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Fourth Branch of America Interview -

Mayor Daniel H. Dwyer on the "New Rensselaer"

Q: Is it true that the City of Rensselaer gets a lot of bad press and little good press to counter it? “Well, there has been bad press. As soon as I got into office, I immediately said, ‘Okay, listen. We’re gonna sit down, find out what’s wrong, and we’re going to correct those issues. And, if you’ve noticed, we’ve been out of the press. To me that’s a good thing because everything before, anything negative, was put into the press. It gave the city a bad name, but we’re changing that around...The press that’s coming out now is good… We’re doing things to make the city better… We want to bring the standard of the city up, and it’ll be accomplished.”

Mayor Dan Dwyer with TIC Publisher Ray Feliciano. Near/behind: DPW Commissioner, Tom Capuano, at Rensselaer’s new city hall, formerly the “Community Center”. The entire building has been remodeled thanks to the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW). (photo by Kimberly Feliciano)

Q: Someone proposed that the $250-300 million development on the waterfront will transform Rensselaer. What are your thoughts on it?

“Very simple. We’ve been sitting on a gold mine, like I’ve been preaching for years. Let’s do something with the waterfront. They’re finally doing something… That is the catalyst to start the whole process off. I’m getting phone calls now from developers. They see what’s gonna happen right there. The planning department upstairs has been getting phone calls – people want to live on the river. It’s a combination of commercial and residential. Plus, it looks like there’s gonna be a hotel and an office building there… I tell the voters right now: it’s upscale. Owner-occupied upscale. I will not accept anything less than that because I want people to live here—I don’t want them to be renting out. I want to have this their home. It’s upscale, period. Minimum starting $225-250,000… Now we’ll have the retail there. That’s gonna give us a tax base… The hotel will give us the room tax for the city… We’ll develop that whole area along the river.

“The other thing is, the city has got a grant now, and to put a walkway and bike path right up the river. The plans of our planning department is to go to the Livingston Ave. Bridge, somehow get that bridge rehabbed so that we can meet Albany, so it will be continuous. If somebody over there wants to visit Rensselaer on their bike, come across the bridge for shopping right there and restaurants. And also, I’m pushing very, very hard—on top of the hotel, to have a first class restaurant up there. Alright, all glass in the front, overlooking that river. We’ve got the best spot on the river between New York City and where it turns to go up. The view of Albany is absolutely magnificent, especially at night. You put a first class restaurant in there, with the upscale community that’s gonna be right there, plus the shoppers, it’ll be supported. It’ll be a go. There’s gonna be a marina, and we’re hoping to get one of the boats, like the Albany Aqua Ducks, to park here. It makes it more viable. We get the people in, they see what’s here, they do some shopping. So it’s a no-brainer. Eventually we want that bike path to go all the way to Troy. I’ve also got another [third] development going up. And again, fantastic view of Albany, up on the hill [up Petition St.]. So there’s another 190 units, again upscale… With that view of Albany, my God. It’s got a fantastic view. It’s gonna be terraced.”

Q: You stressed it is to be upscale. Have you had problems with absentee landlords?

“In Rensselaer we did, okay. We had quite a few. As I say, I call a spade a spade. We had slum landlords. We enacted a law to address those issues, those slum landlords and the problems they create not taking care of their places and everything else. There’s a point system. When so many points are accumulated for various infractions, the house is closed. It’s boarded up for a year. Now, they gotta pay mortgage on that with no income. It works in Troy, and it works in Cohoes. We adopted those same rules and put them under ours so that if somebody’s gonna buy a house to rent, they’re gonna meet the code, they’re gonna keep their house up. We want to raise the standard of living for everybody in this city. It’s a quality of life issue. We’ve adopted it. We’re going to be starting enforcement of it soon. We had to fine tune it to our specifications, but that’s what’s happening.”

Q: The Capital Region Local Government Council, (LGC) was founded in 1987 to give local government leaders a forum to identify issues of importance to local governments, discuss opportunities for regional cooperation, and foster working relationships among local leaders. As a member of the council, has the LGC been an effective forum for airing the issues of the City of Rensselaer, and how so?

“I have not participated, but eventually, once I get things settled, then I can expand outward to find out what’s going on.”

Q: There’s a dispute between Rensselaer and Troy regarding a water bill. Would this be one of the places to discuss the issue?

“It appears that we’ve got the water issue with Troy settled. Until the final form comes out, which is going to be very shortly, I can’t discuss it… but we finally came to an agreement… I could consider that, yeah.”

Q: What about the proposal for moving the Albany Bus Station to Rensselaer? Is that still happening?

