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There is always vital info left out, such as how much does it cost to charge, and how far will that get you? You just can't say you've saved $7000. What was the electric cost?
There is always vital info left out, such as how much does it cost to charge, and how far will that get you? You just can't say you've saved $7000. What was the electric cost?
"Here’s an email I received after last week's column about the dire situation faced by Schenectady’s miSci, which is the region’s only science museum: "You might have pointed out that while we’re closing colleges, theaters, museums and libraries, taxpayers are spending hundreds of tax dollars building ‘bread and circus’ sports arenas. This has been the plan of conservatives for five decades. If the populace is ignorant and unschooled, they will be easily led!"
Thank you, kind reader, for your thoughts. But can we really blame conservatives alone for such spending?
It was Gov. Kathy Hochul, after all, who decided to hand the insanely rich owners of the Buffalo Bills piles of taxpayer money for a new stadium in suburban Orchard Park. According to Buffalo's Investigative Post, the giveaway totals $1.13 billion in public money, including $600 million from the state for stadium construction, plus another $100 million for future repairs and $150 million for future capital improvements. Erie County is kicking in another $250 million.
That's the largest public subsidy for an NFL stadium, pushed through a Democrat-controlled Legislature by a Democratic governor. So while Republicans are certainly responsible for stadium giveaways in other states, I'm not sure we can blame this particular folly of American life on conservatives alone. As is so often the case, the stupidity is bipartisan.
Of course, the broader point of the email is valid. If miSci closes as the Bills move into their new palace, the dichotomy would say nothing good about our priorities.
I love sports and watch them endlessly. I want the Bills to stay in western New York and recognize that the team's departure would have been devastating. Monday's playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, scheduled to begin a few hours after I typed this, will bring upstate New York together in ways both tangible and meaningful. [Editor's note: The Bills defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 31-17 thumping.]
The Bills, however, are owned by billionaires, Kim and Terry Pegula, who could have and should have contributed more significantly to the construction of a stadium that will wildly increase the team's profitability. Under the deal, the stadium will be publicly owned but all the revenue, including naming rights, will entirely go to the Bills.
That's a pretty sweet deal. And for their largesse, New York taxpayers won't even get a few cents off the cost of overpriced beers. In fact, season ticket holders wanting to enjoy the new stadium will be required to purchase personal seat licenses that are expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars, thus paying for some construction costs not already covered by taxpayers.
The stadium plan is really just another example of how public money is so often used to make the rich even richer. And please don't believe claims about a stadium paying for itself or providing broader economic benefits. Piles of studies show such claims are just untrue.
Imagine what miSci, which needs to move because of ongoing structural damage at its Nott Terrace building, could do with a smidgen of the money given to the Bills. Imagine if the Buffalo Bills-ion had been distributed to museums around the state, including to the New York State Museum, which has for years been planning (and repeatedly delaying) a $14 million renovation.
That's a nice amount of money, to be sure, but it's a pittance when compared to the estimated $1.7 billion cost of the stadium. Employees at the State Museum would tell you stories of budget cuts affecting the quality of a museum perpetually starved for funding.
Indeed, an oft-heard complaint tells us that state government moves at a glacial pace or can't afford to do this or that. But the quickly approved funding — there was no public debate — and scale of the Bills project proves the claim untrue. It's about the priorities of the people who are pulling the levels of power. When they really want something done, it gets done.
Time will tell us if miSci is a priority for Hochul or leaders in the Legislature. As last week's column detailed, it is unlikely that the cash-strapped museum will be able to move without some level of public support. And without a move, the region's only science museum will disappear.
That would be tragic. But look on the bright side: We'll still have football!"
"Artificial snow-making – using machines to spray a mixture of water and compressed air to freeze into snowflakes – has been used by the ski industry since the 1950s. With climate change posing a threat to the industry local resort owners claim the technology has become more important than ever.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the average annual temperature in Central New York leaped from 48.3 Fahrenheit in 2018 to 51.8 Fahrenheit in 2023. Meteorologist Danielle Knittle said there’s been a distinctive uptick in the past five years.
