Morning Read: How do we save Adirondack towns?
In case you haven’t checked it out, this is a good time to read the Adirondack Life article I wrote this fall about the future of Adirondack communities.
Just a decade ago the main threats were acid rain and the risk of irresponsible development of millions of acres of private timberland.
Now the one urgent question is whether Adirondack communities will survive.
Unless we move quickly to reform the park, one of the most hopeful landscapes in America will be reduced to a patchwork of ghost towns and hollow vacation resorts.
An excerpt of the article can be found here. I’m nuding you to check it out because you can also join in a what I hope will be a cool, live and in-person conversation about Adirondack communities, life and sustainability.
Adirondack Life magazine has organized a couple of panel discussions about all this, one tonight at 7:30 pm at the Newcomb VIC and the second on October 5th at the Northwoods Inn in Lake Placid (also at 7:30pm).
The first panel will include myself, Brad Dake, Paul Hai, Lani Ulrich and John Warren. The second panel will include Kate Fish, Jim LaValley, Jim Newman, John Sheehan.
This discussion about where Park towns and villages are going — and how to help them go in the right direction — will also be front and center at the Adirondack North Country Association annual meeting on Monday in Lake Placid.
The main topic of that meeting will be the “state of the Adirondack North Country,” with a focus on “economic and demographic changes since 2000.”
So, feel free to chime in here on the In Box, but this is also a chance to turn up live and in person for a good old fashioned conversation.
Tags: economy, land management, land use
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Start with comprehensive mobile phone coverage and broadband connectivity. These are basic infrastructure requirements for the 21st century and are the only chance of attracting new business investment or telecommuter growth.
Hey Brian.
Your ADK Life essay framed the Adirondacks’ existential crisis well. However, as a resident concerned with the very real erosion of the Park Agency’s capacity to enforce environmental protections, I would take issue with your proposed solution.
Channeling the APA’s diminishing resources into economic development makes no more sense than any one of the Adirondack Park’s component communities suddenly repurposing its planning board into a community development office. The departments have very different, and frequently conflicting missions.
The fact is, the Adirondack Park already has an organization devoted to economic development. Without exposition, your essay dismissed Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) in one sentence.
A healthy and sustainable Adirondack region needs both strong environmental protection and strong economic development. Building one mission at the expense of another is not the solution.
Brian, I haven’t read the whole article in AL just the excerpt you linked. But based on that I would say that the shrinking school population and aging/graying of the population is not unique to Adirondack towns/villages. The trend you describe could describe many rural locations throughout the Northeast US. One of the main reasons is simply the Boomers aging and having smaller families, it’s not limited to the Adirondacks.
Rich, you’re right. It’s not limited to the Adirondacks. And in many ways, the Adirondacks have more resources and advantages than other rural areas.
But that doesn’t change the fact that many of our communities are in really dire straits right now, with economic and demographic trends that are pretty scary.
So these conversations are an effort to think about what we might do about it, especially given that the Park is more of a planned environment than other parts of New York and US.
Can we use things like regional planning and collaboration to solve some of these problems here? Perhaps in a way that other rural communities might emulate?
–Brian, NCPR
Also, unlike many other rural areas the Adirondacks has serious potential as a world class tourist destination. The problem is that we have decided to set over half, and in most cases the best areas, aside for only hiking and paddling or we have simply set it aside for posterity. There is nothing wrong with this it is a noble endeavor but it does have economic consequences.
Many will argue that it is this preservation effort that has given the Adirondacks an advantage over other places. That is true but only to some extent, at some point you have to use the resources that you have to try and help people make a living.
Since the creation of the APA, the population of the Park has increased at a rate THREE TIMES FASTER than NYS as a whole. Every county with any significant land inside the Blue Line, except Hamilton, saw its population increase from 2000 to 2010. I have trouble accepting your fundamental premise that humans inside the Park are headed toward extinction and even less that Adirondack Park 2.0 (as I believe you refer to it) is the cause of this non-trend and thus needs a complete overhaul.
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2011/08/adirondack-park-population-growing.html
Sorry but I never read Adirondack Life. It isn’t aimed at the year-round population. A quick glance at all the glossy ads tells you who its market is.
