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.

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.

But again, the many tales of woe about Detroit's people and places, borne by building itself intensively over decades for a single, inefficient mode of transportation, are each matched in the film with stories of promise and progress to reinvent and revitalize Detroit through sound transportation planning. For example, the film illuminates very real plans to return local rail to Woodward Avenue, Detroit's main drag and the symbol of both its heyday and decline, and to the entire city.

On the whole, this documentary does give the viewer emotional whiplash, but does a stellar job explaining the complex urban/regional planning history and dynamics that brought Detroit from where it was (2 million people and a source of envy) to where it is today (850,000 people and a source of pity and even shame). It is so very essential that a critical mass of government officials, citizens, business leaders, and everyone else understand the many parts that created the urban hole--um, I mean whole.

The panel and audience discussion included a few worried expressions that Rochester and Detroit are eerily similar despite their difference in size. One pointed out that Rochester would have actually been Detroit if our hometown inventor George Selden, credited by many such experts to be the inventor of the internal combustion engine, hadn't had to abandon his patent battle with Henry Ford. Some spoke with sincere enthusiasm about the progress made in relatively rapid order to bring high speed rail to Upstate New York. When the film delved into Detroit's fascinating (yet sensible) plan to return huge swaths of the city's derelict built environment to green space and urban farms, I was reminded of Rochester's auspicious own Project Green, a very similar "right-sizing" plan (that we covered in a recent blog on this site). Overall, the panel and audience discussion was robust and elicited a high percentage of the key transportation issues and challenges facing Greater Rochester.

Even though the George Eastman House's café was closed that night, and even though the sole source of refreshment--the water fountain--was broken (this being a source of concern to the organizers), well over half of the Rochester screening's attendees stayed over three hours, right to the end of the discussion. (In fact, the security guard had to kick at least twenty people out of the building at about 10:15.) These facts about the Rochester screening are surely encouraging--a pleasantly surprising volume and variety of folks coming out to learn about, and talk about, the importance of transportation planning to Rochester and America's cities and regions as a whole.

Empire State Future is proud to have co-organized this screening with the Rochester Regional Community Design Center. Look for more such Empire State Future-organized and sponsored events in the near future!

For more information about Beyond the Motor City, and to see a trailer, go to http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/reports/beyond-the-motor-city/video-preview/861/.

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.

• Developing a legislative strategy that will result in useful new state law in areas such as -- but not limited to -- historic preservation tax credits, priority infrastructure, and multi-jurisdictional collaboration.
• Closely monitoring Governor Paterson's "Smart Growth Cabinet" and the actions of his Administration in Albany. We plan to help set an enlightened agenda, follow up on implementation, propose new policy initiatives, and support or oppose the Administration whenever we believe it's appropriate to advance the success of Smart Growth values.
• Initiating a statewide communications strategy that assists organizations or individuals working on Smart Growth issues by enabling them to share experiences with one another and providing a resource for supplying important general information on the subject.
• Creating educational materials that will empower willing and able individuals throughout the state already engaged in some aspect of Smart Growth to augment their efforts and increase the capacity for local outreach.

Accomplishing these goals will not be an easy task, but it's a very important mission.

Sadly, many municipalities only see what they perceive as needed additions to a sagging tax base when a poorly planned, unsustainable development is proposed. And many residents seem to believe the documented ill-effects of suburban sprawl "won't happen here" until they do. Costly lessons learned the hard way must motivate us to demand action for a better future and a more livable and prosperous New York.

We're here to investigate, educate, and instigate to bring about meaningful civic change. Please let us know what you think.

Thank you.

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.

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.

"Last November, at the Vision Long Island Smart Growth Summit, you eloquently asserted that 'smart growth is the pressing progress of the future rather than the comfort of the present.' You also noted that 'not making smart growth choices' may explain why 49 states have declining revenues. I was impressed by the importance you attributed to smart growth, and by the overall force of your convictions regarding smart growth, land use, development and fiscal rectitude.