“No. I’ll oppose that with everything I have, period. I do not want it. We cannot handle the problems they have with that bus station. I would almost have to double our police force. We cannot afford it, alright. As far as I know, they’ve withdrawn that, I was told… It shouldn’t be moved over here. It should be incorporated right into the [upcoming Albany] Convention Center… That’s what people are coming for. Why have them come over here, and then have to bus them back over there? It’s ridiculous… We’ve got roughly about a twenty-seven man police force. Could you see almost doubling that, the cost factor? The people’s tax over would go sky high, which I’m not gonna do, alright?

Q: What are the pros and cons of having the train station here?

“…It brings people into the city, per se, and hopefully… as they’re either leaving people off, they have a delay in their train or something… that the city would benefit as far as business goes. Other than that, I see little other benefit to the city.”

Q: Are there more problems than benefits?

“I’d say so, yes, to be honest about it. Increased traffic, alright. There’s prime land they have. I’d love to have that land. We’ve got a noise level. We addressed that issue with them at night, and they’ve been very cooperative on it. Overall benefit from the train station, no.”

Q: Some say the youth don’t have enough fun things to do around here, and then get into trouble. Is there any merit behind that?

“Ya know, we ought to take it piece by piece on this. All we hear is Rensselaer youth is in trouble. Let’s clarify that. We’ve got a lot of children who are really great kids. Like in any city, you’re going to have the ones that are doing good and the ones that are having some problems. The majority of our children are doing good. Like any city, okay, we’re strapped for funds, but we’re working on a skateboard park, okay. As a matter of fact, we had a meeting [earlier in the week] on it to get formation of the skateboard park, to get funding for it. Some of the parents have already volunteered to make some of the ramps and things like that, which can be done, and they are qualified to do it to meet the specifications. We’ve picked out the spot. We’ve got the Boys [and Girls] Club. We also opened up the gym here in City Hall to a karate class, which is volunteer all the way, and it’s very successful. They’ve got twenty-five sometimes thirty children off the street who go in and learn karate. The instructor’s qualified, certified. And as soon as more funding, I want to work with Rick up at the Boys and Girls Club and see what else we can do. We’ve got the summer program going on and it’s very viable—field trips, you name it. To say that there’s a lot of trouble in the city, it’s funny how newspapers will zero in the problems with the children of Rensselaer and Cohoes, but they’re classifying everyone. We got good kids here. That’s it.”

Q: With that skateboard park, are you getting a corporate sponsor to back that?

“No. We’re handling it ourselves. We’re applying for grants also. So, if you want to say the state is corporate, then yes (laugh).”

Q: Does Rensselaer have a Public Access TV studio that’s rarely utilized? If so, why?

“Now, I’m not really versed on this. My understanding is that Time Warner Cable took that away. Other than that, I can’t comment. I haven’t even looked into it, to be honest with you… I gotta look into that, okay, especially with what we’ve got going on.”

Q: Tell us what’s it’s like to be the Mayor of the City of Rensselaer. What are your responsibilities?

“I wanted the job. It’s a part time job. A part time job is classified as twenty hours a week. Right now I’m averaging about sixty, but I don’t complain. I accepted that responsibility. It’s sometimes the small things that will just drive you up a wall. You can settle the big things, but there’s so many small things that you gotta settle. My main concern is to bring this city ahead. See, I grew up in this city. I remember when this city was absolutely a place to be. It went downhill. I’m not gonna blame anybody, but I’m gonna turn this thing around. It’s got all the potential in the world. I will bring this back. I’ve got the cooperation of the employees of the city. This is not a one-person job...You’ve got to have the cooperation of the department heads, and I’m getting that, from the workers of the city who have supported me beyond belief. I approached them, I asked their ideas, and believe me, I utilize them. I can’t come up with all those ideas. You will see, for example, I’ve got a $475,000 grant from Senator Bruno to move City Hall, consisting of the various departments here, the police station, and the courts. I also got $100,000 from Assemblyman Canestrari. I’m very gracious to both of them. I put it out for bid. The lowest bid was $1.8 million to do it. That was without the courts. I had to pull this off at $575,000. It’s being done. Why? Our DPW [Department of Public Works] fellows are doing the work. There were some pundits who said there was no way they could do it. You take a look at what they’ve done. We’ve had people come into Maureen Nardacci’s office [of the City Clerk] up there [2nd floor], and they said, ‘This is beautiful. Who is the contractor?’ DPW. They couldn’t believe it...The quality of work is unbelievable. It’s coming out beautiful. You’ll see it. So, yeah I’m the mayor, but this is a team effort. The first thing I did was get the people and say ‘I need your help on this thing.’ It’s just not me alone. They’ve gone 100%. I credit them with a lot of the success of what’s going on the move and what’s bringing the city around. And I want that in the paper.”

Q: What role does party politics play at the city level?

