The Landmark Spectrum 8 Theatre is seen on Thursday on Delaware Avenue in Albany. The theater and several other Albany institutions are closing.
ALBANY — I ran into an old friend on Sunday, a person who moved somewhat recently from Albany to Schenectady. She told me she was relieved that she’d left.
Albany, she added, feels like it’s falling apart.
I know what she meant. In recent months, the hits keep coming.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Most noteworthy, of course, is the looming shutdown of The College of Saint Rose, a body blow that will leave a hole in Pine Hills and cost roughly 650 jobs. It will take years for the neighborhood in the very heart of the city to recover, if it ever does.
Near the campus and next to an abandoned drugstore, the Madison Theater announced last week that it will close by the end of the month. That news followed word that the Spectrum, the beloved movie theater next to an abandoned Taco Bell on Delaware Avenue, will also shutter, at least for now.
The much-celebrated South End Grocery appears to be kaput. The owner of the Central Warehouse just gave up on a planned $100 million renovation and said the building will need to come down. (Some will put that one in the good-news category.) Stewart’s Shops recently closed a store on Central Avenue, citing crime as the reason.
A short distance to the east on Central, the ShopRite grocery chain closed its Albany store as it pulled out of the region. And while Price Chopper will relocate a nearby location into the store, the city will nevertheless be down a supermarket and hundreds of jobs.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
As if all that weren’t enough over just several months, another spate of violent crime has arrived, with the recent killing of Ashad Cooper already the fourth homicide this year. The number suggests the city, which experienced a record 20 homicides last year, remains unable to stem violence that arrived with the pandemic and never departed, doing incalculable damage to the city’s soul.
All and all, it’s a grim picture. O Albany, you improbable city of political wizards, splendid nobodies and underrated scoundrels. Will you be OK?
An optimist, if I could find one, might note that cities are always evolving and that a defeatist columnist could cherry-pick a handful of gloomy stories at any point in Albany’s long and rich history. Businesses and industries churn. Cities go on. They reinvent themselves.
“Contrary to the fear-mongering and hand-wringing underway by some locally, there are a lot of positive things happening that are very rarely given the media attention they warrant,” said David Galin, spokesman for Mayor Kathy Sheehan, in an email citing improvements that include the Albany West Community Center, the rebuilt Lincoln Park Pool and growth at the city’s NanoTech complex.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
OK, sure. And when we have the benefit of hindsight, maybe the picture won’t seem so glum.
Already, negotiations are underway for new operators at the Madison, and the same is true at the Spectrum. Perhaps The College of Saint Rose campus will be transformed in the coming years into a center of jobs and innovation, driving Albany into a brighter future. Maybe something fabulous happens at the Kenwood campus, despite that devastating fire.
Out of darkness, cometh light. Or something like that. Right?
Let’s hope so.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
But this moment does feel especially precarious, as if Albany is at a crossroads. Is there a vision, from either the mayor or the candidates hoping to replace her, to push the city forward? To redevelop Saint Rose? Is anybody selling the city, letting the world know what it could offer?
The city appears rudderless, as if the wait is already on for Sheehan’s tenure to end. But lest anyone forget, the mayor still has more than 22 months to go. If Albany drifts for that long, it risks hitting a shoal. It needs urgency. Direction. Passion.
But when times seem bad, they tell us to look for the good. Look for the helpers. Tammy Capozzelli is a helper.
For slightly more than a year, Tammy and her son, Bryan Capozzelli, have been operating Capo’s Breakfast Spot on an otherwise bleak block of Central Avenue, not far from the city’s controversial methadone clinic. On gloomy winter mornings, the light from Capo’s shines like a beacon.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Tammy’s customers have taken to calling her Mom Capo, which makes perfect sense. She looks out for them, talks to them and even scolds them almost like a mother would. She came to Central Avenue intentionally, despite its struggles. She’s sticking with the block, despite its headaches.
“I raised my kids in this neighborhood,” she said, “and I came here because I wanted to give back to this neighborhood.”
Mom Capo is doing just that. She’s showing that there are still good things happening in Albany. That there’s strength and resilience in its people. Out of darkness, cometh light.
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Nikkei Editorial
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
visit website
