Since I sat through the public hearing...
I got a column out of it.
I went to last week's Albany Common Council meeting for the vote on the comprehensive plan enabling legislation. Ironically, I didn't even get to stay for it because the meeting was so long and my daughter was demanding my presence for bedtime routines. But along the way I found myself inexorably, reluctantly getting drawn into the drama that was unfolding in the pair of lengthy public hearings that were happening before the regular council business, muttering under my breath about comments that didn't make sense and jotting down questions about points of law. This always happens to me.
It started off seeming like a familiar deal: There's a proposal to rezone some land from residential to commercial. Neighbors show up and say they're opposed and want to protect the residential character of their neighborhood. But once the city's lawyer took his turn answering questions, it became clear that this was far from ordinary:
It is worth remembering that some of the issues that seem the most abstract have very real, identifiable specific effects on us all the time. Take “corporate personhood,” a favorite hobby horse of corporate accountability and pro-democracy activists. It’s a phrase that never came up once in the public hearings on some rezoning bills before last week’s Albany Common Council meeting, but nevertheless it was hanging heavy over the whole discussion.