The statewide coalition of 30 member organizations that's been leading the citizen effort to improve New York's economic and civic potential through Smart Growth -- Empire State Future -- is now in its third year!

With planning, environment, and business groups who are interested in advancing the many principles of Smart Growth, the new coalition is working to turn them into reality in cities, towns and villages all across the Empire State.

The coalition builds on the generally accepted Smart Growth ideas that cities need nurturing, suburban sprawl has been straining local services while consuming our landscape, and it's no longer possible to build our way out of traffic congestion.

Empire State Future compliments and expands on efforts to bring progress and sanity to the way we plan our future. And a big element of our work involves communications: we work to provide the Smart Growth constituency and the general public with a lively Web site that is current, informative, and easily used.

We strive to help establish a better public understanding of the links between land development patterns and the high cost of government services -- as well as the contribution of sprawl to ongoing environmental degradation.

People visiting our site for the first time might ask, "What do you mean by Smart Growth, and why is it important?"

To us at Empire State Future, it's the effort to build a healthy economy that offers real choices in transportation, housing, and education while respecting farmlands, open space, and our many natural and historic resources. By building more homes and businesses in already-existing communities, we can save valuable open space and conserve money spent on our roads and costly utility infrastructure. All of which makes Smart Growth important for our future, and for our children's future.

Linking land use decisions with existing development is good because it can take advantage of a multitude of public investments that are already in place, avoiding the need to duplicate them. Sprawl is bad because it tends to reward land speculation in the marketplace without regard to areas where development may be better suited -- and oftentimes much preferred.

Why shouldn't it be simpler for us to work toward a more attractive and economical civic future? A future where

• new development is constructed in places that maximize existing public investment in schools, roads, water and sewer service, transit facilities and information infrastructure.
• workers have good jobs that are within walking distance or an easy commute by bike, bus, rail or automobile
• farm land is protected from encroachment so it can continue to be used to raise livestock and crops, providing a continuing and strong agricultural sector, and rivers, lakes, streams and ponds are pollution-free and provide recreational opportunities for residents and tourists alike
• people can choose to live in older, thriving communities that are beautiful and unique, and that validate the reality that this is still the Empire State!

Empire State Future is striving to reach these values through public education, citizen action, and petitioning our government. Working together, especially during this period of significant economic challenges, our coalition has high hopes for New York's future!

      The announcement that New York would receive $151 million in Federal funding to address needed track upgrade projects and Amtrak station improvements has been well received by transit advocates in the state.  The disparity between New York's share and that of Florida, however, which received $1.2 billion for its high-speed corridor between Tampa and Orlando, has attracted the attention of editorial writers here. California was awarded $2.34 billion, part a nationwide pool $8 billion in rail-related funding. 

      Much of New York's funding will be spent in the Capital region, according to a story in the Times Union, which reported $90 million will go for a second track and signal improvements between Albany and Schenectady. That section has been a long-standing source of delays routinely affecting on time performance on Amtrak trains heading or returning from Western New York. 

      Empire State Passengers Association president Bruce Becker said he hoped New York would get additional funding from $2.5 billion yet to be awarded, according to the paper. "We're thankful for the money New York State is receiving, but we're disappointed it's not more," he said. 

Read the entire Times Union article at:

The RevitalizingNY statewide summit on sustainable development, sponsored by Empire State Future and the New York Department of State, was held October 7, 2009 at downtown Schenectady's historic Proctors Theater. Almost 200 participants--including over 40 expert, experienced presenters and panelists-- attended from across the state and across professional and political persuasions. Here, you can download a document containing the event proceedings; it includes an executive summary as well as complete transcripts of the summit's ten panel sessions.

A proposal for an agricultural protection zone in the Town of Batavia has drawn fire from some residents and some recommended changes from the town's planning board.  The new zone was developed during work on the town's comprehensive plan, and has been under consideration for more than a year, according to a story in The Daily News of Batavia.

Under the plan an estimated 5,000 acres on the north side of the New York State Thruway would be placed in a category designed to protect it from commercial and residential development, according to the paper.

While some property owners objected to the plan at a recent public hearing, the town's planning director said the town board should address issues including a lack of permanent protections for the large tract of mostly wet and unproductive land under discussion.

The full article may be viewed here.

"Smart shrinkage," or land banking, is a big part of the solution to the problems of many old, fading industrial cities, according to Bruce Fisher in a cover story in Buffalo's Artworks weekly. The piece examines the fate of several Great Lakes cities after their once thriving industries left, and contrasts the amount of tax money being spent on revival efforts with the result: continuing declines in population. The thesis is we can't build or buy our way to prosperity, but we may be able to manage a revival through enlightened planning and leadership.

The article raises the issue of purposefully abandoning some sections of inner cities, mothballing them in favor of concentration on neighborhoods that are currently viable, until the population and tax base rebound.

The common thread among the shrinking cities of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan is that "the problems are all the same -- sprawl without growth, population loss, mass abandonment of housing, growing dependency, de-industrialization, and of course the racial isolation within old city boundaries," according to Professor Fisher.

Read the entire Artworks article here.

Following a six-month study of its feasibility, the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce and the Metropolitan Development Association of Syracuse and Central New York are poised to merge, according to a page one article this week in the Post Standard.

The two agencies, which the paper notes have sometimes been at loggerheads, historically have represented different constituencies: the Chamber with 64 employees on the side of small business, and the MDA with 25 focused on the needs of large employers, including big manufacturing concerns. While each would continue to exist as legal entities under the merger proposal, a new organization would be formed to employ both their staffs and operate as one, according to the paper.

"We want a seamless program, so companies have one organization to turn to for assistance," said Rob Simpson, the current President and CEO of the MDA, who would lead the new group.

The Chamber Board is set to vote on the proposal January 25th, and the MDA Board vote is scheduled for February 4th.

The full story is on the Post Standard Web site at: Syracuse.com