SmAlbany Spirit

From time to time people have referred to the Albany, NY area as "Small-bany." Friday's presidential visit underscores why. It was embarassing to me as a journalist to watch some of the teevee nonsense, such as training cameras on the skyspace above Albany International Airport where it was reckoned Air Force One would be coming in for a landing. And the narrative as the plane landed! Imagine a TV newscast where the main story tracks the journey of a snail across a driveway. There's just so much you can say about an event like that.

Noteworthy: the way all of the reporters, cameramen and technical people come together at events like this! I've posted a few pictures - can you guess who the people are in the photos?

Urban Dictionary
Smallbany
A pejorative nickname for the capital of New York State, Albany. So called because of its diminutive size, especially compared to New York City.
This spelling is preferred over smalbany, since it preserves the rhyme with ‘small’ and avoids the pronunciation AL-bany (which is, as far as most New Yorker’s are concerned, a city in southern Georgia).
“So, you’re from upstate? Where? Syracuse? Buffalo?”
“Ha, I wish! Nah, I grew up in Smallbany, where the only thing to do at night is drive to another city.”

Then there were all of the Schenectady business owners that were giddy and had somehow convinced themselves and others that President Barack Obama was planning to stop by their particular establishment for lunch. How ridiculous! (What less would you expect from a place where it takes several days to round up a few loose cows?)

Sadly, this wasn't the first time Obama had visited the Capital Region. He was in Troy and toured HVCC about two years ago. Do people in Chicago or Kansas City act the way Capital Region People do when the Pres stops by?

The other 'SmAlbany factors' include the city's inability and/or unwillingness to support any type of local sports team, and that more than 50% of property is tax-exempt, belonging to the state and to nonprofits. It has been said that "if Albany wasn't the State Capital it would be nuttin'."

To give you further insight, the SmAlbany blog hasn't been updated in years!