The holidays are a curious time for me. As much as I do love the many traditions—the food, the bulky sweaters and, yes, the music (Mariah Carey’s classic, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is on a constant loop at my house)—there has always been something inherently jarring about the juxtapositions this season magnifies: the gulf between those who have and those who don’t.
Now, as someone who has lived in this country’s most expensive cities (New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco), I found that the homeless became but a mere part of the fixture of the urban landscape; a supporting player, if you will. But after years of being a bit proud of my ability to literally ignore human beings in dire need on the streets in front of me (my fellow large-metropolis residents can probably relate), I decided to try a different tack.
Beginning when I was living in LA more than a decade ago, I convinced some of my closest friends to join me in doing the classic good deed on Thanksgiving: donating time at a local shelter. We decided to go to Venice, steps away from the fabled “Muscle Beach,” and when the eight of us descended early Thanksgiving morning, we were ready to work our tails off. And we did: setting up the large hall, cooking in the make-shift kitchen, removing garbage, serving the massive crowd, breaking down the tables—and, well…you know the rest. It felt so good to give back.
Moving to Saratoga Springs a year ago, a lot of things surprised me: how welcoming people have been to me and the many exciting changes we’ve made to saratoga living, how sophisticated our cultural offerings are for a city our size, how thrilling watching a horse race can be as a communal, civic experience. But most shocking of all was the realization of how many homeless people dot Downtown Saratoga Springs’ otherwise bucolic setting. It breaks my heart. And now, it’s winter.
Two remarkable Saratogians are among the heroes actually doing something about it. One, TJ Tracy is still in high school and his successful TJ’s Turkeys charity just commemorated its ten-year anniversary! TJ, who was featured earlier this year in saratoga living as part of our “Saratoga 20,” helps to ensure that kids in need have a hot meal at both Thanksgiving and Christmas. The fact that he’s still a kid himself is a testament to his proud powerhouse of a mom, Beverly Tracy. The other outstanding citizen mobilizing on this front graces this issue’s cover, Fingerpaint Founder and Owner, Ed Mitzen. I won’t spoil Kevin Sessums’ must-read feature on Ed, but check out this gifted writer’s take on one of our city’s most philanthropic titans. It’s quite a story.
I learned that just because you can ignore people in need, it doesn’t mean you should. TJ Tracy and Ed Mitzen have known that all along. Finally, I do too.
I brought along Jennifer Egan’s newly-minted Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Visit From The Goon Squad, on my honeymoon in 2011. I remember reading it on some Argentine vineyard and thinking, simultaneously, “Man, this is incredible writing!” and “Man, I’m never going to be able to write like this!” The novel’s sublime; separated into interconnected but self-contained vignettes—with one chapter conceived as a PowerPoint presentation—it was like nothing I’d ever read in my life. It was raging against the machines of conformity, something I’d always related to in art, whether it be a Sex Pistols song or a René Magritte painting. In recent years, Egan’s added to her quintet of novels with 2017’s Manhattan Beach and been named President of PEN America. She’s also been a five-time Yaddo resident, and below, I’ve captured her thoughts on her times there, in her own words.
1. First Things First
In 1989, I ended up getting into Yaddo off the waitlist, and it was for a winter session, right around Christmas. It wasn’t a very popular time to be there. I hadn’t had any success as a writer at all; I was 26, and I’d never sold a story. I got into Yaddo as much as anything through persistence, because I basically called every other day and chatted with this nice woman who used to be the administrator there. In a way, since I hadn’t published yet, getting in was really the first feeling of legitimacy or approbation that I ever received from the literary world.
2. Admissions Admonished
There’s luck to anything that has an admissions process, because you’re trying to please the right people at the right time. One year, I was a panelist for admitting people to Yaddo, and I’ll say that I think it’s a fair process, because the work is read blind. You don’t know whose work you’re reading; several people read it, and they give it numerical values. Also, judges have the option of giving a push to one person they believe in, who isn’t getting the numbers to get in. I should add, the last time I applied to Yaddo before I had kids, I didn’t get in. I was rejected. I hadn’t won the Pulitzer, but by that time, I’d published two books and lots of journalism.
3. Friends With Benefactors
You mostly meet other artists at meals. Especially in the off-season months, when it’s just one small dinner table. You’re making dinner conversation; that’s how I met most of them. The food is fantastic, and there’s plenty of wine flowing—if people want to bring it. (They don’t serve it there.) If people wanted to, they could share their work in the evening. You could have a presentation or reading if you wanted to; it’s not required, and the last time I went, I didn’t do it.
4. Diary Of A Madwoman
Yaddo has had a weirdly pivotal role in my writing life. One time, I went to write the first draft of my first piece of journalism. It was about a model named James King. I’d never written as a journalist before, and I had no freaking idea what I was doing. Luckily, the room I was given had this large office, and the entire thing was covered with papers and Post-its to help me keep track of all this stuff I had. Someone walked in and said, “This really looks like the room of a madwoman.” It turned out that the first draft was a complete nonstarter. But it was the beginning of what was ultimately published and was the beginning of my journalistic career. [Editor’s note: “James Is A Girl” was a New York Times Magazine cover story in February 1996.)
5. Failure Is Success In Disguise
The last time I went to Yaddo, I was at a very, very low point with my novel Manhattan Beach. I even considered leaving, because I felt it was so uncomfortable to be confronted every day with this project that I had such grave doubts about. But I really got a huge amount done, and that actually helped me get over that terrible phase I was in. Yaddo was kind of crucial. I’ve tried to pick moments where I thought I would really, really need it. You should think carefully about what you’re going to do at Yaddo, and whether there’s really a reason to be there.
6. Spa City Envy
I love the city of Saratoga. I’m always incredibly excited by 19th-century landscapes and buildings, and that excitement has only grown. I think, in a way, it was even more intense this past time I was at Yaddo, because I was working on a historical novel [i.e., Manhattan Beach], and Saratoga came up a lot in the material I was researching. One time when I was there, I went and had a mineral bath. I’d also often walk from Yaddo to Downtown Saratoga, because I didn’t have a car. For me, walking and thinking about writing are intertwined. I feel a connection to Saratoga, actually. Most of all, the history that you can feel percolating right under the surface; to me, that enriches any place.