The Public Infrastructure Policy Act addresses this cluster of issues in a fundamental way. You have, or will soon have on your desk, a bill that propels New York toward a sustainable smart growth future through the prioritization of public infrastructure spending. Signing this bill will help to realize the vision you so articulately expressed in Long Island. Your signing this far-reaching bill will commence a process whereby:

We get the best possible bang for the buck from our limited infrastructure money. State expenditures for infrastructure projects will increasingly become investments toward an economically and environmentally sustainable future - whether on main streets, town centers, rural or urban areas.

We stop using public funds to add infrastructure in green fields, which destroys habitat and threatens species and water supplies when we cannot afford to maintain the essential water, sewer, road, rail and bridge infrastructure we already have.

We focus on fix-it-first infrastructure so that our agricultural economy, our subways and our wastewater treatment plants protect our environment and keep us healthy and prosperous.

Our communities do not condemn us to use our cars for everything we do - spewing green house gases, and burning up oil that we produce at risk, or import from those who too often are not our friends.

Our communities become more equitable and environmentally just.

The needs of all users of our public spaces -- parents with strollers, the disabled, bicyclists, and the elderly -- are met in road and street design.

The communities we strengthen and build here in New York will better meet the housing and service needs of our state's seniors and the large cohort that, like it or not, will soon be seniors.

State public health concerns in regard to diabetes, obesity and heart disease and the public costs of these ills, can be met by designing and building communities where walking and riding bicycles is safe and practical.

For the many profound and important reasons listed above, we, the members of the Empire State Future and its partner organizations urge you to sign this course-changing bill.

      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.

      A bill requiring state agencies to fund infrastructure investments in a manner that is consistent with Smart Growth criteria has gained final legislative approval in Albany, and will be sent to Governor David A. Paterson for action. Passage of the "Smart Growth Infrastructure Policy Act" was hailed by proponents as a major step away from uncoordinated, sprawl-inducing capital spending decisions by state government.

       "It's a significant advance for Smart Growth principles, fiscal rectitude, and better land use practices in New York," said Peter B. Fleischer, Executive Director of ESF.

       The amendment to the state's Environmental Conservation was sponsored by Senator Suzi Oppenheimer of Westchester and Assemblyman Sam Hoyt of Buffalo. It establishes a Smart Growth Advisory Council in state agencies, authorities, and public corporations that are charged with evaluating proposed or existing projects according to established Smart Growth criteria. Support for the measure was overwhelming in both houses of the legislature.

While some may believe that political cooperation may be hard to come by in New York State, two Upstate counties have been able to establish innovative financial approaches, setting aside political differences, to unite under the common interest of an improved and sustainable economic future.

Schenectady County and Onondaga County have each developed and employed distinct fiscal strategies that provide financial support through sales tax revenue for smart, regional decision-making. These two counties' strategies should serve as examples for other Upstate communities, as they have the potential to stop destructive "sprawl without growth" by focusing on the existing infrastructure and building stock to create vibrant living environments.

It has been twelve years since Schenectady County legislated the ambitious Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority. Metroplex was originally created for the dual purpose of funding the "development of a 50,000- square-foot convention center, and fostering a comprehensive economic development program along the Route 5 and Route 7 corridors with a special emphasis on downtown". By the late 1990s, as past economic development projects failed to deliver the projected results, many were convinced that a convention center in downtown would be the next economic engine that would reignite the long stagnant economy.

The Authority, which realized that a convention center was not going to solve Schenectady's woes, was established in 1998 as a public benefit corporation consistent with the New York Public Authorities Law. Despite a somewhat contentious beginning, Metroplex's early successes as the lead economic development authority in the region led to a larger service area. Today that area encompasses roughly 84 square-miles of the county. The Authority's success can be partly attributed to the financial power of dedicated revenue, specified as 70 percent of one-half of one percent of the county sales tax collected. According to Metroplex's 2008 Financial Report, this dedicated percentage had generated Metroplex revenue totaling $7,154,961 in 2007 and $7,475,620 in 2008.

