Give The Albany Crowne Plaza Hotel a Break-A Tax Break! [AUDIO]

Actually, this headline is now old news.  According to the Albany Times Union, "a city economic development panel has approved a $14.3 million property tax break over the next 30 years for the Albany Crowne Plaza Hotel.  This is big news, people!

Downtown Albany has been a struggle over the years.  I've had the privilege of playing in piano bars in the mid 80's down there, and it was a struggle even then.  A struggle to make it a thriving part of the area.  The suburbs started to become the center of  Capital Region  night life, despite the beauty and charm of some of the old downtown buildings and the general environment of this city.

Fast forward to 2011.  We have a major convention center, a beautiful stadium and hotels in the area.  We have the nuts and bolts in place, but in the meantime some of the structures are starting to show their age.  The Crowne Plaza Hotel, from what they've been saying, is one of them.   Actually, I didn't notice it when I was down there last year filming our own Jeff Levack repelling off the side of it!  But I guess it needs some sprucing up.

So I took some liberties with an old Elvis song and tried to explain the issue musically.  (What other Elvis song could you use if you want to talk about a hotel?--3 guesses here!)

(Apologies to Mayor Jennings in advance for remarks about his tan, but he knows we always rib him when we see him, so there should no surprises)

Anyway, to sum up, I personally hope that this beautiful hotel gets it's facelift, and that the city continues to grow and that the dream is realized- a showcase city in the capital of New York State, for gosh sakes!

Oh, and a big P.S. here.  The Crowne Plaza does great charity work, like their work for Special Olympics.  They have a great event coming up, by the way.  For more information about "Over The Edge", click and read!