MVWA

[clarencebunsen]

Some other places I have lived normally bond for infrastructure expansion and improvements, here we expect to have developers pay the shot. Both have plusses and minuses, but we seem to have developed a system that gives us no job growth or population growth, coupled with sprawl and inadequate water and sewer systems. Hardly the best of all worlds.

When I moved here (and bought a home built in the 60's) there was a surcharge on my tax bill that was explained as a bonded "buy-in" to the county sewer system for my development. I'm not sure if my memory is exactly right but it seems that the developer put the pipes in the ground and we were paying our cost of the work the county had done prior to our house being built. We were the 3rd owners so the bill appeared to be attached to the property.

I also remember that at the time the Utica Water Board charged a surcharge for customers outside Utica to fund growth projects. I don't rember there actually being any separate fund or any projects.

One other memory, when we sold our home in Minneapolis a title search revealed that there was an assesment registered for an up-coming alley repaving project. In that case the assesment was not city-wide but just for the affected neighborhood. Since it was still my house, I had to escrow for it in order to sell it.

Just imagine, however, a city that not only maintains its streets but paves & plows its alleys.

[Clipper]

It IS hard to imagine a city that paves and plows it's alleys, but Rome NY not only paves and plows them, they have homes built that face the alley in some of the old neighborhoods. It may go back to when they were actually old, and narrow streets at some time in the past, but they are alleys now. Rome also has many homes whose garages face the alley, rather than having driveways from the street side.

Rome was always quite a bit smaller than Utica, but it seems sad that they have been able to maintain the city over the years, in a much cleaner and well maintained state than Utica has. Yes, Rome has slum areas, and crime, and political problems, as does any city, but to drive around the city of Rome is a much more pleasant experience than to drive around Utica. Utica is my home town, and I my love for Utica is undying, but the contrast between the two is horribly apparent by simply driving through.

Utica could learn a lot from Rome. Rome was the heaviest hit by the closure of Griffiss AFB, but they did not curl up and die, as Utica seems to be determined to do. They worked "as a community", which also seems impossible in Utica, and they kept the city vibrant, and moving forward. For each loss of industry, they seem able to replace it with something either in the West Rome Industrial Park, or at the Griffiss Business Park.

So, do ya think maybe it is because instead of patronage, politics, and misappropriation, they actually invest in their own future, and work to insure success?? Hmmm. Ponder such a concept for a minute. Amazing isn't it?