About Empire State Future

The statewide coalition of 35 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!

A poorly-advised plan to locate a new strip mall development, anchored by a second city supermarket on property owned by Little Falls a mile and a half from its Downtown center, has drawn the ire of a local community group and the assistance of Empire State Future in fighting the project. The city council recently voted unanimously to approve a zoning change to allow the sprawl development, although local merchants objected, citing the lack of a current master plan that addresses future growth projections and the damaging effect the new store would have on Downtown.

Executive Director Peter Fleischer spoke recently to a gathering of Main Street 1st, a group formed to challenge the new development on the grounds it would do great harm to the existing Downtown mercantile establishments in the only city in Herkimer County (Little Falls has a population of less than 5,000 people). He said the plan was a classic example of sprawl without growth that could easily replicate the history of dozens of similar projects in Upstate New York cities - places where new strip malls were approved as community saviors, only to fail themselves in 10 years after first draining the vitality out of previously existing commercial centers.

Main Street 1st plans further efforts at educating municipal officials and organizing community support for their vision of an improved downtown using whatever funds would have been appropriated to pay for city or Industrial Development Agency outlays to attract and build the new development. They maintain that existing "Big M" supermarkets in both Little Falls and nearby Dodgeville will almost certainly close due to the impact of a new chain store entering the market.

For coverage of the issue and the meeting in the Mohawk Valley Express go to: http://www.mohawkvalley.com/MOVX110509/pageflip.html

The League of Women Voters of New York State has joined the Empire State Future coalition, becoming the 25th organization to come together in support of our Smart Growth agenda for the Empire State.

Since 1920 the League has operated as a nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. There are Leagues in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hong Kong, in addition to hundreds of local Leagues nationwide.

"The League is excited about this new partnership and looks forward to working with the Empire State Future coalition," said Martha C. Kennedy writing on behalf of the state league organization.

The LWV web site is found at: www.lwvny.org