English Bulldog Puppies for Sale in Albany, NY

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PUBLISHED: November 25, 2024 at 4:00 AM EST

Due to Amtrak’s intransigence (which is standard) and its lack of foresight and imagination (which is typical), today begins the third week of unnecessary reduced passenger rail options between Penn Station and Albany (daily trips slashed 25%) and for the Long Island Rail Road’s peak hour of the a.m. inbound rush into Penn (chopped 10%).

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Albany is an exciting food city. There are hundreds of great places to enjoy a meal of any kind, from a classic steakhouse to the corner diner. And this list of international restaurants in this gallery includes Italian, Caribbean, Mexican, Irish, Indian, Greek, French, Thai, German, Chinese, and English. There are many more, but for this gallery we will shine on these restaurants and their delicious cuisines.

As we put together this gallery we of course came upon menu items that are hard for us to pronounce. But that shouldn't stop anyone from experimenting and exploring the wonderful appetizers, entrees, and desserts offered from the four corners of the globe at these restaurants.

As you will see, for each restaurant we list, we include all the contact information and a link you will need to make a reservation. We also include, perhaps a 5-star review from a recent customer, or some of the signature dishes found at each place. We also include comments from the owners and their websites telling about the origins of the traditional foods they serve. All of the gallery restaurants can be found in the Albany business district, except two. Those are located just a few minutes from the city.

And all are fantastic.

If your favorite international restaurant in the New York State Capital District did not make out list, we encourage you to visit our Facebook page and give it a shout out. We really do want to hear from you.

Go "Around the World" At These 11 Awesome Albany Area International Restaurants

The Albany, NY area is a hotbed of fantastic international restaurants. Here are 11 favorites in the area. They include English, Italian, Caribbean, Greek, French, Indian, Thai, and others to choose from. All are in he Albany business district except two which are just outside the city. Take a chance at something new, and pick a restaurant from this list. You won't be disappointed!

Gallery Credit: Chuck DImperio

"Roadtrip!" 10 Must See Items For Your Next Visit to Utica!

Utica is the tenth most populated city in New York State. Situated in the beautiful Mohawk valley, with the farmlands of Schoharie Valley below it, and the mighty Adirondacks just to the north, the city offers much to interest and entertain you for a weekend visit here, or longer. This gallery is a short starter list of ten things any new visitor to the city should seek out. It includes the wonderful Utica Zoo, the Munson art museum with world class painters represented on its walls, and even a train ride up and into the Adirondacks in all seasons. And, of course, you can't talk about Utica without mentioning some of their signature foods. Take a look and see which ones we highlighted.

Enjoy your next roadtrip to the historic city of Utica, NY.!

Gallery Credit: Chuck D'Imperio

BOSTON (NEWS10) — While people rush to movie theaters all over the country to see “Wicked,” many don’t realize the man behind the Wicked Witch of the West is author Gregory Maguire. He told NEWS10, when it comes to Albany, there’s no place like home.

“I think I began to want to be a writer when I was four or five,” he recalled. “As soon as I could make my letters, I began to draw pictures and describing the pictures in words.”

If there’s a yellow brick road, Maguire’s leads to a quiet place, a pen and some paper. Because when it comes to writing —

“It was simply that I couldn’t not do it,” he said.

Maguire was born and raised in Albany. Like all kids, he had big dreams and “stinky” jobs.

“You know, John, when I was in high school, I worked at St. Peter’s Hospital in the laundry,” he said. “I used to imagine, someday, I won’t be doing this. Someday, I’ll be a writer, and I’ll have a whole bookshelf of books that I’ve written.”

Maguire went to school in Albany, graduated from the University at Albany, and for a time, taught eighth grade English in Albany. He also wrote children’s books. Lots of them.

But they didn’t sell.

“If I made even a dollar I’d be surprised,” he said with a laugh.

He moved to London in the early 1990s and was inspired to write a story about the origin of evil.

“I said to myself, people aren’t born wicked, so how do they get that way?”

It was the inspiration for his next novel, “Wicked.”

“I always thought I’d see the Virgin Mary come out of the clouds — being a good, Albany Catholic boy — but instead, coming out of the clouds, it wasn’t the Virgin Mary. It was Margaret Hamilton. It was the Wicked Witch of the West, and she was saying, ‘I’ll get you and your little dog.’ And I thought, ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I have just had an inspiration. I have been visited by grace.'”

He immediately wrote out, by hand, what would become an international best seller.

A Broadway show would soon follow. It has been touring around the world for 21 years with four billion in ticket sales.

What was Maguire’s reaction to seeing his witch fly?

