My, oh my. If you are an Albany local, you probably agree that this winter is an exceptionally busy one for local politics. If you are sitting in a hotel room as a visitor to our fair City, and without a full understanding of how this city — that has been entirely dominated by Democrat’s since before my grandfather was born — is run, read on. This is an election year for city government. It is also a year when the Common Council (that is the body that runs our town) votes on the city wide redistricting. (Briefly that is a process that occurs at each census to keep a minority/majority balance in our 15 Wards. As the racial population of the city shifts, the lines have to be redrawn, according to law, so that each Ward can choose a candidate of their choosing according to it’s minority/majority make up. I think I got that right.) Now Albany has 15 Wards with a population of roughly 97,000. (In comparison a city like Austin, Texas, with a population 9 times greater than Albany, has only 6 council members. Go figure.) The city put together an independent commission to undertake the redrawing process. Now that they have submitted — after a lengthy vetting process — the maps for the committee to approve, some of the individual council members (I won’t mention any names, Leah) want the lines redrawn supposedly to keep their wards (but what they really mean are their clicky neighborhood associations) intact. They commissioned a commission, who painstakingly took their time (unpaid time, mind you) in crafting these maps to keep the wards balanced; so what’s the problem here? They didn’t have council members on the committee for a reason. The committee meeting last night showed why. The 5 members of the committee should have caucused, then voted. Period. The time for other input has gone. Well they did vote. 4-1 for the maps to move on to the entire council, where a majority vote is necessary for approval. This probably is not over yet.………The owners of Ravens Head Brewery (this is another good one for you out of towner’s) have finally come to their senses and decided to seek to move their brewery to the City of Cohoes. Now unlike Albany — where the common council actually meddled in the business of the local zoning authority and voted against the brewery being located in a residential neighborhood — the City of Cohoes will welcome a new tenant to it’s city with open arms. Now, the Albany Times Useless (better known on the newsstand as the Times Union) is editorializing about poor St.Joe’s church and what’s going to happen to it now. My favorite part is the quote from the current owner of the church, the Historic Albany Foundation’s czar Ms. Holland. “The bottom line is that the building needs use. We’re sending the message that we’re not open for business in Albany. If
people don’t like something, they can get a resolution passed against
it.” I ran the quote through the BS-O-Meter, and it translates to: “We’re tired of the expense of keeping up the building, so can somebody take it off our hands or we’re going to give it back to the city.” Now the HAF can only blame it’s friends, the progressive Democrat’s on the city council that voted — when they didn’t have to stick their noses in it — against the brewery. The HAF has also said that they have invested $1 million into the building to stabilize it. I would love to see the receipts for that (primarily, because a million dollars doesn’t get much stabilizing done on a structure such as this.) Why don’t you sell it to the White Couch Church. The mayor certainly doesn’t want the church in downtown Albany
And that is “The Daily Take”.