It\u2019s been nearly 10 years since New York State first asked the question: could handing out $10 million checks be the turning point for the state\u2019s struggling downtowns?<\/p>\n
The Downtown Revitalization Initiative, a series of $10 million grants awarded to cities in bursts based on an application submitted by the local municipality, seeks to use targeted investments in local projects to spur long-term growth.<\/p>\n
Spectrum News 1\u00a0spoke with two lawmakers, one Democrat and one Republican from opposite ends of the state, who both agree that the program has many of New York\u2019s smaller cities on the road to a brighter future, even if they don\u2019t agree on every aspect of its implementation.<\/p>\n
\u201cTen million dollars injected into a downtown into a defined area can really be a game-changer,\u201d Assemblymember John McDonald said during a walk-through downtown Cohoes Friday.<\/p>\n
He represents two cities which have received grants, Cohoes and Troy, with nearby Watervliet and Rensselaer looking to get in on the promise of progress. McDonald has nothing but positive things to say about the program, and remarked that it\u2019s a dream come true for local officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a former mayor for 13 years here,\u201d he said of Cohoes. \u201cThis is a program I wish I had the opportunity to participate in as a mayor here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He argued the grants could play a role in shifting the perception that the Capital Region\u2019s industrial population centers, where the potential of attractive scenery and historic Italianate storefronts is often overshadowed by shuttered factory buildings and pothole filled streets, are past their prime.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who travel around the country like to talk about these cities they go to,\u201d he said. \u201cThe reality is here in the Capital Region we have a lot of great cities here, and this DRI program is helping to rediscover these gems.\u201d<\/p>\n
The key, McDonald explained, is making targeted investments that will help the city put on a bright face to attract further outside investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there are developers who are going through the process now of wanting to build some new apartments here downtown which is going to provide reasonable working-class housing opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Walter Mosley, New York\u2019s secretary of state, told\u00a0Spectrum News 1\u00a0that the program has invested around $900 million in 91 communities. He also pointed to the success of the state\u2019s NY Forward program which awards smaller grants to smaller municipalities.<\/p>\n
When it comes to making targeted investment work, he said the city of Oswego takes home the gold.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor every dollar that was invested through the DRI, $6 was invested by local government, the private sector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He explained that the DRI program isn\u2019t intended to be the \u201csole solution,\u201d and that\u2019s why cities take the lead in crafting applications and ultimately choosing which projects will spur that intended investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time we\u2019re able to invest in communities while also allowing those communities to lead in terms of what they believe is the best way to invest is a win-win for that municipality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Republican Assemblymember Joe Sempolinski represents several communities that have received grants from both programs including Olean and Cattaraugus. He also described the grants as a winner for New York\u2019s smaller upstate cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time people are making investments in the 148th Assembly District, I feel positive about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While the state\u2019s larger cities like Albany, which is receiving $400 million as part of the state budget, or Syracuse which saw the state push relentlessly to land Micron\u2019s semiconductor plant in the nearby town of Clay, may need a bigger boost \u2014 he feels that for smaller municipalities, the program does have the potential to be a major factor in righting the ship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it is a smaller community, $10 million can still be a pretty large investment in the communities I represent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But he does have his criticisms of the program, from its very premise to what he describes \u201cstrings attached.\u201d That includes a requirement that municipalities at least apply to be a \u201cpro housing\u201d community, a state designation which indicates a community is taking active steps to promote affordable housing development and is a prerequisite for multiple economic development programs including DRI.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat leaves me with some concern,\u201d he said of the requirement. \u201cI philosophically believe in local control, and I would want every community to be treated equally when applying into state programs regardless of the decisions they have made in a particular policy space, because it may be what fits them and their community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps more fundamentally, he blames past and current New York State policy for the program having to exist in the first place, even if he largely supports its intent under the circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish we were in a world where our business climate was such that things happened organically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As for the pro-housing stipulation, Mosley defended it being baked into DRI and NY Forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to have the ability and desire to promote affordable housing at all market rates,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re really proud of the fact that over the several years we\u2019ve been in place we\u2019ve created over 4,200 units of affordable housing, nearly 40% are either workforce or permanent affordable housing. Once you have housing, you\u2019re taking on a holistic approach that will allow you to provide a strategy that is synergistic toward making sure we are planning for future goals and future New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been nearly 10 years since New York State first asked the question: could handing out $10 million…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":111756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,13565,17547,7448,51754,405,403,17050,50,5226,5225,5228,17545,5227,80,5981,52,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-111755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-app-local-state-politics","10":"tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-jack-arpey","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-ny-state-of-politics","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-swarm","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa","31":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114956638959844577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}