Lions and tigers and kids on bikes

Moreau Lake walk is a perfect one

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Out for a walk on Wednesday, Bella and Ringo and I ended up at the Stewart’s store on Warren Street at the same time as a group of kids on bicycles.

Most of them appeared to be 13 or 14 years old. They were chatting, parking their bikes and pulling off helmets and gloves. A couple of them were wearing knit face masks, but they were gangly and pudgy kids, with fresh faces and bright smiles.

Hell’s Angels they were not.

Yet, judging from their appearance, these were at least some of the bikers who, according to print stories and social media posts, have been terrorizing Glens Falls.

The Chronicle began sounding the alarm about “youths on bikes” at the end of last summer. “Glens Falls police: Group of juveniles in crime spree” the paper’s headline read in the Aug. 31 edition. 

The story mentioned a Facebook post from the police department, referring to “incidents” involving several young people, 12 to 16 years old. It quoted Police Chief Jarred Smith: “They ride in a group and take up the road, slowing traffic,” he said.

The story also points to three episodes of violence — two in which “the victims did not want to cooperate,” according to Smith — and a third at Downtown City Tavern, where a fight among kids spilled over into the restaurant’s outdoor dining area, and chairs and tables were damaged. 

More stories followed, along with a video of a big group of bikers, some from out of town, who were riding around a car on Veterans Road in Queensbury, harassing the driver.

The paper’s October 5 issue last year told of two brothers in their 60s, who said kids on bikes had yelled at them late at night in downtown, then attacked them, beating one of them with “a metal object.” The headline was “2 men report being assaulted on South Street by 3 youths on bikes, ‘blood on the roadway.’”

“Jody Brown, 61, said he suffered a black eye and contusions to the back of his head, and saw his ‘blood on the roadway,’” the story says.

“He said he had open heart surgery three months ago. ‘I’m hoping they didn’t do anything to my chest where they wired it together’ during his surgery,” the story continues.

But a Post-Star article this past week, based on police and court documents, reported that, at the end of the police investigation, officers decided Jody Brown and his brother, Jeffrey, 62, hadn’t told the truth.

Police charged them with endangering the welfare of a minor.

I don’t want to minimize the danger posed by bikers who pop wheelies and weave among cars, on and off the sidewalk and into and out of the oncoming lane. Anyone who sees this should call the police.

But believing everything bad we read about these kids on social media and elsewhere is wrong, too. Their stunts don’t add up to a crime wave. 

For their own safety, we should do what we can to curb their show-off behavior. But how much of our ranting about their foolishness is envy from old fogies? Thoughts of our own youth and the exploits we enjoyed might give us some perspective.

Walks

We took two walks at Moreau Lake State Park last week, one along a trail that ascended into the woods and went over a bridge that crossed a brook tumbling down the slope; and another on the Nature Trail, which is about 3 miles long and circles the lake.

The first trail you come to as you drive into Moreau Lake State Park leads up a steep hill to a bridge over this lovely brook.

We spotted this beautiful little flower on our walk. Maybe a knowledgeable reader can identify it.

Now is the best time for walking in the woods, when it’s cool but not cold, the air crisp and joyfully empty of black flies and mosquitoes. These were our first trips to Moreau Lake for walking — we used to go there all the time for swimming — and they were great.

The trail around the lake is an old logging road, which means it is wide and flat, and the ups and downs are not terribly steep. The trail goes uphill at the start onto a ridge it follows for much of the walk, then dips down to the lakeshore for the last mile or so.

We heard two new birds on the way, identified by our Merlin app as a white-breasted nuthatch and an eastern phoebe; and we stopped to read the placards that identified trees along the trail. 

The walk isn’t strenuous but was long enough to satisfy. We felt pleasantly tired afterward, not exhausted. Ringo loved it.

Bella and Ringo stand at alert on the lakeshore.

Ukraine vote

Today is Sunday, April 21. Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted on four bills, including aid to Israel, aid to Ukraine, money for Indo-Pacific security and a bill to ban Tik-Tok. They all passed, with Democrats joining Republicans to pass them, a development that news reports called “extremely rare.” 

Separating the bills instead of trying to pass them in a package was the strategy used by House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. The other four members of the House Republican leadership team joined him in backing all four bills, except our congresswoman, Elise Stefanik, who voted against aid for Ukraine.

I can think of only one explanation for her vote — she is trying to become Donald Trump’s running mate. Abandoning Ukraine to Russia’s bloody depredations is not too far a bridge for her ambition, even if it entails breaking with her fellow congressional leaders. I’m angered by the vote — if any country deserves our support, it is Ukraine — and it makes me think she has a chance of getting on the ticket. She shares Trump’s lack of integrity — she will never show even a bit of backbone, the way Mike Pence did — and Trump probably sees that spinelessness as a top qualification.

Earth Day

We happened on the Earth Day celebration Saturday in City Park (Earth Day is officially Monday, April 22) and jumped into a tour that Jeff Flagg, the city’s economic development director, gave of the city’s hydroponic operation.

It’s located on the third floor of the Ridge Street building that houses Farmacy restaurant on the ground floor. It’s an enclosed room built within a huge, high-ceilinged room on the top floor. Inside are metal racks, holding dozens of healthy basil plants. 

Jeff Flagg explains the city’s hydroponic operation Saturday on the third floor of the Farmacy building. Next to him are some of the city’s basil plants.

It’s a sort of experiment the city has undertaken. The plan, Flagg said, is to hand off the operation eventually to the city Local Development Corp. and then to a private operator. The basil and some other produce (lettuce, I think) is sold to a few nearby restaurants, including Farmacy. 

I don’t think it makes the city any money, but it helps Glens Falls with publicity — apparently, reporters love the story — and, he said, helps in obtaining green development grants.

“It establishes the city’s bona fides,” Flagg said.

Bill Richmond of Adirondack Worm Farm explains his operation to some prospective customers Saturday at the Earth Day celebration in City Park.

Repair Cafe

At Earth Day, we ran into Tracy Frisch of Zero Waste Warren County, who was promoting, among other things, a Repair Cafe from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday (April 27) in the downstairs community room at Crandall library.

Anyone with something broken they want to fix (within reason — you can’t drive your car down the library’s stairs), can bring it, and expert fixers will be on hand, along with tools, to help.

Toasters, lamps, hair dryers, clothing that needs sewing or zipper repair or buttons, bikes, toys, leather items, jewelry and more is welcome. 

Repair cafes are an international movement that started in Amsterdam. Zero Waste Warren County and the library will hold two more of them this year, funded by a grant from the Touba Family Foundation. For information, contact glensfallsrepairs@gmail.com or call Tracy Frisch at 518-692-8242.