Climate change or not, and completely unrelated to this story, a part of Bryant Park was still flooded on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
Bowing to a state mandate to slow global warming, the City of Albany is plowing ahead with the designation of six so-called “climate friendly areas.” It’s hard to imagine a project that is so ambitious and unrealistic at the same time.
The idea is to create mixed-use neighborhoods where lots of people could live in apartment blocks up to 85 feet tall and have most of their daily needs met without having to drive anywhere.
The city’s planning staff identified six areas in town that might in theory be developed or redeveloped to meet certain levels of housing density. In Albany, the climate friendly areas must be able to accommodate 8,861 housing units by 2040, according to state rules. The city says the six designated areas in Albany have a capacity of 12,000 units “assuming all areas were rebuilt to the maximum heights.”
Public hearings are coming up, on March 17 before the planning commission and April 9 before the city council.
All this assumes that a long-gone era will come back. It supposes that people can do office work from home and, after hours, walk around the corner for a haircut, then pick up dinner on the way home, after stopping by the dentist and the insurance office on the way. And when they discover the dryer light is out they can nip down to the hardware store to get a new bulb.
How likely is that? The trend for the last 50 years or more has been the other way: More concentration of supermarkets, services and general commerce in central locations.
If we’re looking a few decades into the future, we might consider Oregon’s “Climate Protection Program.” The mountains of complicated regulations in this program are intended to all but eliminate energy from fossil fuels in 25 years. The cost will be enormous, making everybody relying on the economy that much poorer.
Instead of descending from their high-rise apartments and happily ambling about their walkable neighborhoods, people still around in 2050 might be better off if they each had a big back yard.
If they had the space around their house and enough distance from their neighbors, they could keep a few chickens and plant enough vegetables to keep their families going during the hard times to come. (hh)
The city staff prepared this map of Albany’s six planned “climate friendly areas.”
I believe they are called “Projects”. After a few years, a “Ghetto”.
I simply love it when Hasso again prefers the status quo because change, as everybody knows, is practically impossible. Why bother?
Looks like a wasted effort to solve a make believe problem
If you really want to learn more about the climate please watch Aclimateconversation.com
Really interesting, Don
When did being “a nice, quiet little town” become a bad thing?
This is another example of why Trump told the Conference of Governors that Oregon’s Kotek is worse than Gov. of Maine. Extreme DEI and climate fanatic.
And a Mayor/City Council that are her lap dogs. Why in the hell are they so eager to do “her?” bidding on stupid, UNFUNDED mandates. Just EXACTLY where is all the money collected on Storm Water Fees? Can the City account for that money? Look at the water/sewer dept.
I am interested and excited to see how this plays out. As a new couple who moved to this area, we would have loved to move to an area like these to cut down on driving and have a more European style of living here in the states.
Having everything you need just minutes away is a dream! I love walking and biking to my daily errands. I hope this works out and young families can afford to live in lively, vibrant neighborhoods in Albany.
Fewer car trips means less traffic, and quieter too!
They’re called C 40 cities or 15 minute cities. I call them concentration camps
I would like to know, preferably by examples, what the results of a city’s noncompliance to state government mandates are. Before “bowing”, the city council should make a cost estimate and submit it to the state government as a bill.
Consultants have so many good ideas. Then government buys the dream. Somebody show us where this was done before and what it looks like now. Does it work? Are people happy? Perhaps try before buy?