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East Greenbush

Imagine the shock of learning, out of the blue, that your residential street is the proposed home for a $300 million casino.

Then imagine discovering that your elected officials have quietly passed a resolution needed to build the project, potentially the biggest development in your town's history, without notifying you or any of your neighbors of the plan or the vote.

Quite a one-two punch, right?

So let's send our condolences to the residents of Thompson Hill Road in East Greenbush, who this month suffered exactly that scenario. If an East Greenbush casino gets built, their quiet suburban neighborhood will never be the same.

"It would not only change the street, but the entire character of the town," said Patrick Bergmann, who grew up on Thompson Hill Road and lives there now, in a brick ranch home.

Let's back up. The Capital Region, as you no doubt know, is the likely home for one of four upstate casinos, as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's plan to open the state to gambling. Saratoga Casino and Raceway had hoped to expand its racino in Saratoga Springs, but looked elsewhere when locals opposed the plan.

The partnership landed in East Greenbush.

Specifically, a site on Thompson Hill Road, near Walmart.

And in what could only be a remarkable coincidence — wink, wink — the East Greenbush Town Board unanimously backed casino development in the town just days before Saratoga Casino and Raceway went public with its plan. The vote was crucial because the state wants proof of local casino support.

The item was a late add to the board's agenda. There was no advance notice of the vote and no public hearing. There was nothing like the process David Flaum, the developer proposing a casino at Thruway Exit 23, is undertaking in advance of an Albany Common Council vote.

"It was a little fishy," Bergmann said.

Oh, it certainly was. It was also outrageous and offensive. It reeks of the worst kind of insider government. It was developer and town officials working hand in hand — with total disregard for a good and open process.

On Monday, I walked along Thompson Hill Road and knocked on the doors of all 11 houses there. I figured I'd take the neighborhood's pulse on the project.

It's a nice place to spend a spring afternoon. The road rises high above Route 4 and offers tremendous views of Albany and the Helderberg Escarpment. Most of the homes cluster on the southern half of the road, near Mannix Road, while the northern half, where the casino would be built, is less developed.

I talked with six homeowners, and all but one was against the casino. (The opponent wanted to be anonymous, for fear of offending his neighbors.) Nearly all seemed gobsmacked by what town officials had done.

"It just amazes me the way they did it," said Kay Bergmann, who is Patrick's mother and lives a few doors away. "I've never heard of such a thing."

"I'm not anti-casino," said Dan Bazinet, another Thompson Hill resident, "but putting it in a suburban neighborhood is a different matter."

Thompson Hill residents aren't new to opposing development. Many noted the ongoing construction of a 23-unit housing development on the street, which some in the neighborhood bitterly oppose.

That project is owned by Larry Davis, who also owns a grand mansion on road's northern end. The house, built in 1820, is the corporate headquarters of Davis' company, CommSoft, and would be the casino's closest neighbor.

Davis isn't pleased by the proximity. And he believes the casino might hurt sales at his residential project — because it isn't clear that anyone would willingly live so close to a casino. Still, Davis doesn't oppose the project.

"It it were proposed on the other side of town, I'd be 100 percent behind it," he said. "I try not to be hypocritical, so when it's in my back yard I can't really complain."

That's an interesting take. It's also possible Davis might feel differently if he lived in the neighborhood.

So here's the final, admittedly incomplete Thompson Hill Road tally: six against and two in favor.

That's hardly surprising. It's a safe bet, I think, that few residential neighborhood in the Capital Region, or anywhere else, would welcome a casino.

And obviously, sentiment on Thompson Hill Road doesn't represent the overall town. It's just opinion from the East Greenbush street that would be most affected by the project — the people who learned, without warning, that a casino could be their newest neighbor.

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