Erastus Corning 2nd

This is the political machine of legendary graft, which ran the city and county of Albany for about 70 years from the early 20s to the early 90s.

And the machine outlived both O'Connell, the party boss, and its mayor of 41 years, Erastus Corning II.

And if you're going to get something done in Albany, you got to wet some beaks.

So Rockefeller initially rejects, but then exceeds to an arrangement of creative legality in which the state funds the project on a lease purchase arrangement, which doesn't finally resolve itself until 2004.

So basically, even during construction, the project is teaching a Buddhist lesson, which is the lesson of detachment, detachment from money.

And so it detaches a lot of money.

First of all, the mayor's insurance company underwrites the project because oddly enough, no other insurance companies win insurance contracts involving anything governmental in Albany.

The project is rife with No-show jobs or show-up-and-do-nothing jobs.