As expected, higher temperatures bring less snowfall. Experts predict more than half of ski resorts worldwide could be at risk for snow scarcity by 2100 due to global warming.
To fight this, resorts across the Mohawk Valley now rely on artificial snow.
A 'new normal'
Woods Valley Ski Resort in Westernville underwent renovations in 2020 when over $3 million was invested into the creation of a base lodge. Additional improvements since have included two new conveyor lifts, a rental shop, and snow tubing.
To combat increasing temperatures funds have also been allocated toward snow-making.
Owner and President of Woods Valley Ski Resort Tim Woods noted that despite inclement weather patterns attendance has increased over the years.
“In terms of visitors, we are tracking better than our 10-year average to date," he said. "I attribute this to our snowmaking improvements. Now we can generate more snow while using less energy. At present, we have more than 40% of our terrain open.”
The resort was among the first snow tubing sites in the state to open this year, Woods said.
“The likelihood of a low-snow winter has become our new normal,” he added. “Climate change has driven resort operators to invest in snowmaking systems. Without which we wouldn’t have had a ski season this year, or last.”
Return-on investment
Nestled in New York’s Finger Lakes region is Greek Peak Mountain. The all-season ski resort invested $3.5 million over the past three years of a five-year plan to develop snow-making infrastructure and equipment.
Despite low snowfall Director of Marketing at Greek Peak Mountain Resort Jon Spaulding said the slopes were open for more days this past year than prior.
“Two years ago we offered 107 ski days to our guests, whereas last year we were open for 114. Our improved snow-making system allows us to fill 26 football fields of terrain a foot deep in just 24 hours.”
To meet the resort's five-year plan, 57 new KFD snow guns and hydrants have been installed. The east mountain pumphouse was also replaced.
“The new pumps doubled water output from 900 to 1,800 gallons per minute,” said Spaulding. “So, now we can run our snow guns more efficiently.”
To attract more visitors, Greek Peak linked a virtual webcam to their website. To get a glimpse of the terrain before hitting the slopes visit www.greekpeak.net.
Legislative action
Spaulding noted how climate change has recently become a popular topic of conversation within the ski industry.
In 2018 the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) created a climate challenge. NSAA’s voluntary program advocates for regulatory legislation to curb carbon emissions while supporting ski areas with information on green snow-making technology, explained Spaulding.
In December state Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, introduced new legislation (S5523) to eliminate the sales tax on the purchase of energy-efficient ski lifts and snowmaking equipment.
“New York’s ski industry has an economic impact of over $1 billion,” said Griffo in a statement. “To ensure long-term sustainability many ski areas will come to rely on snowmaking systems.”
Woods acknowledged that the impact of snow sports exceeds mere economic revenue.
“Skiing, snowboarding, and tubing are multi-generational life sports," Woods said. "In the age of virtual entertainment, they offer a pathway to nature and reality. People were never meant to hibernate.”
Spaulding seconded the notion.
“Snow sports aren't just fun," he said. "Being outside during the winter is good for your physical and emotional well-being.”
Chillers enter the chat
Ski resorts are not the only outdoor recreation sites adapting to warmer winters.
Utica recently invested over $20 million of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding into transforming the Roscoe Conkling Park, at the foot of Val Bialis hills, into an all-season attraction.
Former Mayor Robert M. Palmieri opened up the new ice rink to the public on New Year's Eve and New Year’s Day. While permanent hours have yet to be established the project is projected to finish by the end of the month.
Once completed locals will be able to ice skate outdoors. In the spring the rink will convert into a public pickleball court.
“The combination of ice skating in the winter and pickleball in the summer will bring back traditions while moving Utica into the future,” said Palmieri in a statement. “We want to make a sustainable city that is fun to live in and visit.”
To accommodate for the uptick in global temperatures, Palmieri said a “chiller” would be installed– a machine capable of making ice in temperatures up to 50 degrees."
"It is crunch time for the “tech hub” bid consisting of Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.
The three-region team has about a month and a half left to develop and submit proposals that could be awarded up to $75 million in federal funding.
The joint bid – under the NY SMART I-Corridor banner – focuses on building the semiconductor industry.
