Keep Albany Boring: Worst Of 2011 Reader Poll Results

By on January 11, 2012 in Albany

Dear god, I’m going to get crucified for this even though it’s clearly a readers poll. Whatever, Subway being the ‘Best Sandwich’ in the Metroland three years in a row should say enough. Blah, blah we don’t agree with all of this since, again, it was a readers poll. Word.

With out further ado:

Worst News Paper:
1. Times Union
2. Metroland
3. Troy Record

The paper with the biggest audience gets the crown, what a surprise.

Worst Politician:
1. Jennings
2. Scavo
3. Cuomo

No surprises here.

Worst Road:
1. Central Ave
2. Wolf Road
3. Fuller

Yep.

Worst Late Night Walk:
1. Lark Street
2. Pearl Street
3. Washington Park

Center Square gets 2 out of the 3!

Worst Local Blog:
1. On The Edge
2. Keep Albany Boring
3. Albany Citizen One

I’m honestly believe that On The Edge is a team of 20 round-the-clock bloggers that are spidering the internet and are queueing posts 24/7 to achieve the masterpiece that blog is. Or maybe it’s like the Family Guy idea balls. Either way it’s a complete (trolling, maybe) masterpiece.

Worst Bodega:
1. Madison News
2. Lark News
3. K2

A bodega is a bodega, eh?

Worst Bar:
1. Jillian’s
2. Legends
3. Palai’s

At Jillian’s and Legends (on Pearl) there’s always something going on and Jillian’s has an entire huge room of video games. I guess a shitty crowded bar that smells like puke and only a pool table is somehow better? Maybe you’ve only ever driven by?

Worst Hipster Bar:
1. Bomber’s
2. Suzie’s
3. Hollywood

Varying definitions of worst here but, this is about right.

Worst Weekly Columnist:
1. Kristi Gustafson
2. Matt Baumgartner
3. James V. Franco

I stand by Kristi and think she has “figured it out”.

Worst Bus Stop:
1. Lark/Washington

Unanimous so it’s not worth even listening 2 and 3.

Worst Road for Cycling:
1. Central
2. Madison
3. Delaware

Agreed, way up Central is miserable and I’ve been hit on Delaware.

Worst APD incident of 2011:
1. Kegs & Eggs
2. Occupy Albany Eviction
3. James Miller DWI

Yep.

Worst Sushi:
1. Price Chopper
2. Hannaford
3. Shuns Kitchen

This just in: Grocery Stores bad at making highly specialized food.

Worst Coffee Spot:
1. Dunkin Donuts
2. Sunspot Cafe
3. Daily Grind

You guys finally pegged #1, but 2 & 3 almost cancel out this victory.

Worst Sandwich Spot:
1. Subway
2. Chicken Joes
3. Panera Bread

About right.

Worst local self-obsessed resident:
1. Kristi Gustafson
2. Albany Citizen One
3. Dave Lockney

The more times Kristi is #1 on this list makes me realize how good of a job she does. God damn.

Worst Restaurant:
1. Olive Garden
2. 677 Prime
3. Applebees

Assuming none of you have ever been to 677 Prime.

Worst local concert series:
1. Alive at 5
2. SPAC
3. Empire State Plaza

Worst Parking:
1. Center Square
2. Lark Street
3. Washington Park

Center Square sweeps!

Worst Local Radio Station:
1. FLY 92.3
2. TALK 1300
3. WEQX

Worst Movie Theater:
1. Crossgates
2. Colonie Center
3. Latham Circle

Worst Diner:
1. Gateway Diner
2. Latham Circle Diner
3. Menands Diner

Worst City Ordinance:
1. Albany Chickens
2. Crow Curfew
3. Open Container

Worst “Best of” poll:
1. Times Union
2. Metroland
3. “This one”

Worst Historic Neighborhood:
1. Pine Hills
2. Arbor Hill
3. Cherry Hill

Worst Capital Region City:
1. Schenectady
2. Troy
3. Clifton Park

Worst Pizza:
1. Paesan’s
2. Soho
3. Dino’s

Worst Club:
1. Sneaky Pete’s
2. Jillian’s
3. Vapor

Worst thing to open in 2011:
1. Legends on Pearl
2. Jeff Pirro’s Mouth
3. Chicken Joe’s

Legends on Pearl is always raging and always has something going on. It’s the one new bar that’s lasted more than a month down on Pearl St.
You all are idiots.

Worst TV Commerical:
1. Fuccillo Huge
2. Kooky for Suzuki
3. Catseye

Worst Local Monument:
1. Troy 9/11
2. Lights in the Park
3. Joe Bruno Stadium/Bust

Worst Mall:
1. Latham Circle
2. Crossgates
3. Rotterdam

Worst Local Bookstore:
1. Barnes & Noble
2. Borders
3. Book House

Borders, ouch.

