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| Nelson Wins by 11 Votes |
Mr. McGrath fought a tough fight which pivoted around the debacle on Knox Street. He had a good showing, but fell short by 11 votes.
One thing we did learn from this election is the people want a more open government, the management of grant funds must be revised, the city needs to stop buying house and competing with the private sector, and we need a new City Manager.
Renovating a house with $87 K, selling it for $51 K, and giving the individuals $51 K to buy it does not seem fair and equitable to the community. Let us hope that Mayor Nelson and the City Council will tend to the needs of the voters.
Priority #1 should be to clean-up Ogdensburg. Ogdensburg and Massena have been rated the highest felony crime rates in the county. Multiple unsolved murders, illicit drug use and sales, prescription drug abuse, petty theft, and pedophiles roaming the streets are the reasons for the demise of Ogdensburg. What good is a great water front, walking paths, and marina when the citizens of Ogdensburg do not feel safe. This must be rectified!
Journal Article
32 comments:
Oburg -- You are Right on all counts here . Mayor Nelson forget the waterfront for now SOLVE the major systemic problems FIRST . Many of us do not FEEL SAFE here . Our city has benn TAKEN over by druggies , pervs and the petty criminal element .
You MUST solve this issue !!
Many are watching and will be pressing for resolution of this and the huge problems cited on this blog
DO SOMETHING , do not continue to IGNORE this problem and /or explain it away .
Logically, responsibility rests with the $100 K CEO rather than with the glorified councilor mayor. Too bad we can't vote to recall that joker. At least a man can buy fresh Kosher cheese in this town and a car ignition system that can power a house or a Canadian submarine.
These problems MUST be solved the criminals and druggies and pervs OWN this town and the politicians have NOT done enough or ANYTHING to solve this . Fire the manager if he's responsible , fire the incompetants BUT SOLVE the crime problems that have brought this city down and created fear in the citizenry
Get rid of the prisons. Then our crime rate will go down.
True the prisons and the perv resort were two of the absolute WORST decisions that could have been made in terms of NEGATIVE impact on attracting private sector growth and tourism .The social/ moral decay that has resulted from lowlifes attracted by the prison who move to the area and FT Drum has resulted in the problems that plague this city.
The politicians sold the city and the citizenry DOWN the Drain for a few crappy jobs . Our best talented students and kids can't get out of here fast enough and many are or have already left the region because of this rotten crime - infested, unsafe environment.
Good Luck residents of Ogdensburg. Another 4 years of the same old thing. Another four years of that idiot city manager. Hey Uncle art what happen to the 200 jobs? Just another example of your poor leadership skills.
I really feel sorry for the people of ogdensburg who can not afford to move out of the city.
Keep up the good work Morley. You have a great attitude and saying: I do not agree with it, I hate it, but I will vote for it. If you play nice uncle art will take you golfing. Remember council it is the holiday season.
Morley will be the reason Art will stay.. It has become very apparent that this entire fiasco was staged.. Good going guys got to hand it to you all..
Everyone wants to blame the prison and the perv joint. Each of these individuals are released back to the county sentenced. There are some families that move to the area but most at OCF and RCF are going home soon. If this was the case Clinton's community would be full of prison families but that is not the case.
I blame ANR our urban renewal program, with the building of our ford street and Champlain streets rentals. All based on your income, those with jobs cannot afford. Dirt bag housing is all it turned out to be. All in the name of free money.
I blame fort drum expansion for the pushing of low life, welfare out of the Watertown area in the next city. Guess who, Ogdensburg, low rent and a Wal-Mart.
Last but not least the lack of or the inability of local polico to enforce quality of life laws. This needs to be agenda #1 for city council.
5:46 what you are adding to the mix in terms of defining the problem is also TRUE --BUT the prisons and the Perv resort create a VERY negative image and damn little incentive to either attract NEW business or potential residents or visitors /tourists with $$ and sure as hell they are NOT INCENTIVES for any of the best of our kids to saty here after graduating .
