Downtowns are the soul of many communities and it is important for their unique character to be preserved, lest they be replaced by strip malls and big box stores and become homogenous to every other town in America.

Hell the “Plan” has been so cobbled up, it doesn’t resemble anything a proper government would use. In the end, this town “bunch” will continue the legacy and will not follow New York State government rules and guidelines until they get sued for failure to uphold those laws. Even at Town meetings, which I used to attend, the real work of government was done on the phone or behind closed doors.

Want to try and fix it? Talk to Bill Lofquist, he know where all this is going in the end. In front of a judge.

What they have considered is that Big Boxes bring more money than what tourist could possibly do. History be damned. Plus, what is more hideous? They have forsaken their smaller communities, which could be revitalize with the help of a big business. They have ways to deal with communities that argue that point too. There are some communities that look like they may expire in our delightful county of Livingston. But I must point out that the majority of the county isn’t interested if our little main street has quaint shops or goes the route of other college towns and line bars up one after another. Folks, it’s like this, most taxpayers are afraid of what the economy will ultimately do. So fearful that many of these misconceptions about big boxes make them think that there may still be a few jobs left when all is said and done.

What I believe is that when the Lowe’s corporation does go in, they will not be able to sustain themselves and we will be left with the mess. For those of you in government who think I’m not right, you best turn on the PBS and catch the Wall Sreet report. The slope has tilted and there is so much country slippery debt, that big boxes and little boxes will find it hard to survive. Of course, leaving the taxpayers the bill.

I enjoyed clicking through your website. The small towns of upstate New York are jewels, full of history, character, and beautiful architectural. It’s hard to watch some – like ours – be sprawled while surrounding towns are starved by the loss of viable businesses.

Best wishes in your efforts to protect and promote the small towns of the southeast.

Bill

Thanks for your post. I have been working on a project to promote small towns by entering them into a web-based network called smallwander.com. Once towns realize that there is economic development to be had by using their smallness and uniqueness as a leveraging tool, there might be added resistance to standard, cookie-cuter, big-box development.

Best of luck in upstate NY. It’s a great region. I grew up in Albany.