and January of this year. And the district is not just ethnically diverse; religious and socioeconomic differences shape the fabric of the city schools, too.

More than reading, or fractions, or even Spanish, this is the lesson I most want my kids to learn in school: that people live their lives in different ways, and we have to respect that.

That diversity is important, because it’s our life experiences that shape our creativity and inspire solutions to the problems we encounter. That, in fact, the differences among us are beautiful.

It’s not all harmony and tolerance; this is elementary school, after all, and there are cliques and drama and misunderstandings.

Differences can lead to arguments; but arguments can prompt negotiations.

Figuring out how to get along with people from different backgrounds is a pretty good skill for kids to learn. It’s just one of the many school lessons a standardized test can’t measure.

I’m heartened by the ease and fearlessness with which my daughter dives in and uses the Spanish she’s learned. There’s no sense of distance: On the playground she doesn’t see a stranger; she sees a kid.

A few houses down from us lives a Moroccan family; the wife speaks only Arabic. Our neighborly interactions haven’t gone much past waving hello to each other as we’re both in our backyards hanging out laundry. My husband and I have been meaning for a year to ask them over for lemonade and cookies on the porch, and we haven’t done it yet. We’re intimidated by the language barrier, and by the cultural barrier too, afraid we might do something stupid.

My daughter shrugs, and asks, “Can we invite their daughter over to play?”

The end of cancer

begins with research.

Members of the NYOH staff, clockwise: Dr. Lawrence Garbo, Chairman, Research Committee; Sharon Krause, RN, Director, Research Dept.; Carrie Kreitner, RN, Certified Adult Nurse Practitioner; Dr. Karen Tedesco, Director, Hereditary Cancer Risk Assessment Program; and Debra Yelenak, MT, Laboratory Supervisor.

As the region’s leading provider of community based cancer care, New York Oncology Hematology plays a pivotal role in the FDA approval process of cancer fighting drugs. Through its affiliation with The US Oncology Network, as well as participation in National Cancer Institute sponsored research projects, NYOH offers access to the most advanced research and treatment options, including clinical trials not available elsewhere in the region.

For information, call the award-winning NYOH Research Department at 489-3612, ext. 1342.

www.newyorkoncology.com Albany • Amsterdam • Hudson • Latham • Rexford • Troy

TRENDING #518

COMPILED BY BRIANNA SNYDER

Burning Oil

A

lot of attention has been paid to the Keystone XL pipeline — a controversial pipeline extension that would allow the U.S. to transport oil from Canada to the South.

Though a fairly recent study found little environmental impact resulting from the Keystone XL, environmentalists say the study is flawed and needs reexamining.

Meanwhile, Albany has quietly become a major hub for oil shipments by trains from all over the continent, according to the Times Union. You might be aware of the dangers of this kind of oil transport thanks to

a catastrophic derailment and explosion in Quebec last year that killed 47 people. But did you know thousands of gallons of the stuff roll through Albany on a daily basis?

Additional disturbing fact: The train cars carrying the oil are outdated. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) referred to them as “a ticking time bomb” and called for regulators to update the trains to models built after 2011. Governor Cuomo has asked state agencies to review their emergency/spill-response plans and report back to him by the end of this month.

Want your baby to have a partisan name? Look it up at claritycampaigns.com/ names. Taking stats from registered voters across the country, this little tool surveys how many others with your name voted Democrat, Republican, likely have a gun in their house, go to church

every week and have a college degree.

We tested a few using the most popular baby names from 2013.

Sophias are 69.4 percent likely to vote for a Democrat and 53.6 percent likely to have a college degree.

Jacksons are a little more on the partisan

line: 48 percent of men named Jackson vote red and 52 percent vote blue. If you meet someone named Emma, there’s a 65.1 percent chance she’s a Democrat. A lot of Donalds and Beckys are Republicans; the majority of Olivias and Aidens are Democrats.

What We’re Reading This month’s most-checkedout book in …

ALBANY Takedown Twenty: a Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich BETHLEHEM Gone by James Patterson

WHERE THE OIL GOES Total Production = 950,000 barrels a day Estimated Shares, In Thousands

31%

TROY California/ Washingon 150

Pipeline/local refineries 200

31%

16% 16%

26%

Gone by James Patterson

SARATOGA SPRINGS The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Gulf Coast 200

Albany 150

Misc. East Coast 400

Sources: Energy Information Administration; analysts’ estimates

16 518 LIFE

SCHENECTADY The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball

— Genevieve Scarano

Photos: Oil, Michael P. Farrell/TU Archive; Illustration by Emily Jahn, Photo by SSMRC; Elephant, Dave King/GettyImages; Donkey, Stephen Oliver/GettyImages; Books, Photos by Amazon.com.

Baby Politics

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Our company’s number one priority is to provide the best costumer service you will ever receive from your automotive repair facility!

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TRENDING #518 Looking for something new on Netflix?

Here’s what’s coming out this month.

5

THINGS

Never to Say to Your Bartender

5 The Book Thief | Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues Out of the Furnace | August: Osage County

What’s the cheapest and strongest beer/ drink you’ve got?

4 12 Years a Slave | Saving Mr. Banks | Delivery Man | Labor Day

Pot Politics About 88 percent of you will be interested in this news, according to a recent Quinnipiac Poll, which notes that percentage of New Yorkers support the Compassionate Care Act. The CCA would allow marijuana to be prescribed to patients by their doctors, and though the bill has passed the Assembly four times, it’s been stuck in the House. Throughout March, marijuana activists protested all across the state to have the bill land on Gov. Cuomo’s desk by April (and he has said he’d sign it). We’ll see what happens.

The Next Big Thing?

It’s my birthday.

What can I get for free?

BOWLED OVER

If last time you were at Crossgates Mall you looked around and said to yourself, “Man, I could really go for some luxury bowling” … you’re in luck. The Times Union reports that, this fall, the entertainment and restaurant company Latitude 360 is opening a luxury bowling alley that will include leather couches, high-tech audio/visual systems, a dine-in movie theater, a game room, a theater, a sports bar and a dance floor.

3 What else do you do for a living?

Oscar Glory Did you see the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave? If so, you probably noticed the subject of the movie, Solomon Northup, was from the Capital Region.

Check out what the tweeters over at @ AlbanyArchives did with this sketch of Northup in honor of “his” Oscar win.

2 I’ll tip you on the next round.

1 I know the owner.

— Steve Barnes

18 518 LIFE

Have you ever sent a funny/sexy/cute picture to someone and imagined how they might react?

Dumbstruck — an app developed by Albany’s own Peter Allegretti and Mike Tanski — solves that mystery for you.

Here’s how it works: I send you a photo and when you open it, the app records a quick video of your reaction to the photo and sends that video back to me.

Pretty cool, right? Download it (free!) from the Apple store. (Droid version coming soon.)

Photos: Movies, IMBD;Drinks, Illustrations by Emily Jahn; Pot, John_Woodruff; Oscar, Courtesy of Albany Archives; Dumbstruck, Photos by John Carl D’Annibale.

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COMPILED BY BRIANNA SNYDER Photos:Playtime, Film Still; Nine Pin. Photo by Michael P . Farrell/TimesUnion Archive, Hoffman, AP Photo/Victoria Will/Invision/AP.

WHERE & WHEN #518

 See this

Shop this

Some films are meant to be seen on the biggest of big screens, though we’re not really talking about Transformers. Jacques Tati’s 1967 film Playtime is almost exclusively a big-screen movie; you could grab the Criterion and watch it on your 42-inch TV at home, but you’ll miss some things — some critics say a lot of things. The French filmmaker was famous for his visual acrobatics and sight gags: Playtime plays with light, texture, sound and color in a way no other movie you’ve ever seen does. It’s special — people trek miles and miles to see it in 70 millimeter. We’re lucky it will be a short drive away at EMPAC.

Precious few record shops remain these days, so we’re pleased to give a shoutout to the ReCollector in Schenectady. Both a thrift shop and a record shop, the ReCollector houses all kinds of esoteric finds: clothes and jewelry and cassettes and records and any other old thing.

PLAYTIME directed by Jacques Tati, April 3, EMPAC, empac.rpi.edu

 Drink this In January of this year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that would allow farm cideries (or cider makers) to have brewing licenses — meaning they could make and sell hard cider the way microbreweries can.

Enter Nine Pin Cider Works in downtown Albany.

Nine Pin makes its cider only from local apples and just this year (thanks to the new law) opened its doors for tastings and tours. Check it out on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays — you can choose from regular cider and the hard stuff too.

NINE PIN CIDER WORKS, 929 Broadway, Albany, ninepinciderworks.com

20 518 LIFE

THE RECOLLECTOR, 167 ½ Jay St., Schenectady

Watch this The 83-year-old Madison Theater in Albany recently got a makeover and an overhaul from its previous incarnation as a second-run movie theater. Now, it’s a $5-a-pop oldmovie movie theater, playing films from E.T. and Grease to The Big Lebowski and more. Look for theme nights, which are frequent: in April, a Philip Seymour Hoffman fest is planned (Capote, Moneyball, Boogie Nights, The Talented Mr. Ripley) APRIL 1-3 Pay and an extraterrestrial fest tribute to Philip (Monsters vs. Aliens, E.T., Seymour Hoffman.

Alien, Prometheus).

(Sniff.).

MADISON THEATER, 1036 Madison Ave., Albany, themadisontheater.com

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WHERE & WHEN #518 Hear this Drugs. Booze. Church. Tennyson. Cassavetes.

Springsteen. The Hold Steady — a Minneapolis heartland-rock band — invoke all of these. They make bar rock that transcends the bar. The Hold Steady’s songs feature a revolving cast of druggies and drunks and yuppies and thugs, partying and overdosing and getting saved in church basements and at rock concerts. It’s exhilarating, sweaty stuff and we’re absolutely obsessed with it. Check out their new record Teeth Dreams, which just came out March 25; if you’re not familiar with the band, rock your world with “Stevie Nix” on Spotify.

THE HOLLOW BAR + KITCHEN, 79 North Pearl St., Albany, thehollowalbany.com

 Run this

Do you and Sparky need some exercise?

Sign up for the 5K Furry Run!

Hate running alone? Run a 5K with your dog!

That’s the whole idea behind this 5K Furry Fun Run Saturday, April 12, 9 a.m., at Saratoga Springs’s Avenue of the Pines. Top runners get prizes and pups get some exercise with their humans. Proceeds from the run benefit Peppertree Rescue.

5K FURRY FUN RUN, Avenue of the Pines, Saratoga, tinyurl.com/doggy5K

We like the Food Network — with its hysteria and screaming Gordon Ramsay — as much as the next person. But we find ourselves completely smitten by Christopher Kimball’s gentle, nearretro cooking show, Cooks Country. Kimball heads the America’s Test Kitchen franchise, which puts out the fantastic Cook’s Illustrated magazine as well as the Cooks Country show and various online cooking endeavors. He’s bringing America’s Test Kitchen Live to the Palace in Albany, where he and ATK’s Dan Souza will give demos, food tests and more.

AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN LIVE! April 13, the Palace, palacealbany.com

Drink this The trouble with beer tastings is that, well, it’s easy to get a little tipsy. So we’ve got our eye on these Saratoga “beer weekends” with the Saratoga Arms B&B and the Shmaltz Brewing Company. (They’re calling it “Something’s Brewing — An Ultimate Bed and Brew Winter Weekend.”) The weekend, which is April 11-13, includes beer tastings (of course) and a fourcourse beer-pairing dinner.

SARATOGA ARMS, 497 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, saratogaarms.com

22 518 LIFE

Dig this Are you a novice gardener? Do you want to become a gardener but you’re not sure how? Sign up for the Arts Center’s Plan a Chef’s Garden workshop, in which local chef Sarah Fish shows you how to lay out and plan a garden of fruits,

veggies and herbs. You’ll get your seeds started in class and go home with an idea for a layout — plus, you’ll get some recipes for what to do with the stuff in your garden once it grows!

THE ARTS CENTER OF THE CAPITAL REGION, April 8, Troy, artscenteronline.org

Photos: 5K Furry Fun Run, Courtesy of Peppertree Rescue; America’s Test Kitchen, Courtesy Chris Kimball’s blog.

 Experience this

Looking for a good doctor?

Ask someone who knows.

844- 518-DOCS Call for a referral or appointment with a physician near you.

a service of w w w.518 - d o c s.o r g

FYI with

David Alan Miller Music director and conductor of the Albany Symphony Orchestra

BY STACEY MORRIS |

F

PHOTO BY COLLEEN INGERTO

or 22 years, David Alan Miller has led the Albany Symphony Orchestra in presenting concerts of classic masterpieces, as well as the best works of today’s composers. In January, Miller gained national attention and local adoration when he accepted a Grammy award for his ensemble’s recording of Corigliano’s Conjurer: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, with soloist Dame Evelyn Glennie. For the Los Angeles native, the Grammy win was an ebullient homecoming. The father of three and Slingerlands resident reveals why he loves the Capital District more than ever ... and whom he most admires.