By the 1990s the City of Schenectady, the core focus of the County's downtown redevelopment effort, was in financial ruins after the mass exodus of industry, including the General Electric Company and ALCO Locomotive. As recently as 2004, the City was still bleeding from a fiscal crisis with "a projected deficit of $10.2 million, and the absolute lowest junk bond credit rating by Moody's of any municipality in the state."

The creation of Metroplex, which led a movement away from the run-of-the-mill development ideas such as a convention center, has helped bring life back to the once forgotten downtown. Metroplex's ability to focus economic development to bringing dilapidated properties back to life can be directly linked to the turn-around in the City of Schenectady's finances. In fact, by May of 2008, the City of Schenectady had experienced "the sixth consecutive upgrade to the City's credit rating... the third consecutive upgrade in the investment-grade range... reporting a $10.4 million surplus for the 2007 fiscal year."

Due to the strong financial commitment of the County, Metroplex has had the resources and flexibility to create a comprehensive approach to development, investing in projects that enhance the long-term economic vitality and quality of life in Schenectady County. Metroplex wears many hats in the development process: it possesses the ability to "design, plan, finance, site, construct, administer, operate, manage and maintain facilities within the service area". Metroplex, through these various instruments, has improved the livability and created a vibrant urban space downtown around the historic Proctor's Theatre. Metroplex funded projects have generally been consistent with the city's architectural character and thoughtfully designed to fit with the urban environment.

Beyond the obvious success of Proctor's, Metroplex has assisted in financing numerous projects that now support an exciting night-life. These include a multi-screen movie theater and many restaurants and bars. Metroplex also enticed many large companies to the area such as the Golub Corporation (parent to the Price Chopper Grocery Chain), which used Metroplex's assistance to rehab a former ALCO brownfield near Union College. All of these successes have even led General Electric, the former economic engine of the region, to move employment back to their Schenectady facility. Thanks in large part to the financial ingenuity led by Schenectady County and the work of Metroplex, the Electric City's future appears bright once again.

Onondaga County's Sales Tax Distribution Reform

On May 4th 2010, the Onondaga County Legislature reached a final agreement on a ten-year distribution plan for its 4 percent sales tax levy. This dramatic new plan drastically cuts back the share of the revenue that has historically been legislated to towns, villages, and school districts within Onondaga County. The City of Syracuse, which is granted the right to either form a "sharing" agreement with the County, or to institute a city sales tax, approved the plan following intense deliberation. The City and County will continually receive a greater proportion of the revenue under the new agreement, reducing the appropriations to local governments and school districts. By the expiration of the ten year agreement, financial support to towns and villages will be effectively eliminated.

How does this shift contribute to smart growth in Onondaga County? The agreement has successfully positioned the County with new financial power with which to encourage region-wide sustainable land use and development. The status-quo had consisted of continuous suburban expansion even with declining region-wide population growth, resulting in a substantially increased need and cost for municipal services, and fewer taxpayers to pay for it all. Under the new agreement local governments will find it much more difficult to finance municipal service expansion, unless it is supported by the County.

In a phone interview, County Legislature Chairman James Rhinehart explained that he expects the loss in revenue will inspire local governments to consolidate and share services, eliminating the duplications and redundancies that currently exist. Because the amount of sales tax revenue allocated to each town will no longer be based on the percentage of the countywide population in that town, Onondaga County could see the continued infighting between towns for subdivision growth begin to slow as the local government will be forced to perform a cost-benefit analysis before adding additional infrastructure. This should lead to greater County presence in land use decisions-- which if done concurrently with the efforts of the Syracuse-Onondaga County Planning Agency, would lead to sustainable development and smart growth county-wide.

The decision to transform this sales tax distribution program was led by the City of Syracuse. The City threatened to abandon any agreement that didn't drastically reduce revenue to suburban governments, using their authority to formulate a city sales tax as a backup plan. While in negotiations with the County, the City was also able to gain the support of state officials, who committed a higher proportion of the additional 1% tax they levy to be appropriated to the City if the County Legislatures didn't formulate an agreement that offered greater financial support to Syracuse.

