Hello, Collar City! This is Issue 18, dated Jan. 18, 2018.



Hello! In this issue: City Station North, more reflections from Mayor Patrick Madden, the King Fuels site, and a bunch of other odds and ends. Let's get right to it...



City Station North Tax Breaks Approved

United Group of Companies has already received significant public support for City Station, including PILOT agreements for the three existing buildings, and $1.7 million from the State Regional Economic Development Council for City Station North. City Station has not provided significant public benefit to Troy, and has failed to live up to the promises made to the IDA in the past. United Group now asks you for a public subsidy to build a fourth building that will do nothing to improve neighborhood walkability and fails to comply with city zoning. They ask you to subsidize extraordinarily high rents that will only drive up costs for current downtown residents and lead to displacement. PILOT [payment of lieu in taxes] agreements are a public subsidy. The public should only subsidize private projects in rare circumstances and when they offer substantial public benefit. The public should not subsidize projects that will ultimately detract from a neighborhood. PILOTs should not support for-profit, “market-rate” development that will drive up rents and displace current Troy residents. The public should not subsidize projects that will happen regardless of public subsidy: developers choose to build in Troy because it is a desirable location—not because they are receiving tax breaks. PILOTs must stop being used as giveaways to corporations, paid for by the public. United Group of Companies neither needs, nor deserves, further tax breaks from the City of Troy, and we urge you to deny their application for a PILOT agreement for City Station North.

Madden's WOOC Interview, Part II

This morning, the Troy Industrial Development Authority approved tax breaks for the United Group's City Station North, a $38 million project that will feature about 50,000 of commercial space and 87 apartments. The developer will also demolish a vacant warehouse at the project site (141 Congress St.). The ground floor of the building will be parking space. The planning commission has already approved the project.The IDA board unanimously approved the tax breaks, which are projected to total about $12.9 million over two decades, after a public hearing where a downtown resident and member of the Troy Branch of the Capital District Democratic Socialists of America, Matthew Sekellick, presented a petition signed by more than 160 opponents of the deal.Here is the text of the petition , which Sekellick read into the record:"This is a great project for...further continuing the development from the News [Apartments]...south and connecting into City Station East and South and West," planning commissioner and IDA executive director Steve Strichman said during the hearing. The IDA estimates that tenants of the building's planned "Class A" office space will employ around 100 people."I think that what we've seen from the News [Apartments] project is these are rates that people are willing to pay to move into the area," Strichman said before the vote. "We are diversifying our population base. There are still plenty of housing opportunities for all people in Troy."Below is a copy of the projected PILOT schedule, which shows how the developer's payments to the city will escalate over time.Today's IDA meeting was the first one chaired by Heidi Knoblauch, who owns Plumb Oyster Bar downtown.Below is my transcription of the second part of WOOC 105.3 FM Hudson Mohawk Magazine volunteer-correspondent Corinne Carey's wide-ranging interview with Mayor Patrick Madden, recorded in late December. It has been edited. (Again, FYI: I appear regularly as a guest on WOOC's Hudson Mohawk Magazine, have guest-hosted a few times, and suggested two questions to Carey in advance of this interview that she ended up asking in its first part.)

WOOC: I crowdsourced a few of these questions, and you won’t be surprised that the most requested questions are probably the most requested questions for any city official in the northeast. Folks were unhappy with potholes, the response that they get from the online complaint form about potholes, street cleaning, they want the leaves picked up for the fall before they start complaining about snow removal, and the availability of parking, trash cans—that is, the lack of trash cans downtown—and the distribution of recycling bins to particular neighborhoods.

Is there anything in particular that you want to say about any of them?

MPM: I share most of those concerns. I’m not happy with the streets. We’re doing the best we can with the resources that are available. I like to tell people, “I can do anything you want to pay for.” So, you know, if we want to pave all of our streets anew, we can do that, but it’s gonna cost us significantly.