What was it like being at the Grammy Awards — and how nervous were you? It was a whirlwind trip with my son, Ari. They presented 90 percent of the awards in the afternoon so the TV broadcast was more like a concert. I figured I had a 16 and a half percent chance of winning, so I wasn’t anxious. In fact, I was pretty serene. I really have to be nominated once more so I can take my wonderful daughter Miranda to the Grammys. Did you have a speech prepared? Being a native Angelino, I’ve always been so bored by long-winded acceptance speeches, and I wanted it very crisp. I thanked Corigliano, our soloist, our record producer, and our beautiful musicians who embraced the idea that the music of our time should form the core of our repertoire. [The Albany Symphony Orchestra] has premiered, commissioned and recorded more new music than any other orchestra in the country. Is there anyone you forgot to thank that you’d like to mention? As soon as you win, you’re whisked backstage for a media junket, and there’s time for more thanking. So I was able to thank my wife, three children, board of directors, all the people who matter.

What has been so gratifying is it’s not an award for me, but our community and what we’ve achieved. What do you like the most about living in the Capital District? I love the people I’ve gotten to know through the orchestra. Those who don’t know Albany don’t understand what an incredibly rich and culturally sophisticated public we have here. What do you like the least about living in the Capital District? I’m a huge fan of the region; I don’t have anything negative to say about it. With all the extreme weather and storms in other parts of the country, I keep awaiting mass migrations here.

What’s the vacation spot you love returning to the most? My wife’s family has a little cabin on “I would love a pond in Maine. We love to go for a week or to be able to two; it’s magical. Where in the world would you dance like still like to travel? I’d love to see the art deco in Fred Astaire.”

24 518 LIFE

Belgium. Of all the western European countries, it’s the only one I haven’t visited. Describe your childhood in one word. Joyful. What music do you listen to in your car? My car’s littered with CDs, mainly pieces I’m working on or want to get to know better. I also listen to the folk-rock of my youth: Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor.

Which person in history would you most like to have met? Beethoven. I have a lot of questions for him, like, ‘Did you really mean for people to play the last movement of your Third Symphony that fast?’

What historical event do you wish you had been a part of? I would love to have been at the founding of the United States.

John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and General Washington were fascinating people. What’s your favorite way to spend a spring day in the upstate region? My older son, Elias, and I love to climb the High Peaks.

What’s your favorite time of year in the Capital District? I used to equate fall with death, but as my East Coast wife Andrea elucidated for me, it’s not death but sleep, and everything wakes up in the spring. With your Grammy win, are ASO fans worried you’ll be whisked away to a larger city?

No one’s worried. The award was the ultimate validation of what we do; it doesn’t make me more valuable, but the orchestra as a whole.

For us to achieve something so fabulous, with a fraction of the budgets of larger cities, is a real statement. What is your proudest achievement? After our three children, it’s taking the ASO to Carnegie Hall. Like the Grammy, it was about validating the quality and value of the orchestra. What’s your favorite Saturday morning breakfast? It’s the same every day: A mixed bowl of many different cereals with tons of fruit and yogurt on top. But I do have a favorite Saturday ritual: The Troy Farmers Market. Where is your favorite place to retreat when you want to unplug? Washington Park is great for walking ... it’s where I get my 40 minutes of cardio. What’s your favorite spot to people-watch?

I like to sit in the courtyard of First Church on North Pearl Street. If you had to describe yourself in one word, what would it be? Inquisitive. What motto do you try to live by? Treat everybody with great kindness and humility. Which living person do you most admire? My wife Andrea [Oser]. She just knows what to do all the time.

I don’t know where she learned everything about how to manage every possible situation, but she is extraordinarily wise. How would you like to be remembered? As someone who brought joy to other people.

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ON WESTERN AVENUE WHERE THE NORTHWAY BEGINS.

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The Changing Face

Francis Sengabo

Izolina Makhatadze

Hualing Chen

Vicky Weston

How globalization is changing our ethnic mix

BY CHRIS CHURCHILL |

F

PHOTOS BY COLLEEN INGERTO

or decades, as the rest of the country grew dramatically more ethnically and racially diverse, the Capital Region was an outlier. The newest waves of immigrants found other places to live — mostly metro areas with better and more dynamic economies.

But no longer.

The region is now being transformed by an influx of immigrants who are changing the face of the region, influencing the way we eat, shop — and perhaps even think. These newest Capital Region residents are as diverse as the world, as are the stories and reasons that brought them to upstate New York, yet nearly everyone agrees that the area’s more vibrant economy, especially in the high-technology sector, is a driving force for the change.

Consider the numbers: From 2000 to 2012, the area’s Asian population climbed 84.6 percent as the Hispanic population surged by 94.1 percent, according to a Capital District Regional Planning Commission analysis of census data. The region’s non-Hispanic white

26 518 LIFE

population, meanwhile, was essentially stagnant during the period, meaning that nearly all of the area’s growth is attributable to increases among minority groups.

For many of the area’s new immigrants, the Capital Region is not their first home in the United States. “Most of the area’s immigration growth is from people moving north from New York City,” says Rocco Ferraro, executive director at the planning commission.

Yet many of the newcomers defy the most common immigrant stereotypes. Tired, huddled masses? Not quite.

A 2011 Brooking Institution study found that immigrants to the Capital Region are relatively high skilled and well educated. Indeed, census data shows that 24 percent of the region’s foreign population has a graduate-level degree. These are people, then, who could chose to go anywhere — and they’re choosing to come here.

“The immigrant that people tend to talk about is the low-skilled immigrant,” says Matthew Hall, author of the Brookings report.

“What we tried to show is that the immigrant population is more diverse than that.”

The high education levels of immigrants to the Capital Region should reduce the commonly heard fear that the newcomers unduly burden social service providers. But it might intensify fears that immigrants are taking jobs that would otherwise go to native workers.

The report from Brookings, a Washington think tank, also says that more immigrants live in the U.S. than at any time in the nation’s history, while the foreign-born population is approaching levels not seen since the early parts of the 20th century.

The Capital Region has 58,000 foreignborn residents, the census says, equal to nearly seven percent of the overall population.

Among that group, 5,136 are from India, making it the most common country of birth, followed by China, with 5,160 residents, and Guyana, with 3,555.

Many of those immigrants are also defying stereotypes by foregoing urban locations to instead settle in suburbia. Just look at Niska-

of the Capital Region

Pradip Singh

yuna, where 8.1 percent of the population is Asian, according to the 2010 Census, a percentage only topped in the Capital Region by the 13.2 percent of Asian residents in the village of Menands.

But urban centers remain the most confronted by the challengers of growing migrant populations. The Schenectady City School District, for example, is attended by students who collectively speak 30 different languages at home. Many of those children arrive at school speaking little or no English, placing them at an educational disadvantage from the get-go. But while those students eventually learn English, that’s not always the case for their parents — meaning that communicating with those at home is often the most difficult challenge for the district, says Superintendent Laurence Spring.

“We put out a lot of paper,” Spring says.

“And getting everything we put out translated into 30 languages isn’t practical.”

But Spring also describes the district’s diversity as an opportunity for its students. In an economy that’s increasingly global, they’re better prepared, he believes, for the broad range of cultures they’ll encounter later in life.

Rifat Filkins

Florian Richter

Now, while a regional economy that has expanded beyond its state-government roots is a factor in the arrival of new immigrants, it might also be true that that diversity will in turn benefit the economy.

Some researchers, including influential economist Richard Florida, argue that many of the workers (of all ethnicities) who drive economic growth want to live where there’s diversity and, more importantly, tolerance. Those people, Florida says, migrate to places that seem more culturally exciting and interesting.

“The creative class people I study use the word (diversity) a lot,” Florida writes in The Rise of the Creative Class, his 2002 book. “Diversity is something they value in all its manifestations.”

Another argument contends that a diverse global economy is best navigated by companies with a workforce that understands and is comfortable with different cultures — meaning that a company that wants to sell a product in India, for example, would seem to benefit by employing workers familiar with the country’s culture.

To be sure, despite the region’s recent changes, the Capital Region remains, by

Gail Brand

any measure, one of the least ethnically diverse of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Nearly 84 percent of residents here are white, according to the census, a percentage that climbs to 94 percent in Saratoga County.

Roughly eight percent of the region’s population is black, while three percent is Asian and another four percent is Hispanic.

Compare this Tech Valley, then, to the remarkable diversity of California’s Silicon Valley, where just 39 percent of the population is white and non-Hispanic.

Ferraro, at the Regional Planning Commission, says he always found the Capital Region’s lack of diversity surprising, given its proximity to the polyglot New York City metropolitan area. But it’s clear, he says, that economic forces are driving diversity increases that are likely to continue in future years.

The Capital Region, he predicts, will increasingly look much more like the rest of America.

We talked to some Capital Region newcomers about their experience transitioning from their home countries to the U.S.  518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 27

PROFILES BY BRIANNA SNYDER |

PHOTOS BY COLLEEN INGERTO

Hualing Chen FROM: China MOVED IN: 2011 LIVES IN: Ballston Lake

B

ack home in Xi’an, China, Hualing Chen worked as a project coordinator at a nonprofit.

She quit her job, though, when her husband was hired as a senior engineer at Applied Materials in Albany. Chen’s daughter, Jinyu Zhou, was 6 when the family arrived here in 2011. Chen had never lived or been anywhere else, she says.

“This year, I’m trying to find a job because my daughter is getting older,” Chen says. But she’s having a hard time finding full-time work in her field. Mostly, she gets volunteer gigs. She enjoys them, though. “I like talking to people,” she says.

“

Our country is very competitive. But here it’s very, very easy.

”

When Jinyu isn’t in school, Chen helps her with her homework and with her English and Chinese. She also cooks for the family.

She finds the cost of vegetables is higher here than in China. But, “If you cook at home here, you can live very cheap.”

“I also like exercise. Here, the air climate is very good compared with my country,” Chen says. “In China, pollution is very severe.

Here, I like running, I like walking, I like jogging, I like hiking, every day.” Chen says her husband is happy with the air quality and the education. “Our country is very competitive.

We have to study very, very hard. But here it’s very, very easy. It’s comfortable.”

Less easy is transportation, one of Chen’s biggest challenges when the family first arrived. “Public transportation is very, very bad,” she says. She couldn’t get places easily; she needed a car and a driver’s license.

It took her three tries, she says, but she did finally pass a driving test and now she’s happily licensed.

But she misses her family and her job back in China.

“We had a lot of friends before I came to America,” she says. Chen has a lot of friends here, too. “Most American people, they are kind.”  28 518 LIFE

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Francis Sengabo FROM: Rwanda MOVED IN: 2007 LIVES IN: Albany

F

rancis Sengabo spent more than a decade in a Tanzanian refugee camp.

He got clearance to be resettled in the U.S. and arrived in March 2007.

“I knew I was going to the United States but I remember [at the airport] I saw my bag and it said ‘ALB,’” Sengabo says. He laughs.

“I thought it was Alabama.”

Sengabo grew up in Rwanda. In college, he studied economics and worked in the department of planning. This was in the ’90s — right as the Rwandan civil war and genocide began, leaving millions of people slaughtered.

Sengabo fled to Tanzania in 1994 and lived among 400,000 other refugees until he found clearance to come here.

It was in the refugee camp that Sengabo learned his father had been killed — four years earlier. That was devastating.

“Every family lost at least one person,” he says. “And of course there were people who I can say their whole family were killed.”

Sengabo was active in the refugee camp.

“We organized a system of education where kids can go to school in the camps,” he says.

There were dozens of high schools and elementary schools, and Sengabo served as principal of one of them. It was also during this time that he met his wife, Justine, who is Congolese. The couple has three children — one born here in 2010.

When they first moved to the U.S., Sengabo says he didn’t know English. His native language is Kinyarwanda and he was also taught French, but English was new for him. He got help from a resettlement agency to find housing and get established in Albany. “When we got to the apartment, everything was there,” he says and laughs again. “I went in the cabinet and I grabbed a package. I saw ‘hot dog’ and I said, ‘Nuh-uh, we don’t eat dog.’ We put it in the garbage.”

“

When you are running from your country without anything, you leave everything.

Sengabo now works at the Refugees & Immigration Support Services of Emmaus, Inc. (RISSE), helping newcomers get driver’s licenses, apartments, jobs and skills. He helps facilitate childcare and English-immersion classes, too. He says the outpouring of support in the community for RISSE has been substantial: they’ve had donations of books,

computers, mattresses, shoes, clothes, pots and pans, and anything else you could think of or need.

“I miss home very much,” he says. “It will be 20 years since I left.

“I tell people who never experienced war in their country that it is a radical change. When you are running from your country without anything, you leave everything. You cannot

”

go back to your house. People who are vulnerable become more vulnerable.”

Sengabo says his education has kept him strong and employed. He wants to write a book. And he believes passionately in education. “I tell American people that this is a country for people who went to school,” he says. “For those who didn’t go to school, it’s hard for them to start lives here.”  518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 31

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Rifat Filkins FROM: Pakistan MOVED IN: 2009 LIVES IN: Albany

“I

came from a small village where women do not have that much opportunity, especially regarding education,” says Rifat Filkins.

She was born in Martinpur, located in rural Pakistan. “But I went to city schools and I finished my master’s degree in education and in history.”

After Filkins finished her education, she went back to her village to become principal of the school there. She says that over the course of 10 years the school made “a huge difference in society.”

“The population of that village is living under the poverty level,” Filkins says.

