Radix Center nurtures community resilience where it’s needed most

Happy Thursday, Capital District! Today, we’re taking you to Albany’s Radix Center, a splendid urban farm that’s leading the charge for sustainability and climate resilience. Plus, get your guide to a packed pre-Thanksgiving weekend!

—Phat X. Chiem & Karley Sullivan

Albany’s Radix Center: Nurturing climate resilience and sustainability where it’s needed most

In 2011, Scott Kellogg and his wife Stacy Pettigrew turned what was once a vacant lot in Albany into a lush, urban oasis—an inviting place to promote ecological literacy and community-based environmental stewardship.

Since then, The Radix Ecological Sustainability Center has become a local powerhouse for sustainability and climate resilience. At its urban farm, you’ll find gardens, food forests, greenhouses, honeybees, aquaponics, and composting systems. It’s all designed to show urban residents—especially young people—how taking care of the land is rewarded by better health, more wholesome food and stronger communities.

The center sits on a one-acre plot in the middle of Albany’s South End, a neighborhood rich in culture and architecture, but where nearly 1 in 3 families lives in poverty.

“Cities and societies are not sustainable unless there is justice,” Scott writes in this essay published in Nature of Cities. “While the urban sustainability movement has had many successes over the past decades, the benefits have been disproportionately for affluent residents.”

This is the crux of Radix’s mission—it is actively teaching ecological literacy and environmental stewardship in the very communities where it’s needed most. Two of Radix’s current projects demonstrate its commitment and unique approach:

The Renewable Remediation for River Regeneration Project works with teenagers to build and install “wetland islands” near the heavily industrialized Port of Albany. The floating wetlands and their beneficial bacteria serve to degrade sewage and storm water pollutants, while providing “starter homes” for wetland flora and fauna.

The Urban Forestry Initiative is a nationwide effort to plant more trees in cities. Here in Albany, the project is administered by the UAlbany Dept. of Geography & Planning, with Radix as its community partner. The current focus is on private property plantings. If you’d like to plant a tree near you, send an email to [email protected]

Read more about the Urban Forest Initiative and River Regeneration Projects in our story from Desmond Volmar, the Urban Forest Justice Outreach Coordinator at Radix and one of the writers participating in our Youth Climate Reporting Project.

This Sunday, Radix Center is having an open house, 1-4p, 153 Grand St, Albany. Come see all the cool things that Radix is doing, and stay for the plant sale and fresh apple cider pressing! Plus, visit with their chickens 🐔 

🌞 WEATHER WATCH

A word from our sponsor

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For a limited time, new members who sign up this month get a free second program (either Jiu Jitsu or kickboxing) — a savings of $840! Or pay for a year and save $1,040 (plus, get a free second program and a uniform valued at $200). Click the button below, or call/text us at (518) 391-0891. Be sure to mention that The 518 sent you!

🍩 Bitchin’ Donuts, one of our favorite breakfast spots in Albany, was hit in cross fire from a shooting on Lark Street on Wednesday night. Luckily, the store was closed at the time and nobody was injured. “Many people have reached out asking how they can help.... just come out and bring a good vibration to counteract the growing darkness in our little section of Lark,” owner Tania Sharlow said in her IG post. [TU gift article]

🎷 This is sure to raise some cackles. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center, better known as SPAC, is banning outside lawn chairs during next year’s Live Nation concerts. Instead, chairs can be rented at the venue for $15. Outside chairs will still be allowed at non-Live Nation shows. Btw, how’s that DOJ suit against Live Nation going anyway? 🤔 [News10]

🎥 Albany’s Madison Theatre, upstate NY’s only dine-in theater, reopens tonight with a live musical performance, and a showing of “Wicked” throughout its opening weekend. Tickets can be purchased in-person at the box office. Note that the theater’s Fandango page isn’t yet working. Showtimes are 12p, 3:45p and 7:30p Fri—Sun. $12 with discounts for kids and seniors. [TU]

⭐️ = 518 Staff Picks

⭐️ Schenectady 55th Annual Holiday Parade | Sat, starting at 5p, free. Downtown is closed for street traffic and filled with “sparkling floats and glittering firetrucks” for this holiday tradition. The evening will shine even brighter if you drop off an unwrapped donation for Toys for Tots near the main stage at Proctors!

⭐️ Saratoga ComicCon | Sat, 12p—7p and Sun, 12p—5p, $19—$144. Get out your glue gun and prep your costume for the largest pop culture event in upstate NY. Not handy with a glue gun? Don’t despair, you don’t have to be a cosplayer to enjoy the costume competitions, celebrity sightings, panels and exhibits at this colorful celebration of pure fan joy.

⭐️ Momentum Series Jazzmeia Horn | Sun, 2 performances with different ticket links: 4pm & 7pm, $26—$52. Jazzmeia’s musical journey has been steeped in the rich traditions of gospel and soul and shaped by the transformative power of jazz. Hear her voice soar with remarkable grace and flow in her Saratoga debut at Caffé Lena.

⭐️ Stomp N Stein’s Monsters: Revenge of the Sequels | Sat, 4p—2a, free ($5 suggested donation). The Steamer 10 Theatre aka the “Little Theater that Could!” is screening some of the horror genre’s best (or worst) second installments, including but not limited to: “Return of the Fly” and a midnight screening of “Bride of Reanimator.”

⭐️ Stuyvesant Plaza Holiday Tree Lighting | Sat, 5—7p w/ tree lighting at 6p, free. Enjoy a magical evening with live holiday music by DJ Ayo, delicious hot cocoa (spiked or not), and festive holiday treats in one of the prettiest shopping spots in the Capital District.

🎟️ MORE NOTABLE EVENTS

TODAY

🎥 On Thursday, join South End Cinema at Youth FX Studios for a free screening of 3 award-winning short documentaries by NeXt Doc Fellow César Martínez Barba, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.

🥋Every Thursday night, Atlas Jiu Jitsu, 61 Colvin Ave, offers a free intro class to kickboxing at its 6,000 sf studio in Albany. On Wednesday evenings, join a free Jiu Jitsu class as well. Both classes are beginner friendly and free to attend! Sign up here. [Sponsored listing]

FRIDAY

🕯️ Tonight is opening night for “A Sherlock Carol,” theREP’s clever holiday play that juxtaposes Sherlock Holmes and the Scrooge.

👯 Burlesque at the Berlin brings together the Capital Region’s sexiest, funniest queens for a dazzling and seductive show at this swanky 1930’s inspired cocktail bar in Troy.

SATURDAY

🍕 Spaghetti Western Night at Indian Ladder Farms features fabulous Fazoli’s pizza with a screening of the Sergio Leone film, "A Fistful of Dollars".

🎄 The Magic of Lights at the Altamont Fairgrounds opens Friday and runs through Jan. 4. See it before winter really kicks in!

🛍️ The Openbaar Market in Troy is one of the coolest crafts markets you’ll encounter this holiday season.

SUNDAY

🤼 Frog Alley Brewing puts on The Biggest Little Show on Earth: Micro Wrestling All-Stars Showdown (yes, it involves little people in tight shorts).

🪴 Get to Radix Center for its open house: Try some fresh-pressed apple cider, pick up a new plant or two, and say hi to the chickens and bees on a guided tour of this urban farm.

🚒 The South Glens Falls Fire Company Holiday Parade is an annual pre-Thanksgiving tradition.

🎸 LIVE MUSIC & MORE

Got a cool event, personality or place we absolutely need to cover? Or have something to say about the newsletter? Drop us a line at [email protected]!