Albany

There are 29 posts filed in Albany (this is page 1 of 3).

Same Credentials, Different Outcomes: Race and Homeownership in New York State

As a child in the 1950s, I lived in the New Jersey suburbs near New York City. Although the metropolitan area was racially diverse, the suburbs were not. I first lived in Wood-Ridge, a small town where none of my schoolmates were Black or Hispanic. In 1958, my family moved to Maplewood, adjacent to Newark, which had a large Black population. Yet only six of the 550 students in my high school graduating class were Black. The deed to the house my parents bought included a racial covenant, unenforceable by then but still present in the legal paperwork of suburban homeownership. Sixty-five years later, I pulled Census microdata for New York State and calculated homeownership rates by race, education, income, and metropolitan area. The results were striking: in New York State, a Black college-educated householder is still less likely to own a home than a White householder who never finished high school. Equal credentials do not produce equal outcomes.

The Proposed Albany Soccer Stadium – The Problem of Capital Financing

In two earlier posts, I examined the proposed downtown Albany soccer stadium. In the first, I discussed its possible role in Albany’s redevelopment and the likely difficulties it would face in generating operating profits. In the second, I briefly discussed the impact of the stadium’s capital costs on profitability. In this post, I examine possible financing structures for the proposed stadium and their impact on project viability.

The Proposed Albany Soccer Stadium – Why Scale and Financing Matter

In an earlier piece, The Proposed Downtown Albany Soccer Stadium: Potential Risks and Benefits, I considered the financial viability of the proposed facility. Although a hypothetical model showed a likely operational deficit, under more optimistic assumptions, the proposal might be viable. But the analysis did not account for the reality that the stadium’s capital costs […]

The Proposed Downtown Albany Soccer Stadium: Potential Risks and Benefits

Developers have proposed building a soccer stadium as part of a redevelopment of an underutilized section of Albany’s downtown, Liberty Park, near the MVP arena, often called “the parking lot district.” The proposal would include a 7,500-seat stadium, along with commercial development and up to 1,000 new housing units. Although details of the project proposal have not been made available to the public, one report indicates that the project sponsors are seeking $150 million in public support from the state, city, and county towards the $600 million project.

In this post, I take a closer look at the proposal, with its potential impacts, benefits, and risks. In it, I examine the financial viability of the proposal.

Students Outside New York City Underperform on State Tests

The poor academic performance of students in city schools has been a long-standing concern. When students struggle to acquire essential skills, it can significantly hinder their ability to compete successfully in the job market as adults. Large city schools tend to have high concentrations of economically disadvantaged students. In fact, over three-quarters of students in […]

Student Performance in Upstate Cities in 2022-2023: Combined Data

The academic performance of disadvantaged students has long been of concern. In district-operated schools outside New York City, only 31% of disadvantaged students passed the state’s grades 3-8 student evaluations in mathematics and English language arts in 2022-2023. Sixty-one percent of students who were not disadvantaged passed. In schools with high percentages of disadvantaged students, […]

The Poor Performance of Disadvantaged Students on New York’s English Language Exam at District-Operated and Charter Schools in Upstate Cities

The poor performance of economically disadvantaged students, particularly those in schools with high percentages of needy students, has long been a concern. In my first post, I examined the performance of disadvantaged students on the state’s grades three through eight mathematics exam at district-operated and charter schools in large upstate New York cities. In these […]

Students in Large Upstate Cities Performed Poorly on the Most Recent State Assessments

Historically, economically disadvantaged students have performed poorly on the State’s annual Student Assessments. That pattern continued in the 2022-2023 school year. On the State’s Grades 3-8 mathematics examination, only 30% of students in districts where 80% of students were economically disadvantaged were rated proficient, on average, compared with 70% of students in districts where 20% […]