Downtown Utica in December

What a difference a week can make. I took a drive to Utica, NY, last week and there was no snow (but it was cold and blustery). Today, we got snow– almost 5 inches in a very brief blitz. It has been 287 days without any snowfall until now.

On my way downtown, walking on Genesee Street, I happened to be in time for the raising of the city Christmas tree.

I was surprised the city workers allowed passers-by to walk down the narrow sidewalk to the left, as you can see in the photo. There were half a dozen workers controlling the tree with cables. A few did eye me suspiciously when I stopped to snap photos.

Here’s a replica Liberty Bell in Liberty Park, near the Hotel Utica. Mayor Ed Hanna placed this. He did several beautification projects for the city in the 90s, when he was mayor.

Here’s a wider photo of the area, taken in autumn.

And here are some random photos for posterity.

Here’s the Hotel Utica in the background.

You can find more photos of my visit to downtown Utica here, at my Flickr account.

I visited the beautiful Fountain Elms historic home and the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, as well. Fountain Elms was all decked out for Christmas– I’ll have photos and some interesting anecdotes very soon.