Interstate 787 as it passes through downtown Albany.

Downtown Albany is not what it should or could be. On that, almost everyone agrees.

Downtown is marked by too many vacant storefronts and underutilized office towers. Retailers are scarce, and sidewalks are rarely crowded. While parkland along the shore of the nearby Hudson is lovely, the riverfront is also underutilized because Interstate 787 blocks easy access to the water.

All that is the bad news, but there’s hope on the horizon. The outline of a drastically better downtown is taking shape.

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Let’s start at the Livingston Avenue Bridge, the Civil War-era rail span connecting Albany and Rensselaer. Last week, the Times Union’s Steve Hughes reported that a planned replacement bridge received $215 million in federal funding, covering about a third of the project’s........

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