“The hair on the back of my head stood up, and it has never sat back down again, which is why I have to keep my hair short now,” he laughed. “It was electrifying.”

Now, fans of Maguire’s story are seeing “Wicked” in the movie theaters in a film starring Ariana Grande.

“She’s Ari to me,” he joked. “When I met her on the movie set, she took me by the arm and gave me a tour.”

Today, Maguire lives with his family outside of Boston, and his library is full of stories he’s written.

“You have to have dreams. That’s what the imagination is for.”

Teaching us all to never judge a witch by her color.

“Wicked: Part I” will be released on Friday, Nov. 22.

Read the latest from NEWS10:

NEWS10 is the Capital Region’s local news leader!

New York state hasn't finalized new, more stringent regulations protecting wetlands but the proposed rules are already causing some builders and land owners to pause acquisitions and development projects in the Albany region.

Others, meanwhile, are trying to secure municipal approvals for residential subdivisions or commercial buildings before Jan. 1 to qualify for one of the "grandfathering" provisions in the draft regulations.

Either way, the new rules under consideration by the state Department of Environmental Conservation are being met with anxiety, frustration and bewilderment as more businesspeople learn about the potential impacts.

"It's been a big topic of conversation," said Yates Scott Lansing, a prominent civil engineer in Malta whose firm works with many developers.

"I don't think it's really been recognized by the development community until the last few months," Lansing added. "As far as independent property owners out there, I believe they have no idea these are coming into effect and how their lands will be restricted."

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Dean Taylor, a veteran commercial real estate broker at Continuum Commercial Realty in Clifton Park and property developer, has become well acquainted with the regulations.

He said they will make it even more costly if not impractical to build — further escalating prices when there's already a housing shortage.

"I'm the type of person that would not invest any money doing this anymore, because I'm the taking all the risk," Taylor said.

The new regulations are anticipated soon. By law, DEC is required to adopt them by Jan. 1.

The new regulations are intended to modernize a law first enacted in the mid-1970s to safeguard marshes, swamps, bogs and other low-lying areas where water is present for at least part of the year.

Wetlands are important because they filter water; provide habitat for birds, fish and plants; and absorb rain and runoff from heavy storms, which helps control flooding.

They play a critical role in urban areas that have a lot of parking lots, asphalt and other impervious surfaces, especially now because of the increase in severe weather events linked to climate change, according to the DEC.

The DEC currently regulates wetlands that are 12.4-acres or larger, totaling 1.25 million acres. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers separately regulates wetlands of all sizes.

The proposed regulations would expand DEC’s jurisdiction for permits to include smaller wetlands of “unusual importance." They would also impose a 100-foot upland protective buffer.

The buffer would be even larger — 800 feet — around vernal pools, which are seasonal, shallow, isolated pools of water that are breeding grounds for amphibians such as salamanders, and a source of food and water for birds.

Portions of suburban towns where most of the residential growth has occurred for decades in the Albany region would be subjected to the regulations, according to Terresa Bakner, a land use attorney at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP in Albany.

Bakner has given presentations to many business and trade groups in recent months to explain the proposed rules.

All told, the DEC estimates the new regulations will protect an estimated 1 million additional acres of freshwater wetlands.

The DEC accepted public comment through mid-September. The agency is now determining whether the draft regulations will be changed before issuing the final rules.

For years, homebuilders and developers have been accustomed to the process for securing permits to disturb wetlands. That can include offsetting the loss of wetlands by creating or preserving them elsewhere or designing roads, water and sewer lines to avoid the ecologically sensitive areas.

The DEC's proposed wetland buffer zones are especially concerning to developers because it will diminish the number of acres where homes can be built.

Taylor pointed to a subdivision in Halfmoon called Howland Park to illustrate what could happen. He was the original investor in the land and obtained municipal approvals for the 96-lot development. He sold the land to the builder, Marini Homes, a decade ago.

Based on DEC's draft regulations, all three entrances to Howland Park would have been in wetland buffer areas, according to Taylor. If any relief from the proposed restrictions was granted, perhaps one entrance would have been permitted, yielding potentially 18 lots, based on his analysis.

Fewer buildable home lots would have significantly lowered the value of the 130 acres that Taylor had purchased from two longstanding, adjacent farms. That would have meant less money for the families after generations working the land.

It also would have also meant fewer new homes on the market, further exacerbating the housing crisis in the region and state.

"You're cutting your supply, and therefore supply and demand makes housing for people unaffordable," Taylor said.

Bob Marini Jr., one of the region's largest homebuilders, said the proposed regulations would make a 10-lot subdivision he was planning in Colonie "completely unbuildable" and would reduce a 13-lot subdivision in town to just three lots.