7. Visitation Rights
I’m currently working on something related to Goon Squad that will follow those characters into other realms. There’s a lot of structural challenges about that that are really formidable. The problem is that the characters come from a different book, and making them connect to one another is very difficult without a lot of authorial intervention that’s going to feel really forced or phony.
8. Never Say Never Again
As far as going back to Yaddo’s concerned, I don’t think I need to be there. My life has simplified a lot. I’m lucky enough to support myself with my writing, so I don’t have a day job I want to escape from. I feel connected to Yaddo without actually utilizing it in the way that I have. And I hope that will always continue. But I’ll never say never about going back to Yaddo.
When I set out to profile the four other Capital Region philanthropists besides saratoga living‘s 2018 Person Of The Year, Ed Mitzen, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I’ve been an occasional volunteer and donator throughout the years, one that’s never been so taken up by a cause to feel that what I was doing that day (or giving to) was altogether important or life-changing. I felt like I’d been lazy about my generosity, and I wasn’t sure how I would go about interviewing superstars in the “field.” I sort of felt ashamed; my mother had instilled in her two sons the importance of volunteering, and we’d only begrudgingly accepted. (She still volunteers weekly, by the way.)
But after interviewing Heather Straughter, Neil Golub, Linda Toohey and Tas Steiner, it occurred to me that I had been selling myself short: just doing something helps. As Toohey told me: “Everyone can become a philanthropist.” What I think she meant was, even if you give a little bit of your time to a cause or just a few bucks out of your wallet, you’re making a difference. Philanthropists aren’t just folks that sign over million-dollar checks and smile for the press. Now I can’t wait to get my philanthropy on whenever needed.
Heather Straughter
Cofounder and Treasurer, Jake’s Help From Heaven
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten a lot more emotional. Put me in front of the right situation (the movie Up) and before you know it, I’m having a good, ugly cry. But when I read up on local nonprofit foundation Jake’s Help From Heaven, things went a little bit differently: Yes, I immediately got choked up, but it was soon followed by an intense feeling of hope.
Jake’s Help From Heaven was cofounded by Heather and Brian Straughter, whose son, Jake, unexpectedly passed away in December 2010 (a massive seizure Jake had when he was eight months old led to innumerable complications). “I was 24/7, round-the-clock with Jake,” says Heather. “And then there was this void.” To fill it, just days after Jake’s passing, the Straughters turned their grief into action. “Jake taught us about what was important in life, about resiliency and strength, and we wanted to honor him and use what we’d learned from him,” she says. The following March, they launched the foundation, with the mission of supporting families like their own, who were dealing with the life-altering effects of having a child with a debilitating illness.
Nowadays, if you’re a family in need and reach out to the foundation, the first person you’ll likely talk to is Heather. “We come from a place of ‘yes’. If we can make a difference for a family and impact its quality of life, chances are we’re going to say yes,” she says. This past December, the foundation crossed a major milestone, having awarded more than half a million dollars to families in need.
Since talking to Heather Straughter, another emotion has entered my being: pride. She and her family are making Saratoga an even better place to call home. And it’s all thanks to Jake.
Neil Golub
Chairman Of The Board, Price Chopper Supermarkets
I grew up helping check items off my mother’s grocery list at Price Chopper—and now I do the same, but at Market 32. When I’m there, my mind isn’t ever on my next altruistic act, it’s on my growling stomach. Not so for Neil Golub. The self-described family-in-business grocer (“family business,” for him, implies that people get special treatment, and at his company, they don’t) is undeniably one of the most generous residents in the Capital Region.
Neil’s father and uncle founded what would become the Golub Corporation in 1932 and had “community involvement in their DNA,” he tells me. The company now operates Price Chopper, Market 32 and Market Bistro supermarkets in six states, including New York, and he serves as Chairman of the Board. Nowadays, Neil and his wife, Jane, support numerous causes, including the Special Olympics, the Double H Ranch and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (Neil coanchored the local MDA Jerry Lewis telethon for more than three decades). Another cause the couple has championed for years is women’s health. Jane is a breast cancer survivor and has atrial fibrillation, and the Golubs have underwritten the Neil and Jane Golub Breast & Heart Health Center at Ellis Medicine’s Bellevue Woman’s Center. Additionally, they’ve contributed significantly to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). “I’d say, openly, that I’m a shill for BCRF, because most of the major advancements that have been made in breast cancer have come as a result of their fundraising,” says Neil.
Neil says he’s never been a big fan of the term philanthropist, because it really doesn’t get to the essence of what he does. “The idea of giving and doing deserves another definition,” he says. The next time I’m at Market 32, I’ll think of Neil the grocer—and how I, too, can become a “philactionist.”
Linda Toohey
Founder, Leadership Saratoga
I’d like to think that I’ve done a lot of good in my life. I’m pushing 40, and, well, I probably have a half-century in me before, well, you know. But when I look at Linda Toohey’s résumé, I can’t help wondering: Am I doing enough? In 1977, two years before my big arrival at Saratoga Hospital, Toohey left Iowa for Saratoga Springs, and our city has never been the same.
That year, Toohey was appointed President and Publisher of The Saratogian, making her the youngest woman in the country to hold a similar position at the time. Three years later, she became the Executive Vice President of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, where, in ’85, she founded the Leadership Saratoga program—basically, a Ford-style production line of future members of local nonprofit boards, city councils and political committees. “I think you learn how to be a leader,” she says. “I don’t think you’re born one.” The Chamber was lucky to have her leadership skills for more than three decades.
Near the end of our conversation, Toohey drops something equal parts modest and powerful when I ask her about what we can all do to give back. “Everyone can become a philanthropist,” she says. “The amount of money you give isn’t important. It’s that you give something.” I guess I have my work cut out for me.
Tas Steiner
Founder & President, Whispering Angels of Saratoga Springs
As my colleagues can attest, every day—no matter how many open spots there are in front of the saratoga living offices—I park my car in the garage behind Putnam Market. And day after day, I walk by Saratoga Springs’ growing homeless population, sleeping in the garage’s stairwell or near the elevator bank. Now, let this statistic sink in for a moment: 40 percent of homeless youth under the age of 25 identify as LGBTQ. I can’t help but think that some of the people I’ve passed needed more than just a blanket, hot meal or roof over their heads. They needed acceptance.
