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Improving city neighborhoods
Updated: 11/18/2006 4:52:10 PM
By: Curtis Schick
How do you make Albany better? Answers to that rather large question,
are being hammered out. Residents got a chance to pick the brains
of city leaders from both the Re-Capitalize Albany Committee and
the people prepping the new Comprehensive plan.
"It's a wonderful time to bring all these stakeholders together.
Get some more input from them, and where we are going," said
Albany Development Commissioner Joe Rabito.
Rabito said the committee is working on ways to improve city neighborhoods,
get schools up to par, and make Albany a place people want to do
business. He said Mayor Jerry Jennings will use this information
to decide where and how the city will focus its investments. Residents,
though, want to be sure that their voices are heard.
"Until you hear the people that are living in the conditions
as a result of failed policies, you are not going to have a full
grasp of what the problems are," said Barbara Smith, the 4th
Ward's Common Councilor.
The problems are out there. Residents said the biggest issue the
city must deal with in the comprehensive plan, the hundreds of abandoned
buildings.
"Their reuse or their demolition must be at the forefront of
the discussion said," Common Council Majority Leader Carolyn
McLaughlin.
McLaughlin said owners must do something with the properties or
face some sort of penalty. Rabito said that issue will be addressed
in the plan. The plan is just in it's early stages. As for the Committee,
it reports back to the Mayor at the beginning of next year.
Copyright © 2006 TWEAN d.b.a. Capital News 9
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