Grains of Salt (v35): Throwing Good Money After... Good?

Grains of Salt

Regular readers of veritable pastiche likely have seen that I'm not a huge fan of how governments, including Onondaga County and the City of Syracuse, make economic development deals.

You know the kind I'm talking about, right?  The ones where we give money to profitable companies who would have us think that, absent a taxpayer subsidy, they would be unable to move less than a mile to new office space, for example. The post I've linked has several other examples of how happy this stuff makes me.

So - knowing I'm a fan, you can only imagine my delight upon learning that we're now giving even more money to two city projects that have already tapped the taxpayer well. The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA) voted unanimously to the increases

One of the projects is the State Tower Building renovation, which created 61 apartments and new office and retail space; the project was originally budgeted at $27.5M, but had overruns of $14.2M.  The Pioneer Companies, the project's developer, blamed water damage, asbestos caulk, and repairs to part of the building's iconic features as main contributors.

Across the city, costs on a project by BVSHSSF Syracuse LLC (an offshoot of the country's largest builder of luxury student housing) to build 244 student housing units rose from the initial $66.6M - a bad omen right there - to $71.5M, because they spent more on materials, furniture and the like than budgeted, and because the pesky Syracuse Fire Department made them bury their overhead power lines.

So - the State Tower Building project's exemptions went from $803,886 to $1.4M, and the alphabet soup LLC's exemptions were bumped up to $1.72M from $1.36M.

Rents at the State Tower building are not cheap. According to this preview,

Monthly rents range from $1350 - $1500 for the studio apartments, from $1450 to $2200 for the one-bedroom units, and from $2700 to $3200 for the two-bedroom units. In addition, there is a $100 monthly 'amenity fee' which provides wi-fi, cable TV and access to a roof terrace and fully-equipped fitness center.

For student housing units, rents run upwards of $900 per bedroom, with some projects getting prices similar to the State Tower apartments - per bedroom.

I get that we benefit from having our downtown buildings renovated, repurposed, and rejuvenated - I really do. But what are these projects 'creating' other than a profit for the developers at some point, assuming they manage them better than they managed the projects?  OK, that was a little harsh, I know, but you get the point, right?

Yes, we'll have more people downtown, and they'll spend money at the bars and restaurants and they'll have their groceries delivered from Wegmans, and they'll call their Lyfts and Ubers and all that. And we'll probably get some property tax dollars from these projects. But they're not creating any significant number of jobs for the long term, or opportunities for entrepreneurs. And sometime, maybe not all that far off, we'll reach the point where the benefits of center city vibrancy will be far outweighed by the poverty that's already pressing its nose up against the windows.

And up on the SU hill, where for decades there's been a cottage industry of renting to students - whether it's landlords buying properties and renting the entire house, or folks like my grandmother back in the day, who rented rooms in her house on Stratford Street to grad students, forming lifelong connections with many of them - progress for builders and developers is not necessarily progress for us all.

Hopefully, SIDA and economic development professionals will get to a place of comfort saying no to rewarding cost overruns, and with saying yes, differently, on development projects. We'll look at that last part in an upcoming post.

Grains of Salt (v7) Let's Go, Orange!

History was made today for Syracuse University Athletics.

For the first time in the program's history, the Syracuse University women's basketball team won both games in the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament, putting them in the Sweet Sixteen.  The team won their 27th game, also a record.

SU's head coach Quentin Hillsman, who in years past was known more for his sartorial splendor than for his team's play, has slowly and methodically built a successful program on the hill, noted

It's just an amazing feeling for our players. They work so hard and they really deserve this moment. I am happy for them. We are really excited to be moving on to the next round.

The women played at the Carrier Dome, and beat Army on Friday afternoon and Albany this afternoon. They won both games handily.

Meanwhile, out in St. Louis, the men's team beat Dayton in a grudge match on Friday, the Flyers having knocked SU out of the tourney the last time out, in 2014 (SU sat out last year under a self-imposed penalty). And they won handily just moments ago against Cinderella team Middle Tennessee State, who knocked off second seed Michigan State in the first round.