That’s where Saratogian Tas Steiner—a former celebrity publicist/event planner turned Albany-based psychotherapist—and the nonprofit foundation he launched in 2017, Whispering Angels Of Saratoga Springs (WASS), come into play. “When a 16-year-old gets kicked out of her home because of her sexual orientation or gender identity, she doesn’t have anywhere to go,” says Steiner. She might couch-surf at a friend’s house—or worse yet, squat in the Saratoga Spa State Park. And the saddest part? “In the eight counties of the Capital District/Saratoga County, there are only eight beds specifically set aside for LGBTQ homeless youth,” Steiner says. Yikes.
Currently, the foundation supports LGBTQ issues in Saratoga, the Southern Adirondack area and the greater Capital Region, with a focus on at-risk and homeless LGBTQ youth. It drums up dollars, annually, via its popular Garden Party in June and Sleep Out event, where members of the community actually camp outside in the winter to raise awareness for homeless LGBTQ youth. Next year’s Sleep Out takes place in March. Now that’s dedication.
Ed Mitzen calls Saratoga Springs his Mayberry. There’s certainly a bit of Andy Griffith about the guy—a studied guilelessness, an affability he wears like a badge—as he walks me the few blocks from his advertising company, Fingerpaint, to Boca Bistro, his favorite lunch spot on Broadway. By the time we’re seated, he’s shaken a few hands on the way over and waved at a couple of fellow diners. He orders his regular chicken sandwich and insists I try the dates stuffed with Valdeón blue cheese and Marcona almonds, which are then wrapped in bacon with a cider glaze.
“And would you like tap or mineral water?” the waitress asks me.
“I guess I should have Saratoga Spring Water,” I tell her as she rolls her eyes but dutifully goes to put in the order for the dates.
“I think she’s heard that before,” says Mitzen.
“I was doing it for your benefit, not hers,” I say. “I saw that Saratoga Spring Water is on your client list.”
“We’ve done some work for them,” he says, “although they’re much smaller than you’d think.”
“So are you,” I tell him, commenting on how compact he is, which makes him laugh at his own expense, this muscular motorcycle enthusiast with close-cropped, gun-metal hair. On a bicep is a newly inked tattoo inspired not only by an intricately reimagined King Kong and Mitzen’s recently having turned 50, but also his own equally intricate attempt to reimagine what turning 50 means.
Ed Mitzen founded Fingerpaint in a tiny office with a card table. Now it has more than 200 employees and billings of upwards of $50 million this year. (Dori Fitzpatrick)
Tattooed, talked-about Ed Mitzen might be a small guy, but he’s a big man. The Voorheesville native has been referred to as a serial entrepreneur, having built four marketing companies with total revenues of more than $200 million. Fingerpaint is his fourth, and is a full-service (though they dub it “right-service”) advertising agency with more than 200 employees and billing this year of $50 million, most of that in the pharmaceutical/health and wellness sector, which is the company’s specialty. Why Big Pharma? It doesn’t have the greatest of socially conscious reputations, even though Mitzen himself has developed one here in Saratoga. When one hears the term “Big Pharma,” one thinks “greed” and “profits over people,” which is ironic considering that Mitzen and his company are known for their people-first corporate philosophy. “I love science,” he says when explaining to me why he has purposefully found himself in a marketing league with Big Pharma. “I’ve always loved it. My dad was a biochemist. I’m sure a lot of it is about a lot of us wanting to make our fathers proud. My dad was a scientist and my mom is a retired nurse. I love that we work in the science industry. I think it’s really sad that the pharma industry has a worse reputation than the tobacco industry. There’s a lot of good being done by pharma. We will not promote products that are being slanted in an unethical matter, but if you’re asking if I feel compromised because we work in healthcare and I give money away so I can sleep at night, the answer is no. I’m very proud to work in the healthcare space.”
Fingerpaint recently bought its headquarters building on Broadway, adding to its real estate portfolio in town, which already included 1 Franklin Square, a two-story building built in 1836, which the company purchased last year as an off-site center for ideation and brainstorming and conceptualizing new ways to market its clients’ products. There are even four apartments at the 1 Franklin Square site to house employees if they need to stay overnight for work or weather reasons. Since its founding in 2008, Fingerpaint has created this kind of empathetic corporate culture for those who work there. From unlimited sick and personal time, to paid sabbaticals, to the agency’s paying 100 percent of healthcare premium costs for its employees and their dependents, it’s a culture that mirrors Mitzen’s own values and for which he was named Boss of the Year in 2017 by Digiday, the online magazine that covers the fields of advertising, publishing and media. “I have an undying appreciation for how hard my employees work,” he says. “I’ve never laid anybody off. I’ve been in the ad business for 20 years, and I’m very proud of that. If we lose a client for some reason, I’d rather lose money for six months than fire these people. I think the town looks at our company as really good for the community, too. This past summer, we put together a program where we made 65,000 lunches for kids who needed lunches when they’re not in school.”
When he was attending school himself back in Voorheesville, Mitzen, who’s a big Boston Red Sox fan and longs for the day he can take his first grandchild to Fenway Park, didn’t want to play baseball but football. He was both a star running back at Clayton A. Bouton High School and his team’s kicker. Syracuse University, in fact, asked him to come try out to be a kicker on its varsity team, but Mitzen didn’t think the job was big enough. He liked running the ball. “I thought: “A kicker? I’m not going to do that.” So I didn’t go and try out. To this day, it’s one of my biggest regrets, that I didn’t go and at least try. Who knows? I could have been in the NFL as a kicker.”
Fingerpaint celebrates its ten-year anniversary in Scottsdale, AZ.