Our politicians have ALWAYS copped out , taken the EASY path and NEVER opted for actually getting higher profile more attractive employment opportunities .
Who in their right mind think that prisons and perv resorts are DESIRABLE --its a rediculous notion .
Only people with NO OTHER options/ambitions / or drive would accept that as desirable .
Sorry but that's the truth . Prisons and Perv farms don't cut it and create the image of a Loserville
If you find a way to enforce laws from Donut King we will get it done. We you find ways to keep cops pants zippers up we will get it done..
Do yu ever check these guys chief? Does the manager ever check on the Chief? Does council ever check on the Manager?? Obvious not.. The headline of this Blog should be Nelson named winner... Ogdensburg loses again..
That and taxpayers lose as the boyz continue to waste our money and GIVE houses away free on our nickel .
But hell the doofus voters put these jackwagons back in office -- Go Figure-- Only in Loserville
You have it wrong. The name of our fair city is Loserburg. Now with a new city planner appointed by uncle art things will really change right? I do not think so. If you listen to her when she is speaking to the council, on any issue, she speaks in terms only a person with a master's degree can understand. Good going once again uncle Art. If you can not tell the truth you dazzel them with B S.
The voters did have a chance to change Loserville, but they decided to go with someone who is a party boy, one who is a ladies man, and one who tells you what you want to hear.
The new planner seems quite smart, actually. She seems quite professional to me. But she is even younger than Woods and even less experienced. Why didn't Uncle Art put out a public notice for this job? At a time like this, Ogdensburg needs someone steady and experienced to assess the mess, pick up the pieces, and get things back on track. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think Uncle Art wanted an outsider that he didn't feel he could control. Who knows how long she'll be "interim" for. Maybe until she actually has the experience the job description requires.
Her mother Linda Smith got her appointed to the planner position. This is why:
The Fort people want the Diamond National Property and Standard Shade Roller property tax free. They want to be able to say no one wanted Diamond and Shade roller properties. Both of these properties should be put back on the tax rolls but Neslon and his crew will never let that happen. Once again the citizens of Loserburg will pay more in property taxes so this special intrest group have what they want.
Actually the interim city planner has two master's degrees, one in Urban Planning and one in Landscape Architecture from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, one of the top schools in the country. She also grew up in Ogdensburg. She got the job because she has the best resume of any planner in upstate New York.
You people really need to start living in reality. The people being arrested for drug crimes are home grown Ogdensburg people. They did not come here with the prisons. Prisoners don't settle in Ogdensburg once they get released. Who would choose to live in the one town where there are a couple hundred correctional officers who know you used to get swapped for cigarettes.
The offenders unit did not bring sex offenders to Ogdensburg neighborhoods. Look them up. They are local folks from local families who grew up in NNY. The offenders unit has brought 160 high paying jobs to Ogdensburg, including people with doctorates, master's degrees, and batchelor's degrees. It's also helped a lot of people who worked at the psychiatric center get promotions and helped others get jobs that opened up at the Psychiatric Center. The two prisons, the offenders unit and the Psychiatric center provide over 1,200high paying jobs. Deal with it!
Ogdensburg's biggest problem is the chronic whiners who get on this site to babble about subjects they know nothing about. Most of them are high school drop outs who never amounted to anything at OFA, never did anything with their lives, and sit around blaming their hometown for the problems they've brought on themselves. Quit whining. If you don't like Ogdensburg, move! The rest of us see a lot of potential in this old burg.
Well put, 10:43pm. Most of the problems in this city relate to the fact that we do not have jobs to employ the educationally deprived. That being said, value education! Make the best of your situation and rise above your mom and pop's lack of education. How? Plenty of people in the 'Burg have risen above expectations. Plenty of people have risen above uneducated, drug abusing parents to make themselves honorable citizens. On another front, City Government has been pathetic in a number of ways. Jobs, waterfront, tax base, and many other relevant topics are completely ignored. Unfortunately, most current and past council members run because they want to verify their misinterpreted self-importance. They won't stand for an unpopular opinion for fear that they won't get re-elected(i.e Bill Nelson, Mike Morley and many others). I am so ticked off at any council member who says, "we have done this and we have done that." Really...name something, anything and I will disprove your pathetic attempts to improve this city.
