What opportunity?  In this time of transition and recovery, Congress is calling for a massive federal infrastructure stimulus package. The former Convention Center site (Liberty Park) has been turned over to Albany for the City to develop. And the last 18 months living with the COVID pandemic have revealed horrible inequities in our community, a significant separation from Nature in our city, and a needed and growing recognition of our climate peril, especially along the edge of the Hudson estuary, which is tidal (sea coast) up to Troy.

Planning by Whom?  For Whom?  The City of Albany’s shoreline and adjacent downtown have been controlled and shaped by the State, including the erection of the Empire State Plaza which decimated 98 acres of the city, the construction of 787 which separated our communities from each other and from the River, and the more recent gutting of the area known as Liberty Park which left many downtown businesses without a supportive downtown fabric.

Those past projects created many of the equity, climate, and health issues of today, and we cannot use that same planning approach going forward. The time has come for the Region, led by Albany, to come together to vision and create excitement about the Albany Riverfront that will serve us all for the long-term. This process will include many and varied interactions with our neighbors to activate curiosity about what could be.  

Re-connect What and How?  

• Liberty Park area has no existing planning in place. 
• 787 was an infrastructure project of the 60’s with little regard for the communities destroyed by its construction.
• The Hudson River is an historic, cultural, and natural resource that we can barely access in our daily lives.
• Our downtown is a day-town with little to create joy and purpose 24/7.
• Many neighborhoods in Albany deal with food apartheid and lack of access to Nature.

Each of these circumstances will provide us valuable insights and needed perspectives to reconnect our communities and benefit from our vibrant physical location.

Why now? The federal stimulus money will quickly be made available, and we must begin planning and preparing now if we are to be ready to use it well. We have the needed skills in our local communities, we have the will to share information as well as receive it, and we have an increasing recognition of the rights and responsibilities we have to all the peoples of our city.

We also have examples of other cities that are re-engaging with their riverfront resources, and using the removal or re-design of massive aged-out infrastructure as a springboard to activate the local economy while making every resident proud of their city and happier in their lives.

How is it paid for? The stimulus money is a significant factor, but not the only way money will move. We expect we will be releasing about 92 acres of land from the concrete grip of 787 and its associated access ramps, almost making up for the businesses and homes destroyed for the Empire State Plaza. About 77 of these acres will be in Albany, the rest in Rensselaer. This land access brings tremendous opportunity for informed development at public, private, and partnership levels, which will result in revenues from the sales of land and from property taxes.

Another surprising aspect many don’t realize is that 787 is at the end of its planned life-span, and the investment needed to keep the status quo over the next few decades is equivalent to nearly half of the expected construction costs for reducing 787, creating boulevards, and improving access to the river. And maintaining the connective riverfront will be significantly less costly to maintain. 

Why must we?  This is an opportunity that will serve us on so many levels. As this is a project that is starting with a vision of a shared, more accessible, economically strong, equitable, healthy, climate sensible, and weather resilient future, we know the work will have to be community-driven. It will also have to be a process of accessing shorter-term opportunities in a way that supports that long-term vision. This is really all hands-on-deck for our (and Albany’s) future.

The joy is that once we rely on process, instead of on a set result, we free ourselves to not only understand what is possible now, but to access what will be possible in five years, or 12, or 25. And the collaborative that will engage in this connective shepherding must represent all of Albany, and will be able to build on work already in progress, such as the Skyway, and the connected Bike Trails.

This ongoing effort is itself part of the process of healing our communities, and key in helping our communities heal our Hudson Riverfront. What a great gift to bestow upon future generations.

I am happy to chip in on that gift. Are you? If so, please sign this petition. Thank you.