Worst Liquor Store:
1. “No such thing”

Worst Venue:
1. Northern Lights
2. Valentines
3. Times Union Center

Northern Lights is far, but they have a ton of good shit and the venue itself isn’t terrible.

Most Overrated Restaurant:
1. Dinosaur BBQ
2. Bombers
3. New World

Agree 100% about Dinosaur, everyone knows what Bomber’s is and continues to go there no matter what, and New World rules.

Most Pretentious Establishment Owner:
1. John DeJohn
2. Angelo Mazzone
3. Matt Baumgartner

Naming your bar after yourself and having a few successful establishments is apparently a way to land yourself at #1, even though I’ve never heard anything ever about the guy. I don’t even know what Angelo Mazzone looks like and Matt is a humble and nice guy. I disagree with all of these.

Worst local news anchor:
1. John Grey
2. Liz Bishop
3. Dan Eaton

Worst local TV news channel:
1. YNN
2. 6
3. FOX

Write ins:
Worst Commenting System: All Over Albany
Worst question in KAB poll: Wost local news anchor?
Worst political cesspool: Troy, NY
Best Sandwich: Subway
Worst Development Idea: Albany Convention Center
Most abrasive Radio Personality: Alan Chartock
Worst Wings: Swifty’s Pub in Delmar
Most Overhyped News Story: Joe Bruno
Most inane local bloggers: Times Union “Citizen” Bloggers
Worst person to follow on twitter: TimesUnion
Worst City Hall: Troy
Worst downtown After 5pm: Albany
Worst Downtown Eating after 5pm: Albany
Worst waste of a good space: Reds
Worst Building: The old Freezer Warehouse that burned but didn’t burn down, unfortunately

About andrew

Andrew started Keep Albany Boring in September 2010.
View all posts by andrew →
  • http://twitter.com/AngelosTzelepis Angelos Tzelepis

    Bravo!

  • http://twitter.com/AngelosTzelepis Angelos Tzelepis

    I mean, yeah, there are some misses here (as in things that are actually good, IMO), but for the most part the readers got it nailed.

    • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

      Agreed, maybe a KAB Worst-of “Staff Picks” coming soon.

    • Liz

      Definitely agree there are a few that are slightly off (IMO), but there are some pretty funny ones in there that are dead on, and my god that damn freezer warehouse is such an eyesore! 

      • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

        Yeah I was hoping Trader Joe’s would put a store in it.  Maybe Wegman’s.  I’ll start an email campaign.

        • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

          OMG A WHOLEFOODS

          • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

            It would make such a sweet CostCo.

          • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

            MEGA ULTRA WALMART

          • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

            The 8th floor could be nothing but industrial-sized packages of toilet paper.  The 9th floor, 144-packs of bottled water.  It would be glorious.

  • http://twitter.com/lnorthrup Laura Northrup

    Your voters obviously missed that the Crossgates Commons Walmart sells sushi.

    • http://twitter.com/AngelosTzelepis Angelos Tzelepis

      I just threw up in my mouth a bit…

    • http://fussylittleblog.com/ Daniel B.

      I noticed that lapse as well.

  • Justaguy

    Worst local self-obsessed resident, and no mention of Kevil Marshall?!?

    • Anonymous

      My obsession with myself has nothing on your obsession with me, chubs.

      By the by, I’ll be at Elda’s on Lark to see some folks at Laughs on Lark, starting at 9pm. You should come down! There’ll be some great comedians, plus you can talk that kinda shit to my face and see what happens!

      • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

        Sincerely,
        Kevin MMArshall

        • Anonymous

          Ha! Nah. That implies I’d be a sportsman about it.

        • http://barre.me/ -S

          Sincerely,
          John DeJohn

          • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

            Sincerely,
            Everyone who took two karate lessons when they were twelve

      • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

        Here’s what happens: you either take it, or you back up the Internet Tough Guy act and get arrested for assault.

        • Anonymous

          You’re right. Folks, just let people talk shit, bully, and/or troll you for no good reason online. STOP STANDING UP FOR YOURSELVES!

          • http://barre.me/ -S

            Come on now, Kevin. Your Twitter tagline says “Local sex symbol” for example. It’s fair game, you can take a “joke”.

          • Anonymous

            No, it’s not. It’s never fair game to bully and harass people online, especially on a consistent basis, even if they have a jokey blurb in their Twitter account. There’s a very big difference between that and an actual joke or poking fun.