“Americans cannot even imagine the living style over there.”

Because Filkins had done such great work in Martinpur, her father’s uncle, who lived here in the States, encouraged her to immigrate to Albany to help run a program with a church. The pastor of her great uncle’s parish had begun running a program for immigrants and “she was looking for somebody to help her,” Filkins says. “She was exhausted.”

“

Americans cannot even imagine the living style over there.

”

That was in 2009. Filkins was alone in a strange place and didn’t speak English. “Language was the biggest issue when I came,” she says. “I was so scared. Sometimes I would have headaches because I was just thinking too much. First you have to hear very, very closely what someone is saying to you. Then you have to think to translate it in your mind.

Then you have to think about what you want to answer. And then you have to translate that into English. So it was like that all the time. I was tired. I was scared. I’m telling you. Talking on the phone for me was like, ‘I’m gonna die.’” Filkins laughs.

“It was a big challenge even to do my job in the beginning due to language barriers,” Filkins adds. “But the pastor, family and church friends were very supportive and helped me to understand things which were new for me.”

In 2011, Filkins met her husband, an American. And just this past year she had her first baby, Alyssa. She now speaks English very well, and her program is thriving.

“I work for this program, which is for refugees and immigrants, just the way I was pouring my heart and soul for my passion in Mar-

tinpur,” she says. “I am doing the same thing over here for this program because I believe that education is the key. These people are in difficult situations but education is going to help them get out of that situation — and with our help they can live a better life.” 

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 33

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Gail Brand FROM: Scotland MOVED IN: 2011 LIVES IN: Wilton

W

hen Gail Brand and her husband moved here from Scotland in March 2011, “it was baptism by snow,” she says. Their flight got delayed by a major snowstorm — a nice introduction to the area.

The Brands were both hired at GlobalFoundries and moved to Malta with their two young children, now 8 and 9.

“Our kids love it,” she says. “The schools are great and the YMCA has a great beforeand after-school program. It’s a big advantage because it’s quite a short school day here.”

(School runs longer in Scotland, till about 3:30 or 4, she says.)

Brand says the move overseas was eased by help from relocation agents they used through GlobalFoundries. “Our relocation agent supported us really well in getting everything set up and the documentation and getting the kids enrolled in schools, even down to a driving test, license, things we didn’t think about,” she says.

“There’s a lot of bureaucracy to work through.”

How do Americans respond to Brand’s heavy Scottish accent? “They tend to love it,” she says. Still, there’s a bit of a language barrier.

The Scottish accent is thick and terminology varies for common items: bugs are “beasties,” “sweeties” are candy, “crisps” are chips, and so on. The Brands have learned to slow down when they’re speaking so that Americans can better understand what they’re saying.

But, “we went home at Christmas and it was nice to be around people who sound like us,” she says, laughing.

Grocery shopping also took some getting used to, she says. Different brands are on the shelves and there aren’t any places to get Scottish food.

“I miss vegetables,” Brand says. “I miss going to a restaurant and having at least a third of the plate be vegetables. Here, you’re lucky to have vegetables at all.

“

We had some real wacky experiences with yogurt being bright purple and bright pink.

“I find a lot of the food to be particularly salty and for the kids there’s a lot of color. At first, we had some real wacky experiences with yogurt being bright purple and bright pink and the kids eating them and being really hyper. Now we know which brands not to buy.”

Brand says she misses her family back in Scotland, but loves the Capital Region and plans to spend a long time here. They love

seeing shows at SPAC, going to Lake George, Lake Placid, Cape Cod, and having barbecues with neighbors and friends.

“We’re pretty social,” she says. “I wouldn’t have said that before but then we came out here and you tend to make a family out of friends,” she says. “You have to because you don’t have anyone here.”

These are just a few of the Capital Region’s newest immigrants. Go to timesunion.com to read more people’s stories, plus the Times Union’s coverage on the Changing Face of the Capital Region.

While there you can check out our video and slideshows. Or join us on Facebook and tell us: What’s your family’s history?

How did you get to the Capital Region?

And what do you like about it here?

”

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 35

Book Swap!

Little Free Libraries let you share books 24/7

BY CARI SCRIBNER |

M

PHOTO BY SHARON JICHA MACNEIL

ost of us have swapped books with friends or family. Now you can share books with your neighbors anytime you want. All you need is a Little Free Library.

Little Free Libraries began as a grassroots effort in Madison, Wisc. Rick Brooks, a cultural anthropologist, is a co-founder of the movement, which now encompasses more than 50,000 Little Free Libraries across 60 countries.

Sponsors build or buy a good-sized wooden box with a window, resembling a large, sturdy bird house with a glass door that closes securely. They place the box on a wooden stand and put it up in the front of their home where foot traffic passes by, and stock it with about 50 adult and/or children’s books. Then, they wait for reading enthusiasts to discover it.

“They’ve been very popular and of all the things I’ve accomplished in life, this is the greatest,” Brooks says. “We get 100 to 150 cropping up new each week.”

Principles of traditional libraries include the return policy, in which books are borrowed for a set period of time. With the Little Free Library, however, the reader determines how long he keeps the book — even if the answer is forever.

Catherine Grossman of Niskayuna put up her Little Free Library (see photo below) in 2012 when her husband Michael gave it to her for a Mother’s Day gift. Their three chil-

dren, Jack, 12, Lucy, 11, and Ellie, 9, are avid readers and Grossman wanted to encourage their love of books.

“My kids recommend their favorites and I put them out for other children to take,” Grossman says.

The family’s Little Free Library sits on the edge of their front lawn, with a nice wooden bench and two quaint children’s Adirondack chairs meant for sitting and browsing.

They purchased their library box through the nonprofit organization (see sidebar).

Theirs is a tidy space housing adult’s titles by well-known authors such as Wally Lamb and Nora Roberts, as well as an impressive assortment of children’s tomes from writers such as Dr. Seuss. At other times, they may stock craft and recipe books or magazines including Rolling Stone.

“We try to put in books people always wanted to read,” Grossman says. “I go out and check it every day and organize it, and to see what’s been taken out and what’s new.”

That’s the reciprocal element of the Little Free Libraries: families are also welcome to leave their favorite books for others to enjoy.

“People have been very generous with the books they leave,” Grossman says.

Hosting a Little Free Library includes a social element, with neighbors stopping by to check out the library. “Sometimes I look outside and there’s a whole family out there; the kids sitting reading in the chairs, the parents

How to start your Little Free Library

1

3

4

5

7

9

Decide where you are going to put the library and who will care for it.

Decide if you want to build or purchase your library box.

Those bought through the organization range in price from $175 for a very basic structure to $1,000 for a fancier box made of cedar.

You can also try repurposing something that already has a door and space for books inside.

Try a wooden chest, a bread box, a used kitchen cabinet, a toolbox or just about anything else for a Little Free Library.

Be creative.

There are no requirements for what a library has to look like.

Contact the organization for a steward’s packet and charter sign, (which are included if you purchase your box).

Tell your friends, family and neighbors and ask them to spread the word.

8

Once your library has been installed, celebrate with a grand opening ceremony.

Inset Photo courtesy BookusBinder/Flickr.

2 At least 1 person should check the library to be sure it is appropriately stocked, clean & inviting.

6 If you build your own library, check out the builder’s page online for tips.

Stock your Little Free Library.

on the bench, the dog resting by their side,” Grossman says. “It’s just so wonderful to see it being used.”

Liz Bailey, who’s a school librarian for the Shenendehowa School District, asked her husband Jim to build her a box for a Little Free Library last summer. Jim Bailey went to town, constructing a box that’s a mini-replica of their home, complete with a green shingled roof and white wood siding. They even placed a wooden stool by the box for pint-sized readers to reach inside. During the winter, Jim Bailey keeps the area accessible with a snow blower and shovel.

Since their home sits at a crossroads, they placed their little library on the outside corner of their property, convenient for people from all four directions to access it. There’s also a school bus stop on the corner, bringing lots of patrons on their way to and from school.

Since Liz works with school students, the Bailey’s library box only features children’s books, ranging from Sesame Street to Heidi to Nancy Drew volumes. “As a librarian, I always want to promote literacy,” Liz Bailey says. “The best part of this is that there are no strings attached; it’s there for anyone to use.”

The little libraries are also open 24/7. “I’ve seen people come at night with flashlights,” Jim Bailey says with a laugh.

The couple says they originally stocked the box, but now people add their own favorite books. “After the first month, it filled itself up,” Liz Bailey says. “It’s amazing how a small seed of an idea can grow to make a difference in so many lives. We just love it.”

10

For more information or to find a Little Free Library near you, log on to littlefreelibrary.org.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 37

When Worlds

Collide The Gilmores and their place of rural serenity

BY BRIANNA SNYDER PHOTOS BY VINCENT GIORDANO

F

rank Gilmore fell in love with this (then) tattered old 18thcentury Dutch house the first time he saw it, 40 years ago.

“One day, I drove into this historic hamlet down a dirt road [in Glen, N.Y.] and there was a 100-foot-long English barn and a tangle of undergrowth not far from it,” he says. “I fell in love with the barn and went back several times. I finally peeked into the undergrowth and found an old shell of a historic farmhouse that had collapsed into its foundation.

And so began the love affair.”

In the decades following, Gilmore has transformed the house into a place of preservation and modernism. It’s no surprise the home is both stylish and sophisticated: Gilmore is a world-renowned architect. He’s a partner of Stracher, Roth, Gilmore Architects in Schenectady. That firm has done work on Proctors, the Albany International Airport, the Rensselaer train station, and more. And in the 1970s, Gilmore worked with a British team of architects in Tehran.

It was there he collected many gorgeous antique rugs, which you’ll find all over his home.

“I always had a most passionate devotion to the artistry of antique Oriental carpets,” he says. “I loved them.” 

 Frank Gilmore & Mary D’AlessandroGilmore

When Frank was designing the house, he wanted to keep as much original structure and wood in place as possible, but very little was actually restorable.

The dining room (pictured on the next page) is the only room with the original wide-plank flooring, but the spirit of the original 1850 home lives on in the details: upstairs are exposed beams (facing page) and low windows, which provide a clear sense of the 19thcentury design.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 39

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Gilmore and his wife Mary — the couple were married about four years ago — own another home in the Stockade in Schenectady, where they spend most of the year. (For a long time, this Glen home had just been Frank’s space.)

One note about this house is that it’s isolated and right at the heart of a burgeoning Amish community. Horses and buggies regularly drive up and down the gravely street, and a schoolhouse sits just a few hundred yards from the home. (Gilmore often pays Amish workers for help with various tasks, such as gardening.)

Though one of the home’s principal charms is that it’s a country house a half-hour away from the city, Frank and Mary decided they needed to be closer to their jobs. “When we moved in together many years ago we decided that we needed a house in Schenectady,” Frank says. “And Mary didn’t want to spend a lot of time out here because it was dusty and cluttered. But then we decided we were going to make it something she liked as much as I love it.”

“And I’m afraid you love it almost as much as I do now, don’t you?,” he says to Mary,

“The greenhouse allows sunlight to pour in,” Frank says. It’s all part of a passive solar design, which he included in the home when he designed it. The greenhouse captures eastern and southern sunlight and heats the house. (The second floor doesn’t even need any supplemental heat, thanks to this design.) “Because the basement is open and all concrete, a lot of the warmth from the sun is stored and it starts a convection loop, with warm air rising up,” he says.

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Another focal point of the home is the staircase: Originally it was just a center staircase, Frank says, but it was gone, dilapidated. The half-landing stairs he put in are blocky, white and blank, and sharply angled. They’re loudly contemporary.

“When you introduce contemporary style with antiques it makes the antiques pop, whereas if it’s all one era you don’t have any distinction,” says Mary. “That contemporary piece adds to the charm.”

who nods and smiles. “Frank had a collection of projects and furniture here,” she says. “It was in need a woman’s touch. So we disposed of a lot and stored a lot.” Frank also collects antiques, and the house is largely furnished with them. Those furnishings add a stark and fantastic juxtaposition to the recently redone kitchen, which has a unique geometrical shape and abuts a twostory indoor greenhouse.

Frank is also a painter and his work hangs throughout the

house. One of his pieces hangs over the mantel and captures the light and tempestuous climate of Glen. Because it’s in a valley, the weather can be dramatic and storms abound. The painting evokes that lovely mood of late, rainy summer, with the thunderclouds rolling in.

“The reason I originally bought this place was because of the unspoiled nature of the Mohawk Valley,” says Frank. “And the fact that everywhere you looked was a watercolor painting.”

For more pictures of this gorgeous home, go to 518LifeMagazine.com

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 43

Gardening Simplified

BY KERRY ANN MENDEZ

What’s Growing?

T

he times they are a-changing. It was quite the eye-opener when I read the 219-page report on 2014 Garden Trends compiled by the national Garden Writers Association, an organization to which I belong. This report covers both gardening and lifestyle trends.

