These are beautiful, historic houses, being left to deteriorate.

Please keep these beautiful houses in our community!

These houses are too nice to let them go to rot!

Dear Mayor Sheehan, please review the current property tax policy for abandoned building in the City. I read that the City gives property owners a propoerty tax break if the properties are unoccupied. That policy needs to be amended because it is rewarding speculators by making it easy for them to sit on property unnaturally long. Albany needs to start taxing all these abandoned properties based on their locations and not the ruined/abandoned improvements or their vacancy status. Albany prioperty tax policy needs to make speciulation, willful neglect and absenteeism financially painful. Or how about just taxing the owner the full value of the site just like it does to the rest of us. In my neighborhood, one historic tudor house, would pay roughly $10,000 in taxes. If these owners were paying that rate, the City should be getting $100,000+ in tax revenue from this owner alone. That would motivate most owners to do something with the site. I understand its intended to take into account the hardship experienced by some landlords but honestly if a landlord doesn't have the will or financial ability to do something productive with a site then they probably should not be in possesion of it. The property owning, full tax paying residents of our fair City can't afford this policy anymore. Tax them like everyone else and if they can't pay it, move these properties to the Auction block and get them to somebody who will do something with them and generate tax revenue. The current tax policy certainly has not motivated these owners to do anything but willfully neglect the site. These tax policies are actively degrading the City's quality of life and shifting a larger tax burden to/punishing those of us who actually still live and own property in the City and keep our properties in good repair.

The low assessment on these houses (80-90,000) suggests the city views them as tear downs. The area is zoned commercial office, so it is likely the plan is to tear down the homes to build an office building.

That is Picotte's likely plan. The question is, should Albany Med be the driver for the outcomes of ALL the buildings in the city? Should important historical buildings be preserved?

They are still sitting there. There have been multiple articles in the TU and there is lots of public support for saving these houses. But here we go into another winter. Maybe we should change our city's name from Albany to Albany medical center?

Another concerned Albany citizen about the fate of these historic properties. Graffiti is now present on at least one house. How long can the owner be allowed to let them lay fallow and deteriorate?

According to a couple of the articles these are owned by a real estate company out of Colonie. The idea seems to be that they're purposefully letting them rot so they can tear them down and then sell the property. Can't the city eminent domain these to prevent it?

Still nothing.

You all should contact the mayor's office directly - this is definitely concerning.

Here we go into another winter. It's a shame that this goes on.

I am revisiting this issue since no one from the city has yet given a response. Nothing has changed, and the houses continue to deteriorate.

Repeat of the notice from December 17, 2016. We are going into another winter with more deteriorating buildings. When the roof or wall fails, then they will have to come down. Is this called good city planning?

These beautiful houses are one of the finest examples of Tudor architecture in the city of Albany, and yet the City turns a blind eye to a developer who is going to let them rot just to make money off their land. Where is the Historic Albany Foundation in all this? These houses could be used for special residents or for special offices for not-for-profits. Instead, the City looks the other way. Shameful and short-sighted. If the city collected even half the fines from the owners and slumlords for the violations in this seeclickfix website, there would be even more than enough money to fix and preserve these houses AND close up the 12 million dollar deficit.

It would be nice to see these homes saved. I wish the city would acknowledge the issue at least.

Considering that this was first put in seeclickfix in 2014, seems that the City is just going to ignore this whole thread and not acknowledge and let the developers have their way and their precious $. Such greed. Such a loss of history. And I ask again, Where is the Historic Albany Foundation in all this? Jack McEneny? Neil Breslin?
In watching the news tonight, the City of Chicago is pleading for neighbors to speak up and step forward. And here we are as neighbors speaking up, and we are totally ignored.

the city is very good at Ignoring this it wants nothing to do with like this issue

was this fixed?

City continues to ignore the problem.

Does anyone else feel like this website should be called "See/Click" and forget about the "Fix" part? Because this Historic Homes on Holland Ave issue has been on here for FIVE YEARS, and the City is not FIXing. These beautiful homes continue to deteriorate. The same old sidewalks never get shoveled. Even though potholes develop in January, they are repaired only in May, if even then. The same old litter from businesses blows around on the ground. The same old landlords get away with everything. This City needs a website with a chart that shows when the complaint was made AND when/how it was resolved WITHIN 30 days. And, again, for this Holland Ave issue, the Historic Albany Foundation is nowhere to be found.

Thank you for your email. There are no current violations.