Seniors - The way we were

We hear a lot these days in Saratoga Springs about putting on the brakes to halt development and wishful thinking about “the way we were.” Many are concerned that the population of Saratoga Springs is one of the haves and have-nots, of part-time residents who may not have the same interest or pride in our city.

Saratoga has been a place of seasonal residents with the haves and have-nots walking alongside each other since the early 1800s. Our history and our reputation were built on the fact that this city has something for everyone. The strength of every cycle of growth is our capacity to continue to reinvent the community, to keep it alive while never straying from our basic traditions - Health, History, Horses.

Historically, the people who came to visit and stayed, or just stayed awhile for a season, have most often left something behind that makes the city what it is. Saratoga Springs can thank such “visitors” as John Morrissey, Spenser and Katrina Trask and the 30,000 people who will go through the turnstile on any given day in August.

People who lived and grew up here in the 50s, 60s and 70s have many memories worth keeping and passing on: McGuirk’s, DeGregory’s, Bart’s Shoe Repair, St. Michael’s Festa, the Eastside Diner. Also, don’t forget all the empty second floors on Broadway, the demise of the convention business, the birth of malls and the empty homes on North Broadway.

Then came the period of reinvention: SPAC, the Holiday Inn, the Downtown Business District, Broadway beautification, the City Center, The Automobile Museum, The Children’s Museum, a new library, the Saratoga Arts Center, Beekman Street Art District, Open Space development, the new train station, a city-wide bus service and much more, including development, development, development.

All of this is the result of people willing to reinvent and reinvest in Saratoga Springs.

On June 2, 1895, an article published in The New York Times was headlined as follows:

Saratoga’s Future Full of Promise

Steady Steps Toward the Realization of the Ambition of America’s Famous Spa

AIMING TO BE THE GREAT SUMMER METROPOLIS

Saratoga has always strived to be special, to be noticed and to attract people who want to live and be a part of a special place. This is something to rejoice about, no regrets, great memories and basically the “way we were” and still are.

The following quote from the same New York Times article says:

“Saratoga has always been conservative. There are few places which have moved so persistently in the rut of tradition and precedent as this. Because a thing had been it should continue to be is a Saratoga axiom, and it has taken rude shocks to create unfaith in it.”

Because this community has continued to recover from the “rude shocks” of change and progress we find ourselves living in a very desirable place with opportunities in such abundance that one can become exhausted just from reading about them.

But don’t just read about The New York State Military Museum or the National Dance Museum. Take time to visit them and you are guaranteed to come away with a curiosity about the several other museums in this city. Stop and smell the roses at Yaddo on a guided tour through the gardens. When you are downtown, go to Congress Park to sit on a bench and contemplate the Spirit of Life or listen to the sounds of the water flowing out of Spit and Spat. What city have you visited lately that has such a beautiful park right in the middle of downtown?

Go back to college this fall. Audit a course at Skidmore or take advantage of the many lectures open to the public. You could even take advantage of the special lecture series designed for those who have the time in the middle of the day. Then there are always the many choices of courses provided by the Academy for Lifelong Learning associated with Empire State College.

Subscribe to a theater or concert series. You have several options: The Homemade Theater, the Epiphany Theater Company, The Saratoga Chamber Players, The Skidmore Theater Program, to name a few. Don’t forget about the Film Forum and the changing monthly art exhibits all across town. And when you’ve done all that, go to Saratoga Spa State Park to relax and rejoice with a bath and a massage.

We are still who we were. We have just reinvented ourselves for another time and generation. After all, even Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford have changed a bit since 1973 when they sat in a coffee shop movie set in Ballston Spa.