Letters to Artvoice |
Secede, Western New Yorkby Mike Syposs |
|
|
I love being a Western New Yorker, and cannot imagine ever leaving. Almost all of my friends have left this area. Most of them love their hometown too, but they were not lucky enough to find the good jobs here that other places have provided them with. Those of us that stay here do so because we love our communities. For this reason, we put up with the lack of funds, the exorbitant taxes and tolls, the corruption of the state government, the corruption of the county governments, the corruption of the local governments, the oversights, the undersights (sic), and the scandals.
I am happy to be a Western New Yorker, but I am very unhappy with being called a New Yorker. To put it bluntly, we have been tricked. We have been fooled into believing that being a New Yorker is something that is good for us. That being a New Yorker is something that gives us things we otherwise would not have. We are wrong.
Being a Western New Yorker is part of what makes us who we are. But I am not, nor will I ever consider myself to be, a New Yorker. A New Yorker is someone who lives downstate and feeds off the natural resources that the western part of the state hands to them for a pittance. A New Yorker is someone who lives downstate and feeds off the hard work that the west part of the state does for them.
The western part of the state lives with the job losses and the brain drain. Its communities breathe an unhealthy, steady stream of chemical and coal particulates. The downstate area gains by receiving our jobs, our talents, and the clean air that we could be blessed with. The downstate area is where the “New Yorker” lives and they walk all over us.
The powerful New York State thinks that it is easy to pull a fast one on us. With each of these Buffalo News articles about the corruption of the New York State Power Authority, I hope that our eyes are opened as to what advantages are being stolen from us and what disadvantages are being forced upon us by being a part of New York State.
Back when the Erie Canal was created, it provided great wealth for downstate families. For many years, the canal provided a symbiotic relationship between the “up” and “down” parts of this state. Unfortunately for us, the use of our great canal dwindled and died with the advent of new commercial delivery methods.
From that time on, the symbiotic relationship was gone. Slowly and steadily, Western New York lost out. It lost population, wealth, and talent. The downstate was able to maintain their vast enterprise. Without a counterbalance, they have been suckling all that they can get from us for years.
They impose upon us their politics and their way of thinking. We are a group of working class communities that have fallen victim countless times to the manufacturing bust. Our communities should be transitioning to a new mode, with tax incentives and electricity savings for new businesses. The albatross we wear is the tag team of New York City and Albany. They keep us from performing this transition. They impose high taxes, impose ridiculous governing rules, and steal our natural and intellectual resources—all for their own gain.
I’m sick of it! I love this community; it hurts to see it suffer so much. I will never call myself a New Yorker. I am a Western New Yorker, and that is nothing like a New Yorker.
If we break from the New York City and Albany oligarchy, we will have a bright future. If we were to become the State of “West New York,” we could control our own future. We would hold a vast resource, which produces more electricity and more profit than any other hydroelectric plant.
Without the stranglehold of big state politics and their bloated policies, we would be free to grow into something great. Our local politics and county politics would be vastly improved, because our state would be close to local communities in both location and heart. This would provide a solid foundation of checks and balances that keeps corruption out.
These checks and balances have been sorely missing. Albany is so far away, it is easy for the corruption to go unnoticed. Not to mention the corruption of Albany is itself disgusting. Furthermore, downstate benefits when upstate governances remain corrupt. With ill-functioning local rule in Western New York, it is much easier for downstate to take from us what is rightfully ours. It is therefore not in the interest of New York State to prevent local corruption. Since it is not in their interest, it will never happen while we are still a part of the state. It must then be that the only way to dissolve the corruption of local and county politics is to secede from the state which perpetuates it.
By becoming our own state, Western New Yorkers would be able to focus on providing a government that is effective and holds values instead of corruption. In partitioning from a clearly distinct set of values, we would be in a stronger position to attract businesses and talent. We would also gain our own seats in the United States Congress, and have a direct voice in Washington to look out for our own local and special needs.
Citizens of Western New York rise up, we have nothing to lose but our taxes!