His dream of being another Adam Vinatieri wasn’t the only one that didn’t materialize. He also wanted to be a doctor, but when his dad died of a heart attack when Mitzen was 18, he went through a dark period while attending Syracuse. He knew his grades weren’t good enough to get him into medical school, so he got a job as a drug rep after graduation and moved to Columbus. He even went back to business school because, during all his time at Syracuse, he’d never taken a business course. But Mitzen found himself at 30 with two young kids and feeling quite conflicted. “I had reached that point in my life that, if I were at work, I felt like a shitty dad, and if I were home, I thought I was never going to get my career going. I was miserable. I came home one day on a Friday after a 70-hour work week—we’ve all had them—and my then wife asked me to watch our son. He was about one at the time. I was sitting on the bed watching ESPN and zoning out. My son rolled off the bed and fell. My wife came running into the bedroom ready to tear me a new one. My eyes filled up with water. I thought: ‘Screw it. I have to quit.’ So I did, and started a marketing consulting business. That grew. I had about 13 guys who worked for me. The clients were asking us to do advertising. I was a dimwit. I thought, ‘It’s just words and pictures. It can’t be that hard.’ I knew that most of the advertising I saw in the healthcare space was shit. I still think that. You look at ads on TV, and they all look the same. There’s a lot of motion in the background to distract you as they tell you that your liver might fall out if you take this drug.”
So Mitzen packed up his family and moved back to Upstate New York in 1997, settling in Saratoga. “The first time I came to Saratoga I was still in high school,” he tells me. “I’d come for concerts at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. I saw the Grateful Dead, the Doobie Brothers, Springsteen. You could sit on the lawn for $10 and hang with your buddies. In college, I’d go to the racetrack as a fun, social thing to do. It was a lot different back then. It wasn’t nearly as built up as it is now. Our building now at Fingerpaint was a dilapidated pizza shop back then. The whole town has really blossomed.”
So has Mitzen since moving back here, but not without a few withering reassessments along the way about his life after he sold his advertising/consulting company in 2006. “I was also going through a divorce. I needed a fresh start. I was at a turning point in my life. I was 35. I had never had money before. I had never had success. I think I got a little full of myself. I just wasn’t doing well. I had to get my shit together. So I started Fingerpaint in a tiny office with a card table. It was sort of a mulligan for me. I had to take all the bad habits I had and throw them out the window. I said to myself, ‘This isn’t you.’”
And then he met Lisa.
“I immediately fell in love. I wasn’t planning to get married again. We’ve been together for 13 years.” Had she been married before as well? “She got married when she was around 23 to the guy in the band, and then he cut his hair. Lisa was great for me. She kept me grounded. She also helped me start Fingerpaint. The economy had tanked. Any stock I had had evaporated. My 401(k) was gone and that was what I was using to fund the business for cash flow. I had just paid this massive amount of money for a divorce. I was back to square one. I was thinking, ‘What the hell had I done?’ I was living in an apartment with a couch and a flat-screen TV and that was about it. Oh, I had a beanbag chair. I had that. Lisa—who worked for Countrywide at the time and hated it—actually lent me some money to help get the business off the ground.”
Lisa, Nick, Ed, Emily and Grace Mitzen hot air ballooning in Kenya.
Lisa now teaches fitness classes at Saratoga Bootcamp Bike & Box Studio and is quite involved in the couple’s philanthropic efforts when not managing the 40-acre farm where they live, about ten minutes outside Saratoga. “Two years ago, we were out at the farm for Christmas Eve dinner, just the two of us,” says Mitzen. “Lisa makes this big Italian thing. I don’t see my kids on Christmas Eve. I have them on Christmas day. [Mitzen has three children: Emily, in Manhattan; Nick, in Brooklyn; and Grace, a recent graduate of The Emma Willard School in Troy, who’s enrolled at UC-Santa Cruz.] So Lisa and I were sitting at home, and we thought, ‘Let’s go to the shelter and work.’ We came home from doing it that first time. I poured myself a big bourbon. She poured herself a glass of wine. And she said, ‘Our dogs live better than those people do.’ It really hit us both: We just have to do something. This is ridiculous. So we pledged $1 million to the charity involved in running the shelter to build a permanent one.”
It was in that moment that Mitzen’s advocacy for Code Blue Saratoga began. Code Blue, a program of Shelters Of Saratoga, is an emergency homeless shelter open from November until April when the temperature dips below 32 degrees or a snowfall of 12 inches or more is predicted. All individuals seeking shelter are accepted without restrictions. The shelter’s temporary location is at Soul Saving Station Church at 62 Henry Street. “It’s nice that the church lets them stay there, but there’s no men’s and women’s sleeping quarters,” says Mitzen. “There are no laundry facilities. There’s not a lot of room to store a lot of food. There’s one bathroom for 60 people. I went to my buddy, builder Sonny Bonacio,
who said he’d build it at-cost. Adirondack Trust agreed to give us a zero-sum interest loan. Everybody was wanting to do it. We were going to put it on the grounds next to the existing sober shelter, so we wouldn’t have to buy the land, because dirt around here costs a fortune. We’ve been trying very hard. I’m not giving up.”
That’s Mitzen’s nice and rather oblique way of his letting me know that his altruistic impulse met fierce opposition when 22 neighbors around the site banded together to stand in its way. “Led by one or two prominent people,” Mitzen decides to point out. He also claims Code Blue agreed to every demand those neighbors were making. The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved the building plan, but the neighbors were still able to get a court injunction against it at the last minute based on the zoning having been granted for a rooming house and not a shelter, because there’s no wording in the city charter for zoning for a homeless shelter. “Right now, we’re at a standstill,” Mitzen says. “Winter’s coming. They have the temporary shit box they have at the church. We’re going to support that financially and ensure that we can do the best we can with it. Now it’s incumbent on the city to figure out how to change the zoning laws, because, right now, I can’t put the shelter anywhere.”
In recent years, Mitzen has fought for the approval of a permanent homeless shelter in Saratoga Springs.
