Democracy In Albany

The common council and neighborhood associations have no say. How is that bad in an advisory setting?  Lets be honest here, The Center Square Neighborhood Association is known for opposing everything proposed.

The Washington Park people's president (I think he is still president) couldn't make a bookstore (where most of the books were donated) survive and the I don't think I can find one single person on the Common Council who is employed in the private section.

And, please, can you name anyone in these groups that has real business experience. While you are at it, would you please give us some names from the minority community that has the same amount of business and planning experience? Ward and Aaron?

But I was thinking why don't people just have their own committee?   If this mayor is such a poor leader, let's have our own.  Can't Shawn Morris convene a committee to do this work?   Can't the head of a local non-profit?  Can a community association do it?   Can a street block?   Can't a web group?

The mayor messed up it seems to me, not getting that the city needs diverse city people to address these things.

But I think the mayor is making himself irrelevant for now.

If the purpose of this new group is to identify areas where resources need to be leveraged, then the committee is not a bad idea (whatever happened, by the way, to the group called 100 Black Businessmen?  Are none of them capable entreprenuers?).  But it needs to be more expansive.

AE Newman does have a valid point: there are those who are elements of the neighborhood groups who have a reputation for opposing any sort of development of any kind; Center Square has been notorious for this.  The Concerned Citizens group is fighting the Holland Avenue zonign plan, but what are its alternative ideas?  BIDs, neighborhood associations and walk and watch groups need to collaborate, focus on what is needed and get that feedback to the mayor and the Common Council.

The Committee is not a bad idea, it just may not be the best-implemented idea.  We have to see how open and responsive individual heads of subcommittees and individual members are to the needs of the city's constituents.  And a lot will be expected of those 13 who actually live in the city.

But there needs to be more than this.

Ms. Morris and company need to start putting forth some constructive ideas, find a way to work with this organization, not just be perceived as critics, build a base beyond the committee and move forward.  Neighborhood associations, BIDS, NWs, etc, need to get their data together and demonstrate how they have made progress in tandem with and/or in spite of the Capitalize Albany program.

I don't think anyone thinks neighborhood associations are our salvation.  However, to say that the bad blood between the mayor and certain groups in this city is a two way street is wrong.  I'd be more than happy to work with the mayor.  Unlike him, I have the ability to have a discussion where someone holds an opposing view, and it doesn't make me react like a spoiled child.   Most of us who work in the real world need this ability to either 1) not get fired 2) deal successfully in any type of situation with more than one person.  The mayor does not allow for collaboration.   As I've pointed out the political system in Albany allows him to take a my way or the highway approach.   There is no "two way street" in albany.   Its the mayor's way.  Disagree and you will get called names and then he will accuse you of not participating to fix the problem.  I could cite numerous examples of this.   What would you recommend the 10 NA's who opposed the walgreen spot rezoning do differently?   The mayor's lawyer worked with the developer to find a loophole to allow this to go through.   What should those people have done?   And now that they law has been circumvented and the rezoning has happened with NO DISCUSSION between them and the mayor, can you blame them if they might feel the mayor treated them like crap?   Same for the center square group.  The first thing the city did when that group challenged the illegal variance that was granted was make a motion to say the citizens of the neighborhood had no legal standing to challenge a decision the city made.  The city's first response was to try to take away the citizens only method of having any say in how their neighborhood was used by developers to make the greatest profit.   So, are they "whiners"?  Is this an adminstration fostering discussion or trying to suppress the rights of the citizens?

I'm all for collaboration.   When there are two parties willing to work together, think through problems and compromise.   That is not the situation we have in Albany.   But i'll give anyone a chance to prove otherwise.  Two things I'd like to see examples of:

1.  Give me an example anytime in the last several years that the mayor has compromised on anything that involved a discussion with citizens (i'm sure he compromises with his buddy pataki, that doesn't count).  

2.  Give me an example of citizens who are blocking development that is consistent with the zoning in their neighborhood that doesn't require a variance or spot rezoning.  

A) His instincts and common sense have suddenly abandoned him, and he has gone completely tone deaf politically.

B) He's an arrogant autocrat who doesn't give a rat's ass how this plays around town.

Maybe the Mayor in an abutting community would take the job, or Alice Green, what is Naomi Jaffe doing, that fellow Mr. Goodsomething.  I like candidates with Good in their name and I think it is time for radical change and Jennings is not a radical.  Look at the job he came from.  What even gave him the right to run for Mayor?  We don't even know if he can balance his own checkbook.  What is he going to do after he runs Albany into the toilet - sorry it is already there.  Go back to Albany High?  Get a degree in Business Administration?  Want Fries with that?

Lines taken from Jennings' Biography:

"...his stunning election victory in 1993, against the party establishment..."

(Yes,Jerry bucked the system, and we were glad he'd won, but then he endorsed Pataki!)

"He distinguished himself as a tireless voice for the citizens of Albany and an advocate for Albany's Pine Bush."

(Yup, true, well, I'd say he was more the voice of those who opposed low income housing in his ward, echoing, 'we don't want that element in OUR neighborhood'.)

"Mayor Jennings first took office on January 1st, 1994 and assumed the responsibilities of leadership that turned a city with a structural financial deficit and pessimistic outlook for its future into a true renaissance."

(I wonder what Jerry's successor will have to say about the state they find Albany in after Jerry's administration is finally booted out of office.)

