ALBANY – The old adage suggests you can’t fight City Hall. However, what if City Hall wants to pick a fight with you? A well-known area journalist has found himself in that predicament.

The College of Saint Rose will be shutting down, the Madison and Spectrum Theatres are also closing, ShopRite has pulled out of the region, and a Stewart’s Shop on Central Avenue closed citing crime in that neighborhood.

There have also been four homicides in the city so far this year, all of them domestic, and all of them solved.

When asked if the above-mentioned realities highlighted in the same newspaper column was unfair without listing any positive developments in the city, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said, “It isn’t the full picture.”

Sheehan pointed out that in the same time frame all of those negatives were occurring, a new hotel opened up in downtown Albany, many ribbons have been cut on other new businesses, and new apartments are springing up across the city.

“I do think that taking a moment in time is unfortunate,” she said. “I’d be worried about these businesses, the Spectrum and Madison Theatres were it not for the fact my phone immediately started ringing from individuals who are interested in reopening those spaces.”

Plus, with two new community centers being built, a new swimming pool under construction, and more than 100 new homeowners being created, Sheehan says she is “as optimistic as ever for the city of Albany.”

“We have challenges just like every other city,” she admitted. “It’s how we respond to them. We need to be focusing on business attraction. We need to be highlighting the opportunities that exist, not just in the city of Albany, but throughout the Capital Region.”

In his Tuesday column under the headline “For Albany, the hits keep coming recently,” Times Union Columnist Chris Churchill wrote: “The city remains unable to stem violence that arrived with the pandemic and never departed. It is doing incalculable damage to the city’s soul.”

Churchill goes on to quote William Kennedy’s literary description of the Capital City when he wrote, “Albany is a city of political wizards, splendid nobodies, and underrated scoundrels.”

Churchill added, “This moment does feel especially precarious.”

“I think those comments were intended to be personal,” Sheehan stated. “But I do not know what facts those comments are based on. When a newspaper or anybody focuses on global challenges but lays them at the feet of one city and one mayor, they’re not looking at the whole picture.”

When NewsChannel 13 reached out to Churchill seeking comment, the columnist responded, “Noting the city’s problems and struggles is not a personal attack on the mayor and there is nothing in that column that could be rationally taken as a personal attack. I have nothing personal against the mayor. I’m just worried about the city.”

Sheehan points out crime in the city of Albany is down significantly, including reduced shootings, reduced thefts, and fewer victims.

“These are challenges that I talk with mayors all across the country about,” Sheehan said. “There’s nothing unique to Albany with respect to the fact that we have these challenges.”