Greenpoint Assembly Member Emily Gallagher is a longtime transit and safe streets advocate, but until recently, she commuted to Albany by car because, let's face it, transit connections to the state capital suck.
But when she sold her old Buick earlier this year, she discovered a new city in the process.
Now, Gallagher is an outlier — she's a transit and micro mobility advocate in a vast see of state legislators and their staffers who travel exclusively, everywhere, every day, by car. But when her parents gave her their 2014 beater when they upgraded, Gallagher joined the auto club — not exactly willingly.
“They thought they were giving me the ticket to freedom, but to me it was a hassle,” she said.
Hassle might not be the perfect word when it comes to driving to Albany, where the Legislative Office Building parking lot is basically on I-787, which was built in the 1960s and makes up part of the highway spaghetti for which Albany is famous.
And pols are afforded lavish benefits to drive: That parking garage is directly underneath the office building, which itself sits atop the concourse.
As a result, most Capitol denizens spend days without walking outside or seeing daylight.
Gallagher quickly started seeing that gift as an albatross.
If you have a car, she said, “you end up driving everywhere because you’re on a track of having to move your car. You use it to drive to work because you have to move it anyway. All of a sudden, your whole life is rooted around your car and taking care of your car and the car owns you."
And it distorts the reality of the city.
“You’re required to be a highway driver just to get into the parking lot," she said. "It disconnects you from the life of the city.”
She soon reached her breaking point (OK, the Post story about her many traffic tickets didn't help either) and sold her car earlier this year and now commutes to Albany by train.
“It turns out you don't have to drive everywhere in Albany,” she said.
The decision led to “a personal renaissance.” Now that she's walking everywhere, “I love Albany," she said.
"I’ve come to notice restaurants, bars, small businesses, the beauty of the historic buildings, the plants as they bloom in different parts of the spring.” (She can't wait to check out City Beer Hall, Fort Orange Club, Lionheart, and Prime at the Plaza, which have been recommended by other walkers).
But she has already discovered the Skinny Pancake (it's a crepes place. Get it?). We'll check it out — on foot — and get back to you.
Amy's Albany Addenda
Speaking of revitalizing downtown through walking, Gov. Hochul announced on Wednesday a $400-million plan to “reinvigorate commercial corridors” and “strengthen small businesses” in Downtown Albany.
The city's downtown has long been unfriendly to pedestrians and cyclists, but Covid hit the capital hard. Since 2022, 5,000 fewer state workers walk on the streets and consumer spending is down $22 million, according to the Downtown Albany Business Improvement District.
There is little pedestrian life at night — for good reason: a newcomer can be walking on a sidewalk that suddenly turns into a sidewalk-free car tunnel.
Almost 40 percent of the money will be spent to connect Nelson Rockefeller’s Brutalist Empire State Plaza “with the surrounding community and make the space a vibrant and inviting part of the fabric of downtown Albany.”
But the New York State Department of Transportation has committed $40 million to begin the year's long process of reimagining I-787 to better “connect neighborhoods and key destinations,” and enhance waterfront access to the Hudson River “for all users of the road,” which is a strange way to describe enhancing access.
In her remarks, Hochul said that the suburbs are nice for raising her kids, but that if you want to be with young people and “just feel the energy,” you need “a walkable city with more housing.”
And fixing I-787 would “open up that gorgeous river to people to recreate and live and to just embrace it. … They've got this little spit of a river in San Antonio and they got this River Walk. I’ve got the Hudson River, right? I’ve got the Hudson River.”
A more walkable Albany could bring some legislators out of their cars to talk to people, stop speeding, patronize shops, try out Albany’s bike share system, and go to the Skinny Pancake.
See you there.
