Early in the evening at the public comment period Mathiesen was the target of criticism from Jeff Clark President, Saratoga Springs Downtown Business ... Todd Shimkus,President Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce and Todd Garofano President Saratoga Convention and Tourism Bureau as this exclusive video shows.
Seems Mathiesen has been on a media crusade in both the press and radio to paint the town as a seedy, dangerous, cesspool of alcohol, drugs and violence. Funny most directors of Public Safety in other cities try to reassure the public but Mathiesen has been on a scare campaign, basically warning residents and tourist alike to stay out of the city after dark.
Funny but later in the public safety section of the Council meeting that took place well after 11pm. Mathiesen seemed genuinely stung by the criticism, especially from fellow chamber of commerce members. He seemed truly perplexed as to why everyone doesn’t agree with him.
Commissioner of Accounts John Franck came to Mathiesen's aid in what can only be described as a rant calling out the business leaders for dare opposing the good dentist. He went on to describe bloody streets, mayhem and the greed and ignorance of anyone who disagrees with this assessment. Again calling downtown a hellhole. But being cool and trendy here in Toga why not start a non-profit called “Friends of hellhole Saratoga Springs”.Maybe you can put Lew Benton in charge?
Frankly after hearing this discussion I’m surprised anyone outside of death wish thrill seekers would visit Saratoga.
In an effort to be helpful in Mathiesen’s plan to turn Saratoga into Disneyland north let me offer three suggestions.
Why not ban coolers in the Flat track? I’ve seen some pretty drunk people in the backyard and a fight or two. Really ban everything and put up a nice Carousel and let the kids eat ice cream while daddy plays the ponies. So it will kill the track, think how safe we’ll all be.
Next on your agenda. Chris you seem to paint the good children of Saratoga as angelic scholars so why not ban CDTA bus 50. Come on now Chris say what you think. You know who rides that bus, minorities and poor white folk. You don’t want them here do you?
That brings us to another of your “goals” scapegoat illegals.
Mathiesen,the next time an illegal immigrant so much as looks at a local women cross eyed round them all up. You know swat team a temporary detention camp, fuck’em there not like us.
Might seem a bit harsh but do it for the children, of course you’ll need a dozen or more cops and a new police station but that’s been the plan since you read the Kim/Benton report in Maine last year?
So Chris don’t stop just because some weiney business owners bitch, just don’t expect the City to thank you.
22 comments:
I think we should do away with all the bars.Then our poor children wouldn't be forced to buy fake id's.
Pony rides instead would be nice.Who doesn't love a pony?
We should call the city council the Nanny council.
Mandatory church attendance would be a good idea.
I think thongs should be outlawed and all forms of contraceptives.
Thongs = sex.
Birth control-sex.
Alcohol=sex.
Sex is bad,don't have sex.
From i-Saratoga two years ago. Still rings true today
common sense suggests that pounding back five or six car bombs, a dozen pints and a few shots of Irish whiskey in a sitting isn’t the best idea after the witching hour. Common sense suggests getting plastered and pounding on someone’s face isn’t a good idea at any hour.
Common sense suggest running someone down with your car at 4 a.m. isn’t even an idea one should entertain at all.
But common sense is not something that comes easy on Caroline Street. Not at noon on a Monday, not at midnight on a Saturday and certainly not at closing time, just a few hours before dawn. There are errors of judgment at all these hours of the day, and some of them have dreadful consequences: Just ask the family of Eddie Loomis.
Life on Caroline Street would be much simpler and safer if every drink served there was chased with a shot of common sense. There wouldn’t be bar-emptying brawls over a spilled slosh of beer. There wouldn’t be drivers climbing behind the wheel with the blood coursing through their veins registering at 1 proof. There wouldn’t be the needless tragedies that sporadically and spontaneously erupt amid the bar district, sometimes claiming the life or lives of the innocent.
True, a shot of common sense would do everyone a bit of good on those late-night sojourns downtown. Yet as we all know, there is no magical shot to give tipplers a lucid look at the big picture before they make their fateful choices. And there’s positively no legislation that will illicit this common sense, contrary to what an out-of-touch jack ass on the City Council might suggest.
Accounts Commissioner John Franck seems to think closing the bars down two hours earlier would somehow sprinkle the city bars with a magical fairy dust that would settle the unrest prompted by the late-night consumption of booze. In his myopic view, all the troublemakers are perched bar side and pounding drinks after 2 a.m., ready to start mayhem and wanton destruction throughout the city. More specifically, Franck seems to think these rabble-rousing drunks only imbibe between the day after Labor Day and the day before Memorial Day.
To put it kindly, Franck’s plan to close down bars two hours earlier in the “off-season” is an asinine proposal pitched by someone who probably couldn’t find Caroline Street without a road map. It smacks of someone who is dreadfully out of touch with the way the city operates after hours and feels the need to cater to tourists, not the people who power the very heart of downtown.
