PEOPLE & PLACES

Best Park

1. Washington Park, Albany

2. Saratoga Spa State Park, Saratoga Springs

3. Thacher Park, Voorheesville

Washington Park in a landslide—must be the Christmas lights.

Best Playground

1. Washington Park, Albany

2. The Crossings, Colonie

3. Central Park, Schenectady

We just hope the parents who filled this out asked their kids’ opinions.

Best Day Trip

1. Lake George

2. New York City

3. Cooperstown

To win this category, you have to have the most water slides and mini-golf. Then again, this is a pretty wide-open field, and it’s hard to compare the Apple with theme parks.

Best Bike Ride

1. Mohawk River Trail

2. Corning Preserve

3. Hudson River

The Mohawk is prettier by bike . . .

Best Running Trail

1. Corning Preserve

2. Mohawk River Trail

3. Washington Park

. . . while the runners prefer the Hudson.

Best Hiking / Nature Trail

1. Thacher Park, Voorheesville

2. Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, Delmar

3. Pine Bush

The perennial favorite.

Best Rock Climbing

1. Albany Indoor Rock Gym

2. Tie: Electric City, The Gunks

For when life drives you up a wall.

Best Gym

1. Gold’s Gym

2. YMCA, Albany

3. Planet Fitness

It takes all kinds, and for the gym bunnies, it takes, well, a few chains and a stalwart YWCA to pump you up.

Best Massage Therapist

1. Nick Pavoldi

2. Tommy Raus

3. Mary Panza

Our scale for judging massage therapists usually hinges on who is willing to actually touch us. Now that you, our fine readers, have let us know we can pay someone for a massage—-it’s on, oh you knows it’s on!

Best Yoga / Pilates

1. Studio G

2. Albany Kripalu Center

3. Tie: Albany Pilates Center, Washington Park Yoga

Some of us hurt ourselves doing the simplest of things like walking up the stairs or getting in the car. Some of us trip walking across flat surfaces and drop things at the most inopportune times. Those of you who voted in this category can handle stretching your legs behind your neck and balancing on things that shouldn’t be balanced on. You are clearly a jump higher than us on the evolutionary scale and for this we will always hate you.

Best Golf Course

1. Saratoga National

2. Albany Municipal

3. Town of Colonie

Saratoga National in a landslide. Guess we’ll never get a good tee time there.

Best Mini-Golf

1. Hoffmans

2. Oasis

3. Funplex

We just can’t believe that Lake George won best day trip, but you guys didn’t pick any of its over-the-top wacky mini-golf courses.

Best Skiing/Snowboarding

1. Tie: Jiminy Peak, Gore

3. Killington

We love ’em all, but it’s nice to see Jiminy getting its due in the shadow of so many bigger mountains in New York and Vermont.

Best Ice Skating

1. Empire State Plaza

2. Swinburne Park

3. Clifton Park

As our readers know, you can’t beat the plaza—it’s outdoors, you’re surrounded by steely heroic architecture, and it’s free. Free.

Best Bowling Alley

1. Playdium

2. Bowlers Club, Latham

3. Sunset Lanes

What’s the point in bowling if you can’t do your laundry at the same time? Multitasking Metroland readers agree: Albany’s Playdium is the place to be—er, bowl.

Best Pool Hall

1. Diamond Eight

2. Golden Cue

3. Backstreet Billiards

This city is just crawling with professionals just waiting to run you for your cash. These slick fellows will sucker you in with an innocent look and before you know it they’ve got the entire contents of your wallet. They call these fiends politicians. Oh, this is the billiards entry? Our bad.

Best Bar

1. Lark Tavern

2. Lionheart

3. Bayou Café

We can’t comment on your picks here, as we’re usually too busy trying to get out from under the table to take in the atmosphere.

Best Hook-Up Bar

1. Jillian’s

2. Lionheart

3. Skyline

Jillian’s takes the cake with this one—the renowned hook-up bar got twice the number of votes that the second-place holder Lionheart did. Skyline takes third—don’t worry guys, just advertise on the UAlbany campus a bit (don’t they have an all-Long Island dorm?). If you work at it enough, Skyline, you’ll take the top honor next year.

Best Gay Bar

1. Oh Bar

2. WaterWorks

3. Club Phoenix

Oh Bar received almost double the votes that WaterWorks did—taking a much larger lead this year than last, when Oh Bar only boasted about five more votes than the second-place winner. Club Phoenix rounds out the category with a strong showing in third.

