Storefronts line Albany's Central Avenue in 1971.
Central Avenue in Albany, between Robin and Quail Streets, is seen in 1980.
Albany's Central Avenue, as it looked in 1987.
ALBANY — On a Saturday later this month, crowds will come to several blocks of Central Avenue for one of this city’s great annual traditions: The St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Unfortunately, the Central Avenue parade-goers will see is not the Central Avenue of decades ago, or even five years ago. The section of the road between Quail and Lark streets has lost much of the vitality that made Central remarkable and, to my mind, special.
There are interwoven reasons for that. The COVID-19 pandemic proved disastrous for many of the mom-and-pop businesses, restaurants especially, that traditionally line the avenue — and weren’t exactly cash cows during the best of times. Activity blamed on a controversial methadone clinic has also hurt businesses, while the city’s spike in violent crime has brought shootings and a heightened wariness to Central and its nearby blocks.
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Whatever the reasons, the change is obvious. On a walk Friday morning, I counted at least 40 vacant storefronts on Central between Quail and Lark streets, a five-block stretch. That’s a conservative estimate, to be sure, that doesn’t include many storefronts where it was difficult to tell if a business was still operating, the storefronts with fading “coming soon” signs in their window, or the vacant spaces on side streets just off Central.
But my count does include buildings once occupied by shuttered mainstays such as the CVS drugstore and TrustCo Bank, other businesses that offered vital services to surrounding neighborhoods, and once-iconic spots like Blue Note Record Shop and Pauly’s Hotel, a music venue considered Albany’s oldest bar until it closed in December.
The intersection where the vacant Pauly’s sits, Quail and Central, is where the St. Patrick’s festivities typically begin. This year, though, the parade on March 16 will instead start half a mile to the east, at Lexington Avenue, before making its way downtown via Central and Washington avenues.
The change means the parade will no longer pass some of Central’s grimmest stretches, including the many vacant storefronts around the Camino Nuevo methadone clinic, which may relocate soon. Nor will it pass the former St. Patrick’s Catholic Church — now Shrine Church of Our Lady of the Americas — historically a spiritual home of the city’s Irish community.
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According to a spokesperson, the police department requested the shortened parade route because of noticeably thinner crowds along Central. Parade Chairman Peter McCoy told me he accepted the change hoping it consolidates spectators and brightens the celebratory atmosphere.
In any event, here’s another measure of Central Avenue’s decline: Five years ago, there were roughly 80 restaurants in the area represented by the Central Avenue Business Improvement District; today, there are 40.
That’s according to Anthony Capece, the BID’s longtime director, who noted that many of those small, family-run restaurants simply couldn’t adapt to the circumstances they faced during the pandemic.
“We have a lot of vacancies right now, and we know that,” Capece told me. “But that will change.”
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Capece can base his optimism on Central Avenue’s historic resilience. It has long been, and is, a working person’s shopping district, a gritty but lively strip that rejects the chain-store conformity of other shopping areas, with a United Nations of humanity parading its sidewalks.
Check out just the block between Quail and Lake, home to the Masjid As Salam mosque, several Halal groceries and separate restaurants offering Vietnamese, Mexican, Jamaican and Dominican dining. If none of that floats your boat, there is a McDonald’s on the next block. Yawn.
Is Central Avenue pretty? Well, William Kennedy once described it as “scraggly, raffish, unloved, unsung, but staying busy even so, trying to tidy up and get it together.” The description still fits 40 years later.
But here’s another reason for Capece’s optimism. The city is planning a “complete streets” remake of Central aiming to slow traffic and improve the pedestrian experience. Work is slated for 2025, and, according to McCoy, the parade is expected to shift over to Washington Avenue that year. (A spokesman for Mayor Kathy Sheehan did not respond to a request for information.)
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While plans are only in the discussion stages, Capece said, he wants the work to make Central a true destination. That sounds good, and I also hope Central finally gets the respect it deserves, that the roadway of crumbling sidewalks and faded crosswalks is treated like a true boulevard, a promenade, a point of pride, a gateway.
Former Times Union columnist Paul Bray wrote that the character of Central declined with the removal of angled parking circa 1980. The alleged improvement sped the flow of traffic, Bray said, but changed Central from “a people’s place” into a veritable highway — and a deadly one, considering the road’s staggering record of pedestrian tragedies.
I'd like to see angled parking return to Central Avenue as part of the 2025 remake. Its sidewalks should be widened and made to be, dare to dream, pleasant places for a stroll, not unlike Broadway in Saratoga Springs. Why can’t less affluent districts also be enjoyable public spaces?
What I’m saying is that Central Avenue should be appreciated, even celebrated. It should be great or, at least, much better.
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