Dominick enjoys serving the residents of the First Ward in the South End of Albany, New York and working on ways to make Albany a more desirable place in which to live.
List of all introduced and co-sponsored legislation by Dominick Calsolaro, download PDF format or download Word document.
Albany convention center lands again in tax dispute
Published on 5/21/2013 by the Times Union written by by Jordan Carleo-Evangelist
strong>Albany: City lawmakers on Monday again voted to push the Albany Convention Center Authority to pay the city, county and schools in lieu of nearly $500,000 in lost taxes on the land earmarked for a downtown convention center that appears increasingly less likely to be built.
The resolution, which echoes one passed in 2010 and ignored, is nonbinding on the state-created construction authority. But it may signal increasing impatience by the Common Council with the loss of the tax revenue on 50-some parcels as the project idles.
Mayor Jerry Jennings said work continues to draft a scaled-down plan, seemingly focused around State Street below the Capitol, incorporating existing meeting space in the county-owned Times Union Center arena and Empire State Plaza.
That leaves open what will become of the nearly six acres off Broadway targeted — and largely acquired — by the authority for a much - Read more
Published on 5/16/2013 by the Times Union
I've got to say, I love the symmetry of Mayor Jerry Jennings and Councilman Dominick Calsolaro, his loudest and most colorful critic, going out together. Like or dislike them, both are uniquely Albany characters.
And while the city is often derided as too small-town, too machine or too whatever by people like me who are not from here, both men (as well as women like Carolyn Mclaughlin) are important parts of its fabric. It's foolish and over-simplistic to expect politicians to be perfect. But as different as Jennings and Calsolaro are politically, they're more alike in that they're a product of the same city and generation. And you'd be hard-pressed to argue that both don't love Albany in much the same way.
So many towns in this country are sterile and boring. Albany, for all of its imperfections (or maybe because of them) is not - Read more
Published on 4/16/2013 by the Times Union written by Dominick Calsolaro
The Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations' recent panel discussion on the problem of vacant/abandoned property in Albany city and county elicited much public discussion about where the funds will come from to remedy the problem.
I, again, suggested the funds for turning our decaying neighborhoods around can come from the Albany Convention Center Authority. About $63 million remains from the original $75 million grant. All we need to do is amend the state Public Authorities Law to change the authority's title to the ReBuild Albany Construction Authority. And, to change its mission statement to state that its purpose is to stabilize, rehabilitate and sell vacant/abandoned buildings to owner-occupants.
The Convention Center Authority was established in 2004, almost 10 years ago. All it has done is to take tax-paying property off the tax rolls and pass the lost real property tax revenue onto the citizens. In addition - Read more
Still in the early stages, Albany’s permit-parking system is hitting its first snags
Published on 4/10/2013 by Metroland written by by Darryl McGrath
strong>Dominick Calsolaro never thought people would be willing to walk a mile to avoid paying for parking, but that is exactly what dozens of out-of-towners do most weekdays when they leave their cars on Morton Avenue and hike across Lincoln Park to downtown office destinations.
Morton Avenue is just beyond the boundary of the downtown permit-parking zones, and nonresidents can park there all day for free.
“That’s quite a hike,” said Colsolaro, an Albany Common Council member, who has already received complaints from 1st Ward residents who have noticed the influx of cars. One woman said her elderly mother is suddenly having difficulty finding a parking space near her home. “You’re talking 20, 25 minutes, plus it’s hills.”
The spillover nonresident parking on Morton Avenue—in the lingo of parking engineering, this is known as “displacement”—is just one of several quirks of - Read more
Local Politics - A place to talk about government closer to your home
Published on 4/7/2013 by the Times Union written by JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
Here’s a preview of Monday’s Inside Politics column: Published on 4/4/2013 written by CBS, Channel 6 News Updated: Thursday, April 4 2013, 08:16 AM EDT ALBANY -- The introduction of Dorcey Applyrs, a rumination on representational politics and discovering the Plumeri Complex near my house Published on 3/31/2013 written by Dan Van Riper, albanyweblog.com Damn that Dominick, how can he do this. He’s been the best thing politically that has happened to the the City of Albany during these long, torturous years of the Jennings administration, the guy who got elected to the Common Council in 2001 and immediately became the only politician in the City that the public trusted and considered honest. Now after twelve years of public service he plans to retire from politics. Published on 3/26/2013 by the Times Union written by JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST Staff Writer Albany: Three-term Democratic Councilman Dominick Calsolaro, for years the face of opposition to City Hall, threw his support behind political newcomer Dorcey Applyrs Tuesday morning after formally announcing he won't seek another term this fall. Published on 3/25/2013 by the Times Union written by JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST Staff Writer Albany: Leonard Morgenbesser, an anti-gun-violence advocate who kept meticulous lists of every gun crime perpetrated in the city, died Monday in Queens after a battle with brain cancer, according to an email distributed to his friends and colleagues. He was 62. Albany's 1st Ward rabble-rouser is yielding the floor. Published on 3/22/2013 by the Times Union written by JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST Staff Writer Dominick Calsolaro, one of Mayor Jerry Jennings' most spirited and consistent critics for more than a decade, is poised to announce he won't seek re-election to a fourth term to the Common Council in the fall, Insider has learned. Council Member Calsolaro introduced the following: Published on 4/30/2010 by the Times Union written by KATIE BRANDENBURG, Hearst Newspapers WASHINGTON -- Two Albany Common Council members on Thursday urged the Department of Justice to review terrorism cases that they say unfairly targeted Muslims. CALSOLARO LEADS TOUR OF REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL CAREER COLLEGE FACILITY In an effort to connect with the students of the Capital Region on a more personal level, Albany City Common Councilman Dominick Calsolaro, along with County Legislators Wanda Willingham and Norma Chapman met with Faith Takes, President of Mildred Elley/Austin School of Spa Technology. The campus, located on 855 Central Avenue in Albany is shared by the two colleges and is equipped with state-of-the-art classrooms, clinics and student service areas for the Austin School of Spa Technology and newly renovated space designed specifically for Mildred Elley. It allows for the staff and faculty to fuse their expertise and experiences together to share them with the students in a more efficient and effective manner. Continue reading . . .