I agree i have earned several advanced degrees had a great career and my children moved to major metro areas for professional careers that have placed them in a HNW category also.
All that said : The problem is US !! Its classic POGO the Best that are here have OPTED out of the political process and have NOT offered themselves for office or council or committee work.
As a result that Vacuum has been filled by WHAT we HAVE NOW in those positions and although nice folks they neither have the Vision , Drive or Ability or determination to and know how to leverage a better , more desirable economic, educational or quality of Life conscious community program .
The problem is NOT the new city planner at all it is the Lack of involvement by what is left of the BEST and Brightest in this city .
Get involved , hold these politicians accountable , do not accept LESS than the Best possible future for this place .
If you EXPECT alot and hold those accountaBLE AND get involved THIS PLACE WILL BE BETTER OFF .
if NOT WEL LTHE DRUGGIES , PERVS AND THOse lEVEL 3 SEX OFFENDERS THAT THE COUNTY DSS DUMPS ON US HERE WILL RUN THE PLACE .
THE CHOICE IS YOURS
Leave the fort out of your drug induced paranoid delusions and conspiracy theories. The fort wants nothing to do with the Shade Roller property or Diamond National. The fort has published its Master Plan for its property. The fort feels the city needs to focus on Diamond and Shade Roller and get them cleaned up, developed and back on the tax roll instead of constantly coming up with schemes to get its hands on the fort's property.
The fort got its property cleaned up with no help from the city. They made Exxon pay $10 million to clan it up.
Unfortunately, the city hates the fort project and has never done anything to help it get built except give lip service at election time. The city gets millions of dollars in grants for an unnecessary $1 million walking bridge, $4 million Visitor Center (that serve 6 vacant slips in the city Marina), and unnecessary marina expansion and other projects that will accomplish nothing, but has never written a single grant to help the fort get built. If the city had Marty Murphy and Justin work on getting funds for the fort, Ogdensburg would have a major tourist destination downtown that could attract Canadians more than just a couple of weekends a year. Let's face it. The fort weekends draw thousands and thousands of Canadians from Quebec, Ontario and Americans from across New England. And they do it without a fort, tax money or much in the way of city assistance.
The get more help from Potsdam's planning director than they ever gotten from Ogdensburg.
As a Native of the Utica- Rome region How much has Fort Stanwix done for the Rome NY economy ?
the areea is still depressed and the Fort seems to have languished despite initial enthusiasm when it was first constructed.
Why will this proposed Fort be ANY differant ? please enlighten me with facts not emotional support .
I am NOT convinced that the Fort while well intentioned is a major economic engine for this region . How will it provide a revenue stream to support its operation INDEPENDENT of public subsidy ?
I'm just asking for rational data to document the viability and sustainablity without subsidy , not criticising the supporters at all.
In 2010, Fort Stanwix attracted 104,000 visitors to Rome, N.Y.
In 2010, the Remington Museum in Ogdensburg attracted 15,000 vistors to Ogdensburg.
A survey of visitors to Fort Stanwix in a study in 2003 provided the following infomation:
55 % of visitors to Fort Stanwix said they came to Rome to see Fort Stanwix.
29 % of visitors to Fort Stanwix said they came to learn about the Revolutionary War history of the area.
23 % of visitors to Fort Stanwix said they were in Rome to visit family or friends
In the St. Lawrence Valley, heritage tourism is the major attraction for visitors.
Upper Canada Village - 20 miles from Ogdensburg - draws over 200,000 visitors a year.
Fort Henry in Kingston draws 250,000 visitors a year. What is the major industry in Kingston? Most people would tell you it's tourism. It's actually prisons. Kingston has more prisons than any other Canadian city. It has provincial and federal prisons. But it has wisely invested heavily in promoting its heritage and made itself into a major tourism destination.