The Orange had muddled their way through Coach Jim Boeheim's nine-game suspension, and lost five of their last six games to close out the season, including a first round loss in the ACC tourney. Many, including me, had doubts about whether they'd even get an invitation to the Big Dance. Now, in the vernacular, the team is "peaking at the right time" and have picked up wins 20 and 21, something that usually happens before the end of February.

Otto (Pinterest)

The women will be heading off to Sioux Falls to play on Friday against either top seed South Carolina or ninth seed Kansas State. The men will head to Chicago to take on 11th seed Gonzaga, also on Friday.

Two SU teams in the Sweet Sixteen is sweet, indeed.

Good luck to both teams, and let's go Orange!

Wondering, on Wednesday (v21)

Almost exactly a week ago I was in the middle of writing this post.  

I was talking about Shelly Silver stepping down as Speaker of the Assembly here in New York, but vowing to fight to keep his seat as a member of that august body in the face of federal corruption charges.  And I had touched on SU throwing in the towel in the face of their NCAA investigation, and giving up the right to have Coach Boeheim's unranked guys play in any games after the end of the ACC's regular season.  And thinking gee, what a great year to give up post-season play, since the team has struggled in so many games already, with more losses than we are accustomed to in these parts.

And I was just starting to focus in on Andrew Cuomo, our Sonofa Gov, and his threats to forgo an on-time budget deal if he doesn't get ethics reform.  And then, well, then My Sweet Baboo decided to take a knee and propose, and I never did get around to finishing the post.  (I said yes, by the way).

So now, as I'm listening to the SU/Boston College basketball game, and casting a loving and appreciative eye towards the ring on my finger, here's what has me scratching my head tonight. 

Anthem Blue Cross was hacked by someone (perhaps the Chinese) and information including names, addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, employment information - all the stuff you'd ever need to set up some big time fake identities - may have been compromised for as many as 80 million people. And we were told on the news that, almost immediately after the breach was announced, all kinds of people who roam the netherworld were offering to buy the Anthem data. 

I'm not caught up in this one, at least so far. I was tagged in the Target breach (I shop there maybe once a year) and on a site where I shop for a necessity that is not available locally. For both of those, my card number was compromised, but nothing like what was taken in the Anthem case. I was offered free credit monitoring, which is what Anthem is offering folks. But  I'm wondering, is a few months of credit monitoring enough for the folks caught up in this massive breach? And if you're a crook, wouldn't you already plan on waiting more than a couple years, so as to get past the common free monitoring periods? I guess I'm thinking if you're smart enough to hack and steal this info, you'd be smart enough to know when to use it.  

And speaking of breach,  Brian Williams has been suspended by NBC without pay for six months, which amounts to about a $5 million hit in income and what is likely a lifetime ban as a newsman.  There's been a lot of analysis on why this might have happened (all the while the investigation is continuing, supposedly now expanded to include his expense accounts, as if an RPG hit might materialize there).  Lots of people are talking about what makes people embellish their records, inflate their value, exaggerate what happened to them, and why they would 'violate our trust' like this.  

But lots of people aren't talking about why, for example, NBC didn't appear to think much about trustworthiness when it hired the daughters of former Presidents Bush II and Clinton, as if they were real reporters? Chelsea Clinton did 'Making a Difference' stories and was reportedly paid some $650,000 for her troubles. Jenna Bush I think has become the official Bush Family Reporter, having done interviews with her dad, grandfather grandmother, mother, dog, childhood dolls... OK, maybe not the dog but you get the drift. 

What Williams did was wrong - but the network is not as trustworthy as they'd have us believe. 

Finally, the Supreme Court refused to stay an Alabama law allowing gay marriages.  This was an odd decision, in many people's eyes, because SCOTUS is going to decide on marriage equality before the end of the term. Clarence Thomas was up in arms about this one, as was Antonin Scalia.   

