Local Perspectives

       Nearly one-third of the residents of a small Oswego County village have signed a petition to dissolve their local government, according to the Post Standard of Syracuse. Eighty-five of Altmar's 239 registered voters petitioned the village board, and 74 signatures were accepted, likely triggering a vote on the issue at the General Election this fall, according to the paper.

       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 push by transit advocates and local leaders in the South Bronx in New York City to tear down the mile and a half long Sheridan Expressway may be getting closer to reality, according to a story in The New York Times.

 

      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.

Empire State Future is co-organizing and co-sponsoring a screening of Beyond the Motor City on Monday, June 28th, at 7pm in Rochester's historic Dryden Theater at George Eastman House. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Rochester area and state-level transportation experts and advocates.

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

      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.

       A three-span arch design for a new Peace Bridge has gained "almost overwhelming support" from the public, according to a report in the Buffalo News. An official of the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority told the paper the public sentiment makes it all but certain the arch design will be selected over the two and three-tower cable-stayed designs that were also under consideration.

       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.

 

      The surprising news that Syracuse was in the top 10 of 337 metropolitan areas in the nation for added construction jobs during the past year seems at variance with the otherwise bleak economic picture in Upstate New York. But the page one story in the Syracuse Post Standard reported just that - saying it was the result of adding just 300 construction jobs between February 2009 and February 2010.

       The paper reported that "Meds and Eds" were the primary reason for the increase, as hospital and college expansion continued at a significant pace in the Central New York city. At the same time, some 230 other metro areas in the country saw double-digit declines in construction employment, according to an analysis of statistics reported by the U.S. Department of Labor

       Albany and Ithaca also made the top 10 list by adding 200 and 100 new construction jobs last year, respectively. In many former boom regions of the country the picture was much different, with Houston losing 25,500 constructions jobs.

       See www.syracuse.com for the full story.  

  

      Will a demand for specific community economic benefits in return for City Council support for a big, $294 million development on Buffalo's waterfront doom the project? Or will it help push the development to construction, following years of struggle to get it to that stage?

       That is the question City Council members and community groups will attempt to answer in bringing a negotiator to the table who has been involved in similar efforts elsewhere that aim to include a "community benefits agreement" as an integral element of a project's development.

       While the head of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation dismisses the need for a pact that would mandate commercial space for local businesses as well as payment of a "living wage" to all workers in the tenant stores, others say it would be the right thing to do and become a model for future progress in Downtown Buffalo.

       See www.buffalonews.com2010/04/25/1030529/canal-developer-urged-on-benefits.html for the full story.  

      The City of Rochester has embarked on an urban agriculture initiative intended to turn blighted empty lots and a portion of the abandoned canal and transit bed into produce gardens. The City Council voted recently to hire Sustainable Intelligence, LLC as the consultant for the project, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

       The gardens would provide fresh produce that will be sold in currently empty storefront locations, according to the article, which noted that AmeriCorps members may be involved in implementation of the urban agriculture and community garden project.

       Sustainable Intelligence will begin the project by developing a template for various types of city farming and gardens under their $120,000 contract, according to the paper.

       Read the entire article at http://rocnow.com/article/local-news/20104140336

      The civic group that has fought City government to prevent a new shopping center at the edge of Little Falls -- a mile from its downtown business center --has proposed an alternative re-development for Downtown. According to a page one story in the Little Falls Evening Times, the group Main Street First wants the city to update the 30 year-old "shopper's square" building in the center of the city, rather than supporting the sprawl-inducing plan for the municipal-owned "Quarry" property the edge of town.

 

      At a March 11 public meeting in the city school district's historic Benton Hall, more than 100 residents heard details of the plan, which supporters say is based on Smart Growth principles first recommended to Main Street First in late 2009 by Peter Fleischer of Empire State Future.

 

      A large "destination" super market and the right balance of commercial and residential development downtown is the goal of the plan's originator, David Dardzinski, according to the article.

 

      To read the entire story, go to the Web site of Little Falls Times