Would-be Governors Eliot Spitzer and John Faso are saying the right things about transportation finance. That is the good news. They want to see major mass transit projects built to support the Manhattan-based economy that is the tax base of the entire state. Spitzer called the finances of the MTA the “greatest transportation concern” and said fare and toll increases, increased local funding, and other tax increases, as well as efficiencies, would be required – reversing 12 years of policy. Faso agreed. They both called for weaning the MTA off debt by going to pay-as-you-go financing; hopefully they have the same idea about financing road construction elsewhere in the state. The candidates even mentioned making tough decisions, a big change after the something-for-nothing-now, then move-to-Florida-later policies of the recent past. All good.

The day after I posted a proposed solution to over-development issues in the portions of Upstate New York closest to New York City, both the New York Times and the Poughkeepsie Journal had articles on the subject. They are worth a read if you are interested in what people are concerned about elsewhere in the state.

From the Journal:

"Increasingly I see it. You look up on a hill or a mountain and all of a sudden there are houses there that weren't there before. It feels like New Jersey. It's worrisome," said Carolyn Torella, a lifelong Dutchess County resident who lives in LaGrange. "I appreciate the landscape and the beauty of the area. It's a shame to see it go so quickly. My hope is there can be some middle ground between open space and development."

My previous posts on Upstate concerned the portion of the region that is too far away to receive any economic benefit from proximity to Manhattan, the area roughly north and west of State Route 10 and, in the mid to northern Adirondacks, Route 30.  South and west of there, in the eastern Adirondacks, the Catskills, and the Hudson Valley, the economic conditions are different, and so is the issue.  The issue is over-development, and the loss of the natural and rural attributes that draw people to the area to begin with.  When I was a child, my parents took me to northern Westchester County to pick apples.  We brought our children to Northern Dutchess County to do the same.  Projecting current trends forward, our grandchildren will have to head for Washington County to find the first pick-your-own orchard.

I exited college during the severe recession of the early 1980s, making graduate school seem attractive, and then exited graduate school during the housing bubble of the late 1980s.  Having had a housing markets class in graduate school, realizing the bubble (like this one) would burst, but unsure how long it would take, my wife and I had a plan.  We would live as cheaply as possible, save our money, and then move to a metro area in reasonably-priced Upstate New York, where we had attended college and actually liked the cool summers, lovely falls, and snowy winters (we won’t talk about March, April, and May).  For a variety of reasons – our increasing ties to the city and the end of the bubble here included – it never happened.  But one factor was we found that none of the Upstate metro areas had a large and diverse enough labor market to allow us to have careers.  Perhaps we could get a job, but it might be the job, and it would be very difficult to get another one without moving.  In other words we didn’t move to Upstate New York, in part, because none of the Upstate Metro areas, by itself, is a significant place anymore.  That is a problem Upstate will have to overcome.