So: was a line crossed here by the Court? Was this a breach of protocol, or just a breach of Thomas's sensibilities? Can we no longer trust the Supreme Court? Has anyone really trusted them lately?

And now I'm left wondering, on this Wednesday, if that's really the crux of the issue: is the breach of trust really a big issue, if there's so little trust to start with? 

20 Questions, 20 Answers

Today's Post Standard editorial, It's Time to Play 20 Questions, is an open invitation for all of us to have a little fun.  It doesn't matter whether you're happy and optimistic, or a miserable, cynical skeptic; as a city resident, county resident or even an out-of-towner, you can chime in. Full disclaimer: in general I resemble at least few of those categories above: I'll admit to being an optimistic if skeptical city resident, at the very least. Answering the questions might put me in some different buckets, we'll see.

Here goes:
1. Is $17,000 to keep the bathrooms clean at the New York State Fair really an excessive expenditure when you figure in the number of bathrooms (about 40), the length of the Fair (12 days) and the loudness of the complaints when the bathrooms are disgusting and run out of toilet paper?

If you've ever been in one of the Fair bathrooms, you'll know that this is money well spent. Those 40 bathrooms have a potential customer base of between 50,000 and 100,000 users per day, and it's worth it to have someone supervise the people hired to clean them. And no, I'm not interested, at any price. 

2. Is Onondaga County government just being super-efficient -- kind of like the private sector -- in its super-speedy review of plans to build an amphitheater on the west shore of Onondaga Lake?

I have to admit, it was hard not to chuckle at the comments from Legislature Chair Ryan McMahon who noted that "This is the first time in my nine years in government, people have been criticized for moving too fast in government."  Apparently he's forgotten about the stadium project, which Onondaga County tried to get shoehorned into the Governor's budget without including Stephanie Miner?  

I would love to see the square wooden wheels of government turn more quickly, on several things -- most notably reform, consolidation and spending -- but when you're talking about $30 million taxpayer dollars to build a seasonal amphitheater on top of decades-old waste beds, in the backyard of the snowiest major city in the Northeast, is time really of the essence?

3. Or is Onondaga County Government trying to ram the project through while nobody's looking?

Yes. And not for nothing, I'm as interested in the comments from concert promoters as I am in the environmental impact statement.  "If you build it, they will come" might have worked in an Iowa cornfield, but I'm not convinced that it will work here, given all of the other entertainment venues that are available within an easy drive.

4.  Why hasn't Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said anything about the implosion of the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, whose members he deputized as special prosecutors?

Um, because he's as culpable in the failure of the Moreland Commission as our Sonuva Governor? Do you think he realizes that he dropped the ball, by not "talking to people" on the Commission, by not making suggestions to and meeting with the commissioners, including our own DA-for-Life William Fitzpatrick?  Or is it because he'll do just about anything to stay away from Cuomo at this point, since the two have long had a fractious relationship?

5.  What will the Syracuse University student -- the one who helped design an app to warn Israelis when rockets are about to fall on their heads -- come up with next?

Maybe he can warn us when the drones referenced in #13 are about to fly over our heads? 

6.  Why hasn't anyone built a glass-enclosed party palace in downtown Syracuse before now?

Lack of vision and lack of downtown momentum. Glad we've overcome both!

7.  Where are the Syracuse Chiefs fans -- considering the team is in the thick of a playoff picture, there's a ton of fun off the field and they're giving away a funeral this coming Wednesday, August 13th?

I'm still not convinced on that whole funeral give-away. That said, I haven't been to a Chiefs game since Josh Beckett did a rehab start for the Pawtucket Red Sox. I found my pictures from that night and guess what? There were about as many empty seats as filled seats, even for Beckett.

Now, had you asked me when that game was, I would have guessed a generic 'couple of years ago' --  but in fact, it was in July of 2010.  I had no idea it was that long ago.

I'm not a Chiefs fan, but what the heck's wrong with me that I haven't been to a game in more than four years?  That's a question most of us should ask ourselves.

