Published June 17, 2009 05:49 pm - I spent a few days recently in the Finger Lakes section of New York, where by total coincidence, my handsome and sophisticated grandson happens to live. He is more than three months old now and is exceptionally personable.
Maybe county too unhealthy to progress A ROBERT LEBZELTER column for June 21, 2009
Star Beacon
I spent a few days recently in the Finger Lakes section of New York, where by total coincidence, my handsome and sophisticated grandson happens to live. He is more than three months old now and is exceptionally personable.
But this column isn't about the grandson or the 300 photos I took of him. It really isn't. That will come later.
It's an attempt to contrast that area, three hours away from us, and the continuing malaise that we call Ashtabula County.
Now I didn't do extensive research into the Finger Lakes. I didn't pick up a newspaper there. I didn't watch a newscast. I don’t know the politics, except they aren’t afraid to tax there.
But I did take my daily run while there, three of them to be exact.
And it reminded me of something: I see a lot more people out exercising there than I do here. It seems much more a part of people's lives.
The same was true when son and daughter-in-law lived right in Rochester, before moving to the suburbs.
If you go out for a jog in city or suburb, you always pass four or five fellow joggers. You also see double that number riding bicycles.
I can run each day for a month here and see nobody else out exercising.
Now why is that? Generally, our climates are the same. Weather here is probably slightly better than New York.
You see less girth on people there.
Ashtabula County does have the Greenway Trail, 27 miles of it, for biking and hiking and that is a real plus. A biking trail, an expensive one, is being built around Geneva State Lodge.
But it seems wherever you go in the Finger Lakes region, there is yet another biking trail. You can get where you need to go using biking trails rather than sharing space with cars. It shows, with the number of bikers out.
There also seems to be a large number of parks all over the place, with diverse activities, such as youth lacrosse.
In Ashtabula County, we see evidence of the lack of healthy living and exercise. Just visit a certain large department store which includes a full supermarket. I won't mention names but it is in Ashtabula Township and there is no direct link to it from Ashtabula Towne Square.