Open Letter to Albany (NY, USA) Mayoral Candidates

Dear Albany (NY, USA) Mayoral Candidate,

Thank you so much for entering public service. As a resident of downtown, I have a few suggestions:

First, let's not build a stadium. If soccer teams want to come to town, let them rent Casey Stadium at UAlbany, which is going to need the cash, given recent federal actions. Besides, downtown real estate will soon be needed for urban infill, as the fiscal unsustainability of the suburbs, publicized by Strong Towns, becomes more obvious.

Second, house the unhoused. Even if we have no compassion, they scare business away from downtown, even though only a very small minority among them engage in aggressive or mean-spirited panhandling. 

Third, instead of turning downtown into an unwalkable suburban hellscape with more parking that spreads points of interest further apart, improve public transportation to make it easy for drivers to get places after they park. Suburbanites will not pay twice for parking in order to dine downtown after a show. Free buses running in a figure-8 south on Broadway to west on Madison to north on South Pearl to west on State to west on Washington to south on Lark to east on Madison to north on South Pearl to east on State to south on Broadway again could bring business to Lark Street, Broadway, and the museums, while helping residents get around, including to the Delaware Avenue Price Chopper, fixing a longstanding food semidesert problem. Suburbanites will need encouragement to ride, instead of hopping on the highway back to the suburbs, but Albany has a wealth of creative ability to get that job done. 

Fourth, stop parking garages from requiring MVP Arena visitors to vacate within 90 minutes of the end of the show. I noticed a sign to this effect recently at the entrance to the parking structure at the corner of Beaver and South Pearl. How can downtown thrive when visitors are told to get lost?

Fifth, insist that the Empire State Plaza be run in hospitable fashion, especially evenings and weekends. There has been improvement lately: It's been a while since I've found the place locked up hours early. However, here is a playlist of short videos on problems that still exist. I made them in connection with my art project entitled Found Physics Museum.

A slogan to summarize these points might be, "Downtown is run as if the county and state wanted to drive people to spend their money in the suburbs."

Thank you very much for your time. Good luck in your work. I'll write again.

Best wishes,

James

P.S. CDTA appears once again to have free trolley service in Albany every 20 minutes on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, but it's not advertised on the CDTA trolleys page. After seeing a trolley bus in operation on Madison Avenue recently, I managed to find a PDF schedule: https://www.cdta.org/sites/default/files/schedules/route870.pdf

This service could be expanded. Buses that arrive every 20 minutes are not convenient. Furthermore, as large events let out, more buses should be available to take potential diners to Lark Street and Broadway before they hie themselves to Wolf Road. Finally, the fact that a downtown Albany resident deeply interested in bus service on free downtown loops had great trouble finding out that one route existed indicates that the service is inadequately advertised.

Thanks again.