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July 12, 2016, Utica, NY - An Open Letter From #YesHospitalDowntown...
Dear Utica Taxpayers, Residents, Businesses in Downtown Utica Hospital Zone and #NoHospitalDowntown,
It’s time for an honest conversation, sorry for stalling. However, we have given up on Downtown Utica. A new plan arrived on our desks (no, you cannot see it), but just hear us out.
All our investments in the Police Station, new parking and maintenance garage (which was herald as a turning point for Utica’s Gateway Plan not so long ago), plus the new traffic patterns created on Oriskany Boulevard, they were mostly wasted investments.
Further, to you the nearly 40 businesses that have called the Columbia-Lafayette Neighborhood home, you too have wasted your labor and treasure. You must now move, we don’t know to where, or at what expense, or outcome (stay in Utica, move out of town, sellout, or go out of business altogether), frankly we don’t have time to care all that much. So please, just make your own plans. If you are paralyzed by this news, do nothing and our lawyers and bulldozers will handle everything for you!
As for the historic buildings, even the ones that housed one of Utica’s first boiler and furnace makers (on the original Erie Canal), well, they’re just not as important as those old mill buildings in Bagg’s Square, or the ones on the west side of State Street including the Brodock Building - we’ll save those (Oh, full disclosure, one building owner sits on the MVHS Hospital Board of Directors).
The future of Downtown Utica is to be more like the area around the State and County office buildings; tax exempt and 9 to 5 workers, with parking lots and garages. We confess, we’ve lost the battle for residents to other areas (towns, villages, suburbs and the countryside) and we have lost retail to New Hartford and surrounding shopping areas. So please, please, embraces our 5th hospital district and you’ll help us all win $300M.
Lastly, do not ask any hard questions about what becomes of the old hospitals and their infrastructure. Honestly, these are very hard questions that nobody can answer. Sure, we will publish some expensive studies with lots of positive ideas and glossy renderings, however please don’t place too much hope in them. We don't mean to sound so crass, but we said we wanted to be honest. To note, it is very possible that three current hospitals will all remain open, in part or fully. We've been told Faxton will remain, so perhaps Utica will end up with 4 hospital districts where they'll add the nation's escalating healthcare costs and cut into Utica's tax base. Oh well!
So, can we call a truce? We've been honest, so can we go to work? Our bulldozers and wrecking balls are ready to go! Here's a Preview of Utica's New Look Let’s spend the $300M (and probably all told, a cool $1 Billion dollars), and maybe one day if our's or your health fails, the new shiny buildings will help keep us alive.
No more spin, let’s just build this Downtown Utica hospital!
Sincerely, Your “YES Hospital Downtown” Coalition
PS- We’d really appreciate your votes come election time.
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