Let’s start with what’s happening inside the home, which is having an impact on what is happening in the landscape. Women are on the move, and it’s not just to get dinner on the table! Surveys show that 40 percent of

women are now the primary income earners in households with children under age 18 and that WINKS (Women with Incomes and No Kids) account for 20 percent of all home sales. Young, single women are turning the real estate market topsy-turvy, representing one-third of the growth in all real estate ownership since 1994. Twenty-four percent of wives earn more than their husbands. Not surprisingly, more men are staying home as Mr. Moms. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of stay-at-home dads has

doubled in the past decade. Impressively, studies also indicate that younger fathers (ages 18 to 34) are also spending more time getting down and dirty with the kids in the garden.

Women gardeners still outnumber men, but the gap is closing. All in all, the survey finds that parenting is more outdoorsy, playful, and risk taking with hands-off problem solving.

Surveys also show that gardening is on the upswing in America, especially in the area of homegrown foods. The percentage of do-ityourself gardeners increased for the second

Some other interesting trends Single colors in containers are becoming fashionable.

Elegance reigns with white as a top color pick. Also trendy are monochromatic or two color themes in outdoor entertainment spaces (i.e., white and black).

44 518 LIFE

Some striking black flowering plants include Queen of Night and Black Parrot Tulips; Arabian Night Dahlia, Black Velvet Petunia, Bowles Black Pansy, and Hollyhock Nigra.

Composting and sustainable practices

continue to be on the rise, as is recycling and buying local.

Conserving water is no longer an afterthought.

Surveys show 28 percent of gardeners used more mulch to reduce evaporation, 17 percent planted

drought-tolerant plants and another 15 percent used highly-efficient, drip irrigation. And rain barrels are capturing more than just water; over 12 percent of gardeners now use these.

Perennial sales increased by 10 percent

in the past ten years while annual purchases dropped by 10 percent.

Annuals that did have a market increase in 2012 were viola, pansy, begonia, New Guinea impatiens and petunias. Annual geraniums were down. Foliage

plants (indoor and out) were one of the biggest surprises, capturing almost 20 percent of all plant sales (coming in second behind annuals and garden plants).

Bee-neficials are the buzz. More gardeners are planting natives

Photos: Flowers,Proven Winners; Carrots, Baker Creek Seed Company.

Garden and lifestyle trends for 2014

Changing the quality of your life!

year in a row. Edible landscaping is the hottest growth segment.

And we’re not just talking tomatoes and green beans. Trendy foods include purple asparagus, tomatillos, dandelions (gasp!), kale and Cosmic Purple carrots.

Gardeners are also thinking outside the traditional garden plot. Why garden in the ground when you can use a straw bale, pile of leaves or rain gutters?

Simple straw bales make great, eco-friendly containers for growing seeds, veggies and flowers.

Recycle rain gutters by spray painting them bright colors and attaching them to the side of your garden shed. Make sure to drill some holes in them for good drainage and then plant away. And don’t tell me it never occurred to you to use that pile of leaves you raked in the fall to grow potatoes, onions or other root crops?

Growing veggies in containers? Yawn. Now berries, that’s cool. Hybridizers are now shrinking berry bushes so these perennials can be grown year-round in pots by the average gardener.

New compact versions of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and currants offer a whole new

in their yards plus moving away from using chemicals.

The new Millennials have changed the way gardeners make their purchases. It’s all about fingertip shopping with hightech mobile apps and

spin to patio gardening. The Brazelberries Collection (brazelberries.com) has recently captured a lot of attention for its attractive, high-yield plants. Another outstanding superfruit for its high antioxidants and other potential health benefits is Sweet Lifeberry Goji Berry (Lycium barbarum).

Yummy, extra-sweet, bright red berries cover the plant in summer.

And more folks are drinking their gardens — blending fruits, veggies and herbs for delicious and healthy concoctions, many are also antioxidant rich. Groothies is a new term for Green Smoothies, a blend of homegrown garden fruit, leafy veggies and strawberries. When Happy Hour arrives, entertain guests by whipping up some blackberry mojitos, cranberry-lemongrass martinis or pomegranate margaritas. Amy Stewart recently wrote The Drunken Botanist, which explores hundreds of plants that are fermented, distilled, macerated, infused, mixed, and otherwise made into drinks. She’s my kind of lady!

Kerry Ann Mendez is a passionate gardener, designer and author of three gardening books. For more info visit pyours.com.

Internet research. Overthe-fence advice from your neighbor has been bumped by YouTube, Twitter and gardening websites. Sniff.

The GWA’s garden trends research covers lots of other fascinating areas that may surprise

and amuse you. For information on how to order your own copy, visit gardenwriters.org, click on GWA Foundation and then Garden Trend Surveys. Enjoy the read with a blueberry ginger bellini in your garden-gloved hand.

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BY ELIZABETH FLOYD MAIR PHOTO BY JENNIFER WADDELL

P

ortrait photographer and single mother Jennifer Waddell realized she needed to switch rooms with her two kids and give them the room that was a bit larger.

This was a year ago, when the twins, Violet and Ralphie, were 7 and in second grade. It was time, Waddell decided, for each of them to have, if not a room, at least a space of their own.

“I wanted to find a way, even in our small apartment,” Waddell says, “to give them each a space that no one else would have any say over.”

The two bedrooms in their Boston apartment were about the same square footage, but one offered more possibilities for sharing.

Until then the twins had been in bunk beds in a room that was 9 x 12 feet. Waddell switched Violet and Ralphie into the room (12 x 12) that had been hers, and outfitted it with two loft beds placed on adjoining walls. Waddell helped the children hang curtains from the beds for privacy, and encouraged them to decorate the spaces as they liked.

This new arrangement, she says, “doubles our floor space. A bed takes up such a lot of room.”

When the twins wake up in the morning or come home from school, Waddell says, those cozy spaces beneath the beds — she describes them as “like tree forts inside the house” — are the first place they go.

Violet’s is orderly and features personal items hanging from the bed that include toy dragons and several metal Volkswagen emblems (for her initials, VW). Ralphie’s space is more rough-and-tumble, his mother says (“He’s messier, like me”), with Legos and army men scattered over the floor.

And talk about space-saving: the beds also serve as an indoor jungle gym. “They’re sturdy,” Waddell explains, “and Violet and Ralphie like to hang upside-down from them.”

With Waddell’s innovations as a starting place, we asked several local experts for their suggestions about ways to maximize space in small children’s bedrooms.

48 518 LIFE

Our experts weigh in: Erika Gallagher, co-owner of Plum & Crimson Fine Interior Design in Saratoga Springs 

To allow for a desk area in a tight space, consider a work surface that hinges to flip up or down. And wall-mounted baskets can add more storage

for toys, sports gear, & school supplies.

Use a continuous color on the floor, walls, and ceiling to make a room feel larger.

Cooler colors (blues, greens, lavender, grays) can make a room feel larger. These colors recede visually, creating the illusion of a bigger space.

Check out more photos of Violet and Ralphie’s room online at 518LifeMagazine.com

Laurie Michaels Cerrone, designer and owner of LM Interiors in Clifton Park 

Maximize closet storage by using part of the space as a concealed workstation for homework or crafts (be sure to place the desk at the child’s height).

Hang decorative coat racks at the child’s height for additional storage.

Create an area where kids can display their artwork. Select and

measure an area on the wall. Paint it with dry erase board paint, chalkboard paint, or magnetic paint, and frame it out with simple trim.

To create more floor space, keep storage up high but still within reach, she says. For instance, instead of a bookcase on the floor, hang open shelving for books on the wall.

Wide stripes painted on the walls draw the eye upward and can make a room feel larger, as can floor-toceiling bookshelves.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 49

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Afiyet olsun!

BY STEVE BARNES |

I

ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY JAHN

n less than three miles, from Lark Street to the Colonie town line, Central Avenue in Albany is home to about 75 restaurants and the cuisine of 18 nations.

From the Indian and Middle Eastern fare at Aashiana to the eponymous pies at Yankees Pizzeria, and from the takeout stews at Breakthrough African Market to the beef-tongue tacos at Mexican Market, the food along Central is the Capital Region’s most diverse.

There’s even a late-night diner, Portelli’s Joe N’ Dough Café, that serves devotees of the demimonde — which is to say drunks after the bars

Douzo Meshiagare!

Guten Appetit!

Travel the world at area ethnic eateries close — quintessentially American creations such as The Kitchen Sink Burger; it boasts a beef patty, peanut butter, bacon, cheddar and, as the bun, two glazed doughnuts.

Central Avenue is a microcosm of the changing face of ethnic cuisine in our area. Though the change can be noticed and quantified, it remains modest and slow: The Capital Region is home to just one sit-down restaurant featuring cuisine from all of the African continent, one from Central America and three from South America. In contrast, the Yellow Pages list 95 Italian restaurants in the four core Capital Re-

gion counties, and over nine months in 2012 and 2013 a half-dozen pan-Asian/sushi/hibachi restaurants opened or were announced as under development despite that niche already being overcrowded.

Although technically ethnic, Italian and Chinese restaurants are so ubiquitous that they seem, well, American. Chinese restaurants alone outnumber U.S. locations of Subway, McDonald’s and Domino’s combined. And Italian’s popularity is eternal; the playwright Neil Simon once joked that the world has only two constants — the law of gravity and “Ev-

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erybody likes Italian food.”

But as the demographics of the Capital Region change with the influx of people from around the world, the restaurant scene follows. Tango Restaurant Bar & Grill in Albany, which features the cuisine of owner Alejandro Morales’s native Uruguay, opened in November. A Turkish restaurant, Istanblue, debuted in Saratoga Springs last year because owner Resul Yalcin missed the food from his home country, and a Moroccan-Indian couple, Muntasim Shoaib and Aneesa Waheed, have had a hit on their hands since opening the Moroccan-themed Tara Kitchen in Schenectady two years ago.

“It’s incredibly different today,” says Donna Purnomo, whose Indonesian-born chefhusband, Yono, started serving bakmi goreng, a stir-fried-noodle dish, when the couple took over 21 Restaurant in Albany in 1983.

(They changed the name to Yono’s when relocating in 1986.

Yono’s remains open, in its third location, in downtown Albany.)

Purnomo says, “You couldn’t even buy fresh ginger then. It seemed like everything was meat and potatoes.”

“It’s really about education and awareness first — for [restaurateurs] and customers,” says David Brough, dean of the School of Hotel, Culinary Arts and Tourism at Schenectady County Community College. “Then it becomes about marketing. People need to know what’s out there and need to be convinced that they’ll like it.”

Jaime Ortiz is corporate executive chef of Scotia-based Mazzone Hospitality, which owns six restaurants, runs the area’s largest catering operation and manages food service for businesses, including Price Chopper’s headquarters in Schenectady and the GlobalFoundries factory in Malta. (The cafeteria there has a busy Asian station in a nod to the plant’s many international employees.) Ortiz traces the longtime conservatism of the area

food scene to Albany’s dominant employers, education and government, which provide middleclass incomes for people raising families but generally not the sort high-paying jobs for younger, more food-adventurous people who help drive the culinary scene in Manhattan, Seattle and San Francisco.

Further, Ortiz says, given the high failure rate of restaurants, with 80 percent being closed or sold within five years of opening, people who go into the business still believe it less risky to try a proven concept such as pan-Asian/ sushi/hibachi — or Italian, which is where Ortiz’s boss, Angelo Mazzone, got his start in the 1970s.

“I’d love to see an Ethiopian restaurant. It’s one of my favorite ways to eat,” says Ortiz. “I’m not ready to risk Angelo’s money on something like that yet. Things are changing, but change is always a risk.”

That’s why the area’s new ethnic restaurants tend to be small, family-run operations that are often the outgrowth of market or catering business that became popular. The owners of Tara Kitchen were encouraged to open a restaurant by fans who tried food they sold at the Schenectady Greenmarket. Maria Lloyd and her family opened La Empanada Llama in Albany in June 2013 after five years of rave reviews at farmers markets for Maria’s food from her native Peru.

And early this year, a Burmese family opened Shwe Mandalay, a restaurant featuring kyar zan gat (chicken soup with bean-thread noodles), pe’ paratha (fried pancake with beans), three kinds of fried fish for breakfast and, for dessert, khaw pote kyaw (fried sticky rice). Shwe Mandalay is located at 214 Central Ave. in Albany, taking over a space previously occupied by Cooking Pot International. Among its highlights was ackee and saltfish, the Jamaican national dish.

See more photos and read Times Union reviews of unique restaurants online at 518LifeMagazine.com

Photos in TU Archive: Turkish,Lori Van Buren; Peruvian, John Carl D'Annibale; Uruguayan, Lori Van Buren; Moroccan, Michael P. Farrell; Yono's, Michael P. Farrell; Greek, Michael P. Farrell; Latin, Skip Dickstein; Korean, Cindy Schultz; Mexican, Michael P. Farrell; Central, Luanne M. Ferris.

TURKISH

PERUVIAN

URUGUAYAN

Want to start taking a culinary tour of the world? Here are a few places to start.