The Albany Common Council will lose another steady voice of resistance next year.
Councilwoman Barbara Smith will announce Tuesday that she is not seeking re-election to a third term in the city’s 4th Ward representing North Albany, Arbor Hill and part of the South End.
Throughout her tenure, Smith, 66, a Democrat elected in 2005, has been closely allied with 1st Ward Councilman Dominick Calsolaro, who announced two weeks ago that he also won’t seek another term.
Both hail from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and have often voted together on some of the most controversial issues before the council, which has grown bolder in its challenges to Mayor Jerry Jennings in recent years. But the two are also a study polar opposite political personalities.
Unlike Calsolaro, who is prone to animated speeches on the council floor, Smith - Read more
Current and former members of the Albany Common Council were among those questioning a plan in the county legislature to address vacant properties.
They joined about one hundred other people at the Albany Public Library on Washington Avenue Wednesday at a meeting of the Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations.
Legislature Majority Leader Frank Commisso presented a pamphlet outlining something called the Albany County Redevelopment Program, a program to that would be created and up and running, according to Commisso, in about one year.
Commisso said developers have expressed interest along with the local director of Habitat for Humanity. In January the county legislature defeated a proposal to create a "land trust" that would have turned some properties over to non-profit groups to rehabilitate and then sell to new owners.
On Wednesday night, Albany Common Council member Dominick Calsolaro suggested - Read more
That’s right folks, Dominick Calsolaro is not running for a fourth term on the Common Council, and he’s not running for another office. He’s still the same guy who entered politics because he was tired of tripping over the heaving sidewalks on Second Avenue when he walked his dog in the morning. But thanks in large part to his work, the political landscape in Albany has cracked apart like a neglected sidewalk and is about ready to be - Read more
Applyrs, 31, is a doctoral student in public health at the University at Albany and former director of programs for the Capital District African American Coalition on AIDS.
Calsolaro, 57, has represented the district on the city's southeastern border with Bethlehem for nearly 12 years and over that span became one of Mayor Jerry Jennings' most passionate and colorful critics as the council more broadly, he said, has become more progressive and independent.
"I don't believe in term limits, but I do believe that some elected positions are not meant to be lifetime appointments," Calsolaro said in front of Hoffman Park, the redevelopment of which — with the College - Read more
Morgenbesser, a resident of the Buckingham Pond neighborhood who spent more than three decades as a researcher for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, spent his free time painstakingly cataloging the violence on Albany's streets — plumbing the depths of newspaper reports as well as television newscasts for even passing mentions of a shooting or armed robbery not on his list.
If his records did not match news reports or he believed an incident had gone unreported, Morgenbesser, who had a Ph.D. in criminal justice from the University at Albany, would not hesitate to contact local newsrooms to resolve the discrepancy.
"He would drop off his - Read more
Calsolaro, 57, was first elected in 2001 and since then has colorfully sparred with Jennings' administration over its management of the Rapp Road landfill, its stewardship of the Pine Bush, the downtown convention center, budgeting and debt — to name just a few of his long-running battles with Hizzoner.
In a political landscape dominated for 20 years by a powerful and charismatic mayor who was once himself a council maverick, Calsolaro has often happily donned the rumpled cloak of Everyman opposition.
The Democrat declined to discuss his future with Insider on Thursday, but his impending announcement was confirmed by two people familiar with his plans. In 2010, he retired after - Read more
Ordinance Number 1.11.09
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING PART 3 (DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY) OF CHAPTER 42 (DEPARTMENTS AND COMMISSIONS) OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF ALBANY TO REPEAL ARTICLE XI-A ENTITLED “GUN VIOLENCE TASK FORCE” AND TO ADD A NEW ARTICLE XI-A ENTITLED “GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION IMPLEMENTATION TEAM.”
Albany Common Council Members Barbara Smith and Dominick Calsolaro
Terror Case Bias Alleged
Albany council members call for Justice Department review of FBI prosecutions of Muslims
(L-R) Councilman Calsolaro is joined by President Faith Takes on their recent tour.