Mike Syposs
Buffalo
Artvoice reserves the right to edit letters for content and length. Shorter letters have a better chance at being published in their entirety. Please include your name, hometown, and contact number. E-mail letters to: editorial@artvoice.com or write to: Artvoice Letters, 810 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14202
Reader Comments
Giovanni Centurione 07 Aug 2008, 02:13
Completly right, Western New York is NOTHING like NYC. I personally think
Buffalo has potentional but I love NYC more. Buffalonians (Western New
Yorkers) just seem to be stuck in their ways, they talk about how they want
change, but everytime a new idea comes, the people that live here quickly
fight it and want to change it all around until the great new idea is
killed and then wonder why nothing ever happens here. In NYC, people are
free to be themselfs, the unusal is the "Norm", in Western New York, I
notice it hard to be accepted when not a "Jeans and T-Shirt wearing, beer
drinking, Bills Fan". Whether your of African-American or Gay, most Western
New Yorkers are stuck in their ways and wonder why we still have segregated
neighborhoods, why Buffalo is a dying city and the young with fresh ideas
and who are "Different" leave for cities such as NYC to be "THEMSELFS".
When I heard that Buffalo was changing for the better, I actually moved my
things and came here this past June. I am now moving back to Brooklyn next
week. Gave Buffalo one last try only to find the attitudes of many still
the same, buildings still crumbling, bickering about the same tired issues
(Politics, Peace Bridge, Waterfront, ect.) and what a different world this
area really is. It's like a time-warp/Twlight Zone where everyone looks the
same, thinks the same way, and yet, they wonder why nothing happens, why
people continue to leave. I hope one day Western New York does become a
seperate State as it certainly acts seperate from the rest of the state.
Pauly 07 Aug 2008, 11:15
After growing up in Buffalo, going to college in Rochester, then coming
back to Buffalo to start my adult life, I tried to make it work. Getting
laid off from my first job at 23, then getting laid off from my second job
at 25 resulted in my move to the "succubic" New York City. Don't get me
wrong, I LOVE Buffalo, I visit friends often, love it's spirit and most of
all would jump on the chance to move back. But let's face it, Buffalo is
and will always be a blue collar town. In my first month in NYC, I found a
job that paid $25,000 more than I was making in Buffalo, then 6 months
later, was recruited to another job that paid $30,000 more than that. Yes,
the cost of living is much higher here, but you must remember that
9,000,000 people live in NYC. There must be something that keeps them
here. And it is not power supply. People from Buffalo see NYC as a place devoid of soul, impersonal, and a Disneyfied-Times Square. I will get a phone call from people I went to High School with and meet them for a drink near their midtown hotels and they all look at me in disbelief and ask me how I can live in such a "crazy place". Well, I'll tell you. I know my barber, butcher, the grocery check out girl, the lady who owns the antique shop down the street, the guy at the deli, the waiter at my favorite sushi spot around the corner and all of those micro-relationships that you develop in Buffalo. There is an amazing sense of community if you're willing to open your mind. I met my partner of 3 years here and I have to say that I am genuinely happy. Buffalo needs to stop comparing itself to NYC, it will never be. And stop complaining about state resources when the population of Buffalo is a mere 3.3% of the population of NYC. Of course it will seem out of balance. Buffalo needs a shrink to treat it's Napoleonic complex. And for the writer's reference, the closing of the Erie Canal was due mostly to the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which resulted in Buffalo no longer being used as a port to deliver goods to the midwest. Read the book "High Hopes" by Mark Goldman, it will show you a string of stupid decision making on behalf of Buffalonians and governments. I still want to come back to Buffalo, but if I do, I fear that I will be an MBA suckling off the teet of the social services system for many years to make ends meet. If Buffalo secedes from the state as the author of the above suggests, I'll probably be starving and very, very cold.
Kevin F. Yost 08 Aug 2008, 17:34
I have lived my life in Rochester other than when I was a resident student
at two different college in Buffalo and I agree with the letter and two
comments. Western and Central New York, along with most of Pennsylvania,
are more like the Midwest than the Northeast and very different than
downstate or even the eastern part of New York State and the rest of the
Boston-Washington corridor. Between Buffalo and Rochester, Buffalo is
certainly friendlier. New York City is somewhat friendlier yet, all of the
friendliness of all three cities contrary to popular belief. Some say that
NYS should split into Upstate and Downstate, with the latter splitting off
with Westchester, Rockland, and Orange counties and all counties south
becoming a new state and Albany remaining the capitol of Upstate. I,
however, feel that the state should split into east and west, with Cayuga,
Onondaga, Cortland, Broome,and all counties west splitting off, Albany
remaining the capitol of the new eastern state, and either Buffalo or
Canandaigua or both (different branches of government can be based in
different cities, like with South Africa and Paraguay) the new capitol(s)
of the new western state. W&CNY has indeed suffered long enough.