A feasibility study conducted several years ago on Fort La Presentation surveyed visitors to Boldt Castle, Upper Canada Village and other attractions in the St. Lawrence Valley and found a high percentage of visitors to those attractions would come to a French fort in Ogdensburg.
Most showed far less interest in coming to Ogdensburg to visit the Remington Museum. But many of those surveyed said that if they came to visit the French fort, they might also visit the Remington.
Studies show heritage tourists sp-end more during visits than most other visits.
Ogdensburg needs to diversify its economy. Tourism by itself is not the sole answer and no one from the fort has ever said it should be. What they've said is that if you want to remake Ogdensburg's image and develop its waterfront, you need to bring more customers to its restaurants, stores and hotels. The fort has succeeded in showing it can attract people from Ontario as well as Quebec because the fort's history is the early history of both of those provinces as well as NNY.
The Fort's feasibility study showed that a very high percentage of the people who visit Boldt Castle, Upper Canada Village, Fort Henry and Fort Wellington have visited the other Heritage history sites. The study showed most are young families looking for places to visit within a two hour radius of Ogdensburg. If Ogdensburg wants to attract tourists, it needs to offer the kind of attraction that will allow it to attract the audience that is already travelling up and down the St. Lawrence Valley, but which is currently bypassing Ogdensburg for heritage tourism sites.
The fort feasibility study envisions no public subsidy.
If you question my data, here's a link to the 2003 study on Fort Stanwix. Look it up yourself:
http://www.nps.gov/fost/parkmgmt/upload/FOSTenomomy03.pdf
http://www.nps.gov/fost/parkmgmt/statistics.htm
Fort Stanwix Statistics
Visitation
Total Recreation Visits for FY 2010 - 104,146
Total Recreation Visits for FY 2009 - 92,363
Total Recreation Visits for FY 2008 - 72,093
Total Recreation Visits for FY 2007 - 57,928
Total Recreation Visits for FY 2006 - 62,868
Total Recreation Visits for FY 2005 - 65,001
Total Recreation Visits for FY 2004 - 68,427
Total Recreation Visits for FY 2003 - 58,366
I suspect Rome's economy would be far worse without the 50,000 to 100,000 visitors Fort Stanwix brings to the city each year.
Tourism is only one part of the answer. But ask Rome's restaurants, hotels and stores what they would do without the 100,000 visitors Fort Stanwix is bringing in.
No one is suggesting Fort La Presentation replaces the need to bring new businesses to Ogdensburg, but private investment on the waterfront is more likely when there's a chance you can also attract customers.
The key is a diverse economy. Plus, forts are not easily shipped out to third world countries.
Thanks for the comprehensive data , I will look at it and am eager to learn what the ACTUAL financials are on not only Stanwix, BUT what are the actual "measureables" in terms of secondery and tertiary rounds of actual dollars infused in the ROME economy.
Again thanks for the response
Pretend a forts are not the answer for Ogdensburg.. The residents here dont care... The people that come basically come once but some return twice but thats it. CLEAN UP THE CITY, eNFOCE CODES ACCORDINGLY and enforce our laws.. The police here sit in the station and enfoce on a complaint call basis and that basically it..
Dont take me wrong the Fort is a wonderful thing,,, for children but we really need a REST OF The city to go along with it...
You seem to be having trouble grasping complicated subjects. Based on the fact that the Remington Museum currently only draws 15,000 visitors a year, compared to the 200,000 visitors at Upper Canada village or Fort Henry, the facts show people are not coming to Ogdensburg at all.
That's why we lost the Ramada. That's why we are losing retail stores and restaurants. We don't have enough visitors coming to Ogdensburg to provide business for our retailers to survive.
The fort has nothing to do with children. Grown ups need jobs. Businesses need customers to provide jobs for families. We need to diversify our economy. When people don't have jobs or hope, the problems you talk about occur.
The problems in Ogdensburg is not the politicians. It's the lack of jobs. Residents do care. The problem is that we have lost Newells, Shade Roller, Breconridge and other companies.