It is a competitive process: A total of 31 areas around the country were designated “tech hubs” last year, which put them in contention for funding. But only five to 10 of them are expected to be awarded money.
Three business-related groups – the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, ROC2025 in Rochester and CenterState CEO in Syracuse – are guiding the process, with support from hometown federal lawmakers, including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Empire State Development.
The hope is to secure funding that will stimulate growth of the semiconductor industry, creating more jobs for trained workers and boosting activity at research institutions. The point of the federal program is to promote innovation outside of places such as Silicon Valley.
Here is what is happening as the Feb. 29 application deadline approaches:
Developing detailed plans. Last year, in the first phase of the competition, the three regions jointly made a case for why they were worthy of tech hub status based on the assets they had. They believed their best chance of success was to collaborate, rather than compete against each other.
The NY SMART I-Corridor bid – and 30 others – cleared that hurdle. Now, the designated tech hubs have to submit applications, containing three to five proposals each, explaining how they would put federal funding to work. The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration expects to announce the winners this summer.
The three-region team hired the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm to analyze gaps in the resources the upstate regions have, compared to places such as Silicon Valley, and investments that could be made to fill those gaps, said Dottie Gallagher, the Partnership’s president and CEO.
Those investments would help bring the upstate regions closer to where they aspire to be as a world-class technology center, said Joseph Stefko, president and CEO of ROC2025.
The proposals are likely to call for investments capitalizing on the resources the regions have, rather than building a new facility in one particular city.
“It’s using the existing framework to do new work, work that’s not being done,” Gallagher said.
Setting priorities. To develop proposals, working groups are concentrating on three areas: innovation – related to research universities and startups – the supply chain and workforce.
“We know that we need to train, up-skill and connect both incumbent residents and new talent that will come to our region to fill these new economic opportunities that will be created here,” Stefko said.
Stefko said the tech hub bid received a boost from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State proposal to open upstate workforce development centers modeled on Buffalo’s Northland Workforce Development Center.
How to stand out. With only a few of the applicants expected to win funds, the NY SMART I-Corridor bid will have to distinguish itself from the others. And a few others are submitting bids related to the semiconductor industry, too.
Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse are centering their bid on building up an I-90 semiconductor corridor, with Micron Technology anchoring the eastern end, near Syracuse. Micron has announced plans to invest up to $100 billion in a chip-making complex.
Benjamin Sio, senior vice president of strategy, policy and planning for CenterState CEO, said a project like Micron’s is a critical asset.
“But it’s not the only (chip fabricating plant) that will be built in the U.S. in the next 10 years,” he noted. “How we’re thinking about this, how do we position the entire region to participate better in that larger industry, yes, in connection with Micron, but not just in connection with Micron.”
Chasing funding. While the tech hub’s proposals will be submitted as one package, the EDA will evaluate each of those proposals individually, and could choose to accept some of those proposals, and reject others.
Gallagher said she believes the Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse bid is rooted in sound strategy, but can’t take anything for granted.
“We have to hit this on all cylinders,” she said. “We have to demonstrate that we know what we’re doing, that the opportunity is here, and that we’re ready to roll,” she said. “I feel confident that that is true. It’s not something we’re trying to polish on to that.”
While the funding award could go as high as $75 million, the EDA has provided guidance to the tech hubs that the awards could be $60 million to $75 million, and more likely in the lower end of that range, Stefko said.
The EDA expects to announce the funding winners in the summer.
Regardless of the final dollar amount, the tech hub partners say they view the federal funding as akin to startup capital, and would aim to attract investment from other funding sources to support their plans.
Teamwork. The tech hub partners expect their collaboration to pay dividends beyond the current competition. Gallagher said the process has worked well “because we’ve taken the provincialism out of it.
“What we’re doing through the tech hub process is building a different way to work together, on many things,” she said. “These things that the tech hub is really focused on – innovation, workforce and supply chain – are the basis of a lot of growth opportunities as we move forward, even outside of microchips.”
Outlook. One of the bid’s boosters is a vocal – and powerful – one: Schumer, who championed the legislation that created tech hubs.