To the questions. People are better served by keeping abreast and having input into what is happening with the newly formed economic development councils than making Adirondack Life feel important. They also need to take part in their local town board, school board and planning board meetings.
People complain about the APA but look at what just happened in the Town of Malta where they passed a law limiting the height of buildings. Will Doolittle commented in the Post Star today about the shortsightedness of what the Town Fathers did.
I have often suggested to people at the APA, local government and environmental groups there should not be any height limits in hamlets. Don’t worry. No one will build the Empire State Building here. But we do need to allow for more than two stories. We need more apartments. We need to get beyond the “house” kick. Houses cost money. Serious money. And houses are not what a person starting off in life can afford. I might also add houses are not what many older and retired people want. I might also add house are a real drag in a mobile society. Houses can be a real ball and chain if you want/need to move for a job. Try selling one now.
Mark –
Your point of view is perfectly valid. In my article, I give respectful nods to people who disagree with my thinking.
But I think you undersell the expressly stated (and legislated) mission of the Adirondack Park Agency, which is to achieve a balance of community and ecological issues.
The APA Act describes a mission of balancing the “complementary needs” of ecological preservation with human needs, including “a strong economic base.”
It’s also no accident that the legislature included representatives of the Department of Commerce and the Secretary of State on the APA board.
Article XIV of the state constitution — the Forever Wild bit — also includes extensive language making it clear that human needs are meant to be a priority in the Park.
So this question — the sustainability of towns and villages — is hardwired into the foundational DNA of the Park and the APA.
So…when I think about the biggest windmills that the APA could tilt at right now, in terms of the Park’s overall health, I can’t think of anything bigger than community vitality.
As I mention in the article, a decade ago my mental priority list would have looked very different.
Then, the state hadn’t protected 1 million additional acres using easements and fee title purchases.
Let me put this as a question, not a statement:
If not community vitality, what do you think the big challenges are now that the APA should be wrestling with?
What other issue would have a greater impact on the long-term integrity of the Park’s human-wild chemistry than the collapse or stagnation of two or three of our important hub communities?
–Brian, NCPR
Brian – MOFYC not NCPR, setting aside Brian Mann’s “premise” as you call it, do you think that more should be done to improve the economic landscape? The fact that the Adirondack population is growing faster than the rest of the state over that period is no reason to dismiss the idea of doing more. This “quit while you are ahead” attitude that some people have doesn’t really make sense to me.
Folks –
It is simply factually inaccurate that the Adirondack Park’s population is growing faster than the rest of New York state’s.
Or that this kind of rapid population growth occurred in the Park at any time over the last forty years.
In fact, almost all of the “population growth” in the Park over the last four decades came in the form of prison inmates transported here against their will.
After 1970, a total of five new prisons were opened in the Park, in Gabriels, Moriah, and Lyon Mountain, along with two facilities in Ray Brook.
The prison in Dannemora also expanded, as the Rockefeller drug laws meant more inmates shipped to the Adirondacks for longer prison terms.
The US Census counts these individuals in the prisons where they reside, so this controversial incarceration policy skewed the population numbers for the Park sharply.
When you factor in the corrections officers and civilian workers at these prisons, you find that if it weren’t for the rapid expansion of incarceration in the Park, we would have seen substantial population loss.
What’s more, those who cite growth in the Adirondack population generally cite numbers that run through 2006.
But since 2006, two of these prisons have closed.
We have also seen a major downsizing of other state and local government employment in the Park.
(27 more workers were just laid off at Sunmount in Tupper Lake.)
So it’s important to dig into population and employment numbers to get a solid baseline for this discussion.
We should get more good, updated data at the ANCA meeting next week in Lake Placid.
–Brian, NCPR
Brian, I agree with you. Last year you wrote an editorial in the ADE where you basically touted the population growth in the Saranac Lake area. When I asked if this could just be a result of the growth in the prison population I never got any response. Is Saranac Lake an anomaly or is part of the trend that you describe within the park as a whole??
Brian, the excerpt you provided seems a little over the top in gloom and doom, such as “….will be reduced to a patchwork of ghost towns and hollow vacation resorts.” Really – Old Forge? Lake Placid?
