Albany Chief City Auditor Dorcey Applyrs speaks at a 2024 City Hall news conference. Applyrs is running in a June Democratic primary for Albany mayor.

When Dorcey Applyrs and I were figuring out where to meet, she suggested Hood’s House of Hoops on First Street in the West Hill neighborhood.

Why there?

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“This is where the rubber meets the road,” said the Albany mayoral candidate, currently the city’s chief auditor.

Hood’s House of Hoops operates as a sort of nonprofit community center, offering safety and indoor basketball for the neighborhood’s kids and a place for residents of all ages to gather. From Applyrs' point of view, such places are key to addressing Albany’s crime and disinvestment problems.

It is also, as it happens, a building where Applyrs is quite popular. Seniors gathered in a downstairs hall greeted “Miss Dorcey” with hugs and asked for a speech. Upstairs, the center’s operator, Jamil Hood, emerged from his office to shower Applyrs with praise.

“There’s something with Dorcey where it’s, we’re going to get it done,” Hood told me. “We’re in such a neglected area, and Dorcey knows the importance of making things happen........

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