It’s an endless cycle. Every office “park” and housing “development” is an extension of the City of Albany’s infrastructure. This means new roads, sewerlines, waterlines, powerlines, new services such as police, fire, ambulance, administrative. Eventually new schools, libraries and other facilities must be built for the new inhabitants. At the same time, the land speculators and “developers” get massive tax breaks such as the 485B program. So who pays for this? The taxpayers of the City of Albany. Taxes continually rise to subsidize the schemes of land speculators, and the City government gladly and dumbly hands over our tax dollars. In return, the Pine Bush is destroyed. Meanwhile, downtown Albany, especially Arbor Hill and the South End, is deliberately encouraged to deteriorate.

Ever wonder why property taxes keep going up and up? Since the 1960’s, the population of the cities of upstate New York have risen about 4%. But land use has risen 80%! Someone has to pay for this lavish use of land. Guess who.