Revitalizing Utica

[rodwilson]

I just wanted to share this great piece from "Teresa Huggins", a poster over @ UDN.

"I believe leadership is a lifelong journey and when we empower young people to learn the skills early in life, the outcomes will be greater than most of us can realize. We have a saying at Leaders for Life International: 1 + 1 = 11. One person sharing an idea with another can create a ripple of possibility that influences 11, 1100, or even 11,000 people or more. How will you lead today?"

uticadailynews.com/daily_columns/david_muraco/7614-Being-leader-journey.html

[rodwilson]

Now this is EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm talking about with regards to Downtown. This makes NO sense. Here's to throwing $10 million right in the toilet. Like I said earlier, tear down some of the garbage on the north side of Columbia from The new Utica National building west. You get rid of the garbage that are there and nobody will ever touch. There is WAAAY to much "let's spend it hope they come" mentality. Much like the $20 Million thrown at the Marcy site for "infrastructure". Talk about putting the cart before the horse. Who is this garage really for? APAC? It won't be done in time for the temp Census workers to utilize.

www.uticaod.com/news/x576521904/Parking-garage-plans-move-ahead-mayor-says

[Ralph]

LOL!!!! I love the first comment on the OD site.
"and after they park where will they go?"

Right to the point!!!

[clarencebunsen]

I'm sure the intent is to make the parking garage a destination point in itself.

I can picture the commercial from the OC Visitors Bureau now:
Ralph & Blanch are sitting around their large screen computer reading the On-line Travel Guide from the OD and Blanch says, "Honey, this year instead of going to Niagara Falls and seeing the same old water fall, let's go to Utica to visit their new parking garage. I hear it has lots of wonderful shops in the basement."

[dgriffin]

Interesting problem, who provides what and who does it first. Walking around Newberryport, Mass a couple of summers ago, I noted a few problems in regards to the small city's creation of a shopping mecca for tourists. Parking is horizontal and it is terrible. There is none, other than on the narrow streets that adjoin the downtown shopping area, so shoppers have to park awfully far from the action. When I looked in the stores, I saw goods mostly of interest to people who would consider parking important, young families with kids in tow and older couples.

[rodwilson]

Right on Dave. It has to be a comprehensive plan between local business and local government. Planned space. There is parking to be had downtown if we redevelop vs throwing a vertical lot up. I don't know if you're familiar with the area that I'm talking about but there is no way any wants anything to do with those buildings. To say that they're an eyesore and not worth the $$$ someone would have to put into them is an understatement. If I recall, a couple of years ago parts of these buildings were falling into the street and on the sidewalk.

Additionally, the type of business is important as well. For example. I was poking around a couple of properties downtown which ran consecutively down the same block in the gateway area. I have recently learned that a bar owner is pursuing one of the properties for another bar. I now have no interest in the other property because it's not conducive for my company to do business on such a street.

[rodwilson]

Just a thought but how about bringing back the trolley to shuttle people from lot to shop and back. Gotta be a whole lot cheaper than $10 mill and adds a little ambiance to boot.

And it can be paid for by the business community vs. the taxpayers.

Make coming downtown an event.

And Dave, you can still go to Wal-Mart ;D

[dgriffin]

No, I'm not familiar with much of Utica these days, so perhaps I shouldn't kibitz. But I can imagine there are a few people like yourself who are trying to come up with solutions, although there is much disagreement among them. And that's healthy, of course.

And then there are most Uticans, who as far as I can tell are like they've always been. Ready to tear down their politicians, tear apart their town and scoff at any ideas or the people who try to contribute something. And it's contagious, as I can personally attest.

I have to say it's been refreshing to spend most of my adult life in places where, although the politicians are just as lackluster, there is a lot more positive energy in the air.

