The State Butterfly: Politics, Elementary Schools Students, and making the Karner Blue a state symbol.
When you think of trailer parks you probably do not think of a city, and particularly not Albany. Yet, there is a trailer park and a population living in relative poverty in the city, tucked away in the Pine Bush, nearly a mile off on a dirt road, invisible to most people.
These people live fairly spread out, and live in the beautiful Pine Bush. They unfortunately have a not nice neighbor to the west – the Albany Rapp Road Landfill. This landfill has been a headache for them for years, destroying an otherwise beautiful and affordable neighborhood within city limits.
The people of Fox Run Trailer Park know garbage very well. They have seen the dump move closer all the time to themselves, and the mound of garbage grow higher and higher. It blocks out the sun early in the evening, and they watch every night as the sunsets over the landfill. These people know first hand what rotting garbage smells like and animals it attracts.
Fox Run Trailer Park residents are happy to see people come to them and talk to them about the dump. They have no voice in the political process, they are all but ignored. They take all of the impacts of society's trash, piled just to the west of them. They live not only with shadows cased by a mound of garbage, but also with the threat of toxins destroying their way of life.
They can only hope that the city will some day use eminent domain to buy them out, and continue transitioning this land with to more dump space or into Pine Bush. The city promises the later, but us environmentalists are rightfully skeptical. The people of this park need to have a reason to hope, and to be remember by the city.