Albany

In these parts, soul-crushing cynicism greets nearly every new idea. It is easily our worst regional trait.

Creativity is mocked. Change brings fear. Optimism is for fools.

It's that Smallbany mentality that is again raising its hideous noggin, this time to deride the plan for a gondola system that would connect the Rensselaer train station and downtown Albany.

This isn't about a guy who would row you across the river while singing "O Sole Mio." We're talking aerial gondolas that would whisk passengers above ground, carry them over the Hudson and deposit them on the other side.

Such systems are rare in U.S. cities but increasingly common in forward-thinking places worldwide. It's efficient and clean transportation, especially compared to the battered taxis that now greet arrivals at Rensselaer's Amtrak station and make them think they've accidentally traveled to Uzbekistan.

Now, under normal conditions the idea would be silly for a smallish city such as Albany — and the even smaller Rensselaer.

But the gondola plan is designed to counter the abnormal stupidity of building a train station in Rensselaer in the first place — akin to putting Grand Central in Yonkers. Every weekday, thousands of Albany-bound passengers are left stranded on the wrong side of the river, which gives the gondola system a ready-made market and a boost for its financial viability.

But to listen to the Smallbany peanut gallery, especially online, you might think the plan called for a massive rocket ship that would shoot passengers to the moon before forcing them to parachute onto the roof of The Egg. Consider a few comments from the Facebook wags:

"Easily the dumbest and biggest waste of money you could possibly dream of."

Actually, the Legislature thinks of dumber ways every day.

"We don't need another consulting firm to come up with new ideas."

Yes, because all new ideas are immediately and definitively awful.

"You'll get nice views of the polluted river and maybe if you're lucky some dead bodies might float by."

In other words, everything is already awful so don't bother to do anything. Now there's the spirit of innovative optimism that made America great. Just be glad these naysayers weren't manning their keyboards when visionaries suggested building the Erie Canal.

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"What a stoopid idea! Total waste of money!! The Great Lakes suck."

Such reflexive cynicism is laziness. It's too easy. An open mind and thoughtfulness require a little work.

The point here isn't to offer a full-throated endorsement of the gondola plan. I'm suggesting we be open to this new idea and others.

The big question mark, of course, is the cost and who will pay for it. Clifton Park-based McLaren Engineering and its partners say the first phase of construction would cost $16 million to $20 million and include a station on South Pearl Street. An Empire State Plaza station would cost $10 million more.

But here's the encouraging part: Backers of the gondola project are talking about trying to build the system largely — and perhaps entirely — with private funding. That's essential, because private investors aren't likely to back a potential white elephant.

"It's out of the box, and it's a challenge," Peter Melewski, a McLaren executive, said of the proposal. "Sometimes you have to push the envelope a little bit."

Indeed, you do — especially if you want a dynamic city. A few other thoughts:

1.) Critics are wrongly conflating gondolas with the Uber issue. We need the car-hailing service badly upstate, but one improvement doesn't preclude the other — and Uber doesn't take exhaust-spewing cars off the road.

2.) Gondolas are more efficient than they seem. The system could handle 1,200 riders an hour, with cars potentially arriving every 30 seconds for the four-minute trip over the river.

3.) The timing of the proposal might be perfect, given how President-elect Donald Trump is talking about spending a trillion dollars on infrastructure.

4.) The gondolas could also be, to use a technical phrase, really cool.

What's great about things that are really cool is that they double as tourist attractions. Some people would ride the gondolas because they're trapped at a poorly located train station; others would hop on because the ride is fun and the view is great.

I hope we can all agree Albany needs something — a crowd-pleasing project like the High Line in Manhattan or the wildly successful Walkway Over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie. Such projects spur economic development. Even better, they improve the quality of lives.

So dare to think big. Make Albany great again. And give the gondola plan a fighting chance.