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As policymakers and the wider Albany public debate how best to revitalize our city’s downtown core with historic investments from the governor and Legislature, one asset stands out as the best option for repurpose: the New York state Education Department building.

As the education department’s own website attests, this neoclassical monument was purpose-built to house the state Library and Museum before they were moved to the far end of the Empire State Plaza. The time has come to undo this mistake.

New York is blessed with an overabundance of history and cultural influence. Simply put, there’s more to learn about New York than can fit in a single museum. Therefore, we should divide it: Let one focus on arts, culture and society, and another focus on natural history, science and technology. One museum can remain in its current location and the second can reoccupy the state education building, as originally intended.

Our state’s story can be more clearly told and understood when one doesn’t have to leap from mastodon to marriage equality.

NYSED will argue against its removal, but they must make a case for how their mission is served by working out of this palace. Downtown Albany has ample vacant office space, but no other building exists like this one: premade for exhibitions, perfectly placed, and primed for public use. There’s absolutely zero educational or economic benefit from housing the education department in its current location.

A second state museum, on the other hand, would draw more visitors downtown, keep them there longer, and provide them a more comprehensive understanding of our history.

Published Aug. 18, 2025

Our country has embraced a culture of punishment. That a young woman in Albany County faces a sentence of one to three years in prison for criminally negligent homicide speaks to our moment. According to the Times Union, the woman took the plea deal to answer charges arising from suffering a seizure while driving. She crossed into oncoming traffic and struck another vehicle head-on. The other driver was killed.

The death was a tragedy, one repeated more than 100 times a day every day on our nation’s roads. The young woman evidently made a........

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