Saratoga is a small town—it is Mayberry, as Mitzen has mentioned—so he must know the opposition leaders and travel in the same social circles. “There’s definitely some friction,” he allows. “We’re civil. It’s not like I would spit on the guys if they walked by me. On a human basis, it’s hard not to make them the poster children for the problem. I also recognize they have fear and concern. I’m not dismissing that. They might have young kids. I get it. But I do think, for the betterment of society, there comes a time when you have to put those fears away. A woman died on the street here—her name was Nancy Pitt—and everyone sort of looked around and asked how the hell did that happen here in Saratoga, here in our Mayberry. I started to meet a lot of the homeless in town through my volunteering, doing meals—breakfasts mostly. I’d felt the same way about the homeless as a lot of folks did before I met them—you know: scary, dirty, substance abuse issues. But as I got to meet more and more of them, it reaffirmed to me that there’s a very fine line between being very successful and being on the streets. I could see some of the decisions I made in my own life—my dad was an alcoholic—and somehow, by the grace of God, I luckily avoided it. I’m hammered driving, for instance, and I kill somebody, and I go to trial and no one will hire me. And before you know it, I’m doing drugs to cope. All of a sudden, I’m living on the streets. I really, firmly believe that people don’t realize how fragile that line is and how easily they could end up there. Clearly, some of them have mental health issues that they need to get addressed, and there are substance abuse issues. But I could argue there’s probably substance abuse issues in every single office up and down this street. And then, a third of the homeless I’ve met just had some shitty breaks. They get up. They take the bus to work. They have alimony payments. And they just can’t afford a place to live. Lisa and I knew a lot of them. They’re working among us. You’d see them working in Starbucks and other places. You’d have no earthly idea that they’re homeless unless you took an interest in the homeless.”
Ed Mitzen will not give up until the shelter is built. And instead of focusing on or naming those who have stood athwart his desire to help and to house the homeless in Saratoga, he chooses to mention others who have influenced him in town. “When I got here as a 30 year old, I was very inspired by other leaders in the community by what they were giving back. Not just money. There’s this guy, Stephen Sullivan, who owns Olde Bryan Inn and Longfellows Hotel and Restaurant. He’s always donating food for charity events and dropping off food at the homeless shelter. I’m sure he doesn’t make $100 million a year, but he’s very engaged and aware of helping others. There’s Charles Wait, Chairman and CEO of Adirondack Trust. Marylou Whitney and her husband John Hendrickson—they donate a ton of money. I looked around at these people and thought it was very inspiring. I never honestly thought we’d be in a position to do what we’re doing. But it feels amazing. I don’t do it out of a sense of guilt or obligation. I don’t think I’m obligated to give anything away. It just makes me feel great.”
Our lunch at Boca Bistro is coming to an end—he was right about the dates, they were delicious—and I ask about his own politics. For all his philanthropy and his civic-minded volunteerism, Mitzen seems quite circumspect about politics itself. He doesn’t reveal much. Does he want to take this chance to put them on display? “I was a Republican my whole life until Trump won,” he readily admits. “And then I changed to Democrat. I was so shocked and disheartened. I think the Republican Party left me. I didn’t leave it.” Would he ever run for office? “I don’t think I have the patience. I don’t think I’d ever do it.” That’s not a no. “I always tease my wife that I should run for the Senate. I don’t know where this arrogance comes from that I have any idea what it would be like to be a senator in Washington. But, as I said, I don’t have the patience. Plus, I don’t think I’m mean enough or nasty enough to get in the mud with people,” he continues, although the whole Code Blue blowup got pretty muddy. Indeed, he’s still scraping that mud off his boots and getting ready to stomp back even more purposefully into the civic fray. “I’d be the guy who would lose but would lose ethically,” he says, looking at me just as a steely glint comes to his eye. He grins. King Kong flexes there on his bicep. “And if you don’t win, what’s the point?” he asks.
This time of year, Christmas music is inevitably in there air everywhere, whether it be Downtown Saratoga or the Wilton Mall or wherever you’re getting that last-minute shopping done. And to that point, we’ve come up with a long list of holiday-themed concerts and events for you to attend this weekend (yes, we’ve checked it twice). And at the top of that list, and our Editors’ Pick for this week, is Jewel’s Handmade Holiday Tour coming to the Palace Theatre this Friday, December 14, at 8pm.
Singer-songwriter and draw for the holiday tour is Jewel Kilcher, a four-time Grammy nominee and New York Times bestselling author (read our exclusive interview with her). She’s recorded 11 studio albums, but is perhaps best known for her 1995 debut album, Pieces of You, which went platinum 15 times over and spawned a number of hit singles such as “Who Will Save Your Soul,” “Foolish Games” and “You Were Meant for Me.”
It turns out that Jewel’s not the only artistic Kilcher. She grew up singing with her father, Atz, and her brothers, Atz Lee and Nikos, in remote Homer, AK (about four hours south of Anchorage). Now the Kilcher family has its own Discovery reality show, Alaska: The Final Frontier, which documents the kind of rural upbringing that the singer-songwriter had (she’s also appeared in several episodes). Friday, fans of Jewel and her family will have a chance to see them live at the Palace Theatre. Jewel’s 2nd Annual Handmade Holiday Tour includes holiday originals by the Kilcher family, hit songs written by Jewel and classic Christmas carols sung by the whole family. Concertgoers will also get the opportunity to make handmade holiday gifts inspired by the Kilcher family.
And if you need more Christmas music (and fun) this weekend, then check out the great list below.
Friday, December 14
Disney On Ice: 100 Years of Magic – All weekend (December 13-16) at the Times Union Center in Albany. Chuck Lamb Quartet – 9pm, pianist Chuck Lamb plays with the Brubeck Brothers Quartet at 9 Maple Avenue. Boho Chic Holiday Party 2018 – 5-9pm with complimentary champagne cocktails and holiday cookies at Boho Chic Boutique in Ballston Spa. WRGB Melodies of Christmas – All weekend (December 13-16) and celebrating 39 years of Melodies of Christmas at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady. The Mountain Snow Orchestra – 8pm at The Egg in Albany.
Shortly after moving to Troy from Brooklyn, I reconnected with an old Saratoga Springs High School classmate, Tim Biello. He was one of those rare guys who everybody was friends with in high school; he was just that well-liked. After we graduated from high school and went off to college, Tim and I largely fell out of touch: I’d only vaguely followed what he’d been up to in life on Facebook, and though we did share a mutual friend, Mark Oswalt, my childhood neighbor, I had little idea what he was up to upon returning to Upstate New York. I distinctly remember one time Mark and I both being back in Saratoga at the same time, and upon knocking on Mark’s front door, his mom telling me that he wasn’t around but had “gone off to Tim’s to help around the farm.” I think I assumed Mark’s mom had been using some archaic idiomatic phrase—when in fact, it turned out that Tim actually did own a farm just outside of Saratoga in Ballston Spa, and Mark had gone out there to assist in some agrarian adventure that day.
