Weekly Member Update - June 29, 2026

Written By Indivisible Albany Team

Let’s start this week with a brief news run down:

  • Late Friday, the Times Union reported that it’s full steam ahead for the Kenwood Data Center project, with the developer announcing plans to rezone the former convent to “light industrial” from its current “mixed-use” designation, somewhat contradicting the assertions of Common Council member Deborah Zamer, who chairs the Council’s Planning, Economic Development & Land Use Committee. While Zamer had predicted that two separate pieces of zoning legislation would need Council approval following “multiple meetings with extensive public comment” — to say the least, we think — the Kenwood developer pitched a much rosier picture to members of the South End Community Collaborative, professing his love for the site in question and assuring all involved that his data center would not raise anyone’s electric rates and would not “draw a major amount of water from the city.” No word on water impacts to the multiple communities outside of the City limits, of course. In any event, as Zamer has pointed out, Governor Hochul’s signature on the Responsible Data Center Development Act — contact Kathy here and tell her to sign it — would impose a one-year moratorium on the development of data centers statewide and would effectively render the Kenwood proposal moot for the time being. Wouldn’t you know it, Zamer has in fact introduced a resolution voicing the Common Council’s support for the RDCDA. That resolution is on the Common Council’s agenda for next Monday, July 6. The City could go farther, of course, and enact a City-wide moratorium, as our friends in the Town of Bethlehem did this week. So did the Duchess County Town of East Fishkill.

    • Polling by Ipsos, Gallup and Pew Research demonstrate a broad bipartisan consensus against data center development, with Democrats particularly leery of the environmental and quality of life impacts that data centers bring along with them. And, when people are asked specifically about data center development in their own communities, the opposition becomes vociferous, with more than 70% of respondents — and a full three-quarters of Democrats — voicing an objection. Maybe its just us, but based on what we’re hearing about the Kenwood project, we think the polls may actually be underselling data center opposition.

    • On Wednesday, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act, the House companion to Senate legislation sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders which would pause the construction of new data centers and the expansion of existing data centers until Congress passes comprehensive legislation to address the economic, environmental, and safety impacts of data centers and artificial intelligence. Among the co-sponsors of AOC’s bill are fellow “squad” member Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), and progressive stalwarts Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04) and Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07). Sanders has also proposed that the American people take a 50% share in AI companies like Anthropic and Open AI in order to give the public a majority say in corporate governance and a share of AI profits. Contrast this with the silence and inaction (so far) by Governor Hochul on the data center issue; the contrast could not be starker.

  • This past Thursday, the Supreme Court of the United States sided with the Trump Regime and permitted it to end Temporary Protected Immigration Status to more than 350,000 Haitian and Syrian nationals, subjecting people who have resided peacefully and lawfully in this Country for years and years to job loss and potential deportation. Of course, the 6-3 majority opinion was issued by the same half-dozen Justices that overturned Roe v Wade four years ago this past week, and it is also same group of Justices that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act in the odious Callais decision earlier this year and, in 2024, granted Trump broad Presidential immunity for his crimes. This coming week, those same six could very well decide that Trump gets to take away birthright citizenship.

    • Relatedly, we think, broad swaths of the American public are in favor of Supreme Court reform; 70+% of Americans favor mandatory retirement ages and term limits for SCOTUS Justices, and nearly 50% — and 66% of Democrats — favor Court expansion.

    • Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hasn’t said much about SCOTUS reform since 2024, when he proposed, among other tepid measures, a binding code of ethics for SCOTUS Justices. On the other (left) hand, as part of his far-reaching Defend Democracy Agenda, insurgent Democratic Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner has proposed an end to lifetime SCOTUS appointments, with staggered, time-limited terms in their place, as well as Court expansion. Progressive Michigan Senate Candidate Abdul Al-Sayed has proposed similar measures, as has the progressive Minnesota Lieutenant Governor and Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan.

