A*town aka Albany, NY

When I was growing up in Albany I hated it. The majority of my high school refer to it as "A*town" to make it seem more interesting. I thought it was boring with nothing to do and I couldn't wait to get out of there. After I left for college I realized what a great place Albany really is and miss it every day. There is so much historical and popular culture I can explore, it is the center of NYS politics, there are many issues with the public schools and local businesses I am familiar with and there are plenty of crime related stories I could discover. There is a great local music scene, specifically jazz that I would love to explore.
The problem is, that I don't have a car. It is possible for me to get home by bus when I need to, but I don't know how frequent that would be. However, I have many connections in the Albany area and am familiar with a lot of different resources within the state system, police force, education system, etc. that I could definitely do a lot of my reporting over the phone and online. If it was possible to explore and gather information for a bunch of stories while I am home for spring break I would be more than willing to devote my entire spring break to that. My only other option would be to make New Paltz my neighborhood, and no offense to NP, but I have an almost non-existent interest in this area. Albany is an area that is personal to me and that I have a great interest in. If it could be worked out, this would definitely be a neighborhood I think I could work with.