Owusu Anane is the son of immigrants from Ghana. Anane has substantially impacted the everyday lives of the people in his neighborhood in the city of Albany. He passed legislation that waived civil service exam application fees for military service veterans and recent high school graduates, co-sponsored legislation that allows residents to have backyard chickens to support sustainable urban farming, and championed the financing and installation of new energy-efficient lighting owned and operated by the city. Anane encourages and assists entrepreneurs in setting up local businesses, facilitates the rehabilitation and sale of properties that have been vacant for over ten years, and secured a dozen bicycle racks for his district.

In addition to these accomplishments, Anane has spearheaded conversations about developing a citywide municipal internet service to address Albany’s digital divide, successfully led a campaign to pressure SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Fuller Road Management Corporation, a sizeable tax-exempt entity, to fulfill their promise to provide $1 million in voluntary contributions to the city after years of neglecting this, and helped defeat a proposed ordinance that would have unnecessarily doubled towing fees. Councilman Anane has also helped lead efforts for police reform in the city of Albany.