Posted by NatalieAnd so, the website which supposedly “is the product of a joint effort by the City of Crumm Mountain and various community organizations” begins with a vivid depiction of The Peoples Republic of Crumm Mountain.
“Wedged uncomfortably in the mountains of Upstate NY's Central Leatherstocking region, Crumm Mountain has become notorious as a mecca for freaks, intellectuals, punk rockers, anarchists, and just about anyone disaffected with society in some way, shape, or form. With a rich history steeped in working class action, including several general strikes, and a highly active socialist party, the city continues to lead the proletariat to its destiny with it's current Mayor Stan Grossman, of the Social Democratic Labor Party.”
“The effects of these policy's are embarrassingly on display in upstate NY cities like Schenectady, Amsterdam, Hudson, and Newburgh, among many others. City governments grovel at the feet of business and industry leaders, sparing no effort to accommodate each and every demand they might come up with. Crumm Mountain takes the opposite approach. We are actually enacting policies designed to deter and drive out businesses.”
“Well, our policy toward tourists is simple. They suck. They're stupid, they're ugly, and did I mention they SUCK! They walk around cluttering up streets, restaurants, and shops looking for lame little souvenirs to bring back to their lame little homes in their lame little towns, they're just an utter nuisance. Several times I have proposed a city law banning entrance to our city for tourists.”
"[Community stores] are locally owned by community members in contrast to the distant, corporate shareholders of national retailers...Everyone in the community is given the opportunity to invest in the store by buying shares. Community owned stores support local economies by keeping locally generated dollars recycling in the community, creating a benefit for the store, the shopper and the local community...
...Local consumer spending. Stronger local business. More jobs and income. A vibrant downtown economy."
-From The Saranac Lake Community Store homepage
The struggles against the Big-Boxes, especially the despised goliath-- Walmart- seem to have the same trajectories across the nation: a Big Box, often through sneaky means, acquires land and tries to get it rezoned for its needs. In some places, the store is built before anyone knows what happened. In other places, the local community hears about it and, sometimes, debate is begun. Hearings are had and questions are raised. In general, the middle-class (especially liberals) and old-guard preservationist types are up in arms against the encroacher while poorer folk and those who pursue growth-at-any-cost are supportive. However, in general, anti-Big Box campaigns tend to be just that: anti. No development, no change, no thought of the genuine needs of the poor who need jobs and access to affordable goods.
Saranac Lake, near Lake Placid in the Adirondacks, is one of those true battlegrounds. The recent closing of the Ames store has created a retail "hole" in the area and there is a genuine need for affordable clothes and similar items; Wal-Mart has acquired land and sought for re-zoning. However, there is a strong local historic preservationist and conservationist culture that has risen up against the arrival of the Big Box. Organizations like the Sound Adirondack Growth Alliance (SAGA) and the Save Saranac Lake Coalition have grown up around this debate (SAGA is more moderate than Save Saranac) in the way that similar organizations appear where ever Wal-Mart arrives. However, in Saranac there is a new wrinkle in the fabric of debate that shows great promise for responding to the fears of the anti-Wal Mart lobby and the practical needs of the pro-Wal Mart crowd. This new idea is the Saranac Lake Community Store.
Originally an out-growth of Save Saranac, this independent organization seeks to create a community-owned department store in the heart of Saranac Lake. Ownership shares are available for community members to invest in the project and to have a voting stake in its outcome. The store would then be responsive to the needs of locals and keep money circulating within the community. By keeping the store in Downtown Saranac, it is a force combatting sprawl and keeping Saranac from being completely touristified (is that a word?). The organization has stated a vested interest in creating good-paying jobs with benefits and being governed democratically.
Based off of a model already in place in Powell, WY, a community organization has hired a business consultant to put together a plan of action and has held successful public interest meetings.
I have always been an advocate for community economic action as the best plan for rebuilding our Upstate Communities (check out my older posts on The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, the Ithaca Hour local currency and the Battenkill Cooperative Kitchen). To quote the folks from a CBS story about Powell: "Don't expect corporate America to take care of you... Don't expect the government to take care of you. …People know that, if they want to get something done, you do it yourself. And you have better solutions that way. …That's the thing with leaving your ego at the door." It's high time we learned something from those folks in Wyoming and take matters into our own hands; I salute the work of the Saranac Lake Community Store and wish them the best in all their endeavors.
-Jesse
PS: The Saranac Store needs your help:
"At present we need help from people that have some expertise in certain areas: law, buying, retail management, etc. When we are ready to sell shares, that is when we will need financial help to get things rolling and a team of volunteers to help with that. If you have further questions, please check the "Frequently Asked Questions" section, or call 518-891-7230."
It is a well known fact that American public transportation is woefully poor, even in comparison to far-poorer nations.[1] Especially when the transportation systems of Europe are mentioned, Americans often simply throw up their hands and give up. We seem to believe that there is something categorically different between America and ‘Europe’ that prevents us from ever developing systems that even come close to theirs.
Yet, this surrender is simply that and by throwing up our hands we continue to perpetuate a system that is agreed to be economically inefficient, socially isolating and environmentally disastrous. In fact, when we say ‘Europe’ we are in fact often lumping together an incredible variety of societies, from the Finns to the Turks to the Portuguese, each of which had to approach the problem of mass transportation from a unique standpoint and find its own solutions. It was never inevitable that the European continent would enjoy well-developed public transport and the American continent would revel in its automobiles and it is not inevitable that it will continue to be so.
