By CAROL DeMARE, Times Union Staff writer
First published: Sunday, December 30, 2001 

Urban League closes The board of directors of the Urban League of Northeastern New York dissolved the 25-year-old civil rights and job-training organization in October after serious financial woes uprooted plans and hopes for the league to become a leading force behind the redevelopment of Arbor Hill.

Aaron Dare, the league's executive director and the impetus behind a $40 million plan for the revitalization of Arbor Hill, was gone before the ship sank. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer barred him for 10 years from financial or policy-making roles with any charity in the state for mismanaging Urban League funds.

Meanwhile, the former long-vacant Gateway Commons building on Henry Johnson Boulevard was purchased by the city for $2.1 million, from a bankrupt subsidiary of the Urban League, and transformed into the new Public Safety Building. It houses the city's Department of Buildings and Code Enforcement and the command staff and administrative services units of the police and fire departments under Public Safety Commissioner John C. Nielsen.

source:  Albany Times Union