Descrizione

People are being run out of the park by holiday lights organizers. WE HAVE A RIGHT TO WALK IN A PUBLIC PARK. This is how many of us travel to get from home to work and back.

Area restaurants and businesses are desperate to survive in pandemic times and the holidays are our best hope but the traffic chaos caused by Holiday Lights is turning away customers! Even curbside pick up is impacted because no one wants to be stuck in the traffic on Madison Avenue.

Then the police have the audacity to send out a Nixle notice telling people to avoid this area or take another route due to the lights! Retail and restaurants NEED HOLIDAY WEEKEND business! What is wrong with the city?!

All told, there are several thousand residents being negatively impacted by this event due to the traffic, blocked roadways, blocked parking spaces that WE PAY FOR, the exhaust from idling cars, the headlights and police lights coming in through our windows all night, the honking by furious drivers, the buses being delayed, emergency vehicles not able to get through the park, down Madison or down Willett, and discouraging any traffic to the area other than those attending the light display. Get this event out of here for future years. An urban park in a residential area is not an appropriate location and never was.

This is also tearing up our park annually with the large trucks that come in and cause permanent damage to trees and tear deep troughs in the ground that are never fixed. This is an historic park and critical resource that needs protecting.

A coalition of city residents, organized this campaign to "illuminate and counteract the human suffering exacerbated by Capital Holiday Lights in the Park, revealing the dissonance between our Mayor’s stated priorities and the city’s fiscal choices." In response, they call the campaign Human Rights in the Park. https://www.gofundme.com/f/HumanRightsInThePark

Please Albany city officials, it's time to move this event going forward. Do the right thing.