Officials gathered Thursday in downtown Albany to tout what they say is a powerful new tool to help address blight in New York municipalities.
Stepping up the decades-long battle against blight, state officials have written legislation that would fast-track the process of condemning a building by giving city and county courts jurisdiction over such cases.
Wade Beltramo is General Counsel to the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials. He says with Governor Kathy Hochul signing the bill this week, the red tape is finally cut.
"This law went into effect immediately. Prior to this law, only Supreme Courts in the state of New York could adjudicate these cases. And that oftentimes was time consuming and costly for local government officials to go to Supreme Court to get these properties dealt with," Beltramo said. "This law expands it to other courts, city courts in particular, to be able to deal with these problems. It gives local officials another tool to deal with these problem properties. It's going to help them do it in a more timely manner in a more cost effective manner.”
Standing outside a building tagged with a red X along Sheridan Avenue, Hudson Valley Democratic Senator James Skoufis says such structures present an economic development issue.
“You've got the Hampton Inn right there, you've got thousands of folks, especially during legislative session, who work in the capitol who walk up and down the streets after session. You've got businesses who are looking to come to Albany, and are turned off when they pass a building like this. And so that's a fact. And that's why this bill is important," Skoufis said. "And that's why this law is important, because it gives an additional tool to the city of Albany, and every single municipality in New York State. Instead of waiting years, and having to go to an expensive process through state supreme court, they can go right to their city court, they can go right to their county court here locally. And so this is a game changer for cleaning up blight. It's going to make it happen faster, it's going to make it happen less expensively.”
The legislation was first introduced as part of a package of code enforcement reforms following a lengthy 2019 investigation by the Senate Investigations and Government Operations Committee, chaired by Skoufis.
Capital Region Assemblyman John McDonald, also a Democrat, says it’s difficult to assign a timetable to removing blight, even with the new law in place.
"How long did it take to get to this stage of the game? And it's going to be, it's going to take time. I can tell you in many communities that you know, I represent the five cities around the Hudson River. We're seeing great renaissance in communities like Cohoes and Watervliet and Troy, particularly," said McDonald. "And yes, there are still some blights going on. You're seeing over what are called 1200 new apartments here in downtown Albany, mostly in the form of newer structures, but there have been a lot of rehabs just up the street. So it's unfortunately an indeterminate time that's going to take but we have to keep poking away at."
In September, Albany was one of eight cities chosen to participate in the Cities of Service “Love Your Block” Grant Program. Albany is receiving $100,000 over two years to support resident-led efforts to combat blight.