Of course, those who read this blog with any frequency realize there are few kind words here, so why put it nicely? Franck’s legislation isn’t worth the ink used to print the first letter of it. Hell, it’s not even worth the energy used to make a pixel illuminate on a computer or LCD screen. Just as an example of how incredibly stupid his legislation is, Franck himself points to the post-St. Patrick’s Day incident downtown that lead to the death of a city man this year as a motivating force behind the law. Of course it should be noted that Travis Carroll, the man now convicted of running down Ryan Rossley with his car, did so when he was allegedly sober as a church mouse.
Let’s play some revisionist history here for the accounts commissioner. Let’s say the bars closed at 2 a.m. Rossley and his mates decide to keep drinking at a city apartment downtown. Several hours later, they walk out onto the street and encounter Carroll. And the end is all too familiar.
Why stop there? Let’s take a look at Michael Arpey, the fellow who decided to drink all day and night on a Wednesday, then get behind the wheel and crash into a popular 17-year-old Saratoga High football player on his way home. What if the bars had closed two hours earlier then? Well for that would have chased Arpey out a bit earlier, right?
Wrong-o, Johnny boy. Tragically, Arpey sped out of Saratoga Springs shortly before 10 p.m. In fact, it’s safe to say there would be more fellows like Arpey hitting the sauce earlier and harder if Franck’s legislation is ratified.
To add even more stupidity to a mind-numbingly stupid legislation, Franck also notes that the bars would be permitted to stay open later on “special nights” like New Year’s Eve. Who knows? Maybe St. Patrick’s Day would be one of those “special nights.” After all, it makes sense to keep the bars open later on the nights when amateur 'two-beer-queers' are prone to over-indulging, right?
Strangely enough, none of the press given to this proposed law has included comment from the people most directly impacted by closing time: The Saratoga Springs Police. Franck claims he’s talked to plenty of officers and they all insist the time after 2 a.m. is “the worst.” Still, none of these cops have made their thoughts know during the lengthy public dialogue over this ill-conceived law, which is indeed odd.
Franck’s nanny legislation is yet another attempt at the council legislating what does or does not happen on Caroline Street and should be taken seriously by any business owner that doesn’t think a part-time commissioner has any right to dictate how they run their affairs. The discussion now seems oddly similar to the one that occurred about a decade ago, when a hell-bent jackass commissioner named Benton drove a knife into the heart of the Caroline Street Block Party. And there are plenty of people who are still sore about that sordid decision.
The bottom line is that no government can legislate common sense, and the resident of Saratoga Springs should make sure Franck understands this clearly. Aside from banning booze altogether, accidents and tragedies will still occur via the booze consumption in downtown. The best bet is to implore bar owners and servers to police their own patrons so that a hothead freak isn’t willingly given a half-bottle of hard liquor to fuel a festering rage. Hopefully the council realizes this when they mull this legislation tonight in City Hall. Hopefully they also understand that boozers vote, even if they've been up all night drinking.
When you listen to Chris Mathieson, you listen to someone who exaggerates.
When you listen to someone who exaggerates, you get distracted.
When you get distracted, you start watching young babes walking on Caroline Street.
When you watch young girls, you find yourself drinking too much.
When you drink too much, you find yourself on the floor of a bar on Caroline Street.
Don't listen to Chris Mathieson.
Don't get me started on the Benton family. I know stuff about them that would make you vomit. I have studied them as a hobby for twenty years. They are the epitome of hypocrisy. Two faced, narcissistic, egomaniacs that are self-absorbed. They really think the city cannot run with out them. They take every opportunity to promote them selves at the expense of others. They preach about sacrifice while taking advantage of every opportunity and job they can juice themselves into. Arrogant is an understatement. Don’t look at them wrong let alone question them. Masters of treachery, highly vindictive and calculated. What sickens me the most is how they worship each other with admiration and praise for what they believe are their great accomplishments. Although hated by so many, they see themselves as justified righteous crusaders. They believe they are victims of the criticism from weak-minded lesser beings that should bow at the feet of the holy Benton’s.
Benton is also involved in the lakeside swamp because he promised and good intentioned individual he would make a ton of money on the deal The land owner is a good man only interested in doing a right thing. Now Joanne goes to the damage control rescue plan to get him a few bucks for the property to make amends for the previous deal Even if the property is purchased is it a viable sight worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop it properly.The County wants no part of that. Just satisfy a broken promise. We would be better off hiring three more policemen to support the new rookies almost forced into active duty due to three promotions to replace one inspector. What has happened to the suspended fireman with drug charges pending. No word at all. This is the power of deception. Change the subject matter long enough and it will disappear. You would assume after three months a decision should have been made. Maybe it was. Does anyone know due to this totally transparent form of lack of communication. You just can't make this stuff up. Well another day of dangerous paradise is rising. Watch yourself. Danger is looming everywhere.
