Albany, NY

Opinion: Clinton Market

Carol Durant

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Clinton MarketCarol Durant

I must have been asleep on a bench at Jennings Landing because I missed the original memorandum. A brand new economic development plan is ready to be initialized in downtown Albany in 2022. It is called the Clinton Market. It will be located across from the Palace Theater and next to the Federal Building, which is situated between North Pearl Street, Wilson Street and Broadway. Currently, it is a deserted empty space, which will soon become a focal point for all local and out of town inhabitants to enjoy. According to the press release, it will have pop up shops, an outdoor stage, fountains and seating for all to sip, luxuriate and adore. There are renderings available, so you can view the forthcoming jubilance of the space in the day and at night. https://capitalizealbany.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/CapitalizeAlbany-Clinton-Market-Collective-Final-Design-Press-Release-12.11.21.pdf As another jewel in the crown of local economic development, this venture will connect the Clinton Avenue neighborhood to the new Albany Skyway park which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2021. https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/albany-skyway-construction-16582543.php Data, research, studies, calls to action and money are components necessary to create change. It would be appreciated by the taxpayers, if the ideologues in this city would stop going to Manhattan and Brooklyn to look for the answers towards making Albany great again.

Downtown Albany is truly bustling when there is a concert or event at the soon to be former Times Union Center. Adding the schedules of the Empire Live Club, Capital Repertory Theater and Palace Theater plus brand new apartment dwellers it sounds like a pedestrian, traffic and parking nightmare on event nights. You certainly could park in a parking garage and traverse up and down North and South Pearl Street to check out this vibrant new market, but do you really want to exercise that much before your show? Will it truly be like the Batman signal and beckon for you to Gotham, I mean Albany? Will it be a comfortable and welcomed destination for all genders, creeds and ethnicities? Will participation from the citizens of the newly esteemed Clinton Avenue neighborhood be invited and extolled? How is this shiny penny going to impact current businesses that have a tenuous existence? If the wondrous Clinton Market was open today and checking the current schedules of the aforementioned venues; if you remove two of them, the diversity in their schedules are light to zero. There's more diversity in the renderings. So it's really not a boutique grocery store?

Hey citizens, there are plenty of changes happening in Albany. Check with your Common Council person or read the minutes and get up to speed. https://www.albanyny.gov/189/Common-Council There is a plan afoot. Check it out right here. https://capitalizealbany.com/strategies/impact-downtown-albany/ Get your voices heard. See you in the outdoor queue.

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Writer, author, poet, playwright

Albany, NY
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