Hi, I'm Aaron Blair, downtown manager for the City of Albany. And, we're going to talk about some of the initiatives that we're doing to retain some of our younger population in the downtown area and in the city and the region in general. One of the things that we're trying to focus on really to focus on keeping the younger generation here in Albany to live and help Albany prosper in the future.

In most cities you always have a decline in your population as people move out to seek different employment or just activities. So, what we're focusing on and have been focusing on is trying to keep that younger population.

When the students from the three universities, three major universities that we have here in Albany go out to seek jobs and to seek entertainment, you want to make sure that they think of their home town where they're now first. We want to keep them here in Albany and provide events that will cater to their needs, provide some businesses downtown that would cater to their needs. And really, that's just one of the stronger initiatives that we've been pushing.

You'll see us really promote Facebook and Twitter. We're really active on Facebook and Twitter. The reason being is that that generation that's how they communicate. And, we want to communicate with them where they communicate.

Sometimes we'll almost go to the point of being viewed as a AAA baseball team almost to a point of over marketing what we do. But, it's necessary. It's necessary for us to be successful. It's necessary for us to thrive and to keep winning at what we're doing.

And, I think you'll start to see that over the next year as we're developing loft living spaces that cater to the more single or flexible individual to live. But, we won't turn a blind eye to that there are families, young families and families that want to be a part of the urban environment that we're creating in downtown.

But, the key for us for our city and for our region is to retain our younger professionals. They are the ones who are going to promote our city and further advance it in future years.

One of the key initiatives that we're going to have is also attracting new residents to the city. We realize that not all the college students, not all the young professionals are going to stay here. Depending on their trade or what they do for a living it's always the opportunity for some people to leave.

But, there's also the opportunity for us to attract new people. You know, we have a growing hospital field. We have great cultural arts opportunities in the ballet and the symphony and art museum and the riverquarium, all those things that attract people, young professionals for research for various trades that they do.

So, our hope is that we're going to start to attract more people, too. We want people to view Albany as a vibrant place that people can come and be successful and opening a small business and be successful in whatever arena that they are in.

If you have any questions about some of the initiatives that we're doing to keep people and attract people into downtown and into Albany in general, you can always reach us on our website at dtownalbany.com or Facebook and Twitter which is the same, dtownalbany.com.