RESPONSE TO

• We commend the City’s prioritization of traffic calming in the ongoing redesigns of Central Ave and Frisbie Ave, and the implementation of the Washington Park Complete Streets Study (2021). 

  • Central Ave needs to include significant pedestrian infrastructure enhancements to make it easier to cross the road on foot or bike, including bump-outs, curb extensions, additional street trees, and other improvements along these lines.

  • Frisbie Ave should include a multi-use path (see our 2024 memo on Frisbie)

  • Washington Park improvements should follow the recommendations in the 2021 study. 

    • If funding is short to implement all suggested changes, the City should use quick-build style changes to implement the lowest priority components. 

• Street repaving and sidewalk repair construction: 

  • Street repaving projects should always include updated restriping that includes basic traffic calming and active transportation measures.

    • The 2013 Complete Streets Ordinance requires all regular maintenance projects to include complete street design changes. 

      • Failing to include updated restriping and traffic calming during regular street maintenance neglects these statutory requirements. 

      • It also means that the City won’t have another opportunity to make changes to that street for many additional years. 

    • Updated striping should be based on recommendations in the City’s Complete Streets Policy & Design Manual (2015) and its Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan (2021). 

    • Including restriping in all repaving projects is now more feasible since Engineering is in charge of street repaving (a change made in last year’s budget that we applaud). 

• Transparency on where the money is going

  • Budgets for street and sidewalk repair remain vague: as in past years, there is not a breakdown of that funding ($30 million in this year’s budget) into separate budget areas (repaving, sidewalks, car/pedestrian traffic signals, speed humps, bike lanes, etc.). 

    • Until this number is broken down, it seems we’re flying blind, unable to see how much of Albany’s street and sidewalk repair budget is being spent on infrastructure that supports cycling and walking — and where it should be increased. 

  • Regular public reporting on street work, both on upcoming work and past work, can be a way to increase transparency within the sometimes difficult confines of street work on Albany’s very historic streets, where most streets are unique and require different treatments and costs. 

• Transparency on which streets are being repaved

  • The City needs to adopt a 2-3 year time horizon on paving projects, with public announcements about streets upcoming. This is already recommended in the City of Albany Complete Street Design Guidelines but has never been done. 

• Continued Consolidation of Street Redesign and Repair

  • Despite the shift of street repair from DGS to Engineering, street resurfacing is still in DGS, and there is a sidewalk line item in DGS. The Common Council and new mayoral administration should work together to consolidate these functions and avoid duplication or confusion, and ensure that Engineering, DGS, and the Water Department can work together seamlessly to coordinate lead service line replacement with repaving, resurfacing, restriping, and sidewalk repair. 

• Ensure Traffic Calming Continues in Light of Federal Funding Cuts

  • We applaud the inclusion of $6 million to fully fund the recommendations in the Washington Park Complete Streets study.

  • The Common Council should adopt a formal quick-build policy and program to streamline implementation of street improvements. 

    • (Burlington, VT has an example policy that may serve as a case study.) 

    • To implement quick build solutions, the city can lean on partners to lower costs. These include Albany County Department of Health street lending library and the quick build materials held by the regional holders of the Creating Healthy Schools and Communities (CHSC) NYSDOH grant (currently held by Capital Roots and St. Peter’s Hospital). 

• Traffic Signals: 

  • We commend the city’s continued updating of traffic signals to modern, ADA-compliant signals. 

  • We urge the programming of pedestrian signals to recall (which means a walk light appears every cycle, whether or not a pedestrian presses a button) on streets with high pedestrian traffic, including near schools, senior centers, libraries, parks, BIDs, playgrounds, grocery stores, and community centers. 

  • We urge the Common Council to pass the Traffic Signal Control Policy ordinance (draft ordinance here, draft legislative support memo here) once it is introduced. This will enable more transparency for the public and the Engineering Department, which can minimize confusion for pedestrians.  

