Economic Development

1969: A Catskills Convention Center Never Built

September 8, 2023 by John Conway Leave a Comment

It was late August of 1968, and the people of Sullivan County, NY were all abuzz about the latest development in a long list of attempts to save their sagging economy.

The county’s Golden Age of Catskills tourism had ended three years before, and although no one likely realized yet how bad things would get before they got better, county officials and resort owners were trying desperately to right the sinking ship. True to form, however, all efforts to do so had been continually thwarted by a difference of opinion as to what course to follow. [Read more…] about 1969: A Catskills Convention Center Never Built

Public Comments Sought On Albany I-787 Reimaging Project

June 23, 2023 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) is hosting a public open house related to the new planning and environmental study of I-787 on Tuesday, June 27, from 4:30 to 7:30 pm in the media room of MVP Arena in downtown Albany.

The study to re-imagine the I-787 corridor, taking into account its proximity to the Hudson River, is at the center of local efforts to re-imagine the former Albany Basin by the Albany Waterway Canal Project. [Read more…] about Public Comments Sought On Albany I-787 Reimaging Project

New York State Invests $10 Million in Ticonderoga Downtown Revitalization

June 1, 2023 by Anthony F. Hall Leave a Comment

Awarded a $10 million grant in January, 2023 to revitalize its downtown, Ticonderoga in Essex County, NY, has launched the public planning process that will determine how best – and most strategically – to use the new funds. Ticonderoga is a historic community which lies between Lake George and Lake Champlain and is home to Fort Ticonderoga. [Read more…] about New York State Invests $10 Million in Ticonderoga Downtown Revitalization

Adirondack Rural Revitalization Program Launched

May 12, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Adirondack Rural Revitalization Program (ARRP) is supported in part by a Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. This program funds capital rehabilitation projects that foster community vibrancy and enhance sense of place within our region’s community and agricultural centers, with a focus on historic main street and agricultural buildings. [Read more…] about Adirondack Rural Revitalization Program Launched

Common Ground Alliance Offers Adirondack Recommendations

March 15, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Adirondack Common Ground Alliance (CGA) is a network of stakeholders focused on addressing issues that affect the Adirondack Park – specifically, though not exclusively, environmental protection, economic development, and community vitality.

Their goal is to facilitate dialogue and identify collaborative solutions that improve the Park and its communities for generations to come. Since 2007, CGA has organized an annual forum, yielding an agreed upon set of recommendations for state action referred to as the “Blueprint for the Blue Line.” [Read more…] about Common Ground Alliance Offers Adirondack Recommendations

The Adirondack Park Agency At 50: State Leaders Are Missing The Point

February 7, 2023 by David Gibson 6 Comments

Well, it’s happened again. Another state budget is proposed by the Executive, wherein the Adirondack Park Agency’s legislated job is mischaracterized by this Governor’s (and former governors’) budget divisions as working “to achieve a balance between strong environmental protection and sustainable economic development opportunities for the residents of the Adirondack Park” (2023 Executive Budget Briefing Book).

Balance is an important goal to strive for in our individual lives. However, nothing in the Adirondack Park Agency law, now reaching 50 years old in May, calls for “a balance between strong environmental protection and sustainable economic development.” [Read more…] about The Adirondack Park Agency At 50: State Leaders Are Missing The Point

NYS Public Authorities Debt Has Ballooned to $329 Billion

December 26, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

State and local public authorities reported debt outstanding totaling more than $329 billion in their most recently reported fiscal years, an increase of 23% ($61.5 billion) since 2017, according to a report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. [Read more…] about NYS Public Authorities Debt Has Ballooned to $329 Billion

Upstate Cities Turn To Canal Heritage For Economic Development

August 12, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Upstate New York’s largest urban centers are pursuing economic development strategies that include a major focus on their canal heritage. [Read more…] about Upstate Cities Turn To Canal Heritage For Economic Development

Adirondack Gentrification: Resortification & Urbanization (Part 6)

August 5, 2021 by Eliza Jane Darling Leave a Comment

Rural gentrification has appeared in almost every region, from Big Sky territory to the Rockies to Prairie Country to New England to the American South. Outside the United States, it has been documented in Spain, Turkey, Sweden, New Zealand, France, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Taiwan, and especially Britain.

While the details vary from place to place, most gentrifying rural communities suffer the same consequences: the displacement of the rural working class, the decline of available space for social reproduction, and the aging of the vestigial population. Yet if rural America is united in its symptoms, it is divided by its disease. [Read more…] about Adirondack Gentrification: Resortification & Urbanization (Part 6)

Adirondack Gentrification: Seasonal Development & The Rent Sink (Part 5)

August 4, 2021 by Eliza Jane Darling Leave a Comment

In the spring of 1989, the Adirondack working class received an alarming wake-up call in the unlikely form of Robin Leach. The Adirondacks, according to the garrulous host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, were a hidden jewel just waiting to be discovered by travelers with a taste for wilderness and the purchasing power to claim a slice of nature-at-its-moneyed-best for their very own. The show had even gone so far as to list the remote and rugged mountains as an “upcoming hot spot for jet-setters” in its “Guide to the World’s Best Places.”

Leach’s prediction had been well borne out by the mid-1990s. “Rough It Like A Rockefeller,” proclaimed one strapline in the travel section of the Wall Street Journal, while an article in Vanity Fair encouraged readers to go “camp hopping in the haute Adirondacks” and Travel and Leisure billed it as a place where “the notion of escape endures.” Such articles, liberally sprinkled with posh photographic layouts depicting the rich at play in tastefully rustic lodges nestled on the shores of gleaming silver lakes, recommended such accommodations as The Point in Lake Placid, where guests could take in the clean mountain air for a mere $1300 a night.

Beemers had been traded for sport utility vehicles, and the Adirondacks, it appeared, had become an exclusive retreat for well-heeled consumers seeking respite from their taxing cosmopolitan lives in the newly fashionable wilderness. [Read more…] about Adirondack Gentrification: Seasonal Development & The Rent Sink (Part 5)