Dean 09 Aug 2008, 17:19
Buffalo is a Third World Country compared to NYC. Buffalo is behing the
times, while NYC is far more advanced and way ahead of the times to good
ol' Buffalo. So of course the State should split. It already feel's like
two different states as is.
Mike Syposs 09 Aug 2008, 17:54
Regarding the following comments by Pauly: >> Buffalo needs to stop comparing itself to NYC, it will never be. I think you are making my point. Why should we have to succumb to what is right for NYC? We are not NYC, never will be, and never want to be. >> And stop complaining about state resources when the population of >>Buffalo is a mere 3.3% of the population of NYC. Of course it will >>seem out of balance. Buffalo needs a shrink to treat it's Napoleonic >>complex. When I speak of resources, I speak of natural resources and intellectual resources. Western New York holds a vastly greater proportion of both of these per capita. We host the largest natural hydroelectric resource in the country. We also host the largest public university in the state. We don't need you. We hurt because NYC takes from us the fruit of our natural and intellectual resources. >>And for the writer's reference, the closing of the Erie Canal was due >>mostly to the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which resulted in >>Buffalo no longer being used as a port to deliver goods to the >>midwest. I say that the canal "died with the advent of new commercial delivery methods." Why does this statement exclude the St. Lawrence Seaway opening? Would you not call that a new commercial delivery method? I agree that this is one of the reasons, but there were other factors. >>Read the book "High Hopes" by Mark Goldman, it will show you a string >>of stupid decision making on behalf of Buffalonians and governments. The only thing Mr. Goldman leaves out is that the Buffalo politicians were puppets of New York State, an entity which seeks to keep us in a state of corruption.
Kate 10 Aug 2008, 11:21
If Buffalo wasn't so behind the times in the way it thinks, does business,
etc. Maby people will actually be able to stay and "Move" here. I find it
amzing to travel outside this area to see just how advance other cities are
in the way it looks to the way people act and dress. Face it, Buffalo is
back woods kind of town that still pretends to the big city it once was.
Locals are not very accepting of the outside world, they don't respond well
to anything 'New' or different and it just pushes people away from this
area even more, including business. Till Buffalo and it's residents can
imbrase change, I don't see this area improving much in the near future.
Mike Syposs 10 Aug 2008, 12:02
Why has this turned into an argument about what kind of city Buffalo is?
My writing does not even mention Buffalo. Western (and Central) New York
cover a vast area of land, Buffalo is a very small (and important) part of
that land. All of you that pick on Buffalo and then expouse the greatness
of NYC, I claim that you are missing the point of my essay. For those that claim that we are "back woods", I say that we are great because we have such wonderful forests and natural resources. For those that claim that we are bigoted, I say that I've met some of the most open-minded and fair people in this area. For those that claim we are not NYC, I say that you are not reading a word that I am saying. To Kate: I say that Western New York and Central New York should embrace the change that is necessary. We should totally severe ties with the rest of the state, and see how quickly THEY fall apart.
Jeff
10 Aug 2008, 12:39
If Western New York became a separate state, we could undo a lot of raw
deals that Albany has given us. These include: 1) The Power Authority relicensing. The New York State Power Authority was relicensed last year for another fifty years. The NYPA controls the Robert Moses Power Plant in Lewiston, and sends most of the plant's cheap electricity to other parts of the state and other states. Most local residents have to pay some of the highest electric rates in the country, plus high heating costs. 2) The New York State Thruway Authority, which was supposed to eliminate tolls in 1996, has kept the tolls instead and keeps increasing them. 3) The NYS DOT, which insists on keeping waterfront expressways like the Skyway and Route 5 in place, will keep the Outer Harbor a land of weeds if they have their way. 4) The NFTA, which refuses to extend Metro Rail and keeps raising fares. 5) The Casino Compact between New York State and the Seneca Nation of Indians. New York tried to legalize gambling, but Donald Trump bribed the state legislature to say no because that would compete with his casinos in Atlantic City. Instead we get a deal where the Senecas get to keep most of the slot machine revenue, the state takes most of the rest and businesses in Niagara Falls and Buffalo get to compete with businesses that don't have to pay any taxes. These are just some of the ways Western New York residents have not benefited by being part of New York State. Leave a Comment:
|
|
Issue Navigation> Issue Index > v7n32: Special Delivery (8/7/08) > Secede, Western New York This Week's Issue • Artvoice Daily • Artvoice TV • Events Calendar • Classifieds |
Subscribe 