Albany Waterway Canal

Imagine a “Venice of the Northeastern U.S.”

The Albany Waterway.

The Albany Waterway is a transformative, collaborative canal project that reestablishes and re-envisions Albany’s rich historic, social and economic connections to the Hudson River and the Erie Canal.

Water and commerce flowed into Albany from its ports and canals for over 400 years, in ways that made New York the most prosperous state in the nation. By together imagining the myriad opportunities that emerge from this new and renewed access to the Albany waterfront — recreation, arts and culture, sustainable development and more – Albany will regain the vibrancy, energy and stature that its citizens and businesses deserve.

Artist's painting fuels dreams of reviving Albany's historic Lock 1 and beyond…

Albany Waterway, An Explanation

First Quarter Report 2025

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LeBrun: Downtown Albany needs a canal

As Gov. Hochul looks to transform the capital city, she should forget about moving 787 and move the waterfront instead.

By Fred LeBrun, Columnist

May 11, 2025

Downtown Albany has gotten downright tattered and scruffy. It’s also become somewhat exciting. People have been seen defecating in the streets and the sound of gunfire is not unknown to casual diners of restaurants. The wild west. It’s not a secret. Even our governor has seen it and been moved to save the city and help bring back its vibrancy and peaceful calm by throwing lots of state money in a tired city’s general direction. I think I’ve seen this movie before.

More than a half century ago, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller was embarrassed by similar squalor when he was driving Dutch royalty around town and delivered in spades what can be charitably described as a dreadful Germanic overreaction, the Empire State Plaza. Ninety-eight teeming-with-humanity acres of the city razed, not a twig standing. I took pictures of it. It was astounding. Not a sound of all that life there just weeks before.

Between the censuses of 1960 and 1970, the city lost 20,000, mostly to Rocky’s head trip. In fundamental ways, Albany has never fully recovered from that evisceration.

Yet here we are, a generation and a half later, with the same dilemma. A forlorn city. An embarrassment. Apparently $2 billion just doesn’t get what it used to.

Don’t get me wrong, Governor. Of course we’re delighted you want to spend $400 million to give us back our shine. I love this city. I have since I came here as a student deep in another century. But pardon us if experience compels a look way inside this gift horse’s mouth as we keep a wary eye out for those back hooves.

For what seemed a very long time but probably wasn’t, the current State Museum was our pride and joy, as the previous one had been, which I can also remember visiting with delight. The new one was a destination, a reason to come to Albany, to show off for friends and relatives. At some point that stopped being so, and $150 million for a new show-stopping state museum seems warranted to me. Although I have heard the Education Department, which oversees the museum, has plans completed for a redo, but nobody’s asked to see them.

Hochul proposes a catchall $200 million for a variety of downtown projects, yet to be determined, but that will "generally create new reasons to work, visit or live in downtown Albany." Among those ideas is a soccer stadium, maybe near the embarrassing bus station. Love the idea of a soccer stadium, but not in the middle of prime real estate and in an area prone to traffic headaches. Another problem with such a presumably uncovered stadium, unlike the multi-use and highly successful MVP Center, is how often it won’t be used, nor will its parking areas. It will be instructive, or at least interesting, to see what projects are picked and by whom for the $200 million. I think I can hear an oink, maybe two, in that barrel.

Which brings us to a proposed $35 million for planning "the next phase of I-787." Why, exactly? There are two immutables I will bet the farm on concerning this reimagine Albany stuff. One, the offending railroad tracks between humanity and the river are not moving. That battle was lost with the Interstate Commerce Clause in 1887 and by every major court decision since, ceding meaningful oversight of railroads that travel through more than one state to the very uncooperative feds. The railroads say they aren’t moving. Take that to the bank. And two, I-787 isn’t moving either. Any change, elevated or sunk, would be hideously expensive. Ain’t gonna happen, especially in Trumpworld, or even in a sane one.

What’s more, it shouldn’t.

I-787 has been a godsend. It’s a brilliant instrument that flushes huge streams of traffic at speed in either direction. Live with it. Live with the tracks. Let’s move on to what we can change. Although, Governor, I would humbly request considering something else. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Besides being the capital city, represented by the governor’s generosity, Albany has three great assets to leverage for a redo. They are related: the Hudson River, the reason for our being. Four hundred years of history. And the Erie Canal, which gave us the "Empire" of "the Empire State."

A cost and feasibility study, funded by Albany County, is due soon of artist-historian Len Tantillo’s 30-year-old brilliant vision for unburying and restoring Lock One of the Erie Canal under Central Warehouse and creating a canal along Broadway to a boat basin in front of the D&H Building and back out to the river. Locks at either end. An extended waterfront without the river, with neither tracks nor I-787 disturbed.

What’s come to light recently is that the Empire State Plaza’s massive cooling system, which circulates millions of gallons of Hudson River water daily through a closed system as a heat sump, might be interested in using the basin pool to pause the water before it reenters the Hudson.

An amusing collaboration.  Perhaps worthy of your attention, Governor?