"On August 1, 1961, the Temporary State Commission on the Capital City held the first of two public hearings on Albany’s rehabilitation. (Eight months later, of course, the Commission would approve Gov. Rockefeller’s plan to demolish 98 acres in downtown Albany for the South Mall.) The hearing, held on a sweltering night in the un-air-conditioned Chancellors Hall in the State Education Building, lasted from 8:00 to 11:00pm."

"In the audience was 35-year-old George W. Harder, Jr. A native of Albany and a World War II Navy veteran, Harder had left the area in 1954 for an FBI job. He returned to Albany earlier in 1961 to start a law practice. He later said that he had intended only to sit and listen as others debated Albany’s future. But as the evening went on, he grew more and more frustrated with the Democratic organization’s opposition to redevelopment. Finally, Harder rose as the evening’s last speaker and gave some impromptu remarks. Dismayed by the stagnation he saw in downtown Albany, he mused that “if Henry Hudson were to return to this area, he could look around and say, ‘It hasn’t changed much.’” Harder unfavorably compared retail and office vacancies in the heart of the city with new retail developments, like the Westgate shopping center on the western fringe of Albany. He concluded by blaming Albany’s decline on “man-made blight” and a “lethargic citizenry with a very limited outlook on the future.”

"This incident launched Harder’s career as a political activist. Had he chosen to align himself with boss Dan O’Connell’s Democrats, Harder likely would have won elected office. His father, after all, had been secretary of the statewide Democratic committee, as well as secretary to Lt. Gov. Edwin Corning (the mayor’s father) during the Al Smith administration. Yet Harder chose to challenge the machine’s power by running in 1962 for the Democratic nomination for State Assembly against incumbent Frank Cox. This was the first contested Democratic primary in Albany since 1921."