Moving 600 state jobs out of Troy is a bad blow to that hard-pressed city. The jobs, in private office space north of downtown, have helped stir restaurants to life in that area along with hope for other development. Their departure is terrible news both for downtown -- where the TU story says the office vacancy rate will likely rise to over 20 percent -- and the crime-ridden north-central district.
Most of the jobs are going to Albany's Corning Tower, which is apparently 25 percent empty. It is obviously bad economics to leave prime state real estate substantially vacant, but that doesn't make this move good policy. It would be a lot easier to attract private-sector tenants to the Corning Tower in Empire State Plaza than it's going to be to bring them to Troy.
Albany has also seen recent departures of state jobs from private office space downtown heading to the Harriman campus, along with other government-subsidized job losses. The Cuomo administration is failing upstate urban policy.
The Troy job losses obviously would not have happened when Joe Bruno represented the city and was Senate Republican leader, even though Bruno's hand-picked successor, Sen. Roy McDonald, still represents Troy and their party still controls the Senate. When McDonald became the first Republican to swtich his position this year and help pass gay marriage in the Senate, at Gov. Andrew Cuomo's behest, there were rumblings from critics that he'd sold his vote. I never believed that, and this news provides evidence that he did not gain anything from the administration to benefit the citizens of Troy. Nor is the alliance between the state Republican Party and the Democratic governor to abolish the millionaire's tax paying off for Troy, where millionaires are not thick on the ground.
Whether or not one likes this the simple fact is that the workers were put in Troy as a political favor and NOT because they needed to put workers there and the state.
By responding to the typical GOP goal of reducing waste in government with a plan to use STATE OWNED FACILITIES instead of artificially placing state staff in rental properties throughout the area (waste) we only have seen what hypocrites conservatives are as the only strong public outcry has been from the GOP candidate for Troy mayor and little to no crying by the "big government" Dems.
Hmm...guess government waste is OK by the GOP when it is done by their party (Bruno/Pataki)?
Also, where are the people who would rent space in the Corning Tower...PARK?
The parking situation is such that only the state could force their workers into dealing with it - no private company in their right mind would rent in ESP knowing how bad and expensive it is to park there.
One final thing...the whole premise of the above post is DOA.
How many people do you think would rent an apartment from someone else when they already own a perfectly good house?
Posted by: Dan Palmer, Troy | November 20, 2011 at 11:46 AM
No offense, but if there's a facebook like button, it'll be much easier for me to share.
Posted by: Elliptical reviews | November 30, 2011 at 02:07 AM