Welcome back Governor Cuomo...

Welcome to Saranac Lake Governor Cuomo. We are glad that you have shown more than a passing interest in our little gem of a town. I saw you on the cover of the newspaper (ADE) the other day, and you look very relaxed and woodsy in your lumberjack wool shirt. I would like to use this moment to bring your attention to our economic situation as I see it for the coming year. Adirondack Health is facing some real hard choices, and I'm sure you know that they already laid off employees this month to try and survive, and continue to offer quality services to our community. More tough times are certainly ahead as they restructure and reposition themselves in a tough economy. One thing that stood out in the newspaper interview you gave was that you said Saranac lake needs an anchor event like the Ironman in lake Placid. I think that a better way to improve our economy would be an investment in a year round industry, rather than an "event". Yes we have a tourism economy. My restaurant thrives in the summer months, when weary, tired city dwellers come here to unwind and "cure" in our dense forests and mountain lakes. But in the winter and spring, we barely eke out a living, relying on locals who are doing the same. If we had a year round economy, it would do much to ease the burden of rising heating, and infrastructure costs we all bear.
  My suggestion is to invest in making North Country Community College a four year university. Adding curriculum choices like art and hospitality would give North Country students the chance to achieve degrees in fields that are well suited to our upstate economy. Yes we have Paul Smith's College. But that is a private college. Students who graduate from there, will have larger tuition bills than if they went through the SUNY system. We have a great historic hotel in the center of Saranac Lake, that is currently owned privately (and for sale) by someone who does not seem to understand the important role his property should be playing as an anchor for our downtown. Paul Smith's College ran this hotel for many years, and the neighboring businesses benefited greatly from the revenue that was brought in by guests. Many of whom returned year after year to enjoy the hotel's amenities, and hospitality provided by eager and ambitious students. Townsfolk often recall to me with fondness the feeling our town had when that young energy was abound. I have even heard many lament the passing of the wildly popular Thursday night buffet that the culinary students put on for the benefit of the town, and to gain valuable experience in their field. Each week a different theme, but always a great draw, and a chance for folks to get together and catch up on the scuttlebutt.
 There is a hotel and hospitality school in Lucern Switzerland that could be a model for the hotel's revitalization through the SUNY system. Why not take a look at what it means for a mountain town's tourism to have an international gem of a learning center located in the heart of the city center. I feel that if working class students had a chance to attain exceptional training, at an affordable tuition, they would be more likely to stay here where they could obtain modest employment and still pay off their tuition debt. Maybe they would even start their own business and add something real to the tax base...
  Anyhow, It's Sunday. I have to get to work to open my restaurant, and besides you are on vacation, and don't want to read any long essay on your day off. Maybe if you get hungry, you could stop by for a bite. Just remember to call ahead, place your order, and then you won't have to wait for me to cook up a meal that I would be proud to prepare for you and the girls. Enjoy your stay in our little slice of heaven sir.

Welcome to New 'Dacks! I wanted to create this blog to discuss a different approach to living, working and thriving in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. So without further ado, we begin......
  I consider myself a traditionalist. I make my living by running a restaurant in Saranac Lake, in the heart of the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks. My cuisine is rooted in traditional French technique, and I apply that sensibility to my approach to cooking. I hold great disdain for many modern approaches to cooking, viewing most of it as frivolous. When a chef talks to me endlessly about the nuances of a dish they are "developing", it sounds like the teacher in the Charlie brown cartoon after a very short while. I have no patience for your dribble, and wish you would just get on with your life, and let me get on with mine. For me cooking is my religion, and your intrusion is blasphemy!
  However, that being said, I am also a realist. I believe that to move forward and thrive, we must all be open to doing things in a way that solves common challenges. In this blog, I hope to look at different challenges that are faced by my friends, neighbors and community leaders, and to offer a different point of view to help add dialogue to the conversation.
  I chose the picture of the kid and his dad at an indoor skate park, as an example of what I am talking about. Currently there is a town wide debate about where to place a skate park in our little town. NIMBY describes the approach that I have seen taken by the locals, and I am frustrated by this. The choices have been narrowed to two locations - one behind the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in the center of town, and the other at a local park. Now there are inherent problems with both locations. The first location is in the middle of a parking lot that sees a lot of thru-traffic. Also, I am not convinced that the Enterprise is thrilled with the choice, especially, since they have a sign in their lot the says "NO SKATEBOARDING". Very specific- I guess that water boarding would be fine. The second choice location, the park, is in a residential location that many, including the cop who lives across the street, feel would be a bad place to allow these hooligans a spot to call their own.
  My view on this subject takes a broader approach to the solution. Why not put the skate park indoors? After all, we do live in a four season climate, and for the same reason that I don't buy a snowmobile, I think we should consider an indoor location: Usage. Why spend all of the dough that has been raised by the skate park committee over the past ten years on something that will only be used for maybe 1/3 of the year? Why take it down, store it and set it up every year-at a cost to taxpayers? Wouldn't a steel building up at Mt Pisgah be a more permanent solution? I used to take my kids when they were little to an indoor skate park downstate, and although I enjoyed sticking around and watching them, I saw many parents drop off their kids, while they went off to shop and dine in the local economy. Since the 'Dacks are so rural, I am sure that many parents from the region would do the same. This would create a built in customer base for our shops and restaurants. Maybe even some families would plan a vacation around this activity, and book a room at a local motel. Hockey families do this all the time over in Lake Placid. It drives the shoulder season business in that town. With the looming threat of global warming threatening the ski resorts, here in the Northeast, we should be adding four season activities to these facilities, to increase their viability.
  The only argument that I have heard for my idea, has been that Mt Pisgah is not in a convenient location for most kids in town, and that it would get very little use by the kids. No one wants the skaters in their backyard now, so why is it that Mt Pisgah is too far away? The local kids have no problem getting to the mountain during snowboard/ski season, in fact a school bus drops them off there every day during the winter.
Parents of these kids support their interest in winter sports enough to pick them up when the mountain closes each night, and I think they would do the same for the skaters.
  So there is my first blog post on the New 'Dacks approach to solving a local challenge. I will be back with more posts now that this blog is up and running. Thanks for caring enough about our collective future to read this. See ya soon-John