Soon after we got situated, I reconnected with Tim, and my wife and I were invited out to his farm, Featherbed Lane, with a few other couples, including Mark and his wife. I remember feeling this somewhat odd twinge of jealousy while getting the grand tour of the farm by Tim and his wife, Jamielynn, and their young son. I’d been working my entire career as this desk-jockey wordsmith, with piles of digital bylines to my name, but nothing tangible, save for the handful of print stories I’d published (and pay stubs I’d gotten) to document my years of toil. Tim, on the other hand, had 63 acres of lush, green farmland, giant draft horses, neatly hoed rows and sheds filled with bushel after bushel of consumable fare. He’d launched his own CSA, and he was not only feeding himself and his family on his hard work, but also the local community.
More than anything else I was jealous about that day at Tim’s farm was his level of enthusiasm for what he was doing. Look, I love writing and editing, and would feel weird doing anything else. But he was just this ball of energy, excitedly talking about his various plants and recent harvest, and he took us through his fields, picking vegetables and popping them in his mouth. (Of course, there were delicious samples for all.) This was a different, far happier Tim. I think we all get this picture in our minds of the weary farmer—early to bed, early to rise—just going through the motions, desperately poor and always on the edge of starvation. Maybe that’s Hollywood’s or John Steinbeck’s fault. But for Tim, that land he was farming day in and day out, rain or shine, was nothing short of heaven.
I get the same feeling talking to Saratoga farmer Jason Heitman, who owns Green Jeans Market Farm and has been farming full time for just over a year. But you might be surprised what got him there.
Spending his childhood in Western New York, just south of Buffalo, Heitman enrolled at the State University of New York Potsdam in 1992, and started working on an English degree, but soon found himself “disillusioned with college” and dropped out. (He ended up finishing his bachelors degree 16 years later.) By 1999, he was in his mid-20s and dealing cards for a living at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY. Around that time, he was offered a job at Verizon, and having just bought a home, he immediately put in his two-weeks notice at the casino, with the prospect of a higher-income job on the not-so-distant horizon. But the telecom giant kept delaying Heitman’s start date, and he needed money, so in a fit of desperation, he answered a want-ad for temporary painters, calling a telephone number on it.
Green Jeans Market Farm is located on a quarter-acre plot on Otrembiak Farm in Saratoga Springs. (Jason Heitman)
What he got on the other end of the line was something altogether different than what he’d expected: the local US Navy recruitment office. “I don’t know what that says about the Navy,” says Heitman, tongue firmly in cheek, of the apparent bait-and-switch ad campaign. Either way, he took the bait. And he didn’t stop there. He talked to recruiters for the Marines and Air Force, before ultimately deciding on the Navy, based on what he assumed would be a better training regimen. (All these years later, he still thinks he made the right move.) So he enlisted, did bootcamp and then, from 1999-2001, was stationed in San Diego, CA. He became a sonar technician, tracking enemy submarines on the USS Normandy, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, which would be his home on the high seas for four years. “When you’re on a sea command, you’re underway all the time,” he says. “I do sometimes say this to impress people or freak them out, but I nearly circumnavigated the globe…within a few thousand miles.” (On separate occasions, he was on a boat east of India and a frigate west of California.) But ultimately, civilian life came calling. “I did my six years and was in Operation Enduring Freedom, and it wasn’t for me to reenlist,” says Heitman. So he linked up with some recently discharged Navy buddies, found a job through a headhunter in St. Louis, MO, and settled down.
Fast forward to 2008, and Heitman finished his BA in English, winding up in the Capital Region and enrolling in a graduate program for a spell. After reading a book on the food system and realizing “the tenuous existence of it…our food system is really vulnerable,” he says, Heitman decided to make the jump to farming. And he found inspiration for it in his military experience. “In the military, we fight on our stomachs,” says Heitman. “Here at home, we’re really not eating food that we grow; we’re eating food that’s either grown across the country or [in] another country. [And] we’re burning more fossil fuel than we, maybe, need to if we grew it locally.” That, in turn, led to an interest in the local food movement. Heitman, a self-described “workaholic,” had a lot on his plate at the time: Besides taking those grad school classes online in sustainable agriculture, he was working two jobs, one at Pleasant Valley Farm in Argyle, the other at Artisanal Brew Works in Saratoga. “I was working 65-75 hours a week,” he says, all that while getting a stipend for housing courtesy of the GI Bill. That work ethic set him up for his next big step.
In late October 2017, Heitman leased a quarter-acre plot from Otrembiak Farm in Saratoga, dubbing it Green Jeans Market Farm (it gets its name, in part, from his partner Roberta’s late father, Gene, with the “Green” nodding to Heitman’s military service and his verdant area of focus). Because it was so late in the growing season, Heitman only had a few short months to sow seeds, so he was only able to grow onions and garlic for the spring season. (He grows in what he calls a “tunnel”—basically, a small greenhouse, where crops are planted directly into the soil.) He’s looking to expand that to a half-acre of land in the coming year, depending on how much staff he can hire and product he can sell at the local farmers’ markets. And speaking of expansion, this past May, Heitman was one of 50 military veterans who received $1000 towards his farm, thanks to a partnership between Tractor Supply Co. and the Farmer Veteran Coalition. The funds allowed him to buy a fencing system to surround his land, helping keep critters off of his cultivatable plot.