Some places in the Adirondacks seem to be doing better than others. I think it would be more constructive to research those situations to see if there are lessons that can be applied rather than paint a picture of a ubiquitous park-wide economic decline (caused mostly by nationwide trends that are affecting all rural areas).
Let’s also look at other successful rural places in the US with similar characteristics and see what can be learned and tried in the Adirondack Park.
Also, the APA currently has neither sufficient legislative authority nor adequate staffing to be involved with promoting economic development.
Just some numbers to correct and clarify my last comment.
According to the stats used in the Adirondack Almanack post linked to above, the Park’s population grew by a little less than 14,000 people between 1970 and 2006.
The Park’s state and Federal prison population during that time appears to have grown by roughly 4,000 to 5,000 as new facilities were built.
(These numbers don’t reflect the population of residents at Sunmount in Tupper Lake, some of whom are transported to the Adirondacks.)
So it appears that inmate numbers only account for between a third and half of total Park population growth.
However, when you factor in thousands of corrections officers, civilian workers, etc., however, the impact of the prison complex on population is pretty stark.
–Brian, NCPR
Brian Mann said: “I’m nuding you to check it out…”
Ewww.
Paul – I think Saranac Lake is an anomaly, but others have differing opinions about this.
The prison numbers I cite above are between 1970 and 2006 — and during that period five new correctional facilities opened in the Park. (Six if you include the new Medium security annex at Dannemora.)
In the Adirondack Daily Enterprise essay you cite, I was talking about population trends beginning in 1990 and continuing through (I think) 2005.
During that shorter period, the prisons around Saranac Lake had already been built and I don’t believe inmate population trends played a significant role in the overall numbers….
Brian, NPCR
I think the economic success of rural communities throughout the Northeast is tied more to educational institutions than anything else. Are schools and colleges teaching the next generations the proper skills to survive in small towns?
I will cover tonight’s forum for the Lake George Mirror. From a personal perspective, I would be cautious about attributing to the drafters of the APA act a concern for the economy equal to their concern for the environment. The language in the act’s preamble isn’t much to go on. A proposal to include an economic impact statement for every environmental regulation was explicitly rejected. A review of the Hochshild and Lawrence papers in the Adirondack Museum would, I think, confirm this. This is not merely of historical interest; it might help clarify the credibility of the term “Great Experiment” as Brian defined it in his essay. The Berle Commission proposed reforming the APA into a super agency with social, cultural and economic powers. That was even less palatable to Albany than back country regulations. Looking forward to tonight.
Don’t worry everyone, Mike Foxman with a permit from the APA is coming to save the Park. All those rich people are going to start building mansions early next year bringing in Millions in tax dollars to save us. Tupper Lake is going to be the place to be, the envy of everyone else in the Park, especially Lake Placid. Skeptical? You should be.
Brian, which “important hub communities [besides Tupper Lake] are in crisis”?
And you ask “What other issue would have a greater impact on the long-term integrity of the Park’s human-wild chemistry than the collapse or stagnation of two or three of our important hub communities?”
Well, the loss of one of the park’s major tree species, would be one such. I would argue that opening the wilderness areas to motor vehicles would be another. Relaxing land-use controls substantially might be another. It’s easy to lose sight of what we have here.
“I would be cautious about attributing to the drafters of the APA act a concern for the economy equal to their concern for the environment.”
This is true. The act was quickly drafted and aimed at one specific (large) development project. The effort to stop that was a success.
I think this also tells us that the focus is environmental and not economic (see below). As I have said before there was no reason for the ACR adjudicatory hearings to cover economic issues. These issues were going to be overlooked anyway. If a project meets the standards of the act the permit has to be issued. Even if it is a flop!
http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/page/content.detail/id/526894/APA-staff-sidesteps-economic-concerns-with-resort.html?nav=5008
Brian Mann writes that “the expressly stated (and legislated) mission of the Adirondack Park Agency, which is to achieve a balance of community and ecological issues.
“The APA Act describes a mission of balancing the “complementary needs” of ecological preservation with human needs, including “a strong economic base.”