ISTANBLUE, Turkish, 68 Congress St., Saratoga Springs; 581-0181 LA EMPANADA LLAMA, Peruvian, 26 Picotte Dr., Albany; 915-1887 TANGO RESTAURANT BAR & GRILL, Uruguayan, 1228 Western Ave., Albany; 454-0025 TARA KITCHEN, Moroccan, 431 Liberty St., Schenectady; 708-3485

MOROCCAN

YONO’S, Indonesian and Continental, 25 Chapel St., Albany; 436-7747

INDONESIAN & CONTINENTAL

ATHOS, Greek, 1814 Western Ave., Guilderland; 608-6400 FLAVORS OF INDIA, Indian, 244 Washington Ave., Albany; 512-4766 JAVIER'S, contemporary Latin, 17 Maple Ave., Saratoga Springs; 871-1827 KENNETH'S TASTEBUD, Caribbean, 177-179 Henry Johnson Blvd., Albany; 463-1824 KINNAREE, Korean-Japanese, 193 Lark St., Albany; 813-4944 LA MEXICANA, Mexican, 1759 State St., Schenectady; 346-1700

GREEK

MR. PIO PIO, Central American, 160 Quail St., Albany; 463-2800

CONTEMPORARY LATIN

KOREAN

MEXICAN

CENTRAL AMERICAN

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 55

Sporting Wines

STORY AND PHOTO BY ALISTAIR HGHET

Mencia

O

The rediscovered grape of Castile and Leon

ne of the more jaw-dropping experiences of recent years was stumbling into the Roman aqueduct in Segovia, a beautiful, hilltop city in the Castile and Leon region, just to the northwest of Madrid.

I suppose I had a vague sense that there was something Romanish around the town worth seeing but wasn’t looking for it. I had just finished a lunch of stewed pig’s feet — delicious — and was sauntering into a square at the foot of the hill and quite literally bumped into the aqueduct.

This is a mountain of stone. Certainly one can understand how some believed only gods could have built it. Massive, at over 93 feet in height, and consisting of 167 arches, it was constructed in the first century AD during the reign of the Emperor Domitian to transport water from the Fuente Fria river in the mountains. What no photograph can prepare you for is not only how enormous it is, but how flawless — it makes the higgledy-piggledy architecture around it, the narrow houses, and winding streets, look demented and lazy.

When the Romans put their mind to something, they really did it right.

This sparsely populated region of Spain is nothing if not a time machine. It is the Spain of romance, for certain. The city of Avila is here, with its walls, convents, shrines to St. Theresa. The religious ferment of the Restoration is palpable in the narrow stone streets.

As you drive, castles appear on hilltops, sullen and magnificent. You climb the winding road, looking down at the parched earth, the olive trees, and see a white horse galloping along-

side you. You stop to have a cup of coffee and see an odd, circular cement cone on the side of the hill. “What’s that?,” you ask. “A pill box from the war,” says the waiter, meaning an emplacement for a machine gun during the civil war of the 1930s. “Pop-pop-pop,” he says, and shrugs.

We drink wine for a lot of reasons, but for me I think the greatest pleasure is that it unites us to the river of civilization — it is the river of civilization. Wherever the Greeks went, they grew vines. The Romans too.

Wherever there is wine there is civilization, history, and a story to tell.

Anyway, this dry, agriculture region of Spain was a place to run away from for most of the 20th century, as the poor farmers left for work in the cities. As a result, a lowly, common grape that was the backbone of the wine made here — Mencia — was largely turned into light, cheap table wines for the cafes.

But recently, this delightfully complex grape is being used to make delicious, juicy and wines and at very attractive prices.

For a long time, the grape itself was thought to be a version of Cabernet Franc, but recent DNA profiling has found that it is the same varietal as the Portuguese grape, Jaen do Dao. I’ve only started to see it on shelves and have been amazed by the clarity of the fruit and the fragrance. Trust me when I tell you that your guests will love it, and ask you about it.

Bodegas Triton Avante Mencia, 2009, Castilla y Leon, ($12)

Bodegas Estefania, Tilenus, Mencia, 2005, Bierzo, ($13)

This wine is a steal at this price. Grapes are selected from all over the region and blended. Meadow and

56 518 LIFE

pine on the nose, with cloves, cinnamon, raisin, rich plum, black fruit, and ripe dark cherry, with a glossy mouthfeel and a very pleasant stony minerality that keeps it anchored.

Alistair Highet is a former editor, restaurant manager, and vinedresser, and has written about wine for over 20 years.

This was wonderful, having spent time in oak and matured.

Elegant, with luscious dark chocolate, roasted

game, savory herbs, and hints of lemon.

Clear and bright in the glass, with black cherry, plum, blueberry flavors.

Layered, and complex.

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Ride & Drive

Green Machines

BY TRACI NEAL

Photo: Alonzo Design/GettyImages

F

or car expert Frank Salamida, who’s been selling BMWs in Glenmont for nearly 30 years, the evolution of the car industry over the last decade from major polluter to environmental leader has been enormous.

As car companies like BMW continue to perfect low- to no-emission vehicles, the demand by consumers to drive one only grows.

Salamida, general sales manager of Capital Cities BMW in Glenmont, says he’s already got a hefty waiting list for BMW’s $42,000 five-door zero-emissions electric i3, available for delivery in May. “The interesting thing about this car is that it is produced with 100 percent sustainable energy,” says Salamida. “The initial factory where they make the bodies is all 100 percent hydroelectric power on Moses Lake in Washington State. Assembly is wind-powered.”

Electric cars like the i3 are by far generating the most buzz at auto shows this year.

Is an eco-friendly car in your future?

But green technology continues to include gas-electric hybrids, natural gas and hydrogen, while researchers develop even more alternatives. Even diesel has evolved from loud, smoky and smelly to an efficient alternative to gasoline, says Rick Steinmuller, sales manager of Capital Cities Volkswagen in Glenmont.

“You can hold a piece of paper up to the tailpipe and not get any smut on it,” says Steinmuller. The noise and smell are minimal and diesels such as the VW Passat can get up to 45 miles to the gallon.

By 2015, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda all plan to offer a hydrogen fuel cell car, which converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity and emits only water vapor, and California lawmakers have agreed to spend $200 million over the next decade to build 100 hydrogen fuel stations.

“We’ve had a pretty good response,” says Salamida of the BMW i3 and the company’s other environmentally friendly offerings. “Green

cars are certainly the wave of the future.”

And just about every car company offers one, says Chris Sams, a spokesman for the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association. “Everybody’s gotten in on that game,” Sams says.

If some consumers still see eco-cars as tiny tin cans that will leave them stranded with no place to plug in, Sams says, wait until they see what’s coming. “From the Nissan LEAF, an inexpensive electric car that’s loaded with technology and gets up to 260 miles on a charge, to the Cadillac ELR — pure luxury wrapped in an electric powertrain,” Sams says, “they run completely across the spectrum depending on your budget.”

Gregory Colbert, sales and leasing specialist and certified lease consultant at Destination Nissan in Albany says green initiatives and tax incentives are doing a lot to promote green cars. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced a new program in September 2013 to help fund 518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 59

Ride & Drive

research to refine and develop electric vehicle technology.

Today, more than 15 EV models are on the market and sales have doubled from 2012 to 2013, according to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and there are 7,500 public charging stations, including about 350 in New York.

“When the government got involved it changed the direction of electric cars altogether,” says Colbert.

“It was like a jumpstart to the market.”

Because of these initiatives and others, Colbert says, “The attention the Nissan LEAF is getting has changed quite a bit. We anticipated an increased demand for the car, but it’s been overwhelming.”

The average consumer spends between $200 and $400 a month on gas; the Nissan LEAF, Colbert says, costs about $60 a month to charge using electricity at home. But with the incentives being offered to businesses, hotels, apartment complexes, grocery stores and malls to install charging stations that allow customers to charge for free, that monthly fuel cost could be brought to zero, he says. New York plans to have up to 3,000 electric charging stations in place over the next five years.

The U.S. Energy Department’s Alternative Fuels Data Center offers a search and planner and a smartphone app for consumers looking for public charging stations and planning a travel route (afdc.energy. gov/fuels). “The traditional gas combustion engine has been around for 100-plus years,” he says, “so the infrastructure exists.” But it, too, had to evolve to a point that we now have a gas station on every corner.

“The infrastructure for electric cars will change as consumer demand requires it,” Colbert says.

“That part of it is a very achievable hurdle for the industry depending on the technology that ultimately the consumers want.”

Plus, the federal government currently offers tax incentives of up to $7,500 for the purchase of green cars. Car manufacturer Tesla has 60 518 LIFE

already begun installing a network of electric charging stations that can charge an EV in about 20 minutes.

Even so, some consumers still have a hard time believing electric cars are anything more than souped-up golf carts. But that couldn’t be further from the truth, says Eric Rosen, general sales manager for D’Ella Buick GMC Cadillac in Queensbury.

“The Cadillac ELR is not what you would call a small commuter plugin,” says Rosen. “It gives you the performance and luxury you’d expect from a Cadillac without having a great impact on the environment.”

For Rosen, the technology is “a new experience for us. We’re reinventing a

luxury coup where it’s not all about the raw performance of the car.”

But that doesn’t mean the car doesn’t perform, he says. “Believe me, the car performs the way someone would expect from a luxury coupe without leaving the environmental footprint other cars would leave.”

As the only ELR dealer in upstate New York, D’Ella was required to make a significant investment in the technology — installing charging stations inside and outside the dealership and training staff and salespeople in the technology and mechanics of the car. “We felt it was that important,” Rosen says. “It’s not about sales volume of the car; it’s about the impact on the environment.”

Five Reasons to Buy Green New York offers incentives to car buyers and owners, including the following, which apply with some restrictions.

See the U.S. Energy Department’s Alternative Fuels Data Center for details and qualifications (afdc. energy.gov/fuels).

1. Alternative Fuel Tax Exemption and Rate Reduction: exempts certain alternative fuels from state sales and use taxes 2. Alternative Fueling Infrastructure Tax Credit: provides up to $5,000 for alternative fuel infrastructure (fueling stations) 3. Fleet purchase vouchers: provide up to $60,000 for purchase or lease of public, private and nonprofit fleets of alternative fuel vehicles 4. E85 Fueling Infrastructure Funding: reimburses up to $35,000 to cover new biofuel dispensing installation costs

A view of one of the new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at Woodlake Apartments in Albany. The charging stations are part of a joint effort between NYSERDA and a federal and state grant program to install EV charging stations statewide for public use. Photo by Paul Buckowski /Times Union Archive

5. Alternative Fuel Vehicle and Fueling Infrastructure Funding and Technical Assistance: helps fund and provide information for fleet managers exploring adding alternative fuel vehicles and fueling stations to their fleets

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Car Repair Is Not Rocket Science …

YET

What today’s auto mechanic needs to master

T

o paraphrase Johnny Paycheck: You can take that old grease monkey image and shove it. Auto mechanics are no longer going to take the stereotypes of their profession lying down, especially not lying down under a jacked up jalopy trying to figure out why that hot oil is dripping in their eyes.

That’s because these grease mon … er, mechanics, are too busy sitting at laptops or studying computer printouts to bother with such trifling matters. Indeed, in the past two decades, the designs of cars, light trucks and SUVs have become so complicated and hightech that the profession really is more like rocket science than The Dukes of Hazzard.

Even the job description of “mechanic” has been updated to “automotive technician.”

64 518 LIFE

Why? Most new vehicles built today are rolling showrooms of computer chips, with as many as 20 interconnected microprocessors using software to control the operation of brakes, lights, transmission, catalytic converter, heating, air conditioning and, of course, stereo and GPS systems. Servicing this equipment requires the skills and expertise of computer technicians to keep the systems running the way the software intends. Sure, auto mechanics still have to play the role of Mr. Goodwrench and dive into the innards, but they better know what you’re doing before they dive.

“It’s more and more technical and the factory has more input,” says Jeff Stone, service director at Goldstein Buick GMC in Albany, which has 13 mechanics on staff. “You used

to just put in something as simple as a window motor, but now it has to be programmed to work properly.”

Jim Motavalli, a veteran journalist who covers the automotive industry, has noticed the increasingly sophisticated vehicles that he test drives and reviews in his syndicated column, “Green Wheels.” His admiration for mechanics who can keep up with the trends has grown accordingly.

“Mechanics are becoming more skilled with computers, without losing that part of the job that requires them to turn wrenches and replace parts,” says Motavalli, author most recently of High Voltage: The Fast Track to Plug in the Auto Industry. “It used to be that a mechanic would diagnose the problem by the seat of the pants, by the

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Ride & Drive

sound an engine makes, by the smell, the look of the engine.”

Though it may now take more schooling and training to be an auto mechanic, the extra time one puts in to become ASE-certified (Automotive Service Excellence) is reflected in the rising pay for up-to-date professionals. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average pay for an automotive technician is $18.21 per hour, or about $38,000 per year in the Albany area. However, top mechanics command salaries of $60,000; diagnostic technicians at high-end dealerships such as Mercedes Benz or Jaguar make upward of $80,000.

Stone says that the complexity of the profession is mostly a positive thing, though there is a downside. “It’s harder to get qualified people to be auto mechanics. It requires more training and younger kids are not entering the field as they had in the past. We need kids to come out of high school and go to technical colleges. We, the dealer, pay for hundreds of hours of training through GM. To keep mechanics up to date. We also offer webinars and virtual classrooms to keep up with the changes. And for any extensive hands-on training, we send our mechanics to a GM center in New York City.”