These people live in a goddamned bubble. I perform in a band during the summer almost weekly in Saratoga, and what I see there pales in comparison to what I observe in Glens Falls, Albany and other area nightlife 'hotspots'. Fools will be fools, drunk or not, but from what I've seen each bar handles these idiots well and with more restraint than I could muster. The same goes for the police; I know this might be anecdotal, but I observed an extremely drunk young lady, alone on a bench near Caroline Street last year. Strangers came up to her to help and flag down police, who stayed with her until an ambulance came. There are far more good people in this town at night than these morons on the city council realize; but I wouldn't expect them to know this tucked in their beds, miles away, pointing an accusatory finger at an easy target.
Bottom line: these bars make bucket-loads of cash in the summer time, and the city government is absolutely reliant on that money year in and year out. Both the bars and the police do a fantastic job and the vast majority of people out at night in Saratoga are just there to have fun and not cause trouble.
Rant over. I'll go back to my hedonistic lifestyle and bathe in the blood of sacrificed livestock.
You know what the BEST way to avoid the St. Pats tragedy would have been? If the SSPD had handled the initial incidents that lead up to it. Wasn't there atleast one disturbance earlier in the night between the victim and his group of acquaintances and the 3 guys in the car? Wouldn't it have all been nipped in the bud if the cops had made a couple of arrests then and there?
Mathiesan is running the shottiest cop-shop in town, and wants to fix the problems by giving these knuckleheads more power, and limiting the rights of the citizens.
Chris Mathieson is consistent. He said in his campaign that Saratoga Springs was a violent cess pool. You guys voted for him (or didn't bother to vote) so I assume the majority of Saratogians also think that Saratoga Springs is a violent cess pool. I am always amazed that people are surprised when a candidate does exactly what he said he would do. Anyone who reads this blog knew what the humorless Mathieson planned. Surprise?? Not at all.
Franck is a fence jumper. He must have some agenda that he needs passed by his democrats. This is his way to make his sideshow deal happen. He himself has a flare for boozing down on Caroline st. from time to time. He is slowly cracking up with his ranting. No wonder Mayor has steered clear of him.
I would expect this bull from Mathieson and he is consistent. Franck on the other hand is surprising. So John you’re a numbers guy where are your statistics to back this up? Well you can’t because there aren’t any .Crime is flat in the city. Dwi arrests are down. Dwi related accidents are down.
There is no crisis you’re making it up.
Tell me is it that important for you to receive accolades from the Goldberg’s, Benton’s and Finneran’s of this town?
Do you really want to be Mayor that bad?
There’s no room for you in the Democratic Party. They gave you lip service for the assembly than endorsed Warner. They are playing you Johnny and you should be smart enough to see that
Before we go out and change the laws, how about investing in a couple of these so we can find out how bad it REALLY is on Caroline St.?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=730509&Q=&is=REG&A=details
Look at that, only $198! The coppers can even duck tape them to their BULLET PROOF VESTS for hands free operation. When they approach a problem, they click the "on" button, and it documents everything they see, hear, and say during their encounter. Now the DA has all the evidence they need to make convictions, the tooth fairy will have "horror story" footage to show us how bad it is out there, and the citizens will be able to see what those $100K beat cops are really up to.
Franck wants to be City Manager.
The Tooth Fairy is a pompous headline-grabbing idiot.
Can we say feminine mannerisms? If the downtown businessmen are upset with him, he better listen.
In the last 10 years probably 3 million people have enjoyed themselves on Caroline Street. We've had 1 fatality and one "brawl".
In roughly that same time period, probably less then 300 people have been employed by public safety between Police and Fire. In that group, we've had a sex scandal with an assistant comissioner, an officer resign for stalking a girl on the clock and writing bogus tickets to his friends, an officer pay out a civil settlement stemming from allegations he handcuffed and beat a citizen, the chief of police suspended for photographing his cock at work, and sending it a woman, and a woman DIE under the supervision of the SSPD in their holding cell. Oh, hey, and we almost forgot the junkie fireman.
It seems to me the big, scary, place that needs fixing isn't Caroline Street, it's Lake Ave.
Has anyone considered what closing the bars at 2am might do to the morale of people drinking on Caroline St? Morale is even more important then flossing, right?
3:13 pm
Wow! You nailed it.
And you forgot the lawsuit payouts to the Chief Moore, and asst chief for many thousands of dollars.
And the police sergeant who had the affair with the Deputy Dreyer, and got demoted.
The ex-chief who got fired from the racino.
The ex-chief who got fired from the racino?????
3:13 has it right! Perfect.
The TOXIC ENVIRONMENT IS NOT ON CAROLINE ST. IT IS BETWEEN THE FOUR WALLS OF CITY HALL.
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