“None. I’m non-political. I’m a Democrat. I don’t care what you’re party is. When I hire somebody I go for the qualifications. If you go just political, you may not select the person who’s best qualified...One person I hired voted against me, but he’s the man I wanted. I’m non-political on this. We don’t have time for politics. Politics in this City of Rensselaer helped bring it down. I’ll be very blunt about that. It brought the city down. They played politics for the good of certain individuals in this city, alright, without the good of the people as the main focus. I’m not gonna do that.”

Q: What kind of issues do small cities like Rensselaer’s size face that larger cities like Albany or New York City don’t have to worry about?

“The main thing, Albany has a pretty good tax base. Small cities are limited to size, area, and everything else for development. So, we’re restricted there. Albany’s much bigger. They’ve got a bigger tax base, a bigger tax revenue. I know they got bigger expenses, okay, but we’re restricted.”

Q: We understand some historical artifacts were recently discovered while moving to the new City Hall. How will such history be preserved?

“Yes. Not only what was discovered—and Maureen Nardacci has them up in her office—we’re going to keep them on display. It’s history. I appointed Charles Semowich as our City Historian. He’s thrown himself 100% into this. Well, there’s so many photos of the history of Rensselaer, I told Charles I want those photos preserved. Right now I don’t have enough money to do them all, but piece meal. I’m taking all those photos, I’m gonna put in frames, and I’m gonna decorate every office and every hall in City Hall with these photos. It’s Rensselaer’s history...There’s also Harbor City up here. It’s a historic building. I wanna buy it. It’s dilapidated. It’s run-down, but it’s got history like you can’t believe. I want to buy it, and I’m going to rehab it over a period of years as I get the grants to do it. That is going to be our history museum for the City of Rensselaer.”

Q: What other infrastructure projects are involved in this development?

“Right now the target date [for the school move] is set for January of next year [2008]. They’re roughly two to two and a half months ahead of schedule on construction. The day after they move out, January 2nd of ’08, that school is going to be demolished. In conjunction with the school, I got a $100,000 grant from Senator Bruno to extend the waterline that’s going to the school. I extended it past the school. Anything I do, I’m trying to think five to ten years down the road. I had it tapped off, what they call looped. Now I can use that water line when I’m ready to use it, as a secondary or primary. Now it’s in place. I’m building a DPW garage, too. We’ve been without a DPW garage for four years. I should start construction on [that] April 15th… I’ll build a large garage. It’s more than we need right now, but in a couple of years, I’ll have the space when I start buying more equipment, when I have the cash flow, to get it in there… I’m putting a new Firehouse up in the Upper End. We’re finalizing everything on that, too…We’ve been moving from place to place. It has not been satisfactory. Our trucks have been left out in the weather, and they’re being ruined just from that—all our equipment.”

Q: At a recent committee meeting the Asst. Fire Chief was saying how desperately they needed new equipment. What is the plan?

“I want to buy two brand new fire trucks. I’ve got a financial package… I know people are going to say we’re broke and all this, but the key to that thing is that I can get the fire trucks this year, but I don’t have to start paying for them until September of next year [2008]. Then over ten years I can build it into the budget of only thirty some odd thousand dollars for two brand new fire trucks at a fantastic interest rate, believe me.”

Q: What about the garbage trucks?

“They’re working fantastic. They’re saving us money. Instead of making two trips over to the landfill, one. The DPW Commissioner [Tom Capuano] is doing an excellent job, believe me. The snow plows we have are not built for this sort of [deep] snow. I need new equipment. We’re gonna have to start replacing. I need two big trucks. We got one, which is old, but right now I need two trucks. I want to devote them to the main arteries to keep it clear. Two trucks, four small ones. Then I’ll take all the small trucks and put them into the individual wards. I was out with them four hours plowing, and believe me, those trucks are straining. In two trucks we lost two transmissions. That’s how bad it is. They’re not built for what we need. We gotta have this truck to our specifications. A stronger front end, a stronger transmission, geared right for it.”

Q: Is there anything else that you’d like our readers to know about Rensselaer?

“I’m interested in the city. I run it as a business, rather than anything political. To me it’s profit and loss. Are we in the black? No. Will we be? Yes. You just can’t get from over $1.5 million in debt and turn it around in one year. It’s impossible, even with the tax rate. But the one thing that’s happened is we are paying our bills on time now. Vendors are happy and are even complimenting us, ‘Hey, you’re paying your bills on time.’ Number two, we were able to get our insurance down. We had high deductibles. We got them down. The city’s quiet now. Hopefully it stays that way. A lot more quiet than it was.”

Preliminary design concept of Rensselaer's Riverfront Development Project by Marx Properties, Inc.

Aerial shot of the site looking towards the Albany skyline. Photo submitted by Marx Properties, Inc.

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