I understand Brian to say that it is the statutory responsiblity of the APA to engage in ongoing balancing of preservation with economic development. I believe that to be a misreading of the law.
Below is an excerpt of the APA Act describing the private land use and development plan. It follows after two statements of purpose applicable to all the agency’s actions.
“The Adirondack park land use and development plan set
forth in this article recognizes the complementary needs of
all the people of the state for the preservation of the park’s
resources and open space character and of the park’s
permanent, seasonal and transient populations for growth
and service areas, employment, and a strong economic base,
as well. In support of the essential interdependence of these
needs, the plan represents a sensibly balanced
apportionment of land to each.”
The Act’s designation of land use areas supports both preservation and a strong economic base. The word “balance” appears only in the above quoted excerpt. The Act purports to achieve that balance. The Act does not envisage an ongoing “balancing.” While the Act also contains a mechanism to amend the private land use and development plan, and criteria for doing so, it is far from asserting that the APA has an economic development function.
The Act includes economic considerations as one among several in reviewing projects, but it doesn’t privilege them as coordinate or equal in value to all the others.
The APA Act is at http://www.apa.state.ny.us/Documents/Laws_Regs/APAACT.PDF
Paul: “The APA Act was drafted quickly and aimed at one specific development.” If you are referring to Horizon corp’s subdivision, that was proposed after the APA Act had been passed but before the Land Use Plan was adopted. Clearly, the pressures upon the park, which caused Rockefeller to appoint the Study Commission in 1968, were many. The proposal for an APA emerged early in the discussions, well before 1970.
“Brian, which “important hub communities [besides Tupper Lake] are in crisis”?”
Even some of the towns considered a “success” are considerably smaller than they once were.
Saranac Lake is about one third what it was at its peak. The reasons for this are economic and that is what Brain is saying needs to be addressed.
Walker, again why would you oppose the improvement of the park’s economic landscape. Perhaps you don’t? Give us your ideas? There is always room for improvement right?
Good comments and points here. Some of the Park’s hub communities that I would describe as facing significant existential challenges — for wildly different reasons — are:
-Lake Placid (displacement of year-round population by housing prices)
-Keene/Keene Valley (same as Lake Placid)
-Indian Lake (loss of core amenities)
-Long Lake (same as Lake Placid
-Willsboro (same as Lake Placid)
-Elizabethtown (loss of government jobs/funding)
-Moriah/Port Henry (dramatic erosion of community core)
-Brian, NCPR
To George and Tony’s points:
I think it’s fair to say that some of my suggestions might require legislative or regulatory changes at the APA.
But why not consider that?
As I wrote in my article, the Agency was created in the Sixties and Seventies to deal with two existential threats to the Park which are (largely) resolved.
Backcountry fragmentation and unchecked development has been — to an enormous extent — solved by the state’s purchase of land and easements.
It’s an astonishing fact that the largest remaining private landowners in the Park are all either environmental groups, or the allies of those environmental groups.
The landscape-level threats described in the 1970s to the Park’s privately owned backcountry simply no longer exist.
The other major concern was unchecked activity by the Department of Environmental Conservation — roadbuilding, tree cutting, etc.
But the DEC today is a very very different organization, whose last two commissioners were/are environmental advocates of the first caliber.
The old bulldozer-chainsaw ethic that existed in the Conservation Department of old is substantially gone.
So…isn’t it time to think about a new mission for the APA?
And what part of helping to promote planned and sustainable human development in the Adirondacks would violate the spirit of its charter?
–Brian, NCPR
One of the big myths in the Adirondack/North Country region is that some body or something big is going to save us; the Seaway, I-98, the latest project in Tupper Lake. Now the APA. There are no saviors in economic development. Maybe we need to think about ways to save ourselves The current model of economic development sure isn’t working for this region. Perhaps we need chart our own course, one that makes sense for the region’s strengths.
Brian, I have trouble buying the idea that the very existence of Lake Placid is threatened by the lack of affordable housing. But that aside, the lack of affordable housing is something I have real trouble imagining an APA solution to. A developer is going to build the most expensive house he possibly can on any acreage he can get his hands on. How do you see the APA changing that reality? Creating low income housing zones? Sounds like planned ghettos.
