Category Archives: Albany

The mundane moments of midday in downtown Albany may not look like much to the casual observer. Having been that casual observer on many a day, I understand that I don’t always notice the subtle beauty of what is around me, not when my mind is distracted by work issues or other worries, not when I forget to be mindful and present as I’m rushing to make a bank deposit or grab a cup of coffee. 

On those days that I do pause and remember to pay attention, the city reveals pockets of beauty that aren’t striking or obvious. They’re in the lines of faded buildings and closed restaurants, in the cracks of sidewalks and the mottled unevenness of parking lots. I find beauty in the random chair placed against a building, in the way it makes me wonder how it came to be there, and imagine who might have used it for rest or respite. 

Maybe beauty, however we find it, is simply meant to make us a little more thoughtful, a little more careful of how we see the world, and of how we see others in the world. 

Certain fall days show off downtown Albany in quite a favorable light. I tend to take my lunch later when I’m in the office, to avoid the occasional crowds at the popular lunch spots and the bustle that sometimes overtakes downtown at the noon hour. It’s not as hectic as it was pre-COVID – maybe it will never be like that again – and I’m ok with the quieter days. 

On a Sunday morning, it’s good to be quiet. 

When I started working for the state of New York, way back in the summer of 2001, my office was located at the bottom of State Street in downtown Albany. As I sat in a meeting room on my very first day, I was indoctrinated to state service with a bewildering stack of documents and papers to sign, choices to make, and all sorts of spur-of-the-moment decisions to decide. The only one I really understood or took any active interest in was the parking situation. Forget the health benefits and insurance and deferred comp and retirement, I wanted to know about parking, because that was the only immediate concern I had in working downtown.

Eventually, the woman giving the run-down in my orientation reached the parking topic, and my ears perked up. I figured there might be a bit of a wait, since I was brand new to state service, and I didn’t know how much parking was actually available to all the state workers. She said I could put myself on a waitlist for parking downtown, but that it would probably be a while since spaces seemed to be opening up at a snail’s pace. Still, I had hope, so my next question was where they might be on the current list, and how many people were ahead of me. 

While she didn’t know that exact answer, she did know that at the time, in late August of 2001, they were just getting parking spaces for employees who had started work in 1982. In that instant, any hopes, dreams or fantasies about pulling into my very own parking space in downtown Albany immediately dissipated. It wasn’t a big deal, as Andy was able to drive me to work, nor was it a big emotional blow, though the notion that they were only then getting to 1982 portended general state slowness in the years to come. In a weird way, I ended up being grateful for that bit of information, because I filed away the idea of available parking into a place so far into the future that I would probably retire before I was afforded a space. There the idea remained as some dim and elusive piece of paradise, purely fictional because the days ticked by so slowly back then. 

I would move to other agencies, and find parking in the lots that were not in downtown Albany, but when I returned to Broadway, just a few blocks down from where I started, I didn’t even bother to check where I was on the parking list because it still felt far away. Our commute wasn’t bad, so having Andy drive me was a comfort and, quite frankly, an indulgence, as time with my husband usually calms me. 

Last week, I got an e-mail at work saying that I was being offered a parking space in the covered garage adjacent to my office. Almost 22 years after beginning my state career, I had downtown parking, and this, more than any other promotion or accomplishment or anniversary, made me feel like I had finally arrived. 

Rising majestically near the Hudson River in downtown Albany, this domed beauty is the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, where I work as the Associate Director of Human Resources. Every now and then I pause on my lunch break and take it all in, along with remembrances of the journey that brought me to this Emerald City of buildings. It’s a source of pride that I am privileged enough to work at an agency whose work and mission to conserve and protect the environment is one that is both noble and necessary. Even better than that is the fact that I get to work with some great people, including good friends I’ve had for over a decade and a half. 

It is a gift, one that I consistently appreciate, and the gratitude I feel is genuine. It makes me want to do the best work that I can do, to contribute in some small way to the larger mission of what our agency does. When I started out as a Data Entry Machine Operator in the summer of 2001 just down the street at what was then the Department of State, I didn’t envision the turns and twists that my state career would take. Looking back during a sunny lunch break, I’m grateful for all of them.