The Albany area has plenty of training opportunities for those who want to pursue the changing world of automotive mechanical work. The Capital Region BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) Career and Technical School, formed in 1953, is one of the Albany area’s go-to places for training in all technical fields, including computers and automotive. With an annual budget of nearly $103 million, staff of 1,200 and six different technical divisions, BOCES is open to students (high school and post-high school) in Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie and Saratoga counties.

Currently, through its regular automotive technician program and the industry-sponsored AYES (Automotive Youth Education System), BOCES has 75 students enrolled.

There are also courses for auto-body repair and heavy-duty diesel truck repair. Most courses take two years to complete, though BOCES is launching a 1-year entry-level “Maintenance & Light Repair” technician course in the fall.

“Enrollment has declined over the past few years, but is not completely attributed to a decline in interest of students as much 66 518 LIFE

as [school] districts not sending students to our programs due to budget/funding cuts,” says Brian LaCroix, automotive and AYES instructor at BOCES. “What we see with the students that come to our programs is a mix of students who know that they want to go to work as technicians after school, students who want to work in the industry but not as technicians, and some students who want to learn about cars, but are planning on pursuing a different major with their post-secondary education.”

Where to Get Trained Capital Region BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) Career and Technical School 1015 Watervliet-Shaker Road, Albany (518) 862-4744 capitalregionboces.org Hudson Valley Community College 80 Vandenburgh Avenue, Troy 518-629-4822 hvcc.edu Columbia-Greene Community College 4400 Route 23 Hudson 518-828-4181 sunycgcc.edu

One thing that LaCroix emphasizes in his classes is an improvement of what he calls his students’ “soft skills.” These include, he says, “appropriate work attire, workplace behavior and attitude, attendance and other qualities that play a vital role in the success of any student entering the workforce.”

Regardless of what program the BOCES student enters, LaCroix says that, upon successful completion of the requirements, they leave with an ASE (National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence) student certification. “Much like the certification most technicians take, however, it [ASE certification] lasts for two years and is not renewable,” he says.

“It’s designed to help a student gain employment while going to post-secondary school, or to enter the workforce to start working toward their two-year tenure requirement, set

by ASE. After a student fulfills this requirement, they can then take one of the many ASE Certification tests and become certified. One year of the tenured work experience can be

substituted for completion of a two-year automotive training program.”

Other programs in the Albany area that offer automotive technician training are Hudson Valley Community College, Columbia-Greene Community College and the Job Corps.

More good news: In an increasingly competitive economic climate, automotive technicians have one of the few jobs that can’t be outsourced to India or Mexico. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in fact, projects that between 2010 and 2020, 124,800 new auto mechanic jobs will be added to the U.S. economy.

All in all, the changes in the automotive field have been for the better. For one thing, problems no longer take forever to diagnose.

“Dealers are required to take courses. If you sell a hybrid or e-car, you have to study how to fix that model,” says Motavalli. “With independent auto shops, it’s hit or miss. But even so, you don’t have to be an expert. You are plugging a car into a data port, which then sends back a code that tells you where the trouble is located. If the problem is with the computer itself, that’s another story.”

Jeff Stone witnesses the changes every day on the shop floor at Goldstein Motors. “In some cases, the factory could come up with a software program that just requires downloading from there and clears the problem up immediately without replacing anything on the car,” he says. “For example, GM had some trucks whose mirrors fluttered at high speeds.

They sent us a new software program from the factory to download and we plugged into the GM computer, then send that download to the car’s microprocessors.”

Yes, but what if the computers are wrong?

“We’ve never had a problem with that,” says Stone. “There are glitches, of course, just like you have on your home computers when they lock up. But it’s an anomaly. To start the car is the equivalent of rebooting your home computer.”

While Stone sees the changing world of mechanics as challenging and even exciting, where every car that rolls in offers a unique set of problems to solve, young people don’t necessarily agree. “They just want to sit at home playing on the computers all the time.”

And for those who don’t want to sit at computers all day, Stone says, “We’re still doing mechanical work, we’re still lifting heavy parts.

We’re still getting greasy. It’s auto repair!”

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Ride & Drive A new concept car is unveiled during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Photo by Carlos Osorio/AP

Futurama What’s coming in car technology

BY TRACI NEAL

S

teve Mahan looks like any other guy running errands in his Toyota Prius. He is, though, a little giddy.

Who wouldn’t be, sitting behind the wheel of Google’s so-called “driverless” car, a concept Google’s been testing since 2005?

“Look Ma, no hands!” Mahon says as the steering wheel turns itself, maneuvering the modified Prius, fitted with lasers and radar and GPS technology, around parked cars and through a fast-food drive-through.

It’s not until Mahan turns into the parking lot of his dry cleaners and pulls into a stall — one painted with a big, blue wheelchair — that viewers of the Google video begin to understand what’s so remarkable about this errand trip.

“Ninety-five percent of my vision is gone,” Mahan explains, after snapping open a redtipped white cane, and tapping his way to the door. “I’m well past legally blind.”

For Mahan and others like him with injuries or disabilities that have taken their independence, a car that can drive with minimal human input is a life-changer. “It’s pretty amazing, futuristic stuff,” says Chris Sams, a spokesman for the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association. “It’s not just talk anymore.”

70 518 LIFE

With conditional nods from regulating agencies like the National Highway Safety Traffic Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation, some of the brightest minds on the planet — from organizations such as Google and the U.S. military, schools such as MIT and Stanford, and most of the major

Google has been developing autonomous car technology and lobbying for related legislation.

Photo by Eric Risberg/AP

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Ride & Drive

carmakers — are racing to get autonomous cars on the road within the next decade; some say sooner.

Google promises the cars by 2018, and Volvo says its autonomous cars will be on the road in Sweden by 2017.

Consumers are already beginning to get a peek at the technology, with stability control, blind-spot monitoring, emergency brake assist, collision warning with automatic braking among the safety innovations in the 2014 new car lineup.

“This kind of technology evolves every day,” says Eric Rosen, general sales manager at D’Ella Buick GMC Cadillac in Queensbury. “All of this safety and technology you’re seeing more and more becoming standard equipment.”

GM is developing a Cadillac that takes over Volvo says its autonomous cars will be on the road in Sweden by 2017.

Photo by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

A concept for BMW's i3 complete with eDrive that is not only locally emission-free, but also offers a nearly silent driving experience. Photo by Fabrizio Costantini/The New York Times

driving functions in certain situations, such as highway driving or bumper-to-bumper traffic. “Choosing a car is no longer about the engine and the drive train,” says Rosen. “As a sales consultant or a dealership, you really need to be tech savvy. There’s so much computer technology in these cars it’s like working at the Apple store.”

The learning curve has been steep, agrees Frank Salamida, general sales manager for Capital Cities BMW in Glenmont. Salamida, who’s worked at the dealership for nearly three decades, says BMW has pushed the envelope with its technology.

When the company introduced its eDrive system in 2001, Salamida says, drivers weren’t accustomed to that kind of technology in their cars. eDrive — or “intelligent drive,” Salamida explains — is a pod in the center console that allows the driver to access all the functions of the vehicle — entertainment, information, communication and navigation — with one touch.

“It was so far advanced from anything else people had ever seen that they struggled The Terrafugia Transition "flying car" seats two and can take off and land from more than 5,000 public U.S. airfields.

Photo by Peter Foley/Bloomberg

72 518 LIFE

with it a little bit; they said it was too complicated,” says Salamida.

BMW took that feedback and refined the system to be much more user-friendly, he says.

“As technology advances and components get smaller and less expensive, we’re beginning to see more and more technology at an amazing rate,” says Sams.

Toyota, Audi and BMW demonstrated their semi-autonomous test vehicles at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

Ford showed off its Hybrid Fusion Automated Driving Vehicle at the 2014 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

“

Nevada have already enacted similar legislation. “The future is here,” Ball said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in early February of this year said as many as 80 percent of crashes that don’t involve impaired drivers could be prevented if cars were equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems. V-2-V, which Foxx says he expects will eventually be federally mandated, allows cars to “talk” to one another and to their environment to avoid collisions.

“He stopped short of giving a date for the mandate,” says Sams.

“Let’s just say he’s very friendly to

Safety is a huge technological piece of the automobile puzzle.

The Army and Lockheed Martin showed its convoy of unmanned tanks and military trucks at Fort Hood in January.

“Safety is a huge technological piece of the automobile puzzle,” says Sams. “In the last one to two decades, technology has really taken off. Components are getting smaller and less expensive so it’s not such a stretch anymore for these types of features to be included in the average car.”

Nissan, one of the leaders in smart car technology, promises to make an autonomous LEAF available to the public by 2020.

“Nissan is far more advanced than many people give it credit for,” says Gregory Colbert, sales and leasing specialist and certified lease consultant at Destination Nissan in Albany. “[The company] has been working on this type of technology for quite a long time.”

New York Senator Greg Ball proposed legislation last year that would allow companies to test autonomous vehicles on state roadways. “This is a tremendous advancement in automobile technology,” Ball said in June 2013 when he introduced Senate Bill S4912. California, Florida and

”

the concept” of auto autonomy.

The goal is not only to make life better for people like Mahan, but to potentially save the lives of 32,000-plus people who die every year on U.S. roadways, almost all due to human error.

Autonomous cars are claimed to be much safer than cars with humans behind the wheel, and military use of unmanned vehicles promises to dramatically reduce wartime injuries and deaths caused by explosive attacks on military convoys. “We’re always looking toward the future,” says Sams of the auto industry, noting that even flying cars are no longer only the stuff of sci-fi TV. In Woburn, Mass., a company called Terrafugia is currently testing the first American street-legal airplane, the $300,000 Transition, which can fly, then land and fold up to drive in less than a minute; it’s also developing a four-seat, vertical takeoff and landing plug-in hybrid-electric flying car, the TF-X. While the company hasn’t committed to a production schedule it has said in press statements that it’s continuing to make progress and is “confident that production is on the horizon.”

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Trainer Tips

PHOTOS BY COLLEEN INGERTO

Correct

Your Crunch with James Rigney

1

WHEN YOU START THE CRUNCH, make sure you’re lying on a flat surface (preferably a mat or something with light cushioning) and put your hands behind your head.

2

USE YOUR ABDOMINAL MUSCLES to pull your shoulders off the ground.

DO NOT pull on your neck with your hands. Rather, use your hands as support for your neck and make your abs do the work. As you move into the “crunched” position, make sure to exhale and squeeze your abs, holding the exercise for a few seconds each time.

3

AFTER SQUEEZING YOUR ABS and holding for 2-3 seconds, repeat the exercise. If you find yourself pulling on your neck, stop the exercise and start

over. If your neck is getting tight, remember that, like any other muscle, it needs to build up strength as well. It will build that strength over time, but for if you’re just starting, consider taking a break and relaxing on the mat for a few seconds to let your neck recover.

4

DO CRUNCHES IN SETS OF 20. Remember to hold each crunch for 2-3 seconds before returning to the start position.

For beginners, start with 2 sets of crunches, 20 repetitions in each set.

James Rigney is the lead fitness instructor and owner of REZULTZ in Menands. At REZULTZ, Rigney offers a 10-week weightloss program, which provides a private, small-group fitness experience. Visit AlbanyFitness.com or call 518-227-1579.

WANT TO LEARN MORE? Watch our video showing you how to take your crunch to the next level online at YouTube.com/TimesUnionMagazines.

Top Tip: DO: Steady your hands behind your head and use them as a guide.

DON'T: Interlock your fingers and rely on your hands to raise yourself up. That'll put strain on your neck.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 75

FISHING FOR LOVE

in the Capital Region

Dating the Second (Third?

Fourth?)

Time Around

BY JENNIFER GISH

Photo:Todd Pearson/GettyImages

S

ix-minute dates. It doesn't seem like a long time to chit-chat, but the woman at table five wasn’t cracking a smile.

That one was not going well. The eight tables at Portofino’s Italian Ristorante in Latham were filled with singles in their 30s and 40s looking to connect through Predating Speed Dating.

Meanwhile, at a nearby table, two people laughed, bonding over swing dancing, and in the last seconds before the six minutes were up, realized they both knew someone named Lana. Oh, Lana. Maybe she’ll be the link that does it.

This dating thing gets harder when you’re not a college kid, bound to bump into some halfbearded hottie sucking down a Sam Adams. There are no dormroom connections. No off-campus parties to go to and find a match. If you’re looking for love the second or third time around or never found it in the first place, meeting someone can be hard.

Your circles might be limited to PTA meetings (complicated) or work (oh, lord, complicated) and trying the bar scene is so intimidating you feel as if you might as well walk in stripped down to your granny panties.

There’s Internet dating, which doesn’t carry the stigma it once did, when it was thought that every profile led back to a serial killer or pedophile, or people who were far too undesirable to ever meet someone face to face.

As mainstream as hunting for love online has become, it’s not perfect. If you want to know

what you’re getting up front — to not have to wonder if that potential match’s beach bod photo was taken during spring break 1995 and not last summer — there is hope.

But your soul mate isn’t going to come knocking on your door wearing the perfect pair of jeans and carrying your favorite Szechuan dish from your favorite takeout joint and the ideal companion bottle of wine. You have to get out there.

Nada Rifai, the matchmaker and dating coach behind the Capital Region business Dating Practically, says just doing things that interest you is a good place to start. Do you like art? Go to an art class. Are you a young professional? Join a young professionals association where you’ll get to know like-minded, like-stationed people who may or may not be single. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to expand your circle.

