I am not at all convinced that making Albany the "Tech Valley" of New York is a good thing. Maybe I just like Albany being the sleepy, government town that is currently is. But I could see many problems attracting all this high tech stuff to the area.

Traffic Increases

Suppostly with this new "Tech Valley" things, it will bring new people, with their new cars. If you don't think commuting north of Albany is currently all that bad (except during rush hour), wait until all these high-tech people come, with their fancy suburban houses in Saratoga county.

While this will bring new tax revenue, it's not all clear if new roads will be built. Instead, traffic around Albany would become more and more of a nightmere. Albany isn't the kind of city that can take growth too rapidly, it's infrastructure is dated, it's layout and the general charatersitics of the area make any kind of changes difficult.

Don't forget all the new pollutants in the air we will have to deal with, due to this increase of traffic. While cars are getting cleaner and cleaner, they still emit quite a bit of pollution. Traffic will make this even worst.

Yuppie Explosion

Yes, we all want more affluent wife-beating, SUV driving, cellphone yapping, clubees running around Albany. Actually, we don't want them. We already have enough of these idiots running around.

Psuedo-liberals-yuppies just make me sick. I've ranted about them, way too much. Just think what it will be like.

More People = Less Freedom

Just like that sign off of Route 2 in Grafton, or wherever says about zoning.

Well, duh. When we have more people around, we need more government to resolve conflict, more money to pay for this government, and a loss of freedom. With more nosey neighboors, you'll be able to spend more time worry about when they are going to report you for some dumb zoning violations.

And then of course, this nice rich people, will want more of that zoning regulation, so that they can make their neighborhood more 'upscale'. So then we have more regulation, and less freedom on how to live our lives as we want. Junk cars, burn barrel, shooting skeet in backyard, etc. will have to go.

What About Farmers?

What will happen to the farmers? Will development pressures continue to force them to sell out? All this zoning crap will probably hurt them, along with any more unfunded mandates that local government will pass down on them.

Then there will be more of those rich "Tech Valley" people who will complain about those damn farmers. So what if they were there first. Gee... you buy a house next to a farm, and then complain about the flies, the smell of manure, etc. Somebody really should take you out and unload a few bullets in your head. While there are those freedom to farm laws, they probably don't help that much with the kind of pressures these rich yuppies put on them.

Read misc.rural newsgroup if you want more sob stories about this.

Property Pricess Will Go Through the Roof

Does Proposition-13 mean anything to you? Californians passed it by a large margin, after taxes went through the roof, due to a number of factors—one of them being greatly increasing property values. As assessed values increase, taxes will increase.

Obviously, with the growth spured by a tech park, there will be an increased demand for housing. So affordable housing will become more rare, and prices will increase.

Where Will It Be Located? Not in Albany.

I'm guessing most of this big high-tech stuff will not find it's way into Arbor Hill, or many of Albany's other fine neighboorhoods. Nor will it find it's way into Menands/Northern Albany, a place with lots of rotting old factories, just waiting to be replaced with High-Technology stuff.

Instead, as in the case of Luther Technology Park, it will be turning more farm fields into just more boring, out of scale office buildings. I'd have less of a problem with all this high-tech stuff, if it was located in the city.

But then, parking and traffic become a problem. But this could be allivated, by an upscale version of the CDTA bus system, the followed staginated hours to suburban park and rides.