And Paul, I don’t oppose the concept of governmental efforts improvement of the park’s economic landscape, I just have a hard time imagining any such efforts successfully addressing the chief problem– affordable housing.
What, exactly, is envisioned in this regard?
And Paul, Saranac Lake’s diminishment from its peak population is very much a special case. The loss of the influx of TB patients after the development of an effective drug therapy for the disease is not something that comes along every day.
Though, come to think of it, there have certainly been many far more dramatic instances of population declines based on industry collapse over the park’s history– think of the many logging and mining towns that no longer exist. Tupper Lake would have become a ghost town long ago if it weren’t for the VA hospital and then Sunmount, joining Brandon, Goldsmith, Fanklin Falls, Tahawus, and many many others. And short of fading away entirely, there are many villages whose glory years were long ago– Onchiota was once a thriving village, and Bloomingdale was bigger than Saranac Lake in the late 1800s.
Looked at in that light, there’s nothing special about what’s going on today. I would think a good conservative would view it as a natural part of the business cycle that should be allowed to run its course.
Walker has a good point – builders build to make money and private builders don’t build “affordable” housing if they can help it. lack of affordable housing is usually a sign of economic strength of a region. The only way to combine successful economic development and cheap housing is to allow totally unrestricted development (as in Texas) and unlimited suburban sprawl. That isn’t a possibility in the Adirondacks (thankfully). It seems to me that the only solution is to get more middle class jobs like the biotech companies offer that bring in people who can afford the more expensive housing. Its a real problem that the tourism-based service jobs don’t pay enough, and there isn’t a good solution for that.
So according to Brian Mann displacement of year-round population by housing prices seems to be widespread and important issue in the Park. Wow, a lot of rural areas would love to have that problem, instead of land being abandoned as the population dwindles. Maybe the Adirondacks suffer from too much of a good thing, like being attractive in the same way other high priced resort areas in the US are.
If you are talking about attracting young families to the Adirondacks it is not reasonable to expect they would be competing for the same lake front/recreational oriented housing as wealthy retiring boomers. And despite the national real estate recession normal housing is still way too expensive in many areas of the US, not just in the Adirondacks. And it is even tougher for young families.
So if more apartments or townhouses were available would they come? Or would the units be bid out of reach by the next tier of boomers who can’t afford lake front property? I know government subsidized housing is planned in a few places. If we build it I guess we will see if they come.
And I agree with Walker, in some cases it might be better to let social/economic evolution run its course and accept that some places might not recover and will become part of history like many other areas in the past.
I’ll let more qualified commenters address the history of the APA charter. But the organizational framework that has evolved over decades to address the twin problems (economic and ecological) within the Adirondack Park remain perfectly viable (if imperfectly resourced).
ANCA was chartered by New York State in 1955 expressly to address economic stagnation. Like the APA it lacks an appropriate level of funding to make it a truly effective operation.
Placing both economic and environmental portfolios with a single organization (the APA) and toggling resources between the two missions risks institutionalizing their incompatibilities and setting in motion an unstable and wasteful pendulum effect where the park lurches from over-reaction on one side to over-compensation on the other.
What is needed is a model of dynamic stability where two organizations with differentiated (but not mutually exclusive) mandates work side by side. The only thing lacking here is the political will to fund both organizations sufficiently to face the certain challenges ahead.
So if you take out prisoners, then the Park’s population is growing at only double the rate of NYS as a whole. Ok.
(You can’t automatically assume that every prison guard and family member came from outside the Blue Line)
Paul asks, “do you think that more should be done to improve the economic landscape?”
It depends on how much one wants the Park’s population growth to be. I’m wary of rapid growth because it compromises the Park’s fundamental raison d’etre. Of course the economy could be better in the Park, just as in most of rural America. The question is how.
People can poo-poo environmental concerns as much as they want but the fact that nearly all the private sector economy inside the Park IS based on an outdoor tourism that is dependent on certain ecological characteristics.
As I understand it, the totality of Brain Mann’s ideas rest on the assumption that the Park’s communities are in significant, dire decline. We are in danger of having “Ghost towns”.
