Planner Running for County Leg

At the October 9 meeting on the comprehensive plan, a number of people in the audience talked about the need for better city and county coordination in handling vacant and abandoned properties, and the problems caused by the current system where the county takes over foreclosed properties and auctions them off.

Anyone who has an interest in that might want to pay attention to the race for the District 7 County legislature seat. With no Republican and the incumbent not running on a third line, the race is, interestingly, between an unappealing Democratic candidate (more on that in my next column, it's not so relevant here), Brian Scavo, and Green Party candidate David Lussier. Lussier is a student in the SUNY urban planning masters program, and one of his primary platform pieces is reforming the abandoned buildings procedures. He knows Albany inside out (the "Dave tour of Albany" is well-known among his friends and includes fascinating bits of history and context about every neighborhood), is familiar with the SDAT plan recommendations, and has a shot at winning the seat.

Given that cities cannot operate in isolation, someone at the county level who's interested in thinking about ways in which the county can support better planning and development in the city would be a huge boon during, and especially after, a comprehensive planning effort.

(full disclosure: I vote in District 7 and I am actively supporting Lussier as a candidate.)