When it comes down to it, there is so little we have control over in the grand scheme of running cities and attracting new residents and business. No one wants to admit it, but most of the old manufacturing and transportation paradigms are gone and the future is quite opaque. In our vertically integrated society today, where the feds have all the money and big business provides huge sums of cash for political purposes, not to mention the millions of people for whom we have nothing useful to do, we'll be lucky if cities continue to exist.

So I applaud you in your efforts, Rod. Creative ingenuity is what we'll need.

[rodwilson]

Thanks Dave. I've got disagree with the "death of the city". There are somethings about a vibrant city that just can't be replaced. People travel the world to get to great cities.

Hmmm...so I'm not the ONLY one with these "zany" ideas.

www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20090927/NEWS02/309279956

It's the future. It has to happen. There really is no other sustainable solution. Me, I'm starting a berry/holiday farm.

I discussed these same concepts with Oneida County Cornell Co-Op. Initially I was met with a very positive response from a couple of people that I spoke with. Then it got kicked upstairs to the Director where all of the sudden they had no idea what a local food systems was. THEN I learned that the head of the county committee that funds the endeavor is none other than the owner of NorthStar Orchards. I guess that's one way to keep the competition at a minimum.

[dgriffin]

It will take a food crisis similar to the energy crisis to change things. Except for climate changes (and those seem to be real worries now) available land in New York state can easily support more cultivation. I almost cry as I drive down roads in rural areas and see old barns shut up, the land left fallow with weeds growing up. And not all of the countryside is slated for new housing or gentlemen horse farms. Much of it simply lies unused because farming isn't profitable to any more. The short growing season in Northern New York mentioned in the article you cited is an excellent example. By the time the farmer ships the tomatoes locally (because a longer trip would be too expensive re fuel), the market is glutted by mega producers. There's nothing wrong with the land. It's the marketing. Countrygal will tell you that the difference between what she and her family gets for a c-weight of milk and the retail price shows there's a lot of profit added on the way to the consumer. AFTER the milk leaves her farm.

Large corporate farming organizations will of course keep the prices as high as consumers will pay. Farmers' markets are not normally convenient for consumers, because of location, hours, lack of inventory compared to a supermarket. But eventually when a biological crisis happens or the food mega producers jack the prices up too high (or ship food overseas) I imagine we will each reassess how we buy and prepare food. And that may open up opportunities for entrepreneurs.

[rodwilson]

Dave! It's exactly what they're talking about.

"There's a sense that there's an energy crisis in the works. And if there's an energy crisis, there's a food crisis as well," said Judith Einach, executive of the New York State Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, Rochester, a nonprofit organization supported in large part by USDA funds.

[corner]

with the politicians we have here the only thing that changes is the tip on the enema hose

[rodwilson]

Reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite movie villains that I often think of when pondering Utica and Oneida County politics. "This town need an enema!".

[dicklaurey]

Since the title of this thread is Revitalizing Utica, I feel compelled to, at the risk of "beating a dead horse", bring up a project that I outlined some time ago, in the now defunct "the mezz" website.
I was on the staff of the "Little Italy Portland" (Oregon) project, responsible for fundraising.
In a nutshell, this involved creating a Little Italy in the heart of the city, in an area slated for urban renewal.
During my recent visit to Utica, I gave the pertinent data to a reliable person, who knows the mayor, and will pass it on to him.
Unlike Portland, Utica already has all of the elements to create a similar project. It's a matter of pulling them all together toward a specific goal:
a) the best Italian food in the country
b) many areas are candidates for urban renewal
c) approx. 3 yr. project, creating many new jobs, both during and after completion
There is only one cost effective approach to this project, which I have outlined within the data.
If I do not receive a response from the mayor, within a reasonable time frame, I would be pleased to discuss it with local prime contractors, real estate brokers, private investors, etc., as a group, who are interested in a very realistic approach to creating a colorful and profitable tourist destination in Utica.
There are many creative ways to fund this project, honestly.
I have now sold my electronics company, here in Oregon, and would love to help create a major source of revenue for my home town and its' citizens.

[corner]

if the world were to get an enema utica is where the hose would go