There's no shortage of candidates for Albany's sixth ward common council seat. A travel nurse is seeking the Democratic nomination.
Danny Boudreau says he knew he wanted to run for councilor two months before Gabriella Romero ran for and won the 109th district New York state Assembly seat last year.
"I've lived in this community now for nine years. I came here as a travel nurse. I worked at various emergency rooms, including Albany Med. There's been a lot of issues in the city, even pre-COVID, as far as like taking care of people with mental illness or the homeless, and how our community is basically failing them, and that really applies to society as a whole. And just feeling like a lot of times, we're not using common sense solutions to deal with problems, nor are we doing it, helping people in an effective way that would actually make things better for them and for the rest of the people living in the city. So I started becoming interested in running, and then I knew that Gabriella was likely to be elected to the Assembly. I started helping out with a couple campaigns, and I started seriously considering it, and back in September I was actually the first person to announce my candidacy," said Boudreau.
The ward is represented by Richard Conti, who also served from 1997 to 2021, when he decided not to run for another term. Appointed by Mayor Kathy Sheehan to serve as an interim member, Conti rejoined the council January 1st, to finish out Romero's term.
Boudreau works for the New York State Senate as Director of Legislative Health Services.
The 38-year-old says he bases his candidacy on the premise common sense is needed to heal the neighborhood, because too often people are so fixated on particular issues, rather than making an effort to talk with residents about their day-to-day concerns.
"We have a lot of vacant storefronts, so it's a little bit different, because there's different concerns," Boudreau said. "Like you have, I guess you would say, young people, that they want the community to be vibrant and fun. And a lot of people actually moved here for that, that sense of the community and having a fun nightlife. But then you also have people that, you know, they like Washington Park being nearby. We have a very special neighborhood. I feel like one of the most pressing issues is that the quality of life has gone down, as far as like, packages being stolen. There's times where we've seen people defecating in the streets, and there's times where, like, the panhandling’s aggressive. I've been assaulted on Madison Avenue. That stuff wasn't happening before. And over the past couple years, it's now starting to become part of the norm, so much so that I have a lot of friends that are talking about moving. And you know, when I moved here, it's like the friends and the my friends have become family, and they don't want to move, but they're worried that things won't get better. So those are the things that I believe I can address on the common council."
Boudreau says he hit the streets early in efforts to garner support, and if elected he would build relationships with local neighborhood associations, the Washington Park Conservancy and Lark Street BID in efforts to get the entities all on the same page in the interest of staging events and creating activities that would benefit the ward.
"I'm going to continue putting that hard work in knocking on doors and then knocking on more doors," said Boudreau.
The 6th Ward includes the Center Square neighborhood, encompassing Washington Park on its west side running from South Lake Avenue southeast to South Swan Street, bordered on the southwest by Myrtle Avenue and on the northeast by State Street and Washington Avenue.
Petitioning is under way for the June 24th primary.
