Near-Downtown Kansas City spent a lot of money creating an arts and entertainment district, with loft apartments for Seinfeld-style living for downtown IT workers.
Then they tried to pass a sales tax that would bulldoze the entire district and create a ballpark for the Royals. The Arts people and residents organized a “No” vote and defeated the sales tax plan. And the city has been cursing them ever since.
Fat cats in the Chamber, plus their contractor buddies who (miraculously) once again won the contract for building that latest “growth” project are the only ones who benefit from these schemes.
I try not to comment before finishing a post, but want to confirm you are absolutely right about all the bringers of prosperity and "revitalization" (or whatever other wearisome buzzwords local politicians and developers use to seduce people into wanting what they don't need). Only to find out when it's too late that they never wanted those changes at all.
I lived in upstate NY for close to 30 years. I can attest to the damage these types leave in their wake. Oneonta, a small city close to Cooperstown, used to be as attractive a place as one could imagine. It was and is home to 2 colleges.
The bustling downtown was a delight, a magnet for people from surrounding towns and villages. A spotlessly clean town in beautiful bucolic surroundings, with an abundance of civic pride and the vanishingly low crime rates that once were the norm for such places everywhere in the country. And the thousands of student residents gave a powerful boost to Oneonta business owners.
Still, at some point a relative handful of individuals decided all that was woefully inadequate. Obviously there needed to be MORE. And more came in the form of the city's first shopping mall and an interstate access road to accomodate it, followed in the ensuing years by a WalMart, a "big box" electronics store, a cavernous DIY building supplies store, and more. It's an old story now, invasions of corporate peddlers with no link whatsoever to local peoples and cultures.
And the downtown and local merchants of a once nearly perfect place were in short order reduced to a sad vestige of what they'd always been.
Having spent 30 years in economic development, it seems to me that people, not economies are most in need of development. There is no foundation, no vision, no sense of destiny, no godliness with contentment. The poverty of the land is merely a reflection of the poverty of the people. Spending more money in the land of undeveloped people merely spreads a new coat of paint on the rot.
I've also spent time in communities where there remained both vision and contentment. The difference is palpable, and wonderful.
The opposite is happening here in Western NY, or at least in my little part of it. When I came to Brockport 12 years ago, it felt like a small town. It has grown so much since! Not in a good way.
This is exactly how I felt after visiting a friend in Bozeman, Montana back in 2022. First time I realized how much I love living in the Southern Tier.
"And thank heaven for that... perhaps we don't have it so bad!" .... love the attitude of acceptance and gratitude portrayed in this article
Near-Downtown Kansas City spent a lot of money creating an arts and entertainment district, with loft apartments for Seinfeld-style living for downtown IT workers.
Then they tried to pass a sales tax that would bulldoze the entire district and create a ballpark for the Royals. The Arts people and residents organized a “No” vote and defeated the sales tax plan. And the city has been cursing them ever since.
So much for Democracy…
Fat cats in the Chamber, plus their contractor buddies who (miraculously) once again won the contract for building that latest “growth” project are the only ones who benefit from these schemes.
I try not to comment before finishing a post, but want to confirm you are absolutely right about all the bringers of prosperity and "revitalization" (or whatever other wearisome buzzwords local politicians and developers use to seduce people into wanting what they don't need). Only to find out when it's too late that they never wanted those changes at all.
I lived in upstate NY for close to 30 years. I can attest to the damage these types leave in their wake. Oneonta, a small city close to Cooperstown, used to be as attractive a place as one could imagine. It was and is home to 2 colleges.
The bustling downtown was a delight, a magnet for people from surrounding towns and villages. A spotlessly clean town in beautiful bucolic surroundings, with an abundance of civic pride and the vanishingly low crime rates that once were the norm for such places everywhere in the country. And the thousands of student residents gave a powerful boost to Oneonta business owners.
Still, at some point a relative handful of individuals decided all that was woefully inadequate. Obviously there needed to be MORE. And more came in the form of the city's first shopping mall and an interstate access road to accomodate it, followed in the ensuing years by a WalMart, a "big box" electronics store, a cavernous DIY building supplies store, and more. It's an old story now, invasions of corporate peddlers with no link whatsoever to local peoples and cultures.
And the downtown and local merchants of a once nearly perfect place were in short order reduced to a sad vestige of what they'd always been.
Having spent 30 years in economic development, it seems to me that people, not economies are most in need of development. There is no foundation, no vision, no sense of destiny, no godliness with contentment. The poverty of the land is merely a reflection of the poverty of the people. Spending more money in the land of undeveloped people merely spreads a new coat of paint on the rot.
I've also spent time in communities where there remained both vision and contentment. The difference is palpable, and wonderful.
The opposite is happening here in Western NY, or at least in my little part of it. When I came to Brockport 12 years ago, it felt like a small town. It has grown so much since! Not in a good way.
This is exactly how I felt after visiting a friend in Bozeman, Montana back in 2022. First time I realized how much I love living in the Southern Tier.