So we’re trying to strike a balance between what the taxpayers can afford and what we need to do. We’ve paved, in the three years that I’ve been here, probably 30 miles of streets. We have about 150 total in the city. So we pave about 10 miles a year. Most of that is covered by state grants. This year, unfortunately, we had snow and frost just as the leaves were falling. So the leaf suckers aren’t able to pick up frozen, wet leaves. They need to be drier—not bone dry, but drier than they are. So we’ve had problems with that. People can bag their leaves, and we did provide free bags for people to come into city hall and pick them up. If you can bag your leaves, it makes it a lot easier to get those leaves picked up. But that’s just physics. It’s not that we don’t want to pick up leaves, not that we don’t want to suck them up, but that the trucks won’t pick them up frozen. That’s the state we’re in already.

Recycling bins, everybody should have a recycling bin. And if you don’t have a recycling bin, I’d encourage you to stop down here at the mayor’s office and pick one up. They’re free.

And parking is a problem, but it’s a good problem to have. It means that people are here—they’re visiting, they’re living here, they’re engaged in activities here. We know there are challenges, particularly in the downtown area, where those are gonna require some long-term solutions. We do have a parking plan that is trying to shift parking into some of the surrounding areas, leaving parking open for the customers of merchants and businesses downtown.

We’re looking at parking structures. We’re at this interesting point in history, though, where everybody is talking about, in the not too distant future, we’re going to have a different relationship with automobiles. So there will be self-driving cars. There will be more ride-share services. Younger people are not as interested in owning a car. My daughter didn’t get her driver’s license until she was 25, and she would’ve been fine never getting it. Kids have different relationships with cars these days. When you talk about a parking structure, you’re talking about a long-term investment, where a spot may cost sixty or seventy thousand dollars to produce […] So, we’re trying to make the balances so that we don’t overdevelop for a future that’s not gonna need as many spots, yet meet the current needs and the anticipated needs before we get to the future. It’s a balancing act, and we understand the frustrations around that. We’re frustrated as well.

WOOC: I moved to Lansingburgh five years ago, and I find myself with the same question that many others have: How do we take the energy and excitement and development that we’ve seen in downtown Troy, how do we move that north? How do you see your role, what do you see for the future of bringing some of that development outside of the downtown?

MPM: Well, all of the energy and excitement about downtown Troy is the result of private investment in the city. The city didn’t invest in downtown Troy. I mean, we may have paved the streets and put up streetlights, but it’s really individuals who said, “I see an opportunity here to generate a return on my investment.” [TL note: The city and county industrial development agencies have given tax breaks to a number of significant projects.]

We’ve got to create those opportunities, or market those opportunities, outside of the downtown. There will be some organic growth as the downtown gets crowded. So, we’re seeing it now in South Central Troy, we’re seeing it in North Central. Before I was mayor, I worked for 30 years in North Central trying to create economic opportunities, trying to create homeownership opportunities, rehabbing residential structures, and I never thought I’d see the day when there would be this kind of investment in North Central.

We’re looking at 701 River Street being under construction now. The building, I think it’s 669 [River], across from the Ale House, there’s investment in that. Mooradian’s [599 River] is done. Matthews Sprinkler building [621 River]. I’m using all the old names that I grew up with. All the warehouses going into North Central are getting done. There’s some other plans—School One [2920 Fifth Ave] got rehabbed, and it’s market-rate housing. And in my view, it really changed the look of that stretch. The lights were on at night. It showed life, it showed investment, showed opportunity. So there will be some natural extension of the energy of downtown as downtown gets crowded and we start spreading the development north and south. And we’re working now with developers who are interested in Troy, we’re showing them parcels in North Troy, in North Central, in South Central, and even South Troy. So we’re starting to direct people to those places, but we’ve gotta convince them that there’s an opportunity there, if they invest, that they’ll get a return on their investment.

WOOC: What’s been the highlight for you of this year?

MPM: Oh, this year. It’s all a blur. I can’t almost separate this year from the other two that preceded it. The things I like most are really going out in the community and talking to people. I’m not a very, I don’t know, I’m not a cheerleader type. I’m not a high “E” on the Myers-Briggs scale, but I do going out and sitting with people and talking to them. Mostly what I enjoy is explaining how things work in city government, and reminding people that the government isn’t me. I’m just a representative. The government is all of us, and that’s the nature of a democracy, is that we all have a say. And it’s not, “Oh, the city did this” or “The city did that,” as if the city is some separate entity that has been imposed upon us. The city is all of us. And I like to give people an opportunity to learn more about what it takes to run the city and the opportunity to comment on that.

