Two area reporters will no longer cover the east side of the river. The Times Union's Tim O'Brien, a longtime fixture on the Troy beat will now be a general assignment reporter, working out of the TU HQ in Colonie.
The Times Union's Kate Perry, now handling North Greenbush, will cover the Albany City Hall beat.
We're sorry to see Tim go. O'Brien is a good writer and has 15 years of experience covering Troy's Byzantine political scene. Tim was also the first area reporter to mention the Troy Polloi in a column (March 17, 2005). Prior to Tim's mention, the Troy Polloi received a pathetic 5-8 visitors a day. Now....
....an average of 275 unique* visitors a day, making the Troy Polloi Troy's number one (and only) political blog. There's no word on who might cover Troy, but the TU may go with two, rather than three, people for that bureau.
Good luck, Tim.
Perry's promotion is thought to be based on the fact that she's: a) a good reporter and b) the TU wants to keep her here. Perry wants to move back to Rochester.
The Albany City Hall beat is a promotion for Perry. While we're sure that Albany City Hall has it's charms, it can hardly compare to North Greenbush's wild west atmosphere.
Both reporters were approached to work for the Polloi but negotiations broke down over the issue of being paid.
POLICE BEAT
In 2006 the Troy Fire Departmen raked in $650,000 in overtime, the Police Department over $885,000. It sounds like a lot of money and it is a lot of money. The bottom line is, we want those men and women out there on the streets and, unlike some, we don't expect them to do it for free. Nor did we give a damn where they live.
In other police news, the word came down from upon high that police officers are no longer allowed to read the Troy Polloi. First a block at City Hall and now this! Sound a bit more like Stalinist Russia than the Home of Uncle Sam.
Now, we guess we'll have to discuss the true story behind the YouTube arrests later this week. The long and short of it is, McGrath, Harry and the video had nothing to do with any arrests. Troy's Finest were already on the case. The connections between the arrests and the video were concocted by the Administration (though McGrath did not attempt to take credit for anything) to raise McGrath's profile for a possible At-Large run.
*An IP address that logs in more than once a day is recorded as only one visit.
No comments:
Post a Comment