Democracy In Albany

Opposition to the bill by the three council members led to debate on the floor of the council. Calsolaro insisted that the city has already seen its debt payments nearly double in the last three years from $9 million to $16 million, and that the city has not taken his recommendation and put together an honest estimate of what it costs to run the landfill.

Calsolaro said that while city officials cite the landfill as generating $13 million in revenue for the city each year, he thinks that the cost to operate the landfill, the legal fees surrounding it, and the cost of purchasing an alternative landfill site in Coeymans may significantly eat into what the city truly earns. Calsolaro referred to the bond issue as “a sad state for Albany taxpayers.”

O’Brien said he respected the three council members’ opposition to the bond issue, but thought it to be mostly symbolic. “Their opposition forces us all to think, and justify why we are taking what you might even call a desperate step that is not the best long-term solution, but right now a necessary solution.”

Two members of the uptown-based Jungle Junkies street gang were sentenced to federal prison terms today for trafficking thousands of dollars worth of crack cocaine.

At least three of the seven charter schools established by the Brighter Choice Foundation have sought permission to lower their maximum enrollment even as they add an additional grade.

The Zoning Board of Appeals did not take up a controversial proposal Wednesday night by the Fort Orange Club to demolish two buildings near the State Capitol but did hear an application for a new downtown nightclub.

The city and its residents lose if this proposal is allowed to go forward. As a resident in the downtown neighborhood, who lives there so I can walk to most everything I attend, I hope that the Board of Zoning Appeals rejects this misguided proposal.