A good example of that would be: My first year in office, I proposed a tax increase of 28 plus percent. And I spent a lot of time that first year, I offered municipal finance 101, 102, and 103. I had big meetings. I traveled to all the neighborhood groups, church meetings, house meetings. I spoke to hundreds of people. And between the time that my budget was proposed and the time the budget was passed [TL note: with a not-so-high increase], I had probably 400 people come up to me and say, with one exception, people would say, “I hate the proposed increase, but I finally understand why you’re doing it. Thank you for doing it.”

Odds & Ends

Sharing information about difficult things that we have to face as a community is something that I really like. Maybe I should've been a teacher. But I like sharing that information. I like breaking down complex municipal issues into bite-sized pieces that people who aren't involved in these issues on a day-in, day-out basis can understand. And you see the light go on. You see their eyes, their brow becomes unfurrowed and they say, "Oh, now I get it." That's very fulfilling for me. So, I like going out and meeting with people, talking with people.Project-wise: Getting the seawall renovation underway was important to me this year. Making some progress on the South Troy Roadway, which we hope to be in construction on next year at this time, that was important. Those were two projects that had lingered for quite a while.Seeing some of the development this summer in downtown Troy, you could hardly dine outside anywhere because there were jackhammers and cranes and stuff going everywhere. That's exciting to see. That's generating investment, jobs, and growth for our future.: What was your biggest challenge in 2018?: It's all a challenge. I mean, this job is like trying to jog through an avalanche. You're constantly being bombarded. The challenges are not enormous as much as they are numerous. And it's just trying to keep your focus while you're being buffeted about by great numbers of small things here and there. But everything you do in government is a challenge because it's the allocation of scarce resources among numerous competing interests. I can't think of a single big one, just lots of little ones. But they add up.: And what are you most looking forward to in 2019?: I'm looking forward to the completion of the seawall. I'm looking forward to getting in the ground on the South Troy Roadway. That's something that's been in the works for 20 years. Finishing up the boat launch in North Central. That's another project that's probably been in the works for nearly 20 years. Getting those things done—at least started, but some of them done—will be significant accomplishments. Especially riverfront access in North Central. I'm excited by what's going on in North Central, and to give people who live there an opportunity to enjoy the riverfront like it's enjoyed in the downtown area. It creates a much better quality of life for them.I'm looking forward to starting to make some improvements on our long-neglected parks. [The] park on Seventh and Ingalls's plan is coming together [...] 112th Street park. These small pocket parks are where a lot of kids, [it's] their only real play space. They should be safe, they should be inviting, they should be open to kids of all ages. So we're moving in that direction, within budget constraints. We're trying to one at a time. Seventh and Ingalls will be the first, 112th Street, then I'm looking at the Canal Avenue park.We've too long neglected the youth in the city. It's easy, as we've been cutting this and cutting that over the past decades, to cut recreation, and the result is we have almost no—we don't have much of any recreation that we can be proud of. Getting at least one of the pools open in '19 would be a great accomplishment. And starting the ball on the other one. Lansingburgh is gonna be a little trickier [TL note: See TL12 ]. If we can do what we're hoping to do, we hope to see a brand-new pool there. And that would be a real boom for the people in Lansingburgh because it could change their relationship with that park and open it up and make it more of a family-friendly place.The city will move forward with a several-months-in-the-works, emergency plan to deconstruct a portion of the Mt. Ida Lake Dam to allay structural concerns "as soon as possible," according to a statement issued last Friday . The announcement follows a meeting held earlier this month between reps from the city, DEC, the Army Corps of Engineers, and Ampersand Energy, the owner of a hydroelectric facility downstream from the dam that had suggested the city's plan was unnecessary (see TL15 )."Through the discussion it became clear that the original plan to remove a portion of the dam under controlled conditions is the best scenario under the current circumstances and that prolonging the work will only delay the inevitable and keep downstream neighbors and properties at unnecessary risk," the statement says.There is still no long-term plan for the dam, and options range "between the full decommissioning of the current dam to the complete rebuild of the dam," per the statement. The city will hold future public meetings to seek input.Chris Wheland, the city's superintendent of public utilities, told me on Wednesday that the city has still not obtained a temporary work permit but anticipates receiving one soon. "Once issued we will contact [a] contractor to schedule work," he said in an email.Wheland also told me that the city has not yet received any clarification from SHPO on exactly how binding a recommendation it shared in a December letter to the city's engineering firm is ("As previously noted, a dam at this location is significant to the historic district and we recommend that plans be developed to retain a dam at this location,” the letter said). Likewise, the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation's press office didn't respond to my inquiry on the matter.