That is the foundation for all of the conclusions he makes afterward.
However, I’ve yet to read an analysis of census or economic data that shows that such doom and gloom is real. I have yet to see anything that shows that the Adirondack Park is doing any worse than any other rural area in upstate NY. Just the opposite actually, most of what I’ve seen so far shows that the Park is doing better than the rest of the state.
If the initial assumption by which all of Brian’s ideas are based on is in question (or out right flawed), then what does that say about the conclusions reached afterward?
Furthermore, how on earth does this entire conversation not constitute Brian’s “opinion”, which I was under the impression NCPR employees were no longer going to be allowed to do?
Brian’s figure of nine or ten thousand new full-time park residents since 1970 is interesting in light of the figure of a thousand new houses being built each year since the APA was founded. If you figure that each house contains at least two people on average, that suggests that at most five thousand of the forty thousand new houses are for year-round residents.
I’m really curious to know, though, how anyone knows who is a year-round resident and who is not.
Where in the North Country have economic development efforts been successful over the past 30 years? We have spent millions on economic development over that time period, beyond the employment created in the field of economic development has it worked? There may be cases where it has been successful in Franklin, St. Lawrence, Clinton, Jefferson or Essex counties? I don’t know?
Also can you really separate the villages in the Park from the villages 30 miles away outside of the park as far as a strategy goes? It seems like a false dichotomy in many ways particularly when political power rests largely within the counties, not an arbitrary line about what is in or outside of the park?
Brian Mann, You suggest that Lake Placid residents are in trouble because of affordable housing is lacking. I assume that is in large part due to the influx of wealthier second home owners buying up properties paying prices that most locals consider crazy. Won’t Tupper Lake be in the same boat if the ACR project is approved and the same influx of wealthy buyers arrive, driving up the price of all properties? To some extent it created an artificial bubble back in 04-05 right after the announcement that the ACR was coming. How do the locals hang on?
The tri -lakes area is a real concern. I spent the 70’s in Vermont, and the second home thing hurt communities by taking housing stock out of circulation, and inflating prices. It was tough to see local folks become second class citizens in communities where they grew up. Its not just affecting working class folks either in the Adks. A few years back Dr. Mills from Paul Smiths got involved because the lack of affordable housing was keeping well qualified professors from coming to his campus. Tourism is ok as a small part of a larger diversified local economy, but is its nothing you want as a mainstay of your economic development efforts. This will be even more true when gas is $6.00a gallon.
Go to Jackson Hole Wyoming, the locals ARE the transplants.
Environmental playgrounds do not make for a diversified economy, they make for a two class system of wealthy people who come up to play and those who serve them and of course live elsewhere.
Mervel asked: “Where in the North Country have economic development efforts been successful over the past 30 years?”
A: Plattsburgh.
Not perfect (what is?) but it’s survived the loss of an Air Force base, has managed to maintain population, and is poised for more growth in tourism, recreation, manufacturing and as a gateway to cheap shopping and getaways for Montrealers.
I was really asking. Yeah I think that may be a good example what did they do that was unique? I think they are doing something right.
Without going to the Bible to get the exact quote, much of the talk about the Adirondacks reminds me of “What did you expect to find when you went into the desert?”
The Adirondacks is the Adirondacks. It is what it is. If you want Clifton Park, move to Clifton Park.
Don’t ever expect the Adirondacks to have a vibrant economy because you will just make yourself miserable. That is unless you have the time and the money to knock down the mountains, fill-in the wetlands and chop down all the trees. You will also need to remove all the rocks.
Those who came to farm left for many obvious reasons. Winters are long and summers are short. The land was raped by the lumber barons and mined until mining could be done cheaper elsewhere. Those are the cold, hard facts.
The state started picking up the land after the lumber barons left and stopped paying the taxes.
Maybe, just maybe, now that most of the get rich quick have left for greener and warmer pastures, those who want to live here will figure out their future. I think the solution is a real desire to live here after recognizing all the reasons not to live here.
Maybe the problem is that local leaders have spent so much time and effort fighting the APA that they haven’t had any time and effort left over to try some of the ideas the APA proposes to make the Park more economically sustainable?
