Albany Greens say Gov Hochul's Albany Investment Plans Leave out the 99%
2/3/25 - The Albany County Green Party welcomed Governor Hochul’s proposal in her State of the State and Executive Budget to spend state funds to revitalize the city of Albany. Party members said that the money should be spent on building a sustainable Albany for its working class residents, and that the best way to do that would be through a local, eco-socialist Green New Deal that dealt with issues of historic racial redlining, environmental racism, and decades of economic decline under the city’s misleadership.
Albany County Green Party
www.facebook.com/AlbanyGreenParty
For Immediate Release
February 3, 2025
Contact
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Green Party leaders said Albany’s issues were typical of post-industrial towns in contemporary capitalism, and that building a city for the 99% would not be done through lining the pockets of sports stadium developers or an increased police presence, but addressing systemic inequalities.
“Albany has a poverty rate of 23%, and child poverty is over 30%, according to a recent report by State Comptroller DiNapoli. The city’s problems stem from this, and generational poverty that was created through redlining of African-American communities in Arbor Hill and the South End. The $400 million proposed by Governor Hochul should target those areas and aim to empower the communities. An eco-socialist Green New Deal, would use living-wage public works jobs staffed by people in those communities to build permanent social housing across the city, provide universal free-childcare, healthcare, develop worker co-ops, renewable energy, municipal low-cost grocery stores, and reliable mass transit,” said Peter LaVenia, co-chair of the Green Party of New York.
“Poverty and crime downtown and beyond are not perceptions but realities. To me, innovative city development needs to be based around people’s needs. Investment should be dealing with poverty and the effects of redlining and deindustrialization. For people to live and visit downtown we need better mass transit to connect the region together. Then other developments will follow without state help,” said Dan Plaat, Albany County Green Party Chair.
The Green Party said investment in the State Museum was welcome but concerned as “seeking a new operating model” might mean subverting the educational purpose towards a more theme-park like experience. Rebuilding the State Museum alone would not reverse a lack of vitality as nearly half of Albany’s land is non-taxable as it is occupied by state or non-profit buildings; The party said that the state should pay the city of Albany a consistently fair rate for its use of city land, and that money should be directed to working class people that had borne the brunt of Albany’s decline. Also, the increased police presence proposed by Gov. Hochul, an authoritarian capitalist solution, would not address poverty and its resulting civil disorder. Case studies show a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is cheaper and more effective than jailing or institutionalizing the homeless
“Albany should be an example for a city that rebuilds based on eco-socialist principles, addressing inequalities of class, gender, environment, and race in an equitable fashion that empowers workers and communities. While it is important that the Governor has recognized that Albany needs assistance from the state, there are many cities and areas across the state that could use the same kind of help. We believe that local communities should be involved in a discussion as to how best to build a sustainable Albany, and that the model we develop here could be used across New York to address similar problems caused by capitalist inequalities, the climate crisis, and ongoing oppressions. We look forward to the Governor’s proposals, but will offer our own in the coming weeks and months,” said Albany County Green Party Secretary Victoria Whittaker.
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CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15494242
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