Thursday, March 06, 2008

Keep the Ball Rolling . . .

A couple good stories in today's paper . . . the issue with the Mohawk Valley Irish Cultural Center in Utica has been quickly resolved. . . and a London-based bank is considering locating offices in the Harza building downtown.

Utica needs to be a "center" again, and both of these projects, if they come to fruition, will contribute.

While the County Executive's State of the County address reveals more of the same old "build it and they will come" mentality that has given this region one of the worst cases of sprawl in the state (and, as a consequence, made things very expensive for everyone to maintain) there is even some hope there. There is a recognition that our downtowns need attention. And also a recognition that there needs to be some consolidation in services (the 911 call center).

Hopefully our leaders are starting to realize that our cities and villages are the organizational structures that need to be encouraged because they represent concentrations of activities that will allow municipal services to be efficiently delivered.

Keep the ball rolling . . .

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Strike,

I wish you were at last night's public hearing on the city budget. Other than a select few that screamed, which is their absolute right, MANY others of all political persuasions came together with a common theme...The OD needs to stop their blatant biased reporting and start reporting the news, not "making" the news.

We all told the reporter in very clear terms that we will start fighting back. It seems they got the message. But make no mistake, this will be their "see, we reported a couple positives" before the storm.

It is truly sad and I would do ANYTHING to entice another newspaper into the area as competition. Maybe the Post-Standard? I don't care if it take giving them 100 years tax-free and an expense account.

Anonymous said...

According to the article posted on wktv, The Harza Building in Downtown Utica could soon be home to 300 new jobs. However, further down in the article it says Standard Chartered, which just finalized its acquisition of America Express Bank for $823 million, would potentially move the employees from their current location in New York City to the Harza Building.

So, as I said on my blog, which is it? 300 new jobs, or will the jobs be simply people relocating from the city? From that article it sounds like relocation ot me.