The restrictions, along with a separate mandate set to begin January 2026 requiring new buildings in New York that are seven stories or shorter to have all-electric energy, have convinced Marini to not pursue any further single-family home construction in the state. (An exception is the land he just bought in Halfmoon for a development that's already approved.)

"I'll evaluate my options after these laws take effect and I see the outcomes," Marini said.

Another homebuilder, Frank Barbera of Barbera Homes Inc., said the proposed regulations will result in fewer opportunities to buy land because of the uncertainty surrounding which portions are buildable.

There's at least some predictability with the existing rules that can be factored into the risk/benefit equation of the investment, he said.

"The couple of big things I think will be hard to overcome is the way they discern between the different types of wetlands and their environmental value," Barbera said. "And the 100-foot buffer zone around everything — that, to me, is the death knell."

Putting a value on raw land is also more complicated without knowing the wetlands delineations, said Tom Savino, associate broker at CBRE Upstate NY.

"It's always been tough but now it's worse because you don't know how to price property until you understand how the wetlands can affect things," Savino said.

Michael Del Vecchio, broker/owner at CCRE Advisors, said he has a client who reduced the size of their development in anticipation of the new regulations. Another is taking a wait-and-see approach.

"No builder likes government intervention," Del Vecchio said. "Everybody thinks it's overreach every time."

He added, "Land is always going to be there to build on. I think some of this is going to help put projects back into cities. The infrastructure is already there. Maybe we will have some redevelopment instead of new development."

In “One Short Day,” the Madison Theatre will reopen for business with the blockbuster movie-musical “Wicked” leading the way.

The Pine Hills movie theater, shuttered since February, and adjacent cafe and restaurant will celebrate its reopening Thursday with live music, but no films. Screenings will begin when “Wicked” flies in Friday afternoon, landing in the childhood neighborhood of Gregory Maguire, the author behind the popular “Wizard of Oz” prequel.

The Box Office Restaurant, which will be operated by Plall Kassam of Clifton Park, and theater’s bar will be open for Thursday's grand reopening event, said Owusu Anane, Common Council representative of Albany’s 10th ward and Madison Theatre investor. Troy-based musician Julia Alsarraf will headline an evening of musical performances beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the theater’s concert venue.

“It’s an amazing feeling (to reopen the theater),” Anane said. “This is a landmark in Albany, and I feel the overwhelming neighborhood support for this to succeed.”

David Aumand, who has lived in Albany’s Helderberg neighborhood for more than 30 years, will take over operation of the cinema, which has four theaters, one of which can double as a 125-seat performance venue. Along with screening new releases, such as “Wicked,” and the occasional indie and local releases, the theater will host live events, performances and karaoke, Aumand said in a Times Union interview in September. In-theater dining will return, and the team is currently discussing whether they will revive the monthly unlimited movie membership, Anane said. The cafe, which was most recently leased by Motor Oil Coffee, has been transformed into a beauty supply and gift shop run by Kassam.

The Madison will resume screenings on Friday, starting with the Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande led blockbuster “Wicked,” which traces the lives of Elphaba (Erivo) and Glinda (Grande) in their college years at Shiz University. The movie is an adaptation of the smash-hit Broadway musical, which in turn was based on the book “Wicked” penned by Albany native Maguire, who saw echoes of Oz in the University at Albany’s campus while he was a student

“It’s about going away and finding yourself,” Maguire said of the book in a Times Union interview earlier this month. “I didn’t go away, but I was on a journey to find myself.”

The John Chu-directed film will incorporate more of Maguire’s book than the Broadway production did, causing the film to be split into two parts. The first debuts this weekend, and part two is currently slated to open next year. Both the Broadway production and the movie — which has spawned everything from Elphaba and Glinda Barbie dolls to “Wicked”-themed mystery colored macaroni-and-cheese — have become pop culture phenomena.

“I did not think that when I inched my rusty key into the door of my imaginations, 'I’m going to take these Oz toys in my memory, I’m going to take them off the childhood shelf and see what they look to me as a grown up.' I didn’t think I would do that (for) more than myself,” said Maguire, who grew up in a house four blocks away from the theater on Lancaster Street. “I did not know I would be doing genetic surgery on the chromosomes on this aspect of popular culture that belongs to the whole world.”

Tickets for “Wicked” can be purchased in-person at the box office; the website and Madison Theatre Fandango page are not up-to-date currently but are in progress. The blockbuster musical will run at 12 p.m., 3:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Tickets are $12, with discounts for kids and seniors.