"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?" - Cicero, Orator

I think we can all agree that the previous year has been a mixed bag for historic preservation in the Capital District.

You may recall that 180 feet of the old Albany Stockade, a protective defense of posts around the 18th century version of the city, was uncovered and then reburied for a parking lot for SUNY. Or, you may remember the fate of three early Lansingburgh houses along Second Ave, all demolished after a fire in one of them. The fate of the historic Riverside Club and Freihofer buildings are still in the hands of a judge. The Waterworks Mansion (and perhaps an early Mohican Village) is now paved and replaced with a mini-maul not far from it.

On the other hand, the historic Hall building (Rice) was renovated and now is back in use. The RPI Approach once again connects downtown Troy and RPI. Mayor Jennings in Albany has organized an archeological panel to devise a plan of action for that city (historian John Wolcott and I wrote an Albany Plan of Preservation which we hope will be incorporated into it). Here in Troy, the Mayor has put together a similar group which now has several committees also looking to address the preservation needs of the city.

As the old saying goes, "You win some. You lose some."

Preservationists are and have been a realistic lot. They know it's not possible to save everything standing (or buried), but they constantly are portrayed as obstructionists or as unrealistic because they get upset about every building being demolished.

There is a good reason why they get upset. Preservationists often find out about a building being demolished the day the wrecking ball is at the front door. It's often too late to stop it. You would yell and scream too if it continually happened to you, especially when common sense dictates it doesn't have to be this way.

There is no pre planning process that takes in special considerations like archeology or historic preservation. Yes, we do mouth it a bit, under SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act), or if a building is on the National Register. But SEQRA and a National Register listing has very little teeth for stopping bad developments, unless there is state or federal money involved, and even that doesn't insure preservation. Both of the vehicles are not really designed to stop anything. I can rant and rave about how this city has ignored the archeological potential of the city, but I'd rather take a more positive approach.

Education is the key. I firmly believe that much of this destruction is not malicious but rather a lack of understanding about the economic potential of saving our history rather than replacing it with cheap, ugly, vanilla boxes, that the big bad wolf could demolish with one puff.

And so, in an effort to address these concerns, the Capital District Preservation Task Force is putting on a day long series of workshops, called the Capital District Preservation Conference. It will be held in Troy on Friday, September 22, at the Northeastern Science Foundation, located at 15 Third Street, across from the Frear's building.

The workshops will be comprised of five panels: Environment, Archeology, Preservation, Legal, and Planning.

Each panel will have several local experts representing each of the areas and will present to the audience the various problems associated with their discipline. The end result will be a list of solutions. With public input, and perhaps a professional set of moderators, the final result will be a publication that hopefully will be used as a planning tool for planning departments in the Capital District. Certainly we will be presenting their findings in this column.

The workshops will be open to the public, although there is room for only 70 to 80 people, so you may want to register soon. You can obtain more info by calling 374-1088 or 283 -2753, or on the Web at www.themesh.com/conference.html.

The conference is being held in Troy because this city has many wonderful examples of preservation, already mentioned, as well as blocks of architectural treasures to admire. A stroll downtown on River or Second Street is pretty much the way the city looked over 100 hundred years ago. It's a great way to show off our city and the accomplishments over the last year or two.

The Rensselaer County Historical Society will be open and a historic tour of downtown will be given to the participants.

If you have opinions on how to preserve and promote the history of the Capital District, be sure to attend.