Hello, Collar City! This is Issue 3, dated Sept. 28, 2018.

MAYOR: Well, congratulations to Albany. They did a good job. I understand that the selection was very competitive.

I'm really proud of the application we put in. We brought together business, residents—it was a real group effort. It wasn't something that was generated by a grant writer in city hall, sitting in a dark room. [It] really brought together the community [and] I think brought out the best ideas.



[Just] because we didn't get state funding doesn't mean we don't move ahead. We're going to continue to work with the residents, the businesses and try to bring this plan to life. So, we're going to carry on and—



TROY LETTER: It's still a roadmap, the document itself is still useful in some way?



MAYOR: Absolutely still a roadmap. I think it was a great application. I don't know if you read it or not, but I was very pleased with the work they put into it, so we'll pursue it.



TL: Did you get any feedback from either the...REDC board or from [Empire State Development] staff or anything?



MAYOR: Not yet. I mean, it's early. We'll have an opportunity to sit with them some point in the future, but not as of this time.

I also asked downtown city councilmember Anasha Cummings for his take, and he pointed out that many of the projects on the above list still have consolidated funding applications pending with the state, so they might still receive some form of state subsidy.

Reusing Refuse

A reuse center is an opportunity for public-private partnership. The City does not have the financial resources to launch its own at this time but the need for such an enterprise is apparent. The development of a reuse center, coupled with incentive based pricing changes discussed later in this Section, will provide residents a low cost or no cost option for disposal of large usable items. In the event a reuse center can be encouraged or developed it should be given the highest priority by the City to provide a financial, environmental and public benefit. The research and development of a reuse center should be analyzed and prepared for the City in conjunction with the Solid Waste Advisory Board to be presented at the first bi-annual update in 2020. In addition, partnering with established restore centers [sic] that take donated goods should be encouraged by the City in order to immediately reduce our waste stream. This could be accomplished through a public-private partnership at the Alamo site.

I recalled this recommendation as I read over Habitat for Humanity Capital District's current strategic plan, prepping for an interview with its executive director, Christine Schudde, and stumbled upon this recommendation: "Identify additional ReStore location or larger flagship store location." The HFH affiliate's current ReStore is located on Fuller Road in Albany.



You can probably see where I'm going with this—and I raised the idea with Schudde when we spoke earlier this week. She said that although the affiliate just re-upped its lease at the current Albany store, the possibility of an additional store is "still definitely on the table."



She was not sure of the timeline and whether the new store might have a narrower focus—like, just furniture, or just building materials—but "I think the only place we've been considering would be someplace in Troy," or at least in Rensselaer County, she said. (The affiliate's service area includes Albany, Rensselaer, and southern Saratoga counties.)



"I can tell you it's not going to happen this year," she laughed. "But it's definitely something we've considered."



Court Diary

Troy City Court, Criminal Part, 9/27. Rensselaer City Court Judge Carmelo Laquidara, for some reason, was filling in for Judge Chris Maier (who, incidentally, once narrowly defeated Laquidara in a primary for a county judgeship).



This was an interesting case: A man was brought into court, in handcuffs, to be arraigned on two misdemeanors—criminal obstruction of breathing and endangering the welfare of a child. It's alleged that, at a house near the Poestenkill, he grabbed a woman around the throat in the presence of his 1.5-year-old son.



He pleaded not guilty. He had no criminal history. He was from Georgia, he said, and had been in Troy for only about a month. He had "no one up here," he said at one point.



Regarding bail, state law says that judges "must consider the kind and degree of control or restriction that is necessary to secure [a defendant's] court attendance when required," weighing an array of factors, including criminal history, family ties, employment, the severity of the sentence that might be imposed upon conviction, and "character, reputation, habits and mental condition."



Judge Laquidara, who imposed a temporary order of protection that barred the defendant from contacting the woman and child, seemed to struggle with what to do about the defendant's pretrial release. The assistant district attorney recommended probation supervision. The public defender suggested his new client be released without any conditions.



On one hand, the charges were not felonies, which carry stiffer penalties. On the other hand, the defendant was new to the area, and this seemed to make the judge worry that he might be inclined to skip town. "If you're less likely to come back to court, then I should set bail on you," the judge said.



The public defender at one point offered to refer the defendant to a local homeless shelter.



"I really think it's in your best interest to stay local," Judge Laquidara told the defendant. But, he added, "the choice is yours." He set the next hearing in the case for less than a week later—and released the defendant on his own recognizance (i.e. without any conditions).

Odds and Ends

Shop Grinder

Floor Mounted Grinder

4 sets of uniform lockers

Transmission Flusher

2 Leaf Boxes

1 Plastic and 1 Aluminum bulk container

1 Dump Truck mounted salter

3 Truck mounted tool boxes

Sewer machine buckets

2 Truck bed slide outs

1 Truck Caps

Something About The Future

Microtransit is the combination of technology and service delivery that offers flexible routing and scheduling of trips enabling real-time matching of demand and supply, which extends the accessibility of the transit service. Potential stops are often pre-defined to allow for better route optimization. Use cases for microtransit include providing access to under/unserved areas, replacing routes, replacing segments, or providing supplemental service during off-peak times. Essentially, riders use a mobile app to request a ride, and a CDTA-operated shared-use vehicle is dispatched and arrives curbside to take them to their destination. Think of it as a hybrid between fixed route and Uber/Lyft style service.

