In an election year where Americans are analyzed in terms of demographics (black or white, young or old, “educated” or “uneducated”), with candidates choosing which ones “matter,” depersonalization seems to be the spirit of the times. In Myanmar, the government is pretending that hundreds of thousands of its cyclone-hit people are not really there, even holding elections in flooded towns while dead bodies are rotting not far away. Perhaps never before in history has there been such a densely populated globe where so many people are so invisible to such a powerful few.

As KAZ pointed out last week about the new “I Love New York” logo, there is an unsettling message (truth?) in the use of images of animals and overgrown grass to signify a vast and “wild” Upstate region where millions of people still live and struggle. Now it seems that the economic concerns of a big chunk of New York State are also set to become somewhat more depersonalized, with the erasure of “Upstate’s Man” — the position of Upstate Chair of the Empire State Development Corporation (currently held by Dan Gundersen).

A Rochester D&C article says Paterson loses good will in upstate New York with change (this piece quotes heavily from Unshackle Upstate’s press release.)

Citizen Power Alliance, a Finger Lakes-based blog, thinks Paterson would never have made this decision on his own.

A look at who exactly is advising Paterson to make this change.

Gundersen’s own dutiful statement of support for the decision has been drowned out.

The Paterson administration can word this decision as they like (saying that the new single ESDC chair would preside over two Upstate and Downstate departments, for example). None of that would change what has actually been decided on: an abrupt removal of equal authority from Upstate hands just barely a year after Spitzer had granted it, bypassing a corrupt and deficient Albany structure. Maybe Spitzer shouldn’t have cracked open that particular barn door and shouldn’t have permitted that authority, but he did. Now Paterson wants the door shut before the rats get in (or perhaps before the horses get out).

BuffaloPundit feels that the new approach wasn’t producing much and that all of Upstate needs to be turned into a single Empire Zone. That would still highlight that the state is not “one New York,” but divided into two badly unbalanced economies - one euphoric, the other wounded. It’s a stark truth that Gov. Paterson admits — but one he apparently isn’t willing to address on a blunt and direct political (and human) level, as Spitzer did with the appointment of an “Upstate man.” He warns that having two ESDC chairs could be confusing. (So how about changing ESDC’s mission to be concerned solely with Upstate economic development from now on? After all, for years it’s been a Downstate-centric mission…turnabout is fair play!)

Gov. Paterson told the Post-Standard: “If we do it this way (with two chairmen), we might have two governors and I think that would be a terrible idea.”

An oddly phrased statement of concern. But he said it, not me.

One of my favorite childhood books was Richard Adams’ Watership Down. His follow-up novel, Shardik, was very different (and less popular; I can’t remember if I finished it, to be honest). It was set in a fantasy world where the central figure of worship was a giant bear, whose mysterious appearance and journey across the earth set many human events in motion. For a day here on the west side of Syracuse, we had our own little version of the story. Wildlife experts suggested the bear was just passing through to new territory, as young bears do. At one point during the day there was an unconfirmed report that the bear had traveled a couple of miles up toward the undeveloped woods just south of my neighborhood. There wasn’t any hysteria, but people were still alarmed enough to keep kids indoors, and intrigued enough to imagine the otherworldly spectacle of a big black bear crossing busy roads nonchalantly and padding silently through suburban streets.

But that wasn’t our bear. This bear was captured in the same neighborhood it had appeared, and was found to have a transmitter that revealed it came from Waterloo. It probably groped its way along Route 5 eating from bird feeders and trash cans, until it missed the 695 cutoff and was trapped near the Phantom Bypass across from Wegmans. Hard to imagine that as the supernatural journey of a god-bear — just a lost creature that had lost its wild soul, too. The DEC determined it was a known repeat backyard offender already under sentence, and euthanized it. A sad story.

The DEC did the right thing — although just as we have to get used to more encounters with wildlife here in suburbia, the DEC is may have to get used to more scrutiny by cityfolk and the media, and be prepared for questions. One hopes that the sacrifice of this unfortunate animal will resonate in people’s minds when they are asked to make better efforts to properly pick up and store their garbage, and make them think harder about the ways we’ve confounded the earth with our highways and other car-oriented developments, blocking the paths of traveling bears and other spirits.

