About Sean Kirst

I'm Sean Kirst, a metropolitan columnist with The Post-Standard. The wonderful thing about this blog is that it's an opportunity, for you and me, to think out loud - about the things that matter in our region, about the awesome nature (and the headaches) of 25 inches of snow, about the pride and fear of the moment when your teen-age son or daughter, newly-licensed, drives off alone in the car for the first time.

Since the day I was born, I've been an Upstate guy. My parents were Buffalonians. I grew up in Dunkirk. I've lived in Fredonia, Niagara Falls, Oswego, Rochester and Erie, Pa., a little industrial city that isn't in Upstate but might as well be. My wife Nora and I settled in Syracuse to raise our children in 1990, and for all the knucklehead politics we've seen around this town, we've fallen completely in love with the place.

What do you need to know about me? I love to run. I love to hang laundry on the line so my kids smell the wind in their sheets when they sleep. I love coffee, to the point where I drink enough of it each day to flip my own speedometer. I love old Broadway tunes (my kids run for the door when I go baritone for "Old Man River") and I love The Beatles, Springsteen and The Stones - although I admit I just might listen when my teens flip on their rap. I love coaching Little League, especially when a child who barely knows how to put on a glove catches a long fly and blows everyone away.

And I love cities with safe, busy downtowns that work - and with leaders with the humility and wisdom to get us there.

I'm also glad for this chance for going back and forth with readers. For years, due to sheer volume, I wasn't been able to publish many of the thoughtful notes and letters I've received. Now, if you send an e-mail about one of my columns to skirst@syracuse.com, there's a good chance you'll see it on this blog.

Among many other things.