Despite renewed interest in government consolidation at the state level and elsewhere, Altmar would be only the 38 village to be dissolved in New York since 1920, according to the New York State Conference of Mayors. The last one dissolved in Central New York was in 1979.

       Several residents quoted in the Post Standard complained there were no village services, including water or sewer or street maintenance, in return for the taxes they paid. One said that village residents tried to dissolve it 25 years ago, but the petition was allowed to lapse at the time. Altmar was first incorporated in 1876, and a fire in 1885 destroyed most of the village existing at that time, according to village historian Florence Gardner, who was quoted in the article.

by Evan Lowenstein, Green Village Consulting 

On a recent summer, 230 Greater Rochesterians journeyed to the historic George Eastman House's Dryden Theatre to watch and discuss a documentary about the importance of transportation choice to America's revitalization.

This screening of Beyond the Motor City, organized by Empire State Future and ESF Coalition member Rochester Regional Community Design Center (www.rrcdc.org), was followed by a panel and audience discussion featuring eight local and state transportation experts and advocates.

Beyond the Motor City is part of the PBS initiative Blueprint America, a groundbreaking (pardon the pun) investigation and illumination of the frightening plight of America's aging, overburdened, and neglected infrastructure. Beyond the Motor City delves deeply into the most distressing and certainly the most ironic case of poor urban/regional planning, misallocation of resources, and infrastructure-driven inequity--Detroit, Michigan. The city that gave us the "freedom" of the automobile now suffers terribly from the economic, ecological, and social wreckage--and lost freedoms--that automobile-driven culture and community development has created.

The statewide coalition of 39 member organizations that's been leading the citizen effort to improve New York's economic and civic potential through Smart Growth -- Empire State Future -- is now in its third year!

With planning, environment, and business groups who are interested in advancing the many principles of Smart Growth, the new coalition is working to turn them into reality in cities, towns and villages all across the Empire State.

The coalition builds on the generally accepted Smart Growth ideas that cities need nurturing, suburban sprawl has been straining local services while consuming our landscape, and it's no longer possible to build our way out of traffic congestion.

Empire State Future compliments and expands on efforts to bring progress and sanity to the way we plan our future. And a big element of our work involves communications: we work to provide the Smart Growth constituency and the general public with a lively Web site that is current, informative, and easily used.

We strive to help establish a better public understanding of the links between land development patterns and the high cost of government services -- as well as the contribution of sprawl to ongoing environmental degradation.

People visiting our site for the first time might ask, "What do you mean by Smart Growth, and why is it important?"

To us at Empire State Future, it's the effort to build a healthy economy that offers real choices in transportation, housing, and education while respecting farmlands, open space, and our many natural and historic resources. By building more homes and businesses in already-existing communities, we can save valuable open space and conserve money spent on our roads and costly utility infrastructure. All of which makes Smart Growth important for our future, and for our children's future.

Linking land use decisions with existing development is good because it can take advantage of a multitude of public investments that are already in place, avoiding the need to duplicate them. Sprawl is bad because it tends to reward land speculation in the marketplace without regard to areas where development may be better suited -- and oftentimes much preferred.

Why shouldn't it be simpler for us to work toward a more attractive and economical civic future? A future where

• new development is constructed in places that maximize existing public investment in schools, roads, water and sewer service, transit facilities and information infrastructure.
• workers have good jobs that are within walking distance or an easy commute by bike, bus, rail or automobile
• farm land is protected from encroachment so it can continue to be used to raise livestock and crops, providing a continuing and strong agricultural sector, and rivers, lakes, streams and ponds are pollution-free and provide recreational opportunities for residents and tourists alike
• people can choose to live in older, thriving communities that are beautiful and unique, and that validate the reality that this is still the Empire State!

Empire State Future is striving to reach these values through public education, citizen action, and petitioning our government. Working together, especially during this period of significant economic challenges, our coalition has high hopes for New York's future!

       Five alternative mass transit plans that would connect Stewart International Airport in Newburgh with New York City and the Tri-State Area will be unveiled at a meeting this week, according to the Journal News and LoHud.com. The Orange County session will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn at Newburgh on Tuesday, July 20 from 4 to 8 pm.

      Metro-North Railroad and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have been seeking ways to make the airport more transit accessible to the City, and have previously discussed using express busses and extending Metro-North's Port Jervis Line to the airport, according to the report.

      The article quotes Metro-North spokesperson Marjorie Anders as saying "We are going to present the short list of alternatives, and we think people will be excited about them because some are short-term, some are mid-term, and some are long-term concepts."

      The fight by community leaders across the country to reclaim urban spaces from the automobile and ribbons of concrete is said to be aiding the campaign to dismantle the Sheridan, according to the article. The last removal of a major road in the City was elevated portions of the West Side Highway, which runs along the waterfront near Manhattan's Hudson River shoreline. It had fallen into disrepair, a truck fell through it at one point, and sections of it were taken down from 1976 to 1989 to place the road at grade level.

      A report dealing with the fate of the Sheridan is due from the State Department of Transportation this week, according to the Times, and while no firm decision is expected, one of three alternatives is to "demap" the roadway, which would eventually lead to its dismantling. The road carries 50,000 vehicles a day, according to state officials.

During the week of June 14-18th, the New York State Legislature overwhelmingly passed the Empire State Future Coalition's top priority legislation -- the Public Infrastructure Priority Act (A8011B/S5560B). This groundbreaking bill instructs State Agencies, Authorities and Public Corporations to align their spending on infrastructure with stated smart growth criteria. These agencies must form advisory committees that include environmental and community stakeholders to advice them in regard to smart growth compliance. The agencies are further instructed to issue written Smart Growth Impact Statements in regard to their project choices and that includes issuing written justifications for projects deemed vital that do not meet smart growth criteria.

The bi-partisan bill passed the New York State Assembly 138-2 and the New York State Senate 56-2. It was sponsored by Sam Hoyt of Buffalo in the Assembly and by Westchester's Suzi Oppenheimer, Brooklyn's Velmanette Montgomery and Long Island's Carl Marcellino in the Senate.

Empire State Future views the bill's passage as a giant step toward New York's sustainable economic revitalization. New York may soon be a Smart Growth State! The bill now goes to the Governor who is expected to sign.

      The Hudson Valley should be an integrated transportation corridor focused on transit-oriented development and more livable communities, according to a report issued recently by the state's Quadricentennial Commission. The task force is one of six formed by the Commission that are still working to provide a lasting legacy for the 2009 Hudson-Fulton-Champlain celebration.

       Task force co-chair Anthony Shorris believes "It would be great to make the Hudson Valley a national model for the integration of regional transportation," according to a report in Mid Hudson News.com, which carried a story on the report.

       Transportation connections in the valley need to be integrated to encourage tourists and residents to explore the area using mass transit, including train service that's incorporated into the design of a new Tappan Zee Bridge, according to the report, which urged a regional perspective in all planning efforts.