Recently I came across the following comment by an observer commenting on how young “netroots activists” he’s met are using — or not using — the Internet:

They are not specifically computer literate. They have a facile ability with games, IM, vanity websites, P2P, etc., but not much skill at digging into information, data mining and cross-referencing. They seldom click a link and check a source, and they don’t know how to make a link… I spoke to a dozen or so who don’t see a connection between the massive resources of the Internet and their use of usually only the communications aspects.

Good point. There’s Project Sunlight, but many other resources scattered around as well. Wouldn’t it be great to have a one-stop shop for all the New York-related online databases that bloggers might want to use?

Black Bear on the loose in Geddes

And he’s really pissed off about The Noise!

No idea if this is really for real, but if this dude managed to get across West Genesee Street, watch out, Westvale and Taunton.

Updated: Apparently the bear did get across WG Street… Possibly a false alarm about a bear on Merriwether Drive; it seems the bear has been caught close to where it was originally seen.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, shots were fired near an elementary school today. Not enough to warrant a headline on Syracuse.com or to be the first story on WSYR’s evening newscast, however. Everyone’s still talking about a damn bear.

The Noise from the Suez plant is back, but in a different form. Here are some new sound clips, recorded by a resident of Sherwood Knolls in the wee hours of Wednesday, May 7: Clip 1 and Clip 2 (ugh). It has been back for about a week.

It’s no longer the super-maddening whump-whump-whump, which is a relief, but unfortunately it’s turned into a steady drone that can at times reachest the loudest sound levels of the old noise. This is a sound that is easier to mentally tune out (I only notice it when it has gotten quite loud), but some people are reporting to Suez that it is pretty bad in the middle of the night. Suez says they can’t pinpoint the problem unless more people report it, so if you are hearing it (even if you aren’t disturbed by it) you might want to give them a call at 487-4473. See Syracuse.com’s Neighbors West for the latest, or see The Noise page for older threads and news stories.

The Buffalo News is airing speculation that Upstate czar Daniel Gundersen may be on Gov. Paterson’s chopping block — whether as part of a general post-Spitzer housecleaning, or as a sop to Manhattan interests, remains unclear.

Meanwhile, the Rochester D&C is looking at complaints from the League of Women Voters that Gundersen was playing too fast and loose with his state credit card. Hey, big spender!

$407 to limores.net for use of a car from noon to 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 26, 2007, from Manhattan to Plainview, Nassau County, and back. Zakowicz explained that the car was for Gundersen and four other state officials to meet “with an extremely hot prospect.” She said it was the cheapest way for that large number of people to travel, and that they used the time to discuss the meeting.

$418 for a dinner, including $91 for wine and beer, in Watertown on Feb. 2, 2007, with 11 people, including the commander of Fort Drum, the head of three local companies and local economic-development officials. “It was a timing issue. He got in late, and the best time to meet was over dinner,” Zakowicz said.

Gundersen also spent $98 on a dinner for the Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce and Industrial Development Agency officials on July 13, 2007; $78 for the Greater Rochester Enterprise on July 12; $123 for Metropolitan Development Association officials in Syracuse on July 1; and $174 on May 15 for officials of Erie County and the local Industrial Development Agency. $239 to park his car in the Buffalo Airport parking garage just a few miles from his office in Buffalo from May 18 to May 29, 2007.

$98 on a dinner for the Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce? Oh, I forgot, everyone’s dining on Alpo there these days — something that people in Albany don’t seem to know or care.

NYPIRG’s Blair Horner, who has decided to get out of Dodge and rejoin goo-goo life, thinks that in these trying economic times, even Gundersen ought to be criticized. (Mr. Horner, you’ve done good work, but in a “normal year, ” you wouldn’t be acting like such a tool.)

Yeah, I’m a little paranoid. Spitzer was dumped because of his personal and political problems… not because the mandates for change that he was working on aren’t still in effect. Gundersen should stay right where he is.

The ESDC has done a big re-launch of the famous I Love New York tourism brand. The new ads are going to be targeting Northeastern states, trying to get economically strapped vacationers to drive over the border and head Upstate instead of just down to NYC. Good timing for it, I suppose. This was in the works before Spitzer’s hasty departure, but it makes Paterson look like he just thought of it.

