BLIGHT AND CRIME COMING
TO WARDS 14 and 8. REALLY?

As homeowners scrape together the cash to
pay their school property tax bills which will
be in the mail shortly.....the question may
cross many a mind...what are we getting for
these ever increasing property taxes?

Who is looking out for the folks as Bill O
often asks?

On these fine summer evenings take a
walking tour of your hood.

Check out Crestwood Plaza which has
2 vacancies. It is rumored that someone
has an eye on opening a hip hop club
in the larger of the two. Is that true?

Hip hop on Picotte Drive? Stroll along
Hackett Blvd to Weis Rd, thence along
New Scotland. Turn N on South Allen
St.

At Bower St turn left, then left again
on Winnie St. Proceed past the boarded
up apartment house, which had a fire
reportedly after to renting to Section
8 tenants. This same building is being
purchased, according to sources, by
a notorious slum lord who made big
bucks plying his business in what is
now the Park South urban renewal
project adjacent to Albany Med and
the VA Hospital.

Could the recent spike in graffiti,
vandalism, tire slashings, car break
ins, bank robberies, grand theft auto
drug dealings, emergence of blight
and more, in our hood, be related
to the displacement of former
denizens of Park South to our hood
as well as to the adjacent 9th and
7th Wards along the New Scotland
Avenue corridor?

Is this why the Key Bank branch
building will soon become home to
a check cashing outfit? Why the
Academy Post Office will soon close?

Is our hood becoming the next Park
South urban renewal project?

Who will be left to pay the property
taxes to support city schools, city
government and that last urban
renewal effort?

Who would know? Maybe the City
Planning Dept? Maybe, City Code
enforcement? Maybe, the Members
of the City Planning Board and
Board of Zoning Appeals?
Maybe, the Members of the Albany
Common Council and
Albany County Legislature who
purportedly represent us and our
best interests?

Well, how about our Democratic
Ward Leaders and Committee
Men/Women?


All of them are really looking out for
us? ........Right?

You think that they don't recognize
that Wards 14, 8 and 9 are the swing
wards in the September 15 primaries?

Maybe, they don't see what we do?
They believe that our votes can be taken
for granted regardless?

Complete your walk by walking up
and down South Manning Blvd.
You will be struck by the difference
from Lower South Allen St.

Walk along Linden Rd. Observe. What
do you see? Turn left on Kakely. Pause
for a moment at the paper street lot.
This is where a resident observed a
drug deal go down a few evenings
ago. Two sellers in a small foreign
car. A buyer in a big SUV.

Stroll through Greenway, back
to S. Manning then New Scotland
Ave. On Thursday, Friday and
Saturday nights lots of cars line
Greenway N and S. Their owners
are at the nearby watering hole.

Stop in at Andy's Sports Bar, across
from St Peter's. Have a cold one, or
two, and reflect on what you have
observed.

Think about the forthcoming
September 15th Democratic Primary
and how it is so imporant that you
cast informed votes.

That your votes not be taken for granted.
That your votes have real consequences
for yourselves, your loved ones your
neighborhood and your city.

Joe Sullivan