COLONIE — I didn’t start out liking Wolf Road. In fact, I pretty much hated it.
In a prior life, before my arrival here, I worked in a Portland, Maine, office where I could stroll at lunch through narrow streets to stores, coffee shops, restaurants, even the harbor. Wolf Road, where the Times Union is located, was … different, and not in a good way.
Wolf Road appeared to be, and largely is, the prototypical suburban strip lined with Anywhere chains, the kind of place that destroyed many of the old downtowns and sucked life from cities. Five lanes across, Wolf Road is built for cars. Yes, it’s our region’s premier retail strip, but it doesn’t exactly scream charm or pizzazz…