CITY HALL FOR SALE

We've always known City Hall was for sale, now it looks like a metaphor may become a reality.

Info, here, here, and here.

We reserve our opinion until more is known. Many of the articles refer to this as a "land swap." We don't know exactly what that means. There are also too many contingencies right now. More details are needed. For instance:

1) Will any evidence be destroyed when City Hall is razed?
2) Will Mirch have County workers walk to the new City Hall or will he still drive them?

Conroy calls the announcement an election year stunt. It could be. But, an election year stunt may still work and be a net positive. On the other hand, it wasn't too long ago that they were talking about a hotel.

If it works , however, the real positive will be that the private sector owns river front property, not the public sector (can we say jail?). The impact of a few new retail stores and a few new downtown residents however will be nil. Retail stores came and go. A few new residents living in apartments or condominiums will be a drop in the bucket compared to the families fleeing the city for the 'burbs.

NORTH GREENBUSH

The Democratic Caucus is over and the results....well, congratulations must go to Jack Casey and the GOP. Well done. It's well-played moves like this that make us enjoy Rensselaer County politics.

The Democrats have managed to turn their overwhelming '05 victory straight over to the Republicans.

While we're sure that many of the rank and file Reformed Democrats are sincere people, and sincere Democrats, we wonder if they heard the Conservatives and Republicans waiting outside the Caucus cheer and clap when the results were tallied.

We hope, however, that the stories from North Greenbush keep coming.

Congrats to the winners Wednesday night. If you lost, don't feel too bad. We have a feeling that a year from now you might be enjoying life a bit more than the winners.