March 10, 2024
The Community Digest is TIMBER’s newsletter on recent news impacting Troy and surrounding communities. In response to a surprising number of recent inquiries about our psyches, we have added a new section to the rotation called the Captain’s Log. If you enjoy it or have any other feedback, please let us know.
* This newsletter has been updated to remove a note about the status of One Monument Square in New York State’s FY25 budget. The $19m appropriation for 1MS was reappropriated in the governor’s 2024-2025 Capital Projects executive budget (p. 910). The final budget is yet to be seen.
AROUND THE HORN
Troy City Council unanimously co-sponsored and passed a resolution urging state lawmakers to invest $600 million in Clean Water Infrastructure Act funding with $100 million dedicated to lead service line replacement. Similar resolutions passed unanimously in Albany and Poughkeepsie thanks to the leadership of Councilmembers Tom Hoey and Megan Deichler, respectively.
Mayor Mantello announced the appointment of Randal Coburn as the city’s new Commissioner of Planning and Economic Development. Other high-level appointments include:
Dylan Spring — City Comptroller;
Dana Salazar — Corporation Counsel;
Joseph Mazzariello — Commissioner of General Services;
Russ Reeves — Superintendent of Public Utilities;
Seamus Donnelly — Deputy Mayor.
We also recently received the New Position Duties Statement for the Traffic and Signal Systems Superintendent position that was covered in our last newsletter. Despite job duties that include management, supervision, and crafting budgets, the administration has stated that the position will not be in UPSEU’s bargaining unit for supervisors. This is not an appointment per se, but, well.
St. Peter’s Health Partners held a public forum to discuss the proposed closure of the Burdett Birth Center, Rensselaer County’s only maternity ward. The room was packed beyond capacity with universal opposition from the community. A full recording of the information session is available online. The forum took place on the same day that SPHP filed a petition to limit the Attorney General’s investigation into the nonprofit’s activities.
A representative from TIMBER will serve as one of the panelists at The Justice Center of Rensselaer County’s Robert J. Doherty Memorial Lecture featuring Judith Enck and Dr. David Carpenter. The event will take place at UAlbany’s School of Public Health on Sunday, April 14 from 1-3pm. Tickets can be reserved online.
On March 27, Capital Streets will be celebrating its one-year anniversary at Lark Hall in Albany starting at 6pm. Tickets can be purchased online by making a suggested donation.
STATE OF THE CITY & LEGISLATIVE ADDRESS
On February 23, Mayor Mantello gave her first State of the City Address, a full recording of which is available online. Topics of note included:
The imminent rollout of a Residential Occupancy Permit (ROP) program. ROP programs ensure that buildings and units are safe to inhabit. Nearby municipalities with ROP programs include Albany, Cohoes, and Watervliet;
A reiteration of Mayor Mantello’s commitment to replace all lead service lines in Troy in four years. Troy will need to replace lead pipes roughly 10 times faster than it did last year over the next four years to hit that target. While the goal is ambitious, it is not unprecedented, and it is certainly achievable with bonding, which was a major subject of discussion at the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s recent symposium on lead pipe replacement;
A series of investments into parks and recreation, including the development of a new Knickerbocker complex and a 20-year master plan for Prospect Park;
Officially pulling the plug on One Monument Square;*
A plan to build and own a new City Hall.
—
On March 7, Council President Sue Steele responded with her first Legislative Address, a full recording of which is available online. Items of note during the address included:
The establishment of a Housing Task Force charged with the development of a Strategic Housing Action Plan;
The implementation of a municipal social media policy;
The creation of a city dashboard for tracking compliance with Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests;
A request for monthly public updates on the city’s finances;
A reiterated commitment to replace all of Troy’s lead service lines at no direct cost to residents.
The fountain of Prospect Park in Troy, New York. 1946.
CAPTAIN’S LOG
Many people think that civic engagement is the activity through which to express our values, but I worry that this framing restricts progress to forming “better” opinions or sharing them more often, which seems unproductive and unsustainable. It also seems to make people very anxious when they have to spend their weekends and evenings sprinting between pop quizzes about their own goodness. I have found it very clarifying and much more pleasant to instead think of civic engagement as the skill that we use to improve our community.
This has helped me look at civic issues as challenges that can be broken down and solved with time and practice rather than “big” problems caused by “bad” people. It has made failure less scary, created new win conditions, and helped me seek out silver linings. Regardless of whether a campaign is successful, I am always a better advocate for having tried something, and that has made me more patient with myself and more forgiving of others. This framing also means I can focus (focus!) on the sometimes-niche challenges that I can play a meaningful role in solving, because improving my community is very different from receiving praise.
I am often criticized for working with people who others consider to be “bad.” I am unapologetic about this because I believe that I can improve my community and influence my neighbors, and I would not have the time or relationships to make that possible if I spent all of my energy whittling my universe down to whoever is “good” right now. Everyone makes mistakes if they spend enough time doing anything, some folks get nailed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and people are constantly being changed by their conversations and experiences. Venturing out of the fortress means that people disappoint me now and then, but it has more often led to pleasant surprises, and I have also found that the advocacy strategies optimized to avoid disappointment are corrosive, ineffective, and antisocial. I also straightforwardly do not want to live in a world destined to spiral inward because that would be sad and demoralizing, so I choose not to do that.
Public participation is flagging in Troy, and many people will tell you that this is “very bad.” I think that there are more productive, hopeful, and interesting ways to approach this challenge. Consider, for instance, that your effort today has never been more disproportionately impactful or more likely to inspire courage in someone resting on the sidelines: a ballot measure has never been easier to pull off, and an electoral candidate has never needed fewer votes to win. If you do not know where to begin, I strongly encourage you to pick a real but very small issue that you believe is solvable with the time and resources that you have right now and focus on solving just that, only asking for help when you are truly stuck. I am confident that your first win will convince you that you can tackle something bigger, and then you just do that again and again until you can’t.
— Greg
If there are stories, events, job openings, or meetings that you’d like to see included in future Community Digests, please reach out to greg@timbercorp.org. If you enjoyed this digest but didn’t receive it directly, you can sign up for future newsletters below. If you enjoy the digest, please share it with your friends. We encourage supporters of TIMBER’s work who have not donated recently to please consider doing so today.