. "I'm pretty stoked about the good news!" Gardell said in an email on Friday. (You can look over the kitchen docs here , deli docs here .). I wrote about this previously . The council will still need to vote on this again, at a regular meeting.by the city council and sold by Collar City Auctions . Neither the borrower nor lender returned a request for comment.. From the DRI proposal:I emailed Elizabeth Reiss, the arts center's CEO, asking about the developer for the project and whether it was moving forward no matter what or was contingent on securing certain grants. She replied, "we are preparing a communication and will get back to you shortly," but then clarified in a follow-up email this meant "probably in the next two-three weeks."On Thursday, the CDTA board approved a two-year contract with TransLoc for a "microtransit pilot" program, one of many the Ford-owned firm is overseeing across the country. (I watched the vote via livestream.)Here's how CDTA vice president of planning and infrastructure Christopher Desany described the service in a recent memo of support for the contract:

The total value of the agreement is purportedly $185,000; CDTA will pay $25,000 and the vendor will cover the rest. Per Desany's memo, "TransLoc services would include service development (data analysis), simulation, marking consulting, software system setup and testing, training, a pilot analysis and final report."

TL2 Postscript

The college goes to bid for its solid waste disposal contract and recently moved from Waste Management to County Waste. As a result, the college's waste will be part of the 18,000 tons reported by County Waste.



In addition, the college's office of Environmental Health and Safety is now in the process of analyzing solid waste usage by the college going back five years with the hopes of seeing any trends in the data and potentially setting benchmarks and goals for use reduction.



The college already tracks campus-wide water and waste water usage, electric usage, natural gas usage and greenhouse gas emissions in the hopes of setting goals for reduction and implementing interventions. The same is planned for solid waste and recycling.

Links

Events, Future

Desany characterizes the pilot as "a low cost, low risk opportunity" to explore microtransit's possible benefits, noting that it does not obligate CDTA to make any "permanent commitment."This past June, Streetsblog recounted several underwhelming microtransit experiments in other cities. "Micro transit may have a place in city transportation systems," the site acknowledged, "but experience so far suggests that it's a very small niche, like an app-enabled version of dial-a-ride service."It's unclear what route/area(s) CDTA and the vendor might pick for the pilot—the first phase of the contract involves determining that, CEO Carm Basile said at the meeting—so, accordingly, the extent to which this might affect Troy residents is also unclear.CDTA's most recent route performance report is attached to this committee agenda , if you'd like to take a look at all the routes' rides-per-hour rates and guess which ones might be eyed for experimentation.. "It's spacious," this reader wrote, "and the new owner is looking for a tenant."Ronnye Shamam, owner of Shamron Mills (and a Sage alum and trustee ), bought the building earlier this year. The small business (three employees) currently occupies part of the building's middle floor and uses the basement for storage. The Arc's RensCo chapter , which had owned the building and is now a tenant until the end of this year, uses the top floor and part of the middle."First of all, the gym business is a real tough business," Shamam told me over the phone on Thursday. But she's open to the idea. The building is located in First Columbia Land, perhaps not quite as downtown as some people might like—crossing Federal St. on foot is kind of a drag—but it is nonetheless walkable from 1MSQ. Per the TU , it will become 77 one- and two-bedroom apartments, 700-800 square feet each, priced at $850-1,000/month. And 15,000 square feet of street-level commercial/retail space. I spoke briefly with Jeff Buell, now a principal at Redburn, and mentioned—what else?—the gym dream. Redburn currently has plans for an open-to-the-public gym at the old Steuben Club building in Albany, which it is converting into 59 residential units Buell called over Tom Rossi, another principal, and pitched him, on the spot, on the idea of a gym at 701 River. "Who's gonna run it?" Rossi replied., 365 to 57, per the library's website. Incumbent trustee Evelyn Katz Greenstein and newbie Cheryl Kennedy were elected to the two open board spots.regarding the school's waste:, currently occupied by Gendron's: "We are investigating our long term options for the site. Probably using for construction or RPS [Redburn Property Services, the developer's property management, maintenance, and construction arm] short term." Troy demolishes building next to famed South End Tavern (TU, 9/24) Alamo rebirth part of Troy long-term waste plan (TU, 9/25) Land next to Wolff's Biergarten in Troy will become 52 apartments [$] (ABR, 9/25). This project is not really news to anyone who has been paying attention, but there's one bit I want to highlight. As the story notes, back in August, at an IDA meeting, an attorney representing the developer estimated that 15-20 percent of the units will be rented to students. But in an interview for this story, another member of the project team said that "the tenant mix won't be known until the apartments are built in about a year." Ground broken on $16 million Troy project (TU, 9/27) Jennica Huff's mission: Provide quality, affordable homes [$] (ABR, 9/27). This is an interview with a senior project manager with The Community Builders, which built Tapestry on the Hudson and is now pursuing a big project near the Poestenkill Video game developer expanding in Troy (TU, 9/28). River Street Pub has bands , The Photography Center of the Capital District is taking photographs of you and your pet, and SMCo. has faux fast food (and, the next night, folk music ).is tomorrow afternoon at Freedom Square.. In particular, I would like to draw your attention to the following sentence, a description of In the Mood for Frankie , scheduled for both 10/12 and 10/13: "Choreographer Trajal Harrell's dance trio will be performed in EMPAC's lobby on a runway-style stage connected by a stream of swimming goldfish.". Speaking of which, a correction: In TL2, I incorrectly said there were six tents around a main stage of sorts, rather than five (the actual number). Sorry about that.That's it! We've reached the end. Send tips, suggestions, etc. to luke.s.nathan@gmail.com.