Business and peculiarity owners ar...

Business and peculiarity owners are usually enthusiastic about downtown revitalization, nevertheless in Albany, N.Y., they could not level wait for a Business Improvement District (BID) to be propos before jump-starting efforts to make the city more attractive.

Capitalize Albany, the city's revitalization effort, participated in a "Downtown Clean Up Day," a first-of-its kind marked occurrence for the city. Wearing Capitalize Albany T-shirts, city and community leaders l by dint of example and spent the day picking up trash and sweeping the downtown roads

Then, downtown business and estate owners pooled their resources to stock "The Capitalize Albany Clean Team," a uniformed team that picked up litter, cleaned sidewalks and acted as an information resource for downtown visitors. The team operated daily from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 pm for a 12-week period through every part of the summer. About 40 downtown businesses participated in the program, donating $26000 to pay for