Albany

Albany, it is safe to say, will never be the coolest city in the world. It won't be a Portland, Seattle, Austin — or even a Troy.

That's fine. Coolness is overrated anyhow, or at least that's what I told myself in high school.

Still, there are steps the city should take to enhance its attractiveness to those darned millennials and hipsters of all ages, which brings me to the latest news: The chicken proposal is back.

If you were around these parts in 2010 and 2011 — where does the time go? — you may remember the fight over allowing backyard chickens.

It started when a city official told Jen and Michael Guidice, then residents of the Mansion neighborhood, that their egg-producing birds had to go. That led the Guidices to launch the legalization effort, which would have succeeded had Mayor Jerry Jennings not vetoed a law approved by the Common Council — a fowl move if ever there was one.

(No more puns, I promise.)

It was a fight with implications for city politics. One South End councilor who voted against allowing chickens, Lester Freeman, was later defeated in an election impacted by new, younger voters mobilized by the issue.

To put in another way, Freeman's chicken vote came home to roost. (Oops.)

And now the debate has returned. I'm surprised it took so long.

More for you News Albany hatches new plan to allow chickens in the city

Three members of the council — Tom Hoey, Owusu Anane and Judy Doesschate — are proposing to amend the city's prohibition on "farm animals" to allow backyard hens but not roosters, who like to wake the world a touch on the early side by modern standards.

Mayor Kathy Sheehan supports the change and helped work on the ordinance, so its passage seems assured.

Still, there are signs that embers of the old opposition still burn, at least on social media, where unfounded fears that chickens are noisy and smelly creatures continue to fly. (I can't help myself.)

"Ridiculous," wrote a Facebook critic. "If you want to raise farm animals move to the country."

The Guidices did just that, actually. The city is worse for their departure.

I'll suggest that Albany is not yet so wildly successful that it can afford to cast chicken-wanting families out to the countryside — or even to Troy, where backyard chickens are entirely legal. For what it's worth, they're also allowed in New York, Chicago and many other densely populated cities where officials have found that compared to dogs and cats, chickens ruffle far fewer feathers. (Bad, Chris, bad.)

I adore dogs. But hens don't bark, bite or poop on the sidewalk. And I've lived next door to chickens. It was easy to forget they were there. They don't smell.

At its heart, opposition to backyard chickens is rooted in the notion that food comes only from the grocery store, agriculture happens only in the countryside and a bit of self-sufficiency has no value. A summertime drive around Albany proves how terribly dated that idea is.

The city is peppered by community gardens that are particularly favored by immigrant communities and produce a remarkable amount of food. The Radix Ecological Sustainability Center in the South End is home to chickens and goats, gardens and greenhouses. There's a community farm in Tivoli Park, also with animals.

Allowing backyard hens is a logical extension of real and important cultural change that's under way. People increasingly want to produce their own food. Even many city dwellers want that connection to the natural world.

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

If I have any criticism of the proposed ordinance, it's that it is entirely too restrictive. As written, it allows only one hen per 800 square feet of backyard space, which, along with stringent setbacks requirements, will largely keep chickens out of Center Square and the city's other densely populated neighborhoods.

New York City, by contrast, has no square-footage requirement. Neither does Troy. Hens in factory farms, meanwhile, are stuffed tightly into battery cages with hardly any wiggle room, which is as good a reason as any to procure eggs from your backyard.

But Albany, unlike some of the cooler and larger cities, has never rushed headlong into the future. Passing the chicken ordinance might be a small step forward, but every little twig helps build a nest.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5442 • @chris_churchill