"In an environment where upstate New York cities were decaying over the last decade, the City of Albany has experienced a bona fide renewal in both downtown and its historic neighborhoods as a result of Mayor Jennings' leadership and vision."

(I would suggest to your readers to take a cruise through the revitalized historic south end to see the wonderful condition of this neighborhood after Jerry's twelve years in office.)

"As Mayor, Jerry Jennings has presided over an unprecedented reduction in crime and meaningful increases in quality of life for all of Albany."

(You have got to be kidding! Who wrote this - Safire or Buchanan?)

"The most critical element of Mayor Jennings public service is his unparalleled dedication to the children of Albany."

(He just doesn't want to hear anything from their folks, after all, they're all no-nothings or worse. He'd probably use the term 'neighing naybobs of negativism' to describe those parents who are members of a neighborhood organization.)

"Mayor Jennings has focused on implementing environmentally sensitive policies."

(Very true! The development of the pine bush and the Coeymans Wetlands, er, landfill.)

"He has worked with the State of New York and the Pine Bush Commission to add hundreds of acres to the Pine Bush Preserve."

(??)

Jennings' 2006 State of the City Address:

"Tonight, I am pleased to report to them and to you, their elected representatives, that the state of our City is strong and that our future looks even stronger."

(Sounds good so far, but I've seen this movie before - brace yourselves.)

"As you know, one of the most important sources of revenue to the City comes from our landfill. The landfill generates nearly $ 13 million in annual revenue and enables us to provide our residents with free trash removal - an expense they would otherwise incur."

(True.)

"Unfortunately, the existing landfill only has about four more years of capacity left."

(True. My, how time flies by!)

"For the past several years we have attempted to develop a new landfill in Coeymans."

(Twelve years later and still no DEIS has been submitted for the Coeymans site and there's no fall-back plan whatsoever. Everyone knows to diversify their portfolios; to not put all their eggs in one basket.)

"The Coeymans site was selected before my administration took office and was chosen after a State selection process that decided the Coeymans location was the only viable one to site a regional facility."

(Hogwash! The final selection was narrowed to two sites in Coeymans after determining that the nine sites in Bethlehem, the three sites in Guilderland, or one other site in Coeymans were for one reason or another "inappropriate". NO other sites were ever considered. I suppose Jerry is trying to convince everyone that this too, was Whalen's doing, but it is he who signed the 'No Money Back' purchase contract for the Coeymans lands. Jennings speaks so highly of Whalen, it's no wonder he agreed with the former mayor on this one, and unquestionably followed his predecessor's policy.)

"While much time and significant resources have been devoted to the effort to acquiring the land and to develop a landfill at the Coeymans site, we face litigation and opposition that makes it almost certain we will not be able to permit and construct a new facility at that location within the next four years."

(Maybe if you had submitted that DEIS eleven years ago Jerry, the citizens of Albany and the other dozen ANSWERS communities wouldn't be in this situation.)

"Therefore, while we must continue to move forward with the Coeymans site as a long term landfill facility in accordance with our State approved regional solid waste management plan, we must also find a solution to ensure that we have a revenue producing facility available at the end of the next four years when our Rapp Road facility as it now exists will be at capacity."

(Indeed, continue on. By the end of August, you will be the proud owners of a giant mud puddle in Coeymans. But remember - the Judge says you can't spend another dime towards the purchase - not until after you first submit a DEIS. But You're Jerry Jennings, Mayor of Albany, and you don't give a damn about a judicial decision handed down by the State's highest court. The city's continued, long after they lost their several appeals, to make payments to the landowners, in direct violation of the courts ruling.)

"I cannot overstate the negative consequences that will face the City if we do not proceed with this expansion. Without it we will face a nearly $13 million dollar budget shortfall and City residents will see real property tax increases by as much as 27% or more."

(Who's doing is this Jerry? Surely you're not going to try to put this all on Bill Bruce, the former administration's city planner and now your Commissioner of General Services, are you?
Or are you going to continue trying to convince Albanians that the citizens of Coeymans are the sole reason you find your city in this predicament.)

"Further, the City would also incur millions of dollars in additional expenses for the cost of transporting our waste to an outside landfill or in the alternative our residents would incur the additional expense of paying for trash removal."

"In either scenario, City services will have to be cut, along with potentially hundreds of City jobs across the entire City workforce. I am asking you tonight to work with me to make certain none of this happens and that this expansion proposal succeeds."

(So, having wasted twelve years and nearly that many millions of taxpayers dollars, Jerry's warning you that he's about to spend millions more, if you don't get behind him and follow his lead and allow him to further destroy one of the world's rarest ecosystems.)    

"I have focused on this issue this evening because I believe it will be one of the most important we will work together on in the days and weeks ahead. When I first dreamed of becoming the Mayor of this City, I never dreamed I'd be spending so much of my time focusing on trash, trash removal and landfills. So much for the glamour of this job."

(A true leader will admit his mistake when realized and immediately plot a course correction. Jennings has put forth no plan whatsoever to find an alternative source of revenue to replace that which will be lost when the landfill closes. On this Jerry's been mute. What is he waiting for? Maybe he's counting on the millions the city will make on the proposed convention center.)

Anyone out there feeling pessimistic about Albany's future?

Some Renaissance!

The citizens and common council must all be mad if they allow Jennings to obtain from the state the next thirty years payments in lieu of taxes from the state for the Empire State Plaza in a lump sum. It'll disappear for sure.