God Save the Queen

The theory of six degrees of separation is alive and well.

Take this for example: yesterday I read in All Over Albany about a documentary project that will look at the neighborhood obliterated by the construction of the Empire State Plaza.

They ripped down a thriving section of town and carted it away; now it’s entombed in the area east of Frisbie Avenue. Me and my son, like amateur archaeologists, used to find bits and pieces of the demolition debris as we prowled the site of the former landfill near our house in Albany. We once discovered a half-buried doll’s head. Creepy!

Then, I read of the abdication of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands who, as legend has it, inspired Governor Nelson Rockefeller to spruce up Albany by gutting a huge swath of the city and building the South Mall. She was visiting while still just Princess Beatrix, and Rocky was embarrassed by shabby old Albany, or so the story goes.

Queen Beatrix, directly linked to one of America’s most notorious urban renewal projects — and a new film!

I hope you’ll join me and throw a few bucks into the pot for the documentary, titled The Neighborhood That Disappeared. Among the filmmakers is the talented local actor John Romeo, who worked for years at the NYS Theatre Institute. John was also the voice behind the TV work I’m most proud of, things that would have been quite mediocre if not for his great talent.

If you ask me, the former queen should also pony up some money, wouldn’t you say?

4 thoughts on “God Save the Queen

  1. O cry me a liberal river, wheres the documentary on the festering ghetto that is Clinton ave, Arbor hill, or Second Ave. At least the people in this documentary can look back at where their neighborhood was and see something other then the decaying ruins of where a nice neighborhood used to be.

    1. True… I’ve heard what people say about those old neighborhoods — and heard them express their disdain for the current residents.

  2. My barber (his family was displaced by the plaza) always referred to the buildings as “Rocky’s Last Erection”, although Megan Marshack would be the final arbiter of such a claim.

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