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Post by JGRobinson on Oct 10, 2011 6:03:46 GMT -5
Dave, Location, Location, Location! We Upstaters really do feel powerless to control our own Futures. If its not Albany or NYC, it Washington telling what we must do with the resources we culture, develop and tend. We are the shepherds and mostly all we get is the fertilizer!
9/10th of the States land and Natural Resources are up here yet 2/3rds of the states population is down there, they command, demand and confiscate what they want, we are powerless to do anything but comply.
I know at lest 10 real landowners that are on the NYRI Scar NY for Life path. They do not want this on their land over top of their houses and families unless it is buried on the abandoned RR track Right of way, I do not blame them, would you? We here it everyday, "You have more than I so to be fair, I will take some for the good of the masses"! Sounds too much like a Little Red Hen Story, Nobody wants to make the bread but everyone wants their piece of it. If its my bread, I will sell you some of the extra at a reasonable market rate price. There Aint no Santa here in Munnsville, the winters are cold, windy and fuel is expensive!
Locality cost of living are just what they are, I own 8 acres, a 4000Sq ft home, a barn and its all road frontage, my taxes are less than 3K a year. A newspaper stand the size of my vegetable stand in NYC pays that same amount, why? Because its all about location! That Newspaper Stand and its patrons have lots of support needed to survive. My Ponderosa needs very few, I can grow most of my own food and sell the leftovers, Make my own Power and do the same. That cant happen in NYC or Utica. Location, Location, Location!
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Post by dgriffin on Oct 10, 2011 8:18:19 GMT -5
JG, I hear you. By the way, don't tell everyone your taxes are so low or the taxman may come by to raise them! (I pay somewhat more than double that on 14 acres on this old farmstead, one reason why I'm leaving NY State.) I've done a bit of looking around upstate NY (outside NYC and Westchester) via Trulia and Zillow and found the following: although home and land prices vary considerably according to location, similar homes carry a similar tax burden. I.e., an 1800 sq. ft. home in a suburban neighborhood may vary in price from $95 K in Fairport to $325 K in Albany, but their total taxes may be very close. And that makes sense, I suppose, since most of the taxes go to payroll and services that cost the same throughout the state. "9/10th of the States land and Natural Resources are up here yet 2/3rds of the states population is down there, they command, demand and confiscate what they want, we are powerless to do anything but comply." I think that's a bit overstated, but there's truth in it. I suppose a New Yorker would argue that it's population that's important, not land area, and half the population is down there. But I live in the Catskills and I see City influence principally with their reservoirs. We have (at this time) more than enough water; the problem is what we as landowners sometimes have to go through to keep "their" water clean so that they don't have to spend billions to filter it once it gets down there. However, a few years ago in an effort to mitigate the effect of homeowner septic systems in their watershed, the City paid for hundreds of new systems. And because they don't allow anyone but fisherman on their reservoirs, they are a respite from other areas where the noise and annoyance of jet skis would drive you off the water. Pros and cons.
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Post by JGRobinson on Oct 10, 2011 19:26:49 GMT -5
Dave, I thought 3 K was High! If the City wanted to pay the bill to bury lines from upstate to Downstate I think People would be more agreeable. We would also need lots of ramp up time to get more clean generation capability online.
The delivery is expensive and the manufacturing of the extra power isnt going to be cheap either. Nobody here is interested in new coal or Oil burning turbines and 150 windmills are never going to replace the power we would be "sharing". I dont think Japans woes are going to help Nuke plants, I heard one down near the city might be on the hit list for closure because its on a major fault!
I drove around the Catskills last spring, it was pretty nice up there, lots of water, lots of forests, lots of very expensive lodges and camps! Very picturesque.
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