King Fuels. The Troy Local Development Corporation board voted today to pursue a $1 million federal grant for remediation of asbestos at the King Fuels site, a 16-acre contaminated property in South Troy. The LDC’s effort “is necessary to allow National Grid to undertake a much larger remediation of coal tar contamination associated with the site’s former use as a Manufactured Gas Plant,” according to an agenda packet.



Links

Events

Through the end of this month, the city is accepting proposals for foreclosed properties (access the list here ), but the only new addition to the list, compared to the last round, is 426 Second St., a rather incongruous, one-story building in South Troy that once housed a sea shell exhibit (discussed further in TL11 ).New and returning vendor applications for the Troy Waterfront Farmers' Market's 2019-2020 season are now open . The deadline is Feb. 24.Oakwood Community Center is looking to hire a part-time volunteer and outreach coordinator Councilmember Anasha Cummings is currently holding an AMA on r/Troy about running for local office It might snow a lot this weekend! This update from Mayor Madden might answer questions you might have about what to do/watch for.. HVCC has posted non-credit, winter/spring professional education classes on its website. If you're shopping for class of some sort, you might also take another look at the Arts Center's list of upcoming offerings Troy Record closes only remaining office (TU, 1/14) RensCo IDA hires Hudson Virtual Tours (TU, 1/14) U.S. Supreme Court to hear case on Rensselaer County election fraud (TU, 1/14) Behind the deal: Gillibrand's search for office space in Troy [$] (ABR, 1/14) Pot shop opens in Pittsfield, Mass., on Tuesday (TU, 1/15) Troy homicide victim had a 'heart of gold' (TU, 1/15) Troy's retiring fire chief heading to Watervliet (TU, 1/15) LoPorto left behind as former co-defendant's case heads to Supreme Court (TU, 1/15) Marijuana in New York: Here's how Andrew Cuomo plans to legalize, tax it (D&C, 1/15). Under the governor's proposal, counties and large cities could ban marijuana sales. Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin doesn't seem too fond of legalization . Stay tuned? Presidential candidate Gillibrand stumps at Brunswick diner (TU, 1/16) Churchill: Welcome to Troy, the northern Mar-a-Lago (TU, 1/16) Entering the Opportunity Zone: Investors see lucrative tax breaks. What's next? [$] (ABR, 1/17) Troy business owners hope Gillibrand buzz boosts Collar City (TR, 1/17) City of Troy Earns Clean Energy Community Designation for Commitment to Reduce Energy Use and Cut Costs (1/17)Tonight at Oakwood, attend the James Connolly Forum , which is hosting Spenser Rapone, a West Point graduate who quit the military. On Sunday, brunch with the Mount Ida Preservation Association at 548 Congress Street from 11 A.M. to 1 P.M. That night, have dinner at Tara Kitchen amidst live music Pay what you can to eat at Soul Cafe at Oakwood Community Center on Monday night (or get a crash course on tea at the downtown library ). Learn about Liberia at Sage on Wednesday afternoon . Thursday night, see a work-in-progress dance performance at EMPAC That's all! Reply to this email with questions, tips, etc. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up to receive future TLs here . Read the archive here . Expect TL19 next Friday!