Behind The Plaza

When the Empire State Plaza was built, a large section of old Albany was destroyed. But the neighboring streets and their houses remind us of what was lost. After the plaza was done, and through the 1980s and 1990s, a lot of the area west of the plaza, between it and Washington Park, underwent a renaissance of sorts.

Brownstone row houses, renovated and lived in.

Many of the old townhouses were rehabilitated and people started moving back into downtown. Many of the buildings became law offices or housing for legislative staff from other parts of the state. But still, the buildings were being preserved. My Aunt Jean bought and lived in one of these houses for a few years in the 1980s.

Brick townhouses on a side street.

The main street through this neighborhood is Lark Street. Just outside of the historic downtown, a section of Albany's north-south streets are named for birds. There's Hawk, Dove, Eagle, Swan, Robin, Quail, Partridge, and Lark, to name some. Lark became the focal point of this reinvented neighborhood.

Beautiful stone stoops and wrought iron railings line this street.

Shops and restaurants popped up along Lark, as did several gay bars. Albany's Gay and Lesbian Community Center is located nearby, as is an office of Planned Parenthood (which has been there for at least thirty years now). The neighborhood has declined again recently, and is a shadow of its recently former self.

State Street townhouses facing Washington Park.

But the fact that the buildings and townhouses have been preserved is a good thing. The neighborhood will come back again, I'm sure. Evidence of this is the renewal program now under way in an adjacent neighborhood along Madison Avenue, between Washington Park and the Medical Center. New residential development is under construction as is the same kind of preservation of old buildings that happened on Lark Street.

A Lark Street intersection, paved with old cobbles.

It's all very good, as far as I'm concerned. In these times, with the rising cost of energy, good comfortable city living needs to be available as an alternative to the high cost suburban model. We need to learn to live well in cities again. And the old northeastern cities are ripe for redevelopment and renewal.