  • Last Tuesday, ICE agents came to an election polling location in Syracuse to confront a poll worker about an Instagram post she had made in January echoing news reports identifying Jonathan Ross as the ICE agent who shot protester Renee Good in Minnesota. The ICE agents implied that the poll worker’s Instagram post was illegal and demanded she remove it. She refused. ICE agents also tracked a Rochester father to the NYC hotel he and his daughter were staying in on the way home from Finland. Why you ask? The father had sent an angry and disparaging — but not threatening — email to the acting Director of ICE following the murders of Good and Alex Pretti. In other news, The Intercept has reporting on how the FBI has tried to turn ICE protestors outside Newark’s Delaney Hall into paid informants. In Texas, the Prarieland Nine, a collection of anti-ICE protestors who have been labeled “Antifa terrorists” by the federal government, were sentenced, thanks to the “terrorism enhancement” of the federal sentencing guidelines, to excessively long prison terms of between 30 to 100 years. Meanwhile, ICE’s reign of terror continues and, if Stephen Miller has his way, they’ll soon be unleashed on the Haitian population of Springfield, Ohio. And, lest we forget, the mortality rate for people in ICE custody has skyrocketed during Trump’s second-term mass-deportation campaign, with more people in ICE custody than ever before, and with the conditions inside facilities like Delaney Hall ever more abhorrent.

We chose to talk about these three topics with intention, as all three were major news this week, but we could have also discussed a host of other issues where public sentiment has merged with leftist politics. Tax the rich? 80% of Americans say that the wealthy wield too much political influence, and 61% want to raise their taxes. Medicare for all? Ninety percent of Democrats want it, and two-thirds of all voters agree. Universal child care? Seventy-four percent say it’s a good use of tax dollars. What about the need for affordable housing? Seventy-nine percent of us say that the cost of housing is an extremely or very important issue, 84% support expanded access to affordable home financing, 70% want to ban large corporations and investors from monopolizing housing supply, and 63% of voters say they would be more likely to vote for their elected if they passed legislation to build more affordable homes and lower housing costs. In poll after poll after poll, Americans are telling their elected representatives where they are. Is it any wonder, then, why voters are increasingly electing Democratic Socialists and other FDR-style progressives who are willing to meet them where they are?

One would think that, in a time where Democratic Party favorability is routinely under water by 20 to 30 points, the Democratic establishment might see a glimmer of hope and optimism in the energy and engagement that this new wave of socialist and progressive candidates are bringing to the electorate. But apparently not. In the wake of the thorough trouncing that Mamdani-endorsed progressive and Democratic Socialist candidates laid down on establishment types this past Tuesday, the Democratic Party was not amused. Former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison essentially called on Democratic Socialists and other insurgents to leave “our Party.” Suozzi, Gillen and others made a Promise to America to never stop doing what they’ve been doing for decades with little to show for it. Cajun curmudgeon James Carville, who hasn’t had a new idea since 1992, called for a Democrat/Democratic Socialist “schism.” As if splitting the party in half is a ticket to electoral success in a two-party system? So much for vote-blue-no-matter-who, apparently.

In our view, Mayor Mamdani had it exactly right when he said to MSNow’s Chris Hayes, “What is the Democratic Party, if not its voters?” The undercurrent in so much of the Democratic Party handwringing following Tuesday night is a disdainful paternalism over the Party’s own voters; only the Party leaders know what is best. Only the Party establishment knows how to win. It’s as if the votes cast by those Democratic voters who are dissatisfied with the status quo do not stand for anything; why don’t these silly and naive voters understand that Democrats can only win if they tack to the center, to that sweet spot just a smidge left of where the neo-fascist Republicans are? It worked for Bill Clinton back in the day, so let’s just keep doing it again.