So, for the purposes of education, discussion and perhaps change, I am going to compare two relatively similar metropolitan areas, one American and one European, and their choices in public transportation. The cities of Syracuse, NY and Bilbao in the Basque Country of northern Spain are similar in many ways. Gran Bilbao had a 2004 population of 946,829 and Greater Syracuse had 732,117 in 2005 (77% of Bilbao). Both are declining industrial centers with similar four-season temperate climates.[2] However, in the area of public transportation the gulf between them yawns.
Most public transportation in Greater Syracuse is provided by the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority (CENTRO) which has 43 bus lines in Onondaga County with a base fare of $1. The city also has a commuter rail line, Ontrack, which has four stops; Syracuse is the smallest city in America with light commuter rail. Amtrack serves the city with three trains: the Empire Service, the Lake Shore Limited and the Maple Leaf Line.[3] Both Greyhound and Trailways has long distance bus service from the Regional Transport Center (this is also the train station for Amtrack and, someday, Ontrack).
The pride of Bilbao’s public transportation service is its subway system, it is the smallest city in Spain to have one. Metro Bilbao opened in 1995 with 23 stations. Today it has two lines and 34 stations. The unique aesthetic design of the system has won several national and international awards. According to Wikipedia:
“Metro Bilbao is used by more than 77 million people every year. Since it serves about 630,000, each citizen travels about 120 times a year. That is one of the highest rates of usage in Europe.”
Supplementing the Metro are the national cercanías, or commuter trains, of which there are three lines and a total of 41 stations, and one light rail line. The Basque rail company EuskoTren has three further lines and also operates EuskoTran, a tramway with one line. The train and metro system is further interconnected by 30 city bus lines (five of which are “microbuses” that go into the old city where large buses cannot fit) and over 100 provincial bus lines.
Quite frankly, it’s an almost embarrassing comparison,[4] but one that can be rectified with time. The situation of Bilbao is relatively new, the tramway dates all the way back to 2002 and the Metro was inaugurated in 1995 and grown considerably since then[5]. The great difference, as I see it, is that the government of Gran Bilbao has decided that all of its people will be able to enjoy all of modern life without needing a car. From the little buses that serve the outlying areas to soaring atrium of the Sarriko metro station, the system is fully interlocked, attractive, affordable and efficient (having ridden it myself).
So what can we do here in Syracuse, or in any other Upstate City for that matter? Some might argue that a change in attitude is necessary before we can develop the will to create more infrastructure. Yet our car-aholic attitudes will not alter without good examples and at least a basic infrastructure to rely upon. In Syracuse, the beginnings are already in place with the creation of Ontrack.
However, Ontrack languishes. Reports I’ve read say that there are only 60 passengers per day! Part of the problem is the fact that the final destinations of the line-- the Regional Market, the Sky Chief’s Stadium and the Amtrack Station- cannot be accessed since they are on the far side of an unfinished bridge. It is shameful that in the past 12 years[6] the Basques of Bilbao have built a tram service, 34 train stations and one of Europe's most popular metro systems and we cannot finish a bridge. The money has even been earmarked for the project since 2004 and all of the other stations are complete.
With the completion of the full line, OnTrack is going to have to work on it’s PR. For one, their website, www.syracuseontrack.com, is difficult to read and looks like it was made up as a Geocities site. Better advertisement on campus and in the neighborhoods and improved signage in those areas might also increase usage. However, eventually, OnTrack is going to need to expand the number of stops it operates. These days all but one of the stops are “destinations” like Armory Square and the Carousel Mall, not residential areas. The train does travel through residential areas, however, and stops would be relatively easy to add.
Beyond this, the inspiration of places like Bilbao can continue to inspire us to create more human-centric, not car-centric landscapes. We must continue to think creatively and be willing to take risks. As the cost of gas continues to rise in the coming years, those cities that are able to continue to move people around without cars will be those who succeed and those who don't will find the cost of doing business driving them out. The last thing our Upstate cities need is another strike against them.
-Posted by Jesse
[1] Which I can attest to from my travels to Turkey and southern Europe.
[2] Syracuse gets a bit more snow.
[3] To put a little national perspective on this, Las Vegas does not even have a train station.
[4] Though our superhighways blow theirs out of the water. Does that make us happier?
[5] Two new stations are slated to open in December.
[6] OnTrack opened in 1994, the year before Bilbao’s Metro opened.
A view of the Onondaga County (Jamesville) Penitentiary (date unknown), a building I vividly remember in it's much more deteriorated state. Built from 1899-1901, the building served until 1983. It was eventually torn down in 1999 after being replaced with a new facility. Thanks to my brother Dan for sending the photo.
Compared to other Adirondack communities, Tupper Lake is not so touristy; born from the lumber industry, it has a decidedly different feel to it than Saranac Lake or Old Forge. Interestingly, the Wild Center builds over a piece of Tupper Lake's industrial past. The museum site is a repurposed abandoned gravel pit, the lake that abuts the museum is artificial.
When the city first started to install traffic signal lights in the 1920s they put one at a major intersection on Tipperary Hill, on the corner of Tompkins Street and Milton Avenue. Some Irish youths, incensed that anyone would dare to put the "British" red above the "Irish" green, broke the light. The city replaced it but the Irish broke the replacement. After a few rounds of this the city decided that if they wanted a light at that intersection, they had better put the signal up inverted, and so they did.
And so it stands to this very day: green on top, yellow in the middle and red on the bottom; here is a tribute site to the light (you might want to mute your sound as the background MIDI grates on the ear).