  • New mid-block crosswalks should have lights accompanying them. These costs should be included in the regular budget for the department. 

• School Speed Zone Cameras 

  • We are very supportive of this initiative and commend the Mayor, City staff, the School District, and the Common Council for this visionary change that is helping to make streets safer for our children. 

  • If the real goal of this program is to keep children safe, the City should commit revenues from this program to traffic calming measures around schools (at least some dedicated portion of the anticipated $4 million budgeted for 2026).

    • Traffic calming around schools can be accomplished through quick-build solutions. 

    • This can include speed humps, curb bumpouts, asphalt art, and other semi-permanent installations that slow cars near schools in order to keep our children safe. 

    • It can also include short-term street closures. For example, see NYCDOT’s Open Streets for schools program (more information here), where certain streets around schools are closed to through traffic at pick-up and drop off times. 

  • We are happy to see the City’s inclusion of upgrades to driver feedback speed signs in school zones. Some of these have been broken for years (such as the sign at Albany International Academy at 50 Lark Street) and their repair is an important component in keeping our children safe at schools that lack the school zone speed cameras. 

  • We encourage the Council and new administration to look into general issues with contracting oversight, negotiations, and performance standards, per issues highlighted in recent research by Albany Data Stories. 

• Lincoln Park Connector to Empire State Plaza: We commend the city for including a line item for this, and encourage the City to continue working with NYSOGS to fund and implement this connection.

• Staffing 

  • It is imperative that the new administration prioritize filling open roles in the Engineering Department. 

  • We recommend considering raising salaries in this department to be able to hire and retain skilled engineers (many current salaries are not competitive with other civil engineering positions). 

  • There is still not a position focusing on bike/ped/active transportation design in this department. We encourage adding a role, or a line item for training to existing staff, to support these efforts.

Caring for Street Trees

• We applaud DGS for their continuation of the 3-year street tree pruning project and encourage the new mayoral administration to continue this preventative care of our street trees. A robust tree canopy is an important part of making sidewalks comfortable and pleasant to walk on in all seasons, and healthy street trees also help to slow vehicular traffic. 

• We encourage the City to create a Grant Writing and Administration position in Administrative Services to consolidate grant-writing functions across departments and enable the city to fund more with grants and less with debt. Having this at the administrative level, to help all departments and oversee large, interdepartmental grants, would help the city rely less on debt to finance large projects. 

• There is budget for a "GIS Manager" position in the Administrative Services office. A 2026 goal is to establish city-wide GIS and data standards. 

  • The position is still vacant.

  • Several other departments reference leveraging this position for their own 2026 goals. 

  • We encourage raising the salary of this position and considering how to consolidate and streamline GIS functions across departments, as we recommended in our 2026 policy recommendations document. 

  • We encourage the City to add funds to hire a consultant that can help the City’s departments establish data standards and support the GIS Manager in building a universal GIS and data management system for the City.

  • Data management is key to transparency, and this position is central to that. We encourage the incoming City Auditor to look at other ways to increase transparency across city government 

• Street Life Enhancements (Cultural Affairs) 

• The City is doing a great job attracting and managing vendors at City events. How can we expand this to include vendors, music, and other street-life enhancing changes on streets across the city?

  • This would require the Common Council to examine and revise outdated ordinances on street vendors and street music. 

  • If the Common Council revisits outdated vendor and music laws, changes can have positive impact for street life, which also leads to more revenue in vendor fees and, ultimately, more tax base in people wanting to live here. 

  • Food Vendor License revenue is low (p. 19). This is ~6 vendors at the $2.7k fee listed on the City's application. And yet, the 2026 budget anticipates a near 50% increase in vendor applications/fees. What's the justification or plan to make this happen?

• We commend the priority to “Create a Nightlife & Culture commission tasked with exploring opportunities and challenges related to the City’s nightlife and entertainment while investing resources toward making Albany more vibrant and keeping both workers and patrons safe.” (p. 23)