“Hunting for someone, looking for love, shouldn’t be stressful and have such a strong focus,” she says. “You’ll meet people that you like even if it’s not a romantic connection.”

That’s been the approach of Singles Outreach, a nonprofit aimed at providing a social network for singles in the Capital Region. Kelly MacEachron, an officer with the group who’s been involved with the organization since 2009 and is now in a relationship, says she went on hundreds of dates through online dating services and found it a frustrating waste of time. It was awkward and high-pressure. And the people rarely resembled their online profiles.

Singles Outreach allowed her to get to know people through in-person discussion groups, game nights, bowling outings and group dinners. She had a chance to get to know everyone in a casual, no-pressure way. And it is a lot easier to get a sense of who someone really is when he’s bowling a gutter ball or losing

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Virtual Dating badly at Trivial Pursuit. It’s kind of like observing animals in the wild.

“You’re seeing the real thing,” says MacEachron, who’s 50.

Being part of the social groups also helped her become more comfortable with herself. That’s the thing with dating when you’re not a 20-something anymore. You’ve lived a little. You may have experienced some pretty hefty heartbreak and have some scars. Bill Haefeli, president of Singles Outreach, calls people who are struggling to get back out there “the walking wounded.”

“One of the things that is obvi-

to setting them up with potential mates and coaching them on how to make the most of dating. That means even trying a bar if you’re inclined. You never age out of that.

But like other aspects of entering the dating scene, it requires you to stretch a little.

“

You just aren’t going to meet someone at the bar you go to every week.

”

small talk until the bell rings and they’re onto the next “date.” They then fill out forms that let Gareau know who they’re interested in talking to again, and she sends emails after the event providing email contacts for all those who said they wanted to follow up with someone.

Don’t get picked by anyone? It’s OK. You get the next speed dating event free, she says. (The sessions at Portofino’s cost $30.)

And if you had an easier time making conversation with your dentist than the dude sitting across from you, it’s no problem. He’s gone in six minutes, and it’s onto

Still want to try your luck online? Here are some options other than the well-known match.com: TINDER A hot newer app that lets you view available singles in the area, see their photos and interests and choose whether you’re interested in them. If that person says he or she is interested in you, too, you can start messaging with them. But be aware that the majority of its users are between 18 and 24 years old. Download the app for free for either iPhone or Android by visiting gotinder.com.

Ap Photos coutesy iTunes.

MEETUP.COM Follow Capital Region professional matchmaker Nada Rifai’s advice to find a club that matches your interests and join it (Beagles, cooking, hiking) or you can look specifically for groups for singles. (Singles Outreach, for example, maintains information there.)

ous to us is the key to enjoying our activities and the key to any kind of friendships is to like yourself and be comfortable,” says Haefeli, whose group charges $30 annually for membership to cover operation costs, though you can try them out for free. And so that’s how the social activities are designed, he says: to build friendships, allow people to gain confidence, and then let what happens happen from there.

The key is to get out there, says Rifai, who also offers personal matchmaking services, which often include helping clients with online dating profiles in addition

“You just aren’t going to meet someone at the bar you go to every week,” she says. So try a new place with new people, she says.

And whether you’re a sports fan or a businessperson, go to the type of bar tailored to people like you.

Those who may not want to take the time to sift through a crowd for the eligible singles have another option: Pre-Dating Speed Dating.

Karla Gareau, event coordinator, hosts up to three events a month throughout the Capital Region, like the one at Portofino’s.

Participants go on eight to 12 sixminute “dates” where they make

the next guy. No awkward silences across dinner. No weird goodbyes at your doorstep.

Is it nerve-racking to be “on” for six minutes at a time? Yes. But it’s an important skill.

“I say to everybody, ‘I don't know why people show up because everyone who shows up is in panic mode.’ They say, ‘I don’t know why I’m doing this.’ Then people come up to me at the break and say, ‘It’s really fun,’” Gareau says. “Dating is practice. You have to figure out what you like and what you don’t, and this puts you at a venue where you can practice that 12 times.”

OKCUPID A free website (and an app) that has users answer a series of question and then shows them a list of potential dates in their area who would be good matches. OkCupid.com POF.COM Plenty of Fish is a free website that matches singles based on a chemistry test (measuring selfconfidence, family orientation, self-control, social dependency/ openness and easygoingness). The iPhone and Android apps are both free.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 79

E-Cigarettes What we don't know might hurt us

T

PHOTOS BY EMILY JAHN

he exact ingredients of an electronic cigarette are as evasive as its vapor.

The odorless white swirl that drifts off the tip of an e-cigarette is not smoke but steam, manufacturers say. Yet lots of people are concerned about what’s in that harmless-seeming white vapor, not to mention what, other than highly addictive nicotine, is inside the battery-operated device. The issue is half about what’s inhaled — how much the “vaping” might hurt you — and what’s exhaled — how much it might hurt others.

But because e-cigarettes are unregulated, no one but the manufacturers know. And since the manufacturers are largely tobacco companies themselves, health officials and smoking opponents caution that the information they are releasing may not be the whole truth. These are corporations with a bad track record and a vested interest in getting a new generation hooked on nicotine, and perhaps eventually on tobacco products.

Though e-cigarettes cannot be sold to minors, they come in flavors that appeal to a

80 518 LIFE

C

urrently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is authorized to regulate certain categories of tobacco products: cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco. The FDA announced three years ago, in April 2011, that it intended to propose rules to bring e-cigarettes under the same scrutiny as tobacco products. Its most recent statement on the pending proposal estimated December 2013 as the date of re-

When an e-cigarette is puffed, a small solution of nicotine is heated up and converts to vapor.

BENEFITS, COMPARED TO TOBACCO: ff No distinctive odor that clings to you

and bothers people around you. ff Purchases are less frequent,

and potentially less costly. ff E-cigarettes are not known to kill you,

unlike a smokeable tobacco cigarette that contains 60-70 cancer-causing ingredients. ff The potential exists, at least anecdotally,

to help smokers quit. One study published online in The Lancet in September suggests they are as effective as the nicotine patch. But it’s just one study. The FDA has not approved them for smoking cessation.

RISKS: E-cigarettes can hook you. Most contain nicotine, which is a highly addictive stimulant. Nicotine is dangerous for people with certain health conditions, including heart problems.

Because they are unregulated, manufacturers do not have to list their ingredients.

You can’t tell what you’re inhaling. ff A 2009 FDA study showed one sample

of e-cigarettes to contain a known cancer-causing agent and other toxic chemicals, including diethylene glycol, which is found in anti-freeze. ff Consumers have reported to the

FDA that they have experienced the following side effects, believed to have come from vaping: pneumonia, congestive heart failure, disorientation, seizure and hypotension.

Sources: e-cigarette manufacturers, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, New York State Department of Health, Capital District Tobacco Free Coalition, Center for Public Health and Tobacco Policy

Inset photo courtesy Blu Cigarettes.

BY CLAIRE HUGHES |

young palate, such as bubblegum and cola.

Health officials and smoking opponents worry they will become more of a “gateway” to regular cigarette use, rather than a method to cease smoking. Nationwide, the percentage of U.S. middle and high school students who use e-cigarettes more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Strange as it may seem in a country where you can hardly avoid information about the calories in a restaurant entree, not to mention that terrifying warning on a pack of regular cigarettes — reminding you that they can cause lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and pregnancy complications — it’s difficult to tell what’s in an e-cigarette, other than nicotine. And you don’t know how much nicotine, and how it varies by brand. This despite the fact that however much it is, and whatever is added to it, goes straight to the lungs.

“You get a strong hit,” says a Troy resident, who did not want to be identified as a vaper or smoker because she thinks it conflicts with her professional role as a nurse. She is using e-cigarettes to wean herself from tobacco, and vapes in a stall in the ladies’ room, so far undiscovered, when she needs a nicotine fix at work.

“E-cigarettes are not food, and they’re not drugs,” says Harlan Juster, director of the state Health Department’s Bureau of Tobacco Control. “They're not anything at this point but potential dangers.”

What You Need to Know Before that First Puff

“

The lack of science on critical questions should be cause for close regulation of e-cigarettes until these questions are better answered, rather than careless optimism with the lives of our youth.

”

— State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah

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lease for the proposed rule. But the proposal, which would spur a period of public comment, has yet to be issued. It has been sent to other federal offices for review, according to an FDA spokeswoman.

The FDA could regulate e-cigarettes if they were marketed for therapeutic purposes — say, as a way to quit smoking. But while there is the suggestion that the products help people quit smoking, none has been approved for such use. The FDA does review “adverse event reports” sent by consumers to the detailing unexpected side effects or problems from using e-cigarettes. Such reports have included pneumonia, congestive heart failure, disorientation, seizures, hypotension and other health problems that consumers believe resulted from vaping.

In recent months, state and local leaders have called on the FDA to take action. State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah pushed for FDA regulation in a letter to the New York Times in December, pointing to questions about their safety.

“The lack of science on critical questions should be cause for close regulation of ecigarettes until these questions are better answered, rather than careless optimism with the lives of our youth,” Shah wrote.

In the absence of such FDA action, there appears to be a growing groundswell to restrict e-cigarette use as more and more Americans, especially young ones, take up the habit.

In Washington, D.C., seven senators have called on congressional rulemaking committees to ban e-cigarettes at the Capitol, based

on preliminary research that shows the presence of harmful chemicals in e-cigarettes and their vapor. Four of them have urged the Obama administration to speed up efforts to regulate the devices.

In Albany, state Senate Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon suggested he was tired of waiting for movement by the FDA when he introduced a bill in February that would ban e-cigarettes from most workplaces, just as regular cigarette smoking is restricted under the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act. A similar bill has been proposed in the Assembly. Hannon wanted to advance legislation two years ago that would prohibit their use, but he could not find any support, he says. This year, he’s hopeful for a different outcome, he says.

Hannon’s bill was introduced the same day that local officials took the lead on restricting e-cigarette use. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy signed an executive order Feb. 6 banning the use of e-cigarettes inside and within 20 feet of buildings owned by Albany County, including office buildings, health clinics and the Times Union Center. Of course, enforcement is another matter. With no smell, people will literally have to be seen smoking for this to be effective. (Think back to our vaping nurse.)

Until the products are under FDA supervision, and the federal agency deems them safe, McCoy says he doesn’t want to take any chances with the health of Albany County residents, especially young ones. “We want to stop this,” McCoy says, “before it becomes epidemic.”

E-CIG etiquette Though e-cigarettes are odorless and emit vapor rather than smoke, they look like traditional cigarettes from a distance. That means they can irritate people who see you vaping in places where smoking is not allowed.

Wanting to create a good image for e-cigarettes, the manufacturers ask vapers to be ambassadors of the product. They offer etiquette suggestions, including these: Before you vape in a private establishment, ask the owner, or a bartender or waiter, what rules there are for e-cigarette use. Unlike rules for tobacco use, they probably won’t be posted.

Be considerate of those around you. Ask people nearby if they mind you smoking an e-cigarette. Be prepared to explain what they are and how they differ from regular cigarettes.

When in doubt, do what a cigarette smoker does: Light up outdoors.

“Hot and thin.”

INTERVIEW

That’s how smoker Tom Donovan describes the sensation of an electronic cigarette, compared to the real thing.

When he smokes a tobacco cigarette, he feels the warmth of smoke in his mouth and takes in a full, rich flavor. With a Blu brand e-cigarette provided by 518Life, he felt a blast of heat followed by a weak pungency.

“It tastes like a stale cigarette,” say.

When someone smokes tobacco, the cigarette is lit and smoke is inhaled. When an e-cigarette is puffed, a small solution of nicotine is heated and converted to vapor.

It took some practice to achieve the right “pull” on the e-cigarette,

Donovan says — the right strength of inhalation to get the desired nicotine hit. Even so, that kick was less satisfying than a regular cigarette, he says.

“You get a certain rush when you smoke,” Donovan says. “It feels stronger.”

Donovan also doesn’t like holding the battery-operated device, which felt heavy in his hand. You can forget a regular, featherweight cigarette is there, he says.

Still, Donovan says he would try e-cigarettes if he ever wanted to quit.

At least he would have the sensation of holding the e-cigarette and inhaling. He does not like the idea of a

nicotine patch.

“This probably would be the best way to substitute for a cigarette, if you were trying to quit,” Donovan says.

E-cigarettes are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as smoking cessation devices, however. One study published online in The Lancet in September suggests they are as effective as the nicotine patch.

But health officials and smoking opponents caution there’s not sufficient proof that they’re effective at helping people quit.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 83

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Flexitarians put a positive spin on eating less meat

BY LAURIE LYNN FISCHER

Y

ou’ve heard of carnivores, locavores, vegetarians and vegans. But what about flexitarians?

“My way of eating is becoming so common that a new word has even been coined for it: ‘flexitarian,’ a union of the words ‘flexible’ and ‘vegetarian,’” writes Peter Berley in The Flexitarian Table. He describes a “primarily plant-based diet” that includes “some fish and meat, preferably sustainably caught or raised.”

The American dialect society named “flexitarian” the most useful word in the English language in 2003, says Registered Dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, author of The Flexitarian Diet.