The end lesson of this story is not that Syracuse officials used legislated leverage to force action on the County Legislature. In fact, County Executive Joanie Mahoney (R) and Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner (D), two women from opposing political parties, both championed the same strategy. They felt that a new tax sharing system would be best for the region, promoting a strong urban center, which is vital to the entire region. They also agreed that difficult decisions had to be made by local government to reduce expenses.

County Legislators, many of which represent constituents from the suburban towns that will need to reorganize, also see good in the change that Chairman Rhinehart describes as "coming if we like it or not." Chairman Rhinehart, who represents the suburban town of Skaneateles, describes the process of getting all seventeen legislators to unanimously agree to reduce funding to their local governments and school districts as "extremely difficult." Rhineheart does see the agreement as "a half-way point" which allows Onondaga County to "do the best with the revenue that they have." He adds that "anytime government has the chance to reduce overall County property tax, it should be taken." He hopes that the new arrangement will "force governments to reduce their expenses, reducing the County's responsibility to provide services to sprawling areas." Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner shared in the praise of the compromise, stating that when "only difficult decisions are to be made, all should join forces to think about our future." This innovative fiscal approach to cooperative regional smart growth and sustainable development is one that New York's 56 other counties may soon follow.

David Hogenkamp is a Masters in Urban Planning student at the State University of New York at Albany.

This event is free to the public thanks to the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and Samloff Family Fund. Sponsoring organizations are Empire State Future, Rochester Regional Community Design Center, Rochester Rail Transit Committee, and Reconnect Rochester.

Click here to learn more about this important documentary

      One impetus for the summit was the $151 million in Federal stimulus funds coming to the state for rail improvements, part of a national pool of $8 billion dedicated to high-speed rail corridors around the country. New York was well behind California and Florida and other states in the competition for funds, but officials here have said they hope to better in future funding rounds. 

      Economic development in a high-speed corridor was a topic of discussion at the summit, as was the feasibility of using the existing routes shared between passenger and freight, or establishing a separate dedicated track in a "secure corridor." CSX, the private freight carrier which owns the tracks, has made it clear it doesn't believe mixing passenger trains and freight on the same tracks is safe, according to the paper. The railroad's position on high-speed passenger rail was said to be improving, however, according to Karen Rae of the Federal Railroad Administration, who was quoted in the piece.

      Two years after the rare merger of a significant local police force into a county sheriff's department, Cicero may soon follow Clay down that road, according to a report in the Post Standard of Syracuse.

       The 11-member Cicero Police Study Committee has held one public session on the idea, and plans two more in the near future. They plan to put forward a proposal this summer, the Town Board could act at its August 25 session, and the question could appear on the general election ballot in November, according to the paper.

       Taxpayers in Clay saw a reported 20 percent drop in town taxes after the local force there was incorporated into the county sheriff's department, and supporters in Cicero hope to see that happen in their town as well. The local police force for the 30,000 residents of Cicero will cost taxpayers $1.2 million this year for the 14 full-time and eight part-time officers employed. So far, Clay is the only town in Onondaga to propose and enact local police consolidation with the county.

       The cable designs were considerably higher than the arched span proposal, and had drawn criticism because they were said to likely impact migratory birds in the corridor. Environmentalists also favored the design preferred by the public because the location of its piers minimized the effects on fish habitat, according to the paper.

      Design selection is one of the few remaining issues in the decades-long effort to build a new bridge. Officials hope a final environmental impact statement can be submitted in July, according to the newspaper's report. Bridge officials are also said to be considering the cost and construction issues of replacing a proposed elevated ramp for vehicles exiting the bridge plaza with a tunnel under the Niagara River. Design of a new truck plaza for the bridge has also been a major source of controversy, due to encroachment into the Columbus Park neighborhood and the required demolition of a significant number of homes.