The Democratic Party establishment needs to understand that a new era borne of the shattering horror of Trump 2.0 is upon us. As The Guardian eloquently put it, “socialism is no longer a dirty word, criticism of Israel is no longer taboo and dissatisfaction with Democratic leaders in the Donald Trump era runs deep. Voters are thirsty for energy, fight and fresh ideas.” The Democratic electorate is no longer interested in being told what the focus groups want or in moderating their view of what might be possible. The old ideas helped bring us to this terrible place, and now it is time for something different to take us out of it. Now, don’t get us wrong, the Party still has a place for the Cait Conleys and the Blake Gendebiens where necessary, and we’ll even hold our noses and hope that folks like Suozzi and Gillen hold their seats, for now. But the days of the Party telling the voters what is best are starting to fade in the rearview; whether it’s electing Democratic Socialists up and down the line in NYC and elsewhere, or whether it’s electing an unheralded female public defender over two establishment types for Albany County Judge, the voters of Democratic Party are making it clear that the endorsement of centrist Party apparatchiks is increasingly meaningless. It’s a new era and we’re here for it.

The (Past Couple of) Week(s) in Flock

June has seen a flurry of victories across the Country for the DeFlock movement:

  • In the City of South Portland, Maine, the City Council voted on June 11 to disable the seven Flock surveillance cameras in the City. In May, South Portland had disconnected from Flock’s national database and restricted data sharing to Maine law enforcement agencies only. However, despite evidence that South Portland’s Flocks had helped police solve some major crimes and locate some missing persons, the City concluded that the potential for misuse of the camera data outweighed the cameras’ benefits, “The only way to make sure the data is not misused is to not collect it to begin with” said South Portland’s Mayor.

  • Meanwhile, in the central Maine City of Auburn, three Republican lawmakers are gathering signatures for a ballot proposal to ban Flock cameras in the City and override a March determination by City officials to fund the installation of Flocks in Auburn neighborhoods. One of those Maine Republicans, State Representative David Boyer, has submitted a bill which would ban ALPR usage for all purposes statewide except toll collection.

  • Closer to home, the Village of Cayuga Hills followed the lead of neighboring localities like Ithaca and Tompkins County and voted on June 17 to let the Village’s contract with Flock lapse when it comes up for renewal in September.

  • Out in Minnesota, the City Council of the City of Columbia Heights, northeast of Minneapolis, voted unanimously on June 8 to terminate its contract with Flock and remove that City’s 12 surveillance cameras. Notably, out of concern that Flock data was shared with federal immigration enforcement, City officials had previously attempted to restrict access to the data collected by Flock cameras by turning off national data sharing in January, and then statewide data sharing in February. Nonetheless, the City’s Mayor concluded that Flock had failed to provide sufficient information about who could still access Columbia Heights’ data, “Our police department and our IT department really has locked down that information as much as possible,” the Mayor said. “Yet there’s still too many unknowns.”

  • Due east of Columbia Heights, the police chief of the City of Shorewood, Minnesota reported to the City’s Council that its contract with Flock has been terminated effective at the end of 2026, reducing by half what had originally been a two-year agreement with Flock.

  • The City Council of Bishop, California voted to cancel that City’s Flock contract, following discussions over the effectiveness of the surveillance system and community concerns over privacy and data collection. Bishop officials are now looking for an alternative vendor with greater data privacy protections. Good luck with that, Bishop.

  • The police department in the Boston suburb of Framingham has elected to not renew its contract with Flock when it expires tomorrow, yielding to months of public debate and committed citizen advocacy.

  • Following six months of public outcry, the City of Fort Collins, Colorado has directed its personnel to immediately stop the collection of Flock data, cancel the City’s Flock contract, remove the City’s 15 surveillance cameras as quickly as possible and not entertain new bids for other ALPRs until a citywide surveillance policy can be enacted.

