Short Takes ...

Work unfinished ... As we commemorate the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's murder -- and an opportunity to look at what he stood for -- it's makes one proud to embrace a political process that is giving us an African American and a woman as legitimate candidates for the presidency of this nation. How far have we come! Certainly, there's much more work to do to achieve the equity that we need but Dr. King must be proud as he looks down on us. ... What were they thinking? ... Those Union College football players who chose to party on the front lawn in Schenectady's Union Triangle neighborhood!? The newspapers and the City Council had the city's "grouper law" front and center and these young men made a tremendous error in judgement by going public with the fact that they are, in fact, not the good neighbors City Hall had thought them to be. Stay inside and shut up! ... Bad brew ... So sorry to read that the Night Sky Cafe on lower Union Street has closed. I had stopped by a couple times for a quick cup of coffee; I can't say I was one of the regulars on which The Daily Gazette focused in its recent coverage of the closing. But, having tried to make a go of it with my Ground Up Cafe on Upper Union Street a decade ago, I do know that it's difficult -- and frustrating -- work. But all is not lost in Schenectady's gourmet coffee biz: Ambitions on Jay Street appears to be doing a bang-up business and the Moon and River Cafe in the Stockade keeps brewing. There's no such thing as too much good coffee so here's hoping both establishments find continued success.