Economic Development in Oneonta?

The Newman Hillside Commons project is in our district, so I've tried to keep track of events. The Commons will be a high-rent, privately owned dorm complex adjacent to the SUNY Oneonta campus, up near the top of Blodgett Road.

I have a lot of concerns about this project. I began thinking that I didn't know enough about the underlying systems to weigh in, but as I've learned – or not learned, in some cases – I'm increasingly unhappy about it.

First and foremost on the minds of District residents, I'm sure, is the question of our single-family houses which have been converted to student rentals. Most of us live within a block or so of one or more of these houses. I have one next to me and one across the street; they have always been good neighbors, probably because the owners invest time and money in the facilities and make it clear what kind of neighbors their renters need to be. Others haven't had good experiences, but worst than that, of course, is the effect of a vacant house on a neighborhood.

There are some important data missing in this particular conversation: is there, or is there not, a shortage of student housing either on or off campus in Oneonta? Neither side has presented any compelling evidence. There are, apparently, empty dorm rooms on campus; there are clearly empty rental houses in town. So where will the hundreds of Hillside Commons tenants come from? City landlords say they'll come from their rental houses, which will then join the ranks of the vacant. Proponents of the project point to SUNY Oneonta's growth over the last few years, and seem to leave it to that (even though SUNY Oneonta has no plans to expand). At the end of the day, the question of where the tenants will come from remains unanswered.

We've all seen projects like this: big money comes to small town, meets a market need, completely disrupts the current market, and sends the revenue out of town. We might call it the Wal-Mart effect. Not only is there no concern for, or acknowledgment of, the impact on existing businesses, services and quality of life, there is an entire language developed to divert the conversation from those disturbing topics which could delay the project if they had to be answered.

So the question remains unanswered. A related question, raised during the public hearing regarding Hillside Commons, also remains unanswered: Why wasn't there an economic impact study? Given that it will create few permanent jobs (six, according to the Newman representative, and perhaps only three of them local), why should we jump right into this without knowing if it will do more harm than good?

The answer that Mayor Miller and all but one of the Common Council will give us is that it will substantially increase tax revenues for the city, school district and county. More on this issue, which is also more complex than it seems, in a future post; this one has gone on too long already.