They’ve also done away with the small-phonebook-sized “catalog” of village-by-village tourism opportunities that has been published every year and will publish a slimmer 40-page booklet instead that offers trip ideas. Good idea too, since I don’t know if we really need to actually print a listing for Homer’s House of Chaw over in East Caligula. (By all means, direct the tourist to the splendors of our region, but let them savor the adventure of discovering Homer’s for themselves…)

As for the logo, I was surprised to see that they didn’t change the old Courier typeface, but I guess that is regarded as an integral part of the brand. The main changes to the logo have to do with little wildlife doodles and the addition of unmowed grass. (KAZ doesn’t like the squirrel.) Oh well, at least they didn’t officially change it to this:

OK, so maybe we’re so down that we’re seeing “miracles” everywhere, but I wasn’t the only one pleasantly surprised by Joanie Mahoney’s abruptly announced decision to flush the Armory Square sewage treatment plant, which hit the news on Saturday. A rare headline that makes you feel like it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood and that maybe wonderful things can happen after all. More reaction at Sean Kirst’s blog.

Would the Midland sewage plant (and the uprooting of an entire neighborhood) have been similarly stopped if Mahoney had been county exec when the decision was made? Well, I wouldn’t go that far with the optimism over a new vision for Central New York. One can retroactively, uselessly wish that that would have happened, but we’ll never know.

The Armory Square news was a surprise, but in a way, not a surprise. In covering the NYRI controversy, I once wildly speculated that New York Republicans, desperately searching for political traction, might delve deeper into green issues that the hidebound New York Democratic establishment wouldn’t touch. True, it’s been a fad for upstate Republicans to greenwash everything they do these days — every big groundbreaking involves the cutting of a green ribbon, and every tax break is written down in the ledgers in emerald ink. But there’s been less enthusiasm for allowing scientists and environmentalists to actually say anything. I think Mahoney really does care about doing things differently, but tying green innovation to the concerns of small business owners (bars and shops in Armory Square) also seems like a way of getting back to small-business-friendly Republican values with a new twist.

Will other Republicans get on board, or will Mahoney be painted as a lone ranger? Joanie, don’t look back - “something may be gaining on you.”

Or, to be more precise, park-ing: New York State Park camping reservations are up 16 percent. This mirrors a trend in other states. So this summer, the fens and spinneys of New York may very well be filled with folks trying to save a buck on vacations, blowing up their propane stoves and burning their tents down. I, for one, cannot wait to get back to the woods.

I prefer camping at state parks as opposed to private campgrounds. If I’m going to be forced to pay enormously high taxes and fees in this state, then I’m damn well going to use some of the amenities. Passed in the most recent state budget was a huge $95 million capital infusion for the New York State Parks System - a timely bit of funding. I hope that most of this money is earmarked for renovations and staffing of existing parks, rather than the development of new ones. Some of these parks need more help than others.

If you also use the state parks system, and can compare New York’s system to others, what do you like best about it, or hate the most and wish you could change? (Or, what would get you to use them?) How do you think they ought to spend the money?

There’s been some news about how text-messaging argot has been getting into students’ term papers and other communications. Some of my daily work involves the processing and editing of information submitted by students and the public through e-mail or online forms, but I haven’t seen much text-ese. The puzzling trend that I’ve noticed recently is an increase in Inappropriate Capitalization. (As opposed to ALL CAPS, or the cRaZy CaPs you see on Myspace pages.) And it’s not just being done by students. Everyone seems to be doing it. Here are some typical examples:

Throughout the month of May, all donors are eligible to win a Free Barbecue Grill.

An ongoing study is examining Work and Home Environments and how they relate to Physiological Activity.

Something else I’ve seen is a generally increased sloppiness in how people fill out online forms — typos, missing information, erratic or skipped punctuation. That always happens to a degree, but it seems to me that it has increased over the last several years — as if everyone is in a tremendous hurry. But the inappropriate caps are something that require extra effort to type (and with less mindless passion involved than ALL CAPS), and I’m intrigued at how I encounter this more frequently, now that I stop to actually think about it.

In the past, I always found that most people would attempt to submit text that had the same look, tone and feel as something that had been edited. They may not have been concise writers, but they aspired to be. I don’t get that feeling any more. It’s as if people have become passive conduits for raw, uncontrolled information — it pours into them, and it gushes out of them the same way.

Just a small observation about words in the wild… to be filed with the other minor news about disappearing bees, dying bats and deformed frogs.