          • http://barre.me/ -S

            Well, I’m not aware of your history with “Justaguy” (i.e. *shrug*). There is some amount of self-obsession, in my opinion, in anybody who has a personal blog (I have one). Pointing that out is pointing the obvious, it doesn’t register to me as bullying, as opposed to, you know targeting your origins, color or, say, sexual preferences. Blogging is not God’s gift to mankind. Great, you have your own URL, but there isn’t much about it that wasn’t done on MySpace or LifeJournal before. If you choose to do it, being poked at is part of the package. Hey, Jeff Pirro took it just fine.

          • Jeff Pirro

            I will say there’s a couple of differences between my mention in the posting and Kevin’s in the comment section.  1) I know I’ve brought on a certain level of prejudice against myself for things I’ve said and done for people who haven’t met me in person.  I’m okay with that and don’t regret me being, well, me (though please don’t liken me to Manny Ramirez; I’m not that big of an a-hole). 2) For better for or for worse, I was a public figure that took sides in issues.  It’s kind of part of the job description to accept things being said about you, whether they’re flattering or not. 

            I contrast this to Kevin’s mention in the comments section; clearly a kind of personal jab that wasn’t meant to be humorous.  If you have a knows and growing online community like he has, I would also defend my internet rep, though each individual chooses for themself how. 

            Either way, I’m not offended by this I found it funny but I suppose that’s just me and my big ol’ mouth. 

          • Jeff Pirro

            PS – is “themself” a word?  I might’ve gotten that wrong…

          • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

            ???

            No idea how you got from point A to point B there.

            Calling someone out with a veiled threat to kick their ass over words (words!) is standing up for yourself?  Threatening physical violence is a crime.  But if that’s the way you roll, roll on bro!  Fun will be had by all!

            Maybe there’s backstory I don’t know here, but Seb is right, you need to own being called “self-obsessed” (take it from both of us, respect your betters here), if nobody has ever called you worse to your face you do need to do more of that standing up stuff.

            Sincerely,
            My stinky opinion

          • Anonymous

            You’re right. It IS a stinky opinion.

          • http://barre.me/ -S

            I would be careful here, Kevin, I’m 6’3″ and B takes me down every week. At Scrabble.

          • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

            He’s 6’3″ and can’t run.  But use “jello” on a double word score to his face and see what happens!

          • Jessica Pasko

            Jell-o is a proper noun and it’s supposed to have a hyphen in it. I hope you don’t really use this in Scrabble.

          • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

            Holy hell. That’s an amazing catch.

          • http://fussylittleblog.com/ Daniel B.

            Dammit. I can’t seem to shake this weird open ID icon. Anyhow, all I wanted to say was that Jess is an amazing woman. I’d expect no less.

          • http://barre.me/ -S

            We know that, Jess, but it’s an acceptable Scrabble word, we have “an app for that” (so is xerox for example). There are many irritating Scrabble words, that’s for sure (and some that are accepted only in a tournament context). I think one of the best part is making up a long story to explain the origin of a made-up word.

          • -B

            Well, kind of the reason to make it a joke?  i.e. use a word that absolutely should not be legal, but inexplicably is, and see what he will do.  To your face!

          • Anonymous

            I can’t help but picture this going down at the same locale (table at the Empire State Plaza) as the “send us a picture of you having lunch” thing AOA did a year or so back.

          • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

            Yeah, I thought we should take that show on the road.  But Seb would get too much credit for it which is obviously unacceptable.

  • tiny

    you guys are morons. olive garden rules.

    • Salem

      Worst Comment of the Worst of 2011 list … “olive garden rules”

  • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

    “Agreed, way up Central is miserable and I’ve been hit on Delaware.”
    The “share the road” markers are a joke, but I hope you weren’t the guy who did an endo after passing a bus on the right.

    “Northern Lights is far, but they have a ton of good shit and the venue itself isn’t terrible.”
    Sure, if you just want to drink and look at a sea of iPhones, not so much if you actually care how live music sounds.

    “everyone knows what Bomber’s is”
    So true.

    “Worst Commenting System: All Over Albany”
    Yes, because having to jump through flaming hoops not to link your post to facebook/twitter/linkedin/livejournal/friendster is so awesome.

    Glad KAB is back to being funny.

    • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

      The goal isn’t to make you connect it to your friendster, it’s for lazy people to at least have the option to comment with out registering an account (those are the flaming hoops). It makes no difference to me! Also I don’t have any idea how it works since I don’t anonymously comment on my own website.

      I’ll cosign that the AOA commenting system (It’s their CMS, MT) is horrible simply because EVERYTHING is moderated and isn’t in real time, which prevents discussions from happening as quickly as they should, and sometimes prevents them from happening at all. Using a system that rewards good comments and commenters and buries junk is vastly superior, but obviously, I’m biased.

