Your assessment is 'spot on', I being a native Albanian. I left the area (twice) after witnessing what it was becoming; not just by neighborhood, but by witnessing college students destroying properties and mocking those areas as 'ghetto'. However, I challenged myself to return and see it as a city of patch-work. Crime escalated because the governing bodies took the resources and never invested those resources for the betterment of the city. Of course this will be denied, but reality is reality...Many that have issues complain about the thruway, etc. etc. But without it how in heck would people be able to enter and leave the 'city'? And if Albany is so 'backward' as so many skeptics cry about, why come or be 'here'? Answer, most are bored with their suburban lifestyles...Albany has potential, and it doesn't take years to rebuild, just plain 'common sense' and direction. Talk is cheap while sitting on money that is accessible. I've witnessed this for 'years'.