We need to stop whining about what are basically symptoms and realize that we need to develop a sustainable local economy that offers jobs for people. When people have jobs, they have the money to pay their rent, buy their own homes, fix up their homes, and make improvements in their neighborhood.
That's why cleaning up the rest of the waterfront's pollution problem needs to be the city's top priority.
City council only talks about it at election time and then blows our money on foolish items that provide no real long term benefits.
If you recall, the city claimed Diamond was cleaned up five years ago and they even chose a phony company as the "preferred developer" and then after the election, noticed the company had no funds and no ability to do any of the things they had said they were going to do.
Four years later, as the election neared, they claimed again that Diamond was all cleaned up and ready to be developed.
We need to demand that the city give us a time line of what's going to happen and when it's going to happen as far as Shade Roller's demolition and clean up.
Then we need to hold them to it.
You are so right with your assessment of the Diamond National property. Just one problem. Nothing will be done with the current or new council. Ogdensburg takes care of only the few not the majority. If you do not believe me contact Ashley, Hosmer or Stevenson. No one has a plan to move forward with this property. Good luck again Ogdensburg.
The politicians ABsolutely ARE the problem . Without visionary servant leadership, the sustainable economy you speak of will NEVER happen .
To anonymous 2:46
you are wrong. It is not the job of the politician to come up with ideas for new developments. That is the planner's and City manager's job. That is why a planner or Manager should only hold the job for about 5 years. they run out of ideas. New ones come in with a fresh outlook. The process starts again. And for a City to grow, this has to continually happen.
5:22 you are partially right -- IT is the entire governance( Mayor and Council) and Sr Managerial policy team that MUST be visionary as a united effort to leverage a better future . This chain is ONLY a strong as it's WEAKEST link . And right now there are many weak links in this arena in Ogdensburg.
Hope a NEW City Mgr and the several NEW Council member s will step up to the plate and start thinking not just reacting .
A few points, you folks may not have noticed but Ogdensburg, like most of the U.S., is caught in a recession which is why no new businssses have come into town in the past few years. As long as the national recession continues to put a crunch on credit, businsses will have a tough time obtaining financing for projects like those envisioned for Diamond. Ogdensburg has gone through three city planners in the past six years so the idea that we need to get rid of them after five makes no sense. What you people need to grasp is that the city manager and the planner only do what city council tells them to do. That's how local government works. That's how it is supposed to work. And that's how it works in reality. If you believe the staff does anything without council's blessing, you are clueless. Unfortunately, neither city council nor the manager nor the planner can wave a magic wand and produce a legitimate private developer willing to invest in the city's waterfront. Business people need to see that they can make money before they will invest their money.
While it's fun to blame city council, the laws of the free market do not bend, regardless of who gets elected in Ogdensburg.
Yes true, BUT the laws of the free mkt as you call it NEVER blessed Ogdensburg because of lack of visionery leadership.
This current mayor has been around 16 yrs and that included the GLORY DAYS of the dot com run up.
BUT alas, no web oriented business or other clean dot com era firm or support sector was ever leveraged .
Ideas for a regional student financial aid clearing center( to support the northeast) was NEVER leveraged nor were call centers , nor wharehouse support for dot com etc etc etc .
The entire TEAM of Council Governance and the paid professional planners and managers were seemingly "un=equipped" to get into the game and the same apparently may still hold true.
As far as the pros that get paid to do this on our payroll, I do not accept that you are simply reactive drones depending on council for ideas .
The planning profession is based on pro- action and leadership not passive acceptance of spoon feeding from a city council.
Stimulate some creativity , coach the councilor, learn How to "Manage UP" orhow to "Manage your bosses" .
If in fact they are underwhelming then DEVELOP them , and overwhelm them with Creative ideas ,
Overload the system with a series of potentially creative actions such that they are surrounded by more than just ONE simplistic reactive strategy and perhaps you can shake them out of there sleepy doldrums . Learn the maagerial technique called " garbage canning" and use it .
Don't hide behind excuses and ssay we've always operated this way . the status quo is no longer "GOOD ENOUGH "
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