With the deadline a few weeks off, how do the program’s partners feel about their chances of winning funding?
“This program was tailor-made for our region, and my sense of that has only gotten stronger as we’ve gotten into the throes of the phase two development process,” Stefko said.
Sio said he gets “more excited in and more confident in this work every single day.”
Gallagher described herself as “cautiously optimistic.”
“I think we deserve it, and I think we’re doing everything we can to make it as easy a decision (for the EDA) as possible,” she said."
"Here’s an email I received after last week's column about the dire situation faced by Schenectady’s miSci, which is the region’s only science museum: "You might have pointed out that while we’re closing colleges, theaters, museums and libraries, taxpayers are spending hundreds of tax dollars building ‘bread and circus’ sports arenas. This has been the plan of conservatives for five decades. If the populace is ignorant and unschooled, they will be easily led!"
Thank you, kind reader, for your thoughts. But can we really blame conservatives alone for such spending?
It was Gov. Kathy Hochul, after all, who decided to hand the insanely rich owners of the Buffalo Bills piles of taxpayer money for a new stadium in suburban Orchard Park. According to Buffalo's Investigative Post, the giveaway totals $1.13 billion in public money, including $600 million from the state for stadium construction, plus another $100 million for future repairs and $150 million for future capital improvements. Erie County is kicking in another $250 million.
That's the largest public subsidy for an NFL stadium, pushed through a Democrat-controlled Legislature by a Democratic governor. So while Republicans are certainly responsible for stadium giveaways in other states, I'm not sure we can blame this particular folly of American life on conservatives alone. As is so often the case, the stupidity is bipartisan.
Of course, the broader point of the email is valid. If miSci closes as the Bills move into their new palace, the dichotomy would say nothing good about our priorities.
I love sports and watch them endlessly. I want the Bills to stay in western New York and recognize that the team's departure would have been devastating. Monday's playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, scheduled to begin a few hours after I typed this, will bring upstate New York together in ways both tangible and meaningful. [Editor's note: The Bills defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 31-17 thumping.]
The Bills, however, are owned by billionaires, Kim and Terry Pegula, who could have and should have contributed more significantly to the construction of a stadium that will wildly increase the team's profitability. Under the deal, the stadium will be publicly owned but all the revenue, including naming rights, will entirely go to the Bills.
That's a pretty sweet deal. And for their largesse, New York taxpayers won't even get a few cents off the cost of overpriced beers. In fact, season ticket holders wanting to enjoy the new stadium will be required to purchase personal seat licenses that are expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars, thus paying for some construction costs not already covered by taxpayers.
The stadium plan is really just another example of how public money is so often used to make the rich even richer. And please don't believe claims about a stadium paying for itself or providing broader economic benefits. Piles of studies show such claims are just untrue.
Imagine what miSci, which needs to move because of ongoing structural damage at its Nott Terrace building, could do with a smidgen of the money given to the Bills. Imagine if the Buffalo Bills-ion had been distributed to museums around the state, including to the New York State Museum, which has for years been planning (and repeatedly delaying) a $14 million renovation.
That's a nice amount of money, to be sure, but it's a pittance when compared to the estimated $1.7 billion cost of the stadium. Employees at the State Museum would tell you stories of budget cuts affecting the quality of a museum perpetually starved for funding.
Indeed, an oft-heard complaint tells us that state government moves at a glacial pace or can't afford to do this or that. But the quickly approved funding — there was no public debate — and scale of the Bills project proves the claim untrue. It's about the priorities of the people who are pulling the levels of power. When they really want something done, it gets done.
Time will tell us if miSci is a priority for Hochul or leaders in the Legislature. As last week's column detailed, it is unlikely that the cash-strapped museum will be able to move without some level of public support. And without a move, the region's only science museum will disappear.
That would be tragic. But look on the bright side: We'll still have football!"
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You're preaching to the choir, as far as I'm concerned. I wonder if the author knows about the 2 Buffalo Billions that were failures, and the billion dollar Kensington project, as well as the 10's and 100's of millions also spread around Buffalo restoring buildings, etc?
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