Hornell mayor says it's time for areas other than Thruway cities to get state's attention
When Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced his plan to revitalize the upstate economy last week, focusing on individual cities, there was lots of talk about how it would help Buffalo.
Well, Hornell Mayor Shawn Hogan thinks it's about time some attention was paid to the Southern Tier, including the communities of Hornell, Olean, Jamestown and Corning. He said that the state government vision follows a line along the Thruway, and rarely gets farther west than Binghamton.
"My complaint for a long time is it seems anything upstate follows the Thruway corridor," Hogan said. "Everyone thinks all the activity is along there, and if you drop down below that, it's almost like a no man's land.
"It's like we're Middle Earth (from Lords of the Rings) west of Binghamton and south of the Thruway," he added, "and they think all we have is ogres and fairies living down here."
Spitzer's cities-driven strategy is intended to complement ongoing statewide initiatives focused on lowering the cost of doing business in New York and strengthening the state's infrastructure, according to Associated Press reports. New "regional blueprints" will have state and local business leaders, elected officials and economic development agencies working together to set economic development priorities. "City by City Plans," meanwhile, will identify and provide state funding to specific projects seen as pivotal in each city.
While Hogan thinks the upstate revitalization effort is a good thought, he'd like to see focus on the lower portion of Western New York. The only people that can make that happen, he said, are the officials and residents of the region.
"I guess that is our charge as local government leaders," Hogan said. "The Southern Tier, even though it is a large area, is sparsely populated. Unless we make some noise, no one is going to hear us."
In Buffalo, the long-sought development of the waterfront - anchored by a Bass Pro store - and construction of a new international Peace Bridge to Canada were named priorities, along with redevelopment of a Niagara Falls tourist corridor and the transformation of a vacant, asbestos- and PCB-contaminated downtown Buffalo office building into a hotel-office-residential complex.
Spitzer will roll out priorities for other cities over the next two weeks.
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The Hornell mayor, at one time rumored for a newly-created state upstate economic development czar position, also didn't have kind words for Dan Gunderson, the man who did get the job. Hogan, who is the longest serving city mayor in the state, said the only time he's spoken with Gunderson is when he called to invite him to Hornell for a tour, including a stop at Alstom.
"I invited him to come here and see the company here that's creating jobs - Alstom," Hogan said. "I still haven't seen him.
"Bob Duffy (the City of Rochester's mayor) hasn't even had a conversation with him," he added. "I have, but that's only because I called."
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Hogan said he didn't mean to be critical of the state government, saying he was a loyal supporter of Spitzer, but the continuing neglect of the Southern Tier needs to change.
"If we're going to share in this upstate plan, we're going to have to be forceful. We've got to band together and start making some noise," he said. "Maybe then they'll get to us; then again, maybe they won't. We've got to make sure we are part of the strategy and part of the plan.
"I'm not saying we won't be included - we should be - but we've got make sure we keep our name in the game, so to speak," Hogan added. "We need to keep pulling on the coach's shirttail, telling him 'I'm ready Coach, I'm ready. Put me in.'"