Even though the fence has been a major upgrade for his relatively small plot, he’s not looking to go too, too big anytime soon. “I want to [remain] a small-scale, intensive farm that grows lots of vegetables and serves a local market,” he tells me. “I don’t want to manage a lot of employees. I want to focus on keeping it simple.” Part of that ethos is farming in a completely natural way, free of pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers and other chemicals some bigger farms use. “I’ve never grown anything any other way,” says Heitman. That, and it’s incredibly expensive to farm that way. So how do the vegetables actually grow without fertilizer and pesticides to keep away plant-feasting bugs and other pests? “I try to manage what’s there,” says Heitman. “I’m not going to upset or wipe out any one thing. I’m not just growing carrots; I’m growing everything that I don’t bring to market—the bug and the weeds and all those things in a balance that allows me to still be productive and make a living [on] the farm.” The way he looks at it, if he were to eliminate one type of pest, he’d be making room for another one just like it. “I’m never going to outperform Mother Nature, so I’m just trying to listen and work with what she’s given me.”
The majority of the food Heitman brings to market he sells at local farmers’ markets such as the Saratoga Farmers’ Market—and this year, he sold out of basically everything. (He’s set up at as many as four markets at a time.) His cash crops include head and leaf lettuce, spinach, arugula, chard, kale, mustard greens, escarole, onions, garlic, leeks, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, beets and radishes. “I think the farmers’ markets in our area are great,” says Heitman. “The people are great, too; they’re knowledgeable about their food; I don’t have to explain to them what I mean when I say I’m certified naturally grown.” For those of you in need of a cheatsheet on the latter, it means that his farm is inspected by an actual inspector to make sure he’s actually growing his food naturally. The inspectors tend to be other local farmers, who know the territory and can do a thorough probe. (He’s only been inspected once, by the way, when he first launched his farm.)
You don’t normally think of the farming as a boom business, but as far as Heitman’s concerned, he’s already in the money. He’s been able to provide for his family and can rent a house in Ballston Spa, all on what he makes at the local farmers’ markets. And he’s super proud of the business’ lack of wastefulness. “I think I threw away almost no food this year,” says Heitman. “I’m really happy with that; you can’t see that success on a balance sheet.”
Of course, keeping a farm up and running can be a challenge during the winter, but Heitman, with that consummate work-work-work mentality, has found the perfect backup plan: He’s picked up a part-time job baking pies at the Food Florist in Ballston Spa. (He met his boss at one of the four farmers’ markets he set up at this past summer.) And he hasn’t strayed far from his plot, continuing to research how to grow better and expand his business, ever so gradually. Case and point: He attended the Farmer Veteran Stakeholder Conference at the end of November, a live networking event for fellow veteran-farmers, which touched on everything from crop and animal production to aquaculture and how to run a better farming business. For Heitman, though, going to the conference was about more than just about farming better or making more money. It’s about spreading the gospel to his fellow veterans. “I hope that Green Jeans Market Farm can be an avenue for other veterans to explore their own interests in farming,” he says. “This is a big part of Green Jeans Market Farm’s mission statement, and I’m looking forward to bringing what I learn back to Saratoga Springs and helping its veterans.” Next spring, I’m looking forward to driving out to Heitman’s plot and having him take me on a tour of his rows. Maybe I’ll even get a taste of his wares.
Interested in how other local veterans are making good on their post-military careers? Read this profile.
This is the second in my series of holiday-themed wine columns to present recommendations for your wine-drinking needs. Below are eight red wines that offer interest, value and sheer deliciousness that can be served at Christmas Eve dinner—or even a pre-New Year’s Eve gathering. The prices correspond with wines available in my Wine Room at Putnam Market in Saratoga Springs, and below (note: the prices below include sales tax).
2012 Domaine Jaume Altitude 420, Vinsobres AC, France
Altitude 420 is a blend of 60 percent Grenache and 40 percent Syrah, grown on a windswept terrace in “Les Collines,” which towers over the medieval village. One-third of the wine matures for four months in one-year-old barriques, and the rest in stainless steel tanks. It’s glorious. The wine sings with wonderful freshness. Really good wine for less than $20. Amazing. ($19)
2016 Banshee Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, California
Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon tends to be brighter in flavor, naturally high in acidity and with tamer but richer tannins than you’d find from Napa. And this makes that point well. Dry and medium-bodied with blackcurrant, lifted by a touch of red fruit brightness on the entry. Oak, vanilla and yeast notes underpin the fruit. The finish is long and fresh with firm, smooth tannins. ($21)
2015 Mapuche Cabernet Sauvignon, Maipo Valley, Chile
No vanilla essence, no oak staves, no oak shavings—no nothing. Just ripe grapes and meticulous, temperature-controlled fermentation. Juicy and fresh: not sweet, not syrupy, not chocolatey, in fact, not bad at all. Great party wine. ($10)
2012 Quiet Resolve, Project RL5, Syrah, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Pepper, spice, rich blackberry fruit and then rich, multi-layered and savory on the palate. Some graphite elegance here, even in such a big, powerful wine. Clearly, way out of this price bracket. ($13)
2016 The Ojai Vineyard Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir
Adam Tolmach is a legend in Santa Barbara. He knows every row in every consequential vineyard in the county. He buys his grapes, not by the ton, but by the acre. He has control of the vineyards and over the quality of the grapes grown there. The wine is all fresh red and black fruits, but there’s something else—that engrossing factor that gets you thinking. ($35)
2013 Domaine des Tourelles, Vallée de la Bekaa, Lebanon
The elevation of the vineyards at 3500 feet moderates the extreme heat of the valley. The wine is a typical Rhône blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and Carignan, fermented in concrete with indigenous yeast and aged there as well. It’s a glossy, deep red, deliciously smooth, full of life and with sensational value. Nothing if not interesting. ($13)
2015 Ch. Argadens Bordeaux Supérieur, France
This is 63 percent Merlot, 32 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 5 percent Cabernet Franc, aged for 12 months in small oak barrels. When the weather delivers, even less favored properties in Bordeaux produce real quality, and 2015 was such a year. In the glass the wine is intensely aromatic and in the mouth, it’s lightly tannic, fresh, appetizing and just what you want in good claret. ($16)
2014 Smith Madrone Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
Smith-Madrone’s Cabernet Sauvignon is grown at the top of Spring Mountain (at an elevation of 1800 feet), west of St. Helena in the Napa Valley. The blend is 85 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 8 percent Cabernet Franc and 7 percent Merlot from 42-year-old vines, estate-grown and dry-farmed. Aged for 18 months in French oak barrels—70 percent new, 30 percent one year old. Concentrated aromas, seamless palate, velvety, silky texture, the essence of Cabernet Sauvignon. Old school and old world, full of finesse. ($60)
The plan to create a network of trails connecting various towns and cities throughout Saratoga County (and beyond) got a big boost on November 15 with the release of a study entitled, the “Southern Palmertown Conservation & Recreation Strategy.” Local, nonprofit land conservation group, Saratoga PLAN, produced the study, which identifies parts of Northern Saratoga County that have a high potential for recreational development. What that means is the potential for more visitors to parts of Saratoga County that don’t see nearly as much tourism as, say, Downtown Saratoga Springs, providing an economic boon (and possible boom) to restaurants, campgrounds, hotels and other local businesses.
