politics (specifically that of the newly created county executive position); the loss of Corning (and eventually the political machine) led to a lack of interest in city politics. Gerald Jennings surprised many by his victory in the mayoral election in 1994, and his tenure since then. His tenure has essentially ended the Democratic Party political machine that had been in place since the 1920s. During the 1990s, the State Legislature approved the $234 million "Albany Plan", "a building and renovation project [that] was the most ambitious building project to effect the area since the Rockefeller era." Under the Albany Plan a number of renovation and new building projects were undertaken in the downtown area; many state workers were moved from the Harriman State Office Campus to downtown to add to its density of workers and support city life. Late in the first decade of the 21st century support grew for construction of a long-discussed and controversial Albany Convention Center; as of August 2010, the Albany Convention Center Authority had already purchased 75% of the land needed to build the downtown project. Notes References Bibliography Becker, Martin Joseph. A history of Catholic life in the diocese of Albany, 1609-1864 (1975) Greenberg, Brian. Worker and Community: Response to Industrialization in a Nineteenth Century American City, Albany, New York, 1850-1884 (SUNY Press, 1980) Hackett, David G. The Rude Hand of Innovation: Religion and Social Order in Albany, New York, 1652-1836 (Oxford University Press, 1991) Kenney, Alice P. "Dutch Patricians in Colonial Albany." New York History (1968) 49: 249–283. Kenney, Alice P. "The Transformation of the Albany Patricians, 1778–1860," New York History (1987) 68#2 pp. 151–173 in JSTOR Kenney, Alice P. The Gansevoorts of Albany: Dutch Patricians in the Upper Hudson Valley (Syracuse Univ Press, 1969) Merwick, Donna. Possessing Albany, 1630–1710: The Dutch and English Experiences (1990) excerpt Primary sources 1858, 1859, 1860, 1869