Mayor: Move Holiday Lights in Park
Sheehan says annual tradition too disruptive
Mayor Kathy Sheehan would like Capital Holiday Lights in the
Park moved out of Washington Park next year, for its 25th anniversary.
An ideal spot, she said, would be the W. Averell Harriman state office campus on the city ’s western reaches, although, as state land, it is not within the city ’s purview to grant permission for relocation there.
In the shorter term, Sheehan’s
administration is working to reduce traffic congestion by insisting Lights in the Park’s sponsor and beneficiary, the Albany Police Athletic League, institute a timed reservation system for admission, at least on weekends for the remainder of the season, which ends Jan. 3, Sheehan said.
She said she hoped it could be in place by this coming weekend. The current online ticketing system does not specify admission time. Tickets cost from $25, for a private vehicle with up to nine passengers, to $125 for a commercial bus.
“The sheer volume of traffic … it’s unacceptable,” Sheehan said.
Lenny Ricchiuti, executive director of PAL, did not immediately return a message seeking a response on Monday. But he did speak recently about the recent popularity of the annual event.
“We have a lot of folks who are happy to see us every year and a lot of folks who are not happy to see us,” Ricchiuti said. “I don’t think it’s that different from people who live around parks like The Crossings (in Coloinie) or Tawasentha (in Guilderland). They’re affected by what goes on there, just like people in Altamont are when the fair is going on every summer,” he said.
The annual Lights in the Park event, which has grown from 30 festive illuminated displays during its first season, in 1997, to 126 today, has attracted between 100,000 and 125,000 visitors annually in recent years, according to PAL. The event is PAL’S principal fundraiser for a $1.2 million annual budget that covers programs including afterschool events and child care for younger kids to teen mentoring and leadership education.
Largely because of the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on sharply limiting holiday entertainment options, Capital Holiday Lights this year is even busier than in the past, according to Ricchiuti: Of the first 13 nights, starting Nov. 27, eight hold spots as the busiest ever in the event’s history.
And that was before this past weekend, when traffic was essentially gridlocked for at least two hours
on virtually every street in and around the park, including Madison Avenue, Washington Avenue, Willett Street, Henry Johnson Boulevard and Lark Street. At one point this past Saturday night, traffic stretched on Madison from Willett about a mile and a half west, almost to South Main Avenue.
When asked Monday if the best solution for Capital Holiday Lights in the Park next year would be for it to be relocated somewhere more friendly to heavy vehicle traffic and less paralyzing and disruptive to neighborhoods and a public park in the heart of the city, Sheehan said simply, “Yes.”
While Lights in the Park has always required a balancing act between quality-of-life considerations of park-adjacent residents and accommodating a fundraiser for a community organization that all agree provides valuable services to the city ’s youth, Sheehan said, “This year, in particular, the scale has tipped, and we’ve got to really revisit what we’re doing here.”
Richard Conti was elected in 1997, the same year Lights in the Park started, to the city ’s Common Council to represent the Sixth Ward, which covers nearly all of the park and most surrounding neighborhoods. He said he agreed the event has become too popular and should be relocated.
“Having such a large, car-centric event in the middle of a congested
area with one-way streets, where it’s already difficult to maneuver, is contrary to everything we’ve been trying to do to encourage walkability and make the park and the surrounding neighborhoods pedestrianfriendly,” Conti said.
A resident of the Center Square neighborhood, with a home near Lark Street, Conti said he watched during each of the Lights in the Park weekends so far this season as traffic came to a complete standstill.
Delivery drivers and customers of restaurants near the park who were trying to access takeout or curbside pickup, the lifeblood of restaurants as more close their dining rooms, reported 20- and 30-minute delays. The Seeclickfix app, which allows city residents to report problems, contains accounts of people being late to work because of stopped CDTA buses and of others abandoning buses to hurry the remaining blocks, to get to work to get home to relieve babysitters.
Jason Pierce, owner of Savoy Taproom on Lark Street, said his restaurant has suffered multiple negative effects of Lights in the Park. The restaurant, currently offering only takeout and delivery, depends on customers and delivery drivers being able to pick up food. Lights in the Park traffic makes half-hour delays common, frustrating customers and likely affecting drivers’ tips.
“I’ve never seen it this bad,” Pierce said.