The new land management strategy focuses in on Southern Palmertown, a largely undeveloped and mountainous area stretching from Moreau Lake State Park down to Saratoga (Route 9 and Route 9N border large portions of it). The Southern Palmertown range is largely an ecologically intact environment with forests and wetlands that offer a diversity of conservation and recreational opportunities. However, its proximity to growing population centers (i.e. cities and towns) and major transportation infrastructure (the Northway runs parallel to the tract’s eastern border) makes the Southern Palmertown area extremely attractive to commercial and residential developers. “There’s kind of a master plan for the county to protect Southern Palmertown,” says Maria Trabka, Saratoga PLAN’s Executive Director. “We want to create long-distance trails that will connect communities as well as smaller, localized networks built off of existing trail heads. There’s also a plan for blue trails, [or] docking places for people who want to boat and hike.”
The overall goal of the plan is to preserve the majority of the land while simultaneously providing more recreational development to the towns of Greenfield, Wilton, Corinth and Saratoga (Skidmore’s own North Woods is one of the places of high recreational interest in Southern Palmertown). The Palmertown Trail was a concept envisioned by Saratoga PLAN 12 years ago to connect Moreau Sate Park with Saratoga Spa State Park. Once completed, Saratogians will be able to participate in long-distance hikes from Moreau to Mechanicville, and from there all the way up to Canada using the massive Empire State Trail, a 750-mile route spanning New York State, which is scheduled to be finished by 2020.
Saratoga PLAN developed the 126-page Southern Palmertown report over the past year, in cooperation with the Open Space Institute and Alta Planning and Design, a planning consultancy in Troy. Since 2003, the year the organization was founded, Saratoga PLAN has conserved more than 5000 acres of land and continues to actively manage 22 miles of trails at ten separate parks. If you’ve visited Round Lake Preserve, Ballston Creek Preserve or Lake Bonita at Moreau State Park, then you’ve seen its work. “The next steps are to have all the towns and the many partners to sign on that they’ll work together toward accomplishing the goals,” says Trabka.
Trabka’s quick to note, though, that the Southern Palmertown strategy is still years away from possible implementation. The study also found that if left unchecked, suburban sprawl and development could lead to a 60 percent decrease in the area’s natural habitat and a 90 percent drop in its agricultural land. “It’s never easy to create a compatible marriage and balance between economic development, residential development and conservation,” says Trabka. “But that’s why we came up with the plan.”
It turns out that “Saratoga” has a $400 value…on the popular gameshow, Jeopardy!, that is. On the December 10, 2018 telecast of the show, in a category entitled “Springs,” the $400 answer—i.e. the second easiest answer—read “A Thoroughbred race track is located in this N.Y. ‘Springs’ city near Revolutionary War battle sites.” (There’s nothing like listening to Alex Trebek read a short blurb about your hometown on national TV, let me tell you.) Contestant Staci Huffman, a certified public accountant from Nine Mile Falls, WA, responded with the correct question just before the familiar buzzer marking the end of the first round of play. She ultimately ended up losing the game, but she won big in our eyes. Great job, Staci! Props for knowing your Upstate New York cities.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Four of the eight races scheduled for Sunday at Aqueduct are for 2-year-olds, including the featured first-level allowance race for New York-breds, topped by Le General.
A son of Lemon Drop Kid owned by Jeffrey Kallenberg, Le General finished second to the front-running Tales of Chaucer going 5 1/2 furlongs at Belmont Park on June 1. Trainer Michelle Nevin felt that Le General was a horse that would benefit from some time to mature and develop, so she gave the colt the summer off. Le General returned at Aqueduct on Nov. 17 and he rolled to a 6 3/4-length victory.
“The owner let me do what I wanted with him,” Nevin said. “He gained a ton of weight, we got back into it, and he showed up. Now we’re up for another step.”
Following that maiden win, Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables purchased part-interest in Le General.
Le General will stretch out to a mile in Sunday’s $64,000 allowance race.
“It’s a question,” Nevin said. “I feel like he can. Everything in the morning he’s indicated that shouldn’t be an issue. You never know until you try, and this looks like a good spot to try.”
Le General has come back with one work since his victory, a best-of-16 half-mile breeze in 48.01 seconds.
“It was a really good work considering Aqueduct can be quite dead in the morning time,” Nevin said.
Six were entered in the race, but trainer Linda Rice said Beachside, a recent maiden winner, would likely scratch to run in the Damon Runyon Stakes here on Dec. 31.
Beachside was an entrymate with Just Right, as both are owned by Barry Schwartz. Just Right, a son of Into Mischief, is trained by Todd Pletcher.
Just Right won a seven-furlong maiden race by 4 3/4 lengths at Saratoga on Aug. 27, but then got used in a pace duel when beaten 19 3/4 lengths in the Bertram F. Bongard at Belmont on Sept. 21. He bounced back with a win against open company on Nov. 11.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said Just Right “couldn’t get into a comfortable spot” in the Bongard but “rebounded with a solid effort.”
Pletcher will also send out Southern King, a horse who was just moved to his barn after being purchased privately by a group led by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. He is coming off a victory going a mile here on Nov. 15.
“He’s been pretty straightforward,” Pletcher said. “We breezed him one time and he seemed to go well.”
Durkin’s Call, third to Just Right here on Nov. 11, and Honorable Hero, fourth in the off-the-turf Atlantic Beach Stakes here on Nov. 10, complete the field.
With only eight races on Sunday, first post is 12:50 p.m. Eastern.
