I would like to thank the Neighborhood Resource Center
and the Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations for
putting together the Neighborhoods Work conference held
on Nov. 18. It was an event that may have far-reaching
effects on the direction the city of Albany goes in the
future.
The conference brought together numerous neighborhood
associations, university faculty members, city and state
governmental officials and employees, and concerned
citizens. These different groups agreed that we must all
work together for the common goal of making Albany a
more livable city.
The conference's workshops focused, not only on how
to correct the problems in Albany, but on building on
the positives of Albany and urban living. Too often, the
negative aspects of Albany get the play in news reports,
while Albany's many positive attributes are overlooked.
The city's many attractive features include its
parks, history and heritage, strong neighborhoods,
universities and colleges, access to mass
transportation, theater and the arts, the waterfront,
etc. As was brought out by the speakers at the
conference, we need to accentuate our city's good
qualities, while working together to correct its
deficiencies.
One very big resource that Albany has access to in
order to accomplish this goal is the collective brain
power of the universities and colleges within the city
and in the surrounding communities. We can not put a
pricetag on this resource, but we sure must tap into it
if Albany is going to be the best city it can be.
At the end of the conference, the excitement level of
the attendees was higher than at the beginning. There
was a positive feeling that with all the different
groups -- public, private, volunteer, academic --
working together in a cooperative manner, Albany could
become a capital city.
The energy generated by Neighborhoods Work must not
be allowed to ebb, but must be allowed to flow if the
goal of a more livable Albany is to be met. While the
iron is still hot, it is already time to move from the
idea stage of how to make Albany a better place, to the
action stage of making Albany that better place in which
to live.
DOMINICK CALSOLARO
Albany
The writer is president of the Second Avenue
Neighborhood Association.