Best Wine Bar

1. Antica Enoteca

2. The Wine Bar

3. Ginger Man

Our readers split the vote almost evenly between wine nooks in Albany (Antica Enoteca) and Saratoga (The Wine Bar). The Ginger Man nodded, stoically.

Best Happy Hour Bar

1. Bombers

2. Lionheart

3. Bayou Café (Albany)

Bombers offers $2 pints for most of the day, and you, dear readers, love them for it.

Best Strip Club

1. DiCarlo’s

2. NiteMoves

3. Shenanigans

While most of you prefer the more refined (read: bottoms on) atmosphere at DiCarlo’s, we’re pleased to see a hefty portion of our readership prefers to take its strippers with a tall glass of juice—and nothing else.

Best Bartender

1. Susie (Susie’s)

2. Bill Dean (Mahar’s)

3. Tess (Lark Tavern)

There’s a good reason why Susie’s regulars have followed their favorite bartender from gig to gig over the years and why you can still find them at the far end of the bar she opened on Delaware Avenue. Simply put, she’s one of the best bartenders ever to pour a pint in this city. We dare you to find something that Bill doesn’t know about beer (or just about any other subject, for that matter). And what isn’t there to like about Tess, who has made her bar one of the focal points in the local arts scene? Like her companions on this list, she’s quick with a drink and has her finger on the pulse of her patrons’ interests.

Best Server

1. Aleph Ashline, Justin’s

2. Danielle DeLeon, Café Cappriccio

3. Tie: Tess, Lark Tavern; Laura Boggs, Lark Tavern

It’s a rare eve when Aleph Ashline isn’t at Justin’s, serving up the chef’s specials with an unassuming professional flare and keeping the wine flowing throughout the night. Ashline knows what it takes to make your visit to Justin’s a memorable one.

Best Public Official

1. Jerry Jennings

2. Joe Bruno

3. Eliot Spitzer

With a very strong lead for the Albany mayor here, our first thought was that you all were equating “best” with longest term in office. Then we realized Mr. Bruno has been in the New York senate for long than some of our younger staffers have been alive, so that can’t be quite all you were thinking of. This may, however, be the first poll we’ve seen in six months in which Eliot Spitzer came in after anybody on anything, so clearly our readers are marching to their own drums.

Best Citizen Advocate

1. Alice Green

2. Eliot Spitzer

3. Joe Bruno

Alice Green in a landslide! Just goes to show you—when you go out on the street and talk to people, they remember. On the other hand, we wonder about the few of you who picked Mr. Bruno for this category. Of course, it’s true that his family members and lobbyists are in fact citizens. . .

Best Animal Advocate

1. Steve Caporizzo

2. ASPCA

3. Whiskers

There’s nothing like a little face recognition to help push your pet cause. WTEN weatherman Caporizzo is the perennial winner in this category for making the most of his access to the airwaves to get homeless animals into homes and money to the shelters.

Best Local Charity

1. Ronald McDonald House

2. Salvation Army

3. Big Brothers Big Sisters

When it comes to charity it seems you guys just dig Big Macs and eternal salvation, and who in their right mind could blame you?

Best Swimming Pool

1. Victoria Pool, Saratoga Springs

2. Lincoln Park, Albany

3. Thacher Park, Voorheesville

You got your swanky pool, your urban pool, and your rural pool. How’s that for diverse readership?

Best Swimming Hole

1. Grafton State Park

2. Poestenkill Gorge

3. Moreau State Park

All very popular, for good reasons. But you can bet the real best swimming hole is the one nobody will tell you about.

Best Campground

1. Moreau State Park

2. Thompson Lake

3. Sacandaga

This one time in band camp . . .

Best In-Store Pet

1. Morsel the Pomeranian, Some Girls Boutique

2. Elwood the Great Dane, Drue Sanders

3. Amber the cat, Sweater Venture

The tiny morsel of a Pomeranian—appropriately named Morsel—is likely the most powerful dog in local retail today. Some Girls owner Diva de Loayza deemed Morsel the CEO of her local women’s-clothing store and line. But don’t worry, it’s not all work and no play for the pooch; according to the Some Girls Web site, when Morsel is not working, “she rewards herself by going to the doggie park and playing . . . with her friends. Her life is completely fulfilled especially when she ends her day with a fabulous steak bone.” Damn.