Hello, Collar City! This is Issue 29, dated April 5, 2019.



Hi, everyone. In this issue: city council stuff, CDPHP Cycle!'s third season, the idea of municipal snow/ice removal from sidewalks, and more.





. In this issue: city council stuff, CDPHP Cycle!'s third season, the idea of municipal snow/ice removal from sidewalks, and more. TL's Patreon has picked up nearly a dozen new supporters since last week—thank you for your support! With every new patron, the idea of TL becoming a permanent thing becomes a little more real. Please chip in, if you can afford it and want to see TL stick around. My goal is to reach 200 patrons.

City Council Roundup

Riverfront Park Front Street - creation of a plan to repurpose the area around the current Uncle Sam Bus Stop as it relocates into the Uncle Sam parking garage building;

- creation of a plan to repurpose the area around the current Uncle Sam Bus Stop as it relocates into the Uncle Sam parking garage building; Green Island Bridge Gateway - to serve as the main gateway into the city;

- to serve as the main gateway into the city; Marina North - extend the Riverfront Park North plan from just north of the Green Island Bridge to the area immediately past Hoosick Street, with the ultimate goal of continuing a pedestrian connection from the downtown area to the planned Ingalls Avenue Boat Launch; and

- extend the Riverfront Park North plan from just north of the Green Island Bridge to the area immediately past Hoosick Street, with the ultimate goal of continuing a pedestrian connection from the downtown area to the planned Ingalls Avenue Boat Launch; and Lansingburgh Waterfront Park - expansion of the park north of the existing boat dock and launch with a new ribbon park at 123rd Street extending to 126th Street / Waterford Bridge.

A Brief Q&A About the Third Season of CDPHP Cycle!

The city council held a finance committee and regular meeting last night., a community health project coordinator at the Commission on Economic Opportunity by the Democratic city council majority, all four of whom voted for her. The two Republican members abstained from the vote, which they said did not constitute a judgment regarding Garrett but rather a critique of a selection process from which they were wrongly excluded.Garrett will serve out the remainder of Mark McGrath's term, which concludes at the end of this year. She is not the Democrats' chosen candidate for the district seat in this year's election; that's Mary Sweeney, who works for the county board of elections, according to the Times Union Garrett said her goal is "to elevate the families and the youth of North Central," ensuring that "people in that district are being recognized—and not for the negative stuff that's always taking place.""We don't want people to be complaining about the mattresses in the alleyways," she continued. "We want people to come help us clean up the mattresses in the alleyways.", a year-long process that will involve an audit of the existing code, public meetings, and the production of a new code. Local firm River Street Planning will be paid about $200,000 to lead the project. Half of the firm's contract, already approved at a previous meeting, will be covered by a state grant, and the other half will be covered by the Troy Redevelopment Foundation, a consortium made up of St. Peter's Health Partners, RPI, Emma Willard School, and Russell Sage College that makes a voluntary $450,000 contribution to the city each year.Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of the annual TRF contribution go toward the city's general fund, and the remainder, with TRF approval, can be used for special projects like the rezoning effort, deputy mayor Monica Kurzejeski said.A motion by council president Carmella Mantello to "put the zoning plan on hold" and instead use the TRF funds for "neighborhood programs" failed, with only council member Jim Gulli joining in support. The unamended ordinance to create the project's accounts then passed 4-2-1, with the two Republican members voting no and Debra Garrett abstaining.to develop construction-ready designs for several sites across the city (quoting from a planning department memo below):, discussed in TL27 , with only council president Mantello voting against it.. The city council last night passed a required home rule request in support of the measure.The ABR reported this week on the third season of CDTA's bike-share program, CDPHP Cycle!, which launches this month. (I've already purchased a season pass .) The article contains several newsy items worth highlighting; CDTA is (i) adding hubs to Cohoes, (ii) eliminating "out-of-hub" fees—$2 charges incurred by customers who ended trips by locking bikes within the system area but not at defined stations (aka hubs), and (iii) not changing the program's total number of bikes (350).The transit authority has also secured new institutional clients that will provide CDPHP Cycle! memberships to their employees/students, the ABR reported.Via email, I posed two questions about the upcoming third season (bolded) to CDTA director of corporate communications Jaime Watson, whose answers (not bolded) are copied below.

There will be no out-of-hub fees this year? This seems a dramatic change from last year, when I don't think there were even any regularly available "free parking zones." How will CDTA make sure it is able to service the bikes in a timely manner and avoid some of the purported issues with an essentially dockless system [link added]?



We are always on the lookout for ways to improve service and keep up with emerging technology in bike share. There has been consistent interest in expanding our hubs to new neighborhoods and new municipalities since we launched the first year. By creating a truly flexible system—including our existing hubs and allowing people to lock to any existing bike rack or public street furniture—we allow people to have an option in their own neighborhoods and have a door-to-door experience on a bike instead of having to strategically plan their rides around our hub locations.



Our vendor, JUMP, has significant experience operating hubless and flexible systems. Our local team on the ground is committed to expanding their capacity to rebalance and maintain the bikeshare bikes. There will also be advisories going out to our members. Additionally, we always encourage our communities to let us know of any improperly parked bicycles.



Still 350 bikes—the same number as the end of last season? Given the Cohoes expansion, the growth of the Cycle Access program, and the generally increasing usage trend, is there any concern that this total number of bicycles is too low?

350 is approximately the number the Capital Region feasibility study gave us as the number of bikeshare bicycles we can absorb. We are planning to take this year to watch changes with out of hub travel and usage as our memberships grow and communities continue to accept bike share as a mobility option. Future expansion is on the table.



Thevenin's Response