Also, Adirondackers must blame themselves. For years people from as far away as Tupper Lake have driven to The Falls to do their shopping on a regular basis. How is a local merchant who could provide similar products at a cost only slightly higher and for a short wait going to compete with that mindset? On the other hand, many local merchants are too set in their ways to change and all they want to do is complain that the APA has ruined everything. And now I’m back to the beginning of my post.
Mervel asks “Where in the North Country have economic development efforts been successful over the past 30 years?”
Saranac Lake has made a lot of efforts at economic development, though the most dramatic occurred more than 50 years ago. When Trudeau Sanatorium closed in 1954, we nearly lost Trudeau Institute to a major city, a near disaster for the village that was played out again last year. In 1954, village leaders set up a shoe factory to give work to displaced sanatorium workers, and in 1961, a dress factory. Both were successful for a time. The American Management Association was brought to Saranac Lake in 1957, when they bought the sanatorium. North Country Community College was founded in 1967; it grew in part from earlier efforts to use the sanatorium grounds as a college campus. These were all local undertakings, and the last two are still among the village’s largest employers.
Granted, these efforts go back considerably more than 30 years. But the village did start a major revitalization of it’s downtown storefronts in the 1980s, an effort that is still paying off today.
But Saranac Lake is not Long Lake. Whether anything similar could have worked on a much smaller scale seems doubtful.
“Though, come to think of it, there have certainly been many far more dramatic instances of population declines based on industry collapse over the park’s history– think of the many logging and mining towns that no longer exist.”
Walker, that was exactly my point. You can’t argue that Adirondack isn’t a ghost town. Look at Brandon and Everton. They are just gone. A modern example is Santa Clara, just about gone. St. Regis Falls well on its way to gone.
Some people don’t care that some places are in trouble. My favorite comment was this Dickensian comment:
“in some cases it might be better to let social/economic evolution run its course and accept that some places might not recover and will become part of history like many other areas in the past.”
Wasn’t it Ebenezer Scrooge who said that “they had better do it and decrease the surplus population”?
Must agree w Knuck, 10/2/11. Local leaders have spent way to much time whining about the APA. In Tupper Lake for the past 20 yrs now the local boards have been hanging their hats on the promise of one big thing that is going to “save” the town. First it was the Super Max Prison and for the past 7 yrs it is the ACR. All the while they are doing little else. In this national recession the likelyhood of the ACR ever getting off the ground is slim to none. Even if it does get off the ground the local taxing entities will see little to no increase in their local coffers because of the proposed financing mechanism, the PILOT.
Mike, Please don’t say we are doing little else in Tupper Lake outside of the ACR. Tupper Lake does have a community master plan. Yes the ACR is an important component but we also have the following work in progress items: 1)Adirondack Public Observatory2)Local Waterfront Revitilization ie A Master Plan for our Municipal Park and Waterfronts 3)Next Stop Tupper Lake and Our Train Depot in support of bringing the train from Saranac Lake to Tupper Lake4)DOT Park Street Project (the complete overhall of our business district) Just to name a few. Please join us for our next revitilization commitee meeting.
Small, rural, remote communities are having trouble everywhere. I have no doubt that we can point to a few in the Park.
We can certainly discuss what to do about this problem – but that is a different conversation than the one Brian is having.
This:
“A few of our remote, rural communities are declining – as are similar communities everywhere – what can we do about it?”
Is a MUCH different conversation with significantly different potential solutions, than this:
“Adirondack communities are in crisis and in danger of becoming ghost towns”
I’ve yet to see any evidence to support the assumptions embedded in the latter. Just the opposite, actually (thank you Brian F.).
So I’m just not sure what is being accomplished by discussing large, sweeping changes to solve a Park wide emergency that doesn’t appear to exist. Far better, and infinity more productive, it seems to me, would be to identify and address (if even possible) the specific problems of these specific communities that are having troubles.
Don D, Maybe I,m misinformed but I think the public observatory and the Train station are mainly private ventures and the Park St road reconstruction is primarily NYS DOT and has been on the burner for over 10 yrs. The point was that the local governments have been overly focused/dependent on one big ticket to “save” the town.