“It’s somebody who is a flexible vegetarian,” she says. “They’re a vegetarian eater, but they still have meat in their diet. Before I saw the word, I would say I was a vegetarian, and I felt like a big liar, because sometimes I would eat meat. A lot of other plans will demonize meat. Flexitarianism is different.

It’s very pro-plants, not anti-meat. It’s really caught on in recent years.”

Meat consumption in the U.S. nearly doubled between 1909 and 2007, according to the National Institutes of Health. It was lowest in the 1930s and highest in the new millennium. Americans are eating more poultry and less red meat, but red meat is still the

“highest contributor” to total meat consumption, reports the NIH. Some of the newest online graphs show that our meat eating has been more volatile lately.

“We have a lot of customers who don’t eat red meat, but they’re not true vegetarians because they eat fish, poultry and wild game,” says Bill Creighton, owner of Paradise Natural Foods in Guilderland. “Over the last three years, probably because people don’t have the disposable income that they used to spend in natural food stores, they’re buying better and making smarter choices.

They’re eating healthier.”

In 2012, 29 percent of Americans surveyed 518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 85

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by the Vegetarian Resource Group engaged in flexitarianism, eating vegetarian meals often but not always. A recent Harris Poll found that 47 percent of Americans eat at least one vegetarian meal a week, according to vegetariannutrition.net.

Flexitarians range from vegetarians who only “cheat” when they smell bacon to omnivores who are phasing out meat. Emileigh Tanner of Medusa hasn’t touched red meat for five years. She classifies herself as vegetarian, though she eats fish.

Justin Wexler of Rensselaerville only serves meat for company. “I’ll use anchovies or tablespoon of prosciutto as a salty seasoning,” he says. “When I’m on my own, I eat a diet basically devoid of meat.”

Lunches are meat-free at RiverRun Community Montessori School, says teacher Amy Poole. After a decade of eating fish and eggs but no other animal products, the Loudonville resident began serving her family bison or locally raised, grass-fed beef several nights per week.

W

hat are the pros and cons of flexitarianism? It’s easier than forgoing meat altogether, says Sandra Varno, a registered dietitian with the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Albany County. “A benefit to being flexitarian is — no surprise — the flexibility,” she says.

“There are no rigid rules and less social awkwardness about food.

People can progress at their own speed to a less meat-centered diet.”

Flexitarianism is better for the en-

vironment, says Meatless Monday spokeswoman Cherry Dumaual. “If each of us ate just one [fewer] hamburger a week for a year, we could save an astounding 348 pounds of feed, 2,700 gallons of fresh water, and enough carbon emissions to drive an extra 320 miles,” she says.

“

If each of us ate just one [fewer] hamburger a week for a year, we could save an astounding 348 pounds of feed, 2,700 gallons of fresh water, and enough carbon emissions to drive an extra 320 miles.

”

— CHERRY DUMAUAL Meatless Monday Spokeswoman

Eating plants is also healthier than consuming animals. Processed meat — found to significantly increase cancer risk — makes up about a quarter of Americans’ total meat consumption and we eat more meat than any other country, according to the National Insti-

tutes of Health. Inflammation and oxidative stress are “linked to meat intake and disease risk,” while fish intake has been shown to decrease oxidative stress and inflammation markers, the NIH reports.

Typical flexitarians weigh 15 pounds less than their meat-eating counterparts, says Blatner. “I went from 210 to 190 without even trying since I became vegetarian,” says Berne-Knox-Westerlo physical education teacher Rich Holoday.

On average, vegetarians live seven years longer and vegans live 12 to 14 years longer, he says.

The risk of death or hospitalization from heart attack is 32 percent less for vegetarians, writes Mitch Felipe in The Philippine Daily Inquirer. However, he notes, it can be difficult for vegans to get complete proteins and pricier to buy organic and sustainably raised foods.

The healthiest diets (rich in fruits, vegetables, fish and nuts) cost about $1.50 more per day than the least healthy diets (rich in processed foods, meats and refined grains), researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health concluded in 2013.

The flexitarian trade-off is worth it, suggests Diana Rice, registered dietitian for the Meatless Monday movement. “A diet with more fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes and whole grains may very well be more expensive or more time consuming to plan,” she says, “but this is precisely the diet that leading health experts consistently recommend for best health.”

Going Veggie Cold turkey (pun intended) isn’t the only way to decrease your meat intake.

Here are some ideas: Only eat meat for supper, New York Times food blogger Mark Bittman suggests in his column “The Flexitarian.”

Progress from 7 (beginner) to 14 (advanced) or more (expert) all-vegetable meals per week, says Registered Dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, a former SUNY dining services consultant.

“Keep eating what you’re eating but shift the ratios on your plate,” says Blatner. “Decrease the portion of meat and increase the portion of vegetables.”

“Refresh your recipe repertoire,” Blatner says. “Have fun with more vegetarian recipes.”

Swap the protein in favorite recipes with legumes, Blatner says.

Give up meat one day per week, advocates Diana Rice, registered dietitian for the Meatless Monday campaign.

Prepare “a vegetarian and a meat version simultaneously without going to extra trouble” by separating these ingredients “before you incorporate the protein,” writes chef Peter Berley.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 87

A DV E R T I S E M E N T

Have you heard about this new technology that is FDA cleared, and non-surgical treatment for back pain?

Herniated Disc?

Non-surgical spinal decompression may be the last back pain treatment you will ever need. And you may be able to forget the pills, getting endless shots, struggling through exercise programs...and...risky surgery...because with this amazing new technology...if you are a candidate... they may be a thing of the past. You’re about to discover a powerful state-of-the-art technology available for: Back pain, Sciatica, Herniated and/or Bulging discs (single or multiple), Degenerative Disc Disease, a relapse or failure following surgery or Facet syndromes. Best of all -- you can check it out yourself for FREE! CALL 518-300-1212

I

magine how your life would change if you discovered the solution to your back pain.

In this article you’ll discover powerful new back pain technology that has the potential to be that solution for you.

This incredible technology is Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression and the DRX 9000.

Here’s the amazing story how it was discovered and why it has a chance to help YOUR back pain...

How Science Helps Back Pain The lower back is a series of bones separated by shock absorbers called “discs”.

When these discs go bad because of age or injury you can have pain. For some the pain is just annoying, but for others it can be life changing...and not in a good way.

It has long been thought that if these discs could be helped in a natural and noninvasive way, lots of people with back and leg pain could lower the amount of pain medication they take, be given fewer epidural injections for the pain and have less surgery.

Recent medical breakthroughs have led to the development of advanced technologies to help back and leg pain suffers!

Through the work of a specialized team of physicians and medical engineers, a medical manufacturing company, now offers this space age technology in its incredible DRX 9000 Spinal Decompression equipment.

The DRX 9000 is FDA cleared to use with the pain and symptoms associated with herniated and/or bulging discs. . . even after failed surgery.

What Conditions Has The DRX 9000 Successfully Treated And Will It Help YOU? The main conditions the DRX 9000 has success with are: • Back pain • Sciatica • Spinal Stenosis • Herniated and/or bulging discs (single or multiple) • Degenerative disc disease • A relapse or failure following surgery • Facet syndromes A very important note: The DRX 9000 has been successful even when NOTHING else has worked.

Even after failed surgery.

What Are Treatments On The DRX 9000 Like?

After being fitted with an automatic shoulder support system, you simply lie face up on the DRX 9000’s comfortable bed and the advanced computer system does the rest.

Patients describe the treatment as a gentle, soothing, intermittent pulling of your back. Many patients actually fall asleep during treatment.

The really good news IS... this is not something you have to continue to do for the rest of your life. So it is not a big commitment.

Since offering the DRX 9000 in my Colonie office, I have seen nothing short of miracles for back pain sufferers who had tried everything else. . . with little or no result.

Many had lost all hope.

Had herniated disk operation 8 years ago another disc became herniated. Doctor wanted to operate have arthritis from 1st one (did not want to go under knife again) very grateful to DRX9000 (thank you Dr. Claude D. Guerra, DC) Very happy camper.

Raymond F Niskayuna, NY Age 55 This treatment was a miracle for my cervical disk herniations. Only other alternative was surgery, which I no longer have to face.

William I Schenectady, NY Age 63

I was told by a doctor I wouldn’t be able to work. I cannot afford to not work so I tried Dr. Claude D. Guerra, DC, and not only did the pain go away but I never missed a day at work.

Rick S Clifton Park, NY Age 42 I would love to shake the hand of the person who invented this machine. It was a life saver for me and a lot better than going under the knife. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone with chronic back pain.

Dawn H Colonie, NY Age 49 Before the DRX 9000 treatment. I had no quality of life.

Couldn’t do anything for myself. Thank God for Dr. and the DRX machine. I can live again.

Yvette K Schenectady, NY Age 47 I suffered for three years, before I received treatment on the DRX 9000. Today, I can sleep and get out of bed like a normal human being. Before, I couldn’t even drive my car because the pain in my hips, legs and feet were so bad from the sciatica nerve being pinched by my Herniated Disc L4 and L5, which also prevented me from sitting in a chair or even using my computer lap top at any time. Today things have changed due to advance technology therapy on the DRX 9000. They always try

A DV E R T I S E M E N T I would definitely refer people to your office. Dr. Guerra and his staff have made this experience a pleasure.

Ed H Hoosick Falls, NY Age 70 Pain free, numbness in the left foot is gone. DRX 9000 is GREAT and does work.

Sal L Niskayuna, NY Age 50

to regulate the treatments that work. What is up with this taught process???? The world is changing and so have I. Frank A Troy, NY Age 52 Before receiving the DRX treatments, my quality of life was very poor. I could hardly do anything other than going to work and going to bed.

After the DRX treatments my quality of life has improved 90% which has resulted in me being able to go for long walks without a cane and go shopping.

Anne P Burnt Hills, NY Age 70 I am so appreciative of this method of therapy because when I came to the office I had to use a cane and had muscle pain in walking. After 2nd treatment sciatica nerve pain was gone in my left leg.

Judith W Albany, NY Age 64 Prior to this treatment my only options appeared to be invasive pain management, or surgery. After receiving 24 sessions on the DRX, I am markedly improved, relatively pain free and am able to function as I had in previous years. Highly recommend to anyone with disc issues.

Alan P Scotia, NY Age 53 I would choose this therapy again! Painless treatment that gets your life back to

normal. Stick with it-it works!

Linda G Broadalben, NY Age 53 I am so happy I came to Dr. Guerra. I was in a lot of pain and after being on the DRX I tell you I do not have pain. I feel wonderful and the staff are very nice. Dr. Claude D. Guerra, DC is wonderful. If you are in pain try the DRX it really helps.

Edith C Schenectady, NY Age 71 I think more people should know about this procedure before considering any surgery. Medications help the pain but they don’t cure the cause. I am back to my old self again.

Lorraine B Scotia, NY Age 78 I highly recommend this machine. I had my doubts but it really and truly works. Dr. Claude D. Guerra, DC is a wonderful doctor and his staff is great too.

Linda D Clifton Park, NY Age 46 I was extremely skeptical at the beginning of treatments - Progress was slow in coming - But... then it worked!

What a relief!!!

Joan K Delmar, NY Age 71 I had no where else to go with this problem. The DRX 9000 was just what I needed. Many thanks!

Burton S Mechanicville, NY Age 50

I’m able to go on long walks and get all night sleep (I’ve had 3 surgeries since 2006) Without the DRX I would be in for a 4th back surgery. I’m getting back to doing activities with my 10 year old son.

Lisa V Catskill, NY Age 45 I wish to thank you very much for all the help I received with the spinal decompression therapy. Your entire office was very helpful and compassionate. No longer do I sit at night with my heating pads, moving them from sore spot to sore spot. My knees are no longer on fire and I’m able to go up and down the stairs much easier than before.

Mable D Ballston Lake, NY Age 68

SPECIAL OFFER Call Dr. Claude D. Guerra, DC’s office at 518-300-1212 and mention to my assistants that you want a FREE back pain/DRX9000 qualification

consultation. It’s absolutely free with no strings attached.

There is nothing to pay for and you will NOT be pressured to become a patient.

Here is what you will receive: • A consultation with me, Dr. Claude D. Guerra, DC to discuss your problem and answer the questions you may have about back pain and the DRX9000 • A DRX9000 demonstration so you see for yourself how it works! Due to current demand for this technology, I suggest calling today to make your appointment.

The consultation is free.

We are staffed 24-hoursa-day, 7-days-a-week. Call 518-300-1212 right now!

It’s absolutely FREE with no strings attached.

There is ONE Big Problem: My busy office schedule will limit how many people I’m able to personally meet with...so you will need to act fast. Call 518-300-1212 right now...to be sure you are among the first callers and we will set up your free consultation today.

We have the phones answered 7 days a week 24 hours a day so call now...

518-300-1212. (Free consultation is good for 45 days) 2016 Central Ave., Colonie www.albanyDRX.com www.healthsourceofalbasnynorth.com Like us on Facebook: Healthsource of Albany North

Photo Finish

The tulips of spring bloom in gardens all across Albany and its suburbs, like this one in Slingerlands. The seasonal display is highlighted at the city’s annual May Tulip Festival.

Photo by Tyler Murphy.

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