That’s eight separate municipalities in the month of June alone, all showing the way for the Cities of Albany and Troy, as well as the other localities in the 518 that have contracted with Flock surveillance. Speaking of Troy, the Wall Street Journal used that fair City as the focal point in its own deep-dive reporting on the Nationwide Backlash Against Cameras Watching Your Car, and the Collar City now appears to be in an interregnum period as Spring turns to Summer. Recall that, amid widespread public outcry over Flock surveillance in the City, the City Council introduced Local Law #3 in an attempt to regulate ALPR use in the City and directed the City Auditor to cease payments to Flock in the interim. This Council action prompted Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello to declare a ludicrous state of emergency — now in its 89th day — in order to override the City Council and keep the Flock funds flowing. The City Council, in turn, sued Mayor Mantello to vacate her state of emergency and then proposed Local Law #4 to constrain Mantello and future Troy Mayors from abusing their emergency powers. As the City Council’s lawsuit awaits the Mayor’s response on July 29, the Council passed a resolution this past Thursday to schedule a series of public hearings on Local Law #4, which resolution the Mayor apparently promptly vetoed, necessitating yet another City Council meeting tonight to get the public hearings back on the calendar. Meanwhile, the Mayor and the Council have agreed to a ceasefire where Local Law #3 is concerned, agreeing in late May to a 60-day “pause” — due to end in late July — on consideration of the proposed ALPR regulatory scheme in order to provide the City police with an opportunity to come forward with data demonstrating the surveillance cameras’ efficacy. And still, Troy’s cameras keep clicking away.

And the cameras keep clicking in the City of Albany as well. By our count, there are at least 50 Flock cameras in and around the City of Albany, from the SUNY campus, down Western and Washington Avenues, and at every thoroughfare leading into Washington Park. They’re at New Scotland and South Main, at Holland and Hackett, and on Central by Everett Road. They’re in West Hill and Arbor Hill, and they watch over the entrance to the Albany Skyway. They peer over Corning Preserve from Quay Street, and overlook Lincoln Park from Morton Ave. Most neighborhoods seem to have at least one and, while some of those watchful eyes are undoubtedly courtesy of the Albany County Sheriff, we also know that then-Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan executed a contract with Flock Surveillance in June 2024 which obliged the City to pay $47,000 in year one and $40,500 every year thereafter in exchange for 10 Flock Falcon fixed-installation cameras, plus an additional “Falcon Flex” mobile units. The contract went into effect on January 1, 2025 and was set to run through the end of 2025, with the City having the option to extend the contract for three one-year intervals beginning in 2026. The FOIL response which the City provided to us this past Spring had no documentation concerning the City’s 2026 renewal of the contract but, guessing from the proliferation of the cameras on our City streets, we’re assuming that the contract was not only renewed, but likely expanded to include more cameras and more taxpayer dollars. We’re following up with the City on that point. One other thing that’s notable about this contract, at least as it was when entered into in 2024, is that, unlike Flock’s contract with the City of Troy, Albany’s contract has a termination clause which affords the City with the right to terminate the contract, and any services performed by Flock pursuant thereto, upon 30 days written notice. We’re really hoping that the City didn’t unwittingly negotiate away that termination clause when it renewed at the beginning of this year, as Flock has famously amended its standard terms and conditions in 2026, to the severe disadvantage of its municipal customers. If you’re interested in seeing the City of Albany’s contract with Flock surveillance, it’s now posted on our website for all the world to see.

Beginning on August 16, 2026, there will be a National Week of Action Against ALPRs and, coincidentally, the Albany Common Council is scheduled to hold a regular meeting on the evening of August 17. We know the Common Council has a lot on its plate right now what with the data centers and bus depots and such, but we’re thinking that it’s probably time for Flock surveillance to become a subject of the Common Council’s consideration and deliberation. Of course, the Applyrs administration could be proactive about this, learn from the experience of its sister City up River, and follow the lead of Auburn Maine, Columbia Heights Minnesota and more than 70 other cities across the Country, and take the initiative to expel the scourge of Flock surveillance from the streets of the City of Albany.

Indivisible Albany Team
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Weekly Member Update - June 22, 2026