      And yes, NL is no EMPAC when it comes to live sound, but I’ll take mediocre sound and loads of shows near my home rather than none at all!

      • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

        “Using a system that rewards good comments and commenters and buries junk is vastly superior”

        Really, good comments and commenters?  Have you been to The Internet?

        “Also I don’t have any idea how it works”

        Okay.

        “I’ll take mediocre sound and loads of shows near my home rather than none at all!”

        Clifton Park isn’t what I call “near my home” (more like “soulless gate to hell”) but if it’s an all-or-nothing proposition, sure.  I don’t boycott the place, they have great booking, it’s just obvious that it could be better.  Some people do actually want to hear the band we’re paying to see.

        • Anonymous

          C’mon now. There’s issues with the acoustics of the place, but you’re exaggerating them greatly.

          • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

            When the Lark Fest stages sound better, there is a problem.

            I will still go there, evil joke of a parking lot and all, though.

    • Anonymous

      I really don’t see what’s so awful about AOA’s commenting system. Sure, there’s moderation, but it’s not like you have to wait long for approval. They’re actually pretty good with it.

      • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

        I NEED TO SEE MY COMMENT IMMEDIATELY UPON PRESSING SUBMIT OTHERWISE I FEEL CHEATED, OKAY.

        • Anonymous

          It’s like you’re popping off as soon as you put it in! Patience, man. It’s like making love. Good things are worth waiting for.

  • http://twitter.com/mckasty Mike McKasty

    Worst Diner:
    3. Menands Diner
    It’s been closed for 5 years!  That’s a hell of a legacy.

    • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

      Wow, seriously!

      • Anonymous

        It’s almost as if the people voting don’t know what they’re talking about and/or don’t get out much! (what is this, a Times Union blog?)

        • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

          Different subset of idiots.

          • Anonymous

            Very likely true. The audience at the TU blogs likely can’t see this site on their work computers (true story and why the traffic from state workers is so high on those sites).

  • Anonymous

    Some thoughts:

    Worst Late Night Walk: Lark and Pearl? Your readers have it made in life if that’s the worst late night walk they have made or can even think of.

    Worst Weekly Columnist: Matt Baumgartner doesn’t really qualify as one.  Besides, his personal posts are actually a really good read.

    Worst APD Incident: Kegs & Eggs counts? I assumed this category meant something where APD and/or its officers screwed up something or ran afoul of bad press.

    Worst Music Series: SPAC. What a great venue with some really terrible booking the last decade.

    Worst Thing to Open in 2011: “2. Jeff Pirro’s mouth.” You guys are just fucking rude.

    Worst Local Bookstore: ”3. Book House” Yeah, it’s really awful when an independent, locally owned bookstore meets some success. How awful. Douchebags.

    Worst Music Venue: In addition to #1, Valentine’s? Really? It’s the requisite dive that brings in superior acts we otherwise wouldn’t see. What the Hell is wrong with you people?

    • http://twitter.com/AngelosTzelepis Angelos Tzelepis

      Yeah, I don’t understand the Northern Lights hate. Yes, please, upgrade the sound system. At least run the cables where people can’t trip over them. But I saw 5 or 6 shows there in 2011, and had a blast at all of them. Good acts at good prices, good selection of reasonably priced beer, easy to get to and easy parking. It’s a perfect dive.

    • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

      Y so srs?

      • Anonymous

        From the mouths of pots to kettles…

        • http://www.bvcphoto.com/ -B

          lolling

  • Pingback: Nippertown!

  • Chp

    People who live in the capital region and participate in the polls should be thrown into the Hudson.

    • Anonymous

      WORST RIVER EVER AS VOTED BY KAB READERS:
      1. The Mohawk
      2. Grafton Lake
      3, The Hudson

  • http://barre.me/ -S

    Finally, Albany Citizen One rewarded.

    • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

      Yes, indeed.

  • Jeff Pirro

    I’m not going to lie, I actually chuckled after I read my ranking…my own dear ol’ Mum has been saying the same thing for 31 years! 

    • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

      Hah! It’s all in good fun, thanks for being a good sport abou tit.

      • Jeff Pirro

        No problem! And please pass along a hello to Alisha for me; I tried helping her out with an issue she had in downtown.

  • J P

    This has to be the worst fucking list ever… Who do I call for a refund of the time wasted reading this B.S.

    Word to your mother.

    • andrew

      A cop.

    • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

      A cop.

  • Joe Bonilla

    Quite telling that Jennings beats Scavo… goes to prove even if you’re the nastiest of the bunch, Jerry’s got you beat.

    • http://keepalbanyboring.com andrew

      Maybe he’s just the most ubiquitous, because that’s apparently the rankings for everything on this poll.