8. Why is it taking so long to reconstruct West Fayette Street downtown?

The answer is 42. 

9.  Will Syracuse University get more applicants, now that it's been anointed the No. 1 party school in the nation?

Perhaps the better question is, how many folks will leave after the first semester when they realize that the ranking is unwarranted? And will they transfer to LeMoyne "we may be Jesuit but..." College, where at least they have Dolphy Day?

10.  Did President Barack Obama really think he could avoid being dragged back into Iraq?

Maybe he thought he'd be impeached first and wouldn't have to deal with it? On a more serious note, do we always have to go where others fear (or fail) to tread? Must we always be the world's police? Is our manifest destiny to continually try and secure the destiny of others? And how do we sit back and watch our ally Israel cause similar damage against Hamas in Gaza killing hundreds of innocent men, women and children in the process, at the same time we bomb others who cause the same carnage, albeit for different reasons?  Maybe 42 is the answer here as well. 

11. When is a political endorsement from a union not a political endorsement from a union? (Ask Dan Maffei and John Katko).

His uncle and my aunt were hanging up clothes. My union folded, it joined one of those. They support the other guy, so I had nowhere to go, but to throw my support to Cousin Katko. Or something like that, if Timothy Hogan spoke in verse.  

12. What is it with professional athletes and domestic violence?

From the time they're in junior high school, or even earlier, when they get discovered in Pop Warner or AAU leagues, promising athletes become a prized commodity; they're told they're special, and many are given special treatment, as soon as it's possible for someone to do so. Whether having female 'escorts' (wink wink) to them when they're college recruits, or not having to go to class, take tests or write papers, or being excused for sexual assault as high schoolers, or free clothes and all the rest, we show and tell athletes that they're special and all the rest of us are throw-aways, just like an old pair of free sneakers. Sadly, many of them learn that lesson more readily than all of the other critical life lessons that are right in front of them. 

And no, I'm not excusing the athletes' behavior, I'm complaining about the enablers, the ones who sweep bad behavior under the rug to make sure that (enter athlete's name) gets to play on (enter day of the week) in the big game against (enter key rival's name).  

And about league commissioners who put a higher price on smoking pot than on hitting a woman and then dragging her from an elevator.  

13.  With drones poised to start flying over Central New York, how soon before the fist invasion of privacy lawsuit is filed?

As soon as soybeans, corn, and wheat achieve personhood, or corporation-hood, and obtain free speech rights.

14.  Why can't Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand fly coach like the rest of us?

Good lord, is Chuck 'Touchdown' Schumer wearing those crazy astronaut diapers on his trips around the state?  He pays almost $300,000 to fly around on a plane that doesn't even have a bathroom? 

15.  Would it really be unethical to give experimental drugs to people dying of Ebola?

Ethical questions are supposed to be tough, and to me this one is. Would it be right to experiment on third-world people with the experimental drug, which might not even work? If it's wrong for us to have done that over the years with prisoners,blacks, mentally ill and the poor,how can it be right to do it now? And is it even necessary to do that, since traditional methods, if employed effectively, work effectively?  I think I'm on the 'yes' side of this one. I think.

16.  Can you believe it's football season already?

No. I sure hope my 49er's are ready. And I can't wait for us to get rolling with Scott Shafer press conferences after SU games.

17.  Who will be the next USA Basketball player to quit, after that gruesome injury to Paul George?

Can't say who will be next, don't know enough about it. But if the pros are afraid to play for fear they'll get hurt, perhaps with a career-ending injury, that leaves college kids. If they get afraid of maybe getting hurt before their NBA careers even start, will the USA be left fielding teams of walk-ons and high-school kids against the pros who compete with us (on our favorite teams) during the season and against us in international play? That would stink. 

18. Would today's hyper-partisan Congress have impeached Richard Nixon?

I can't imagine that they would have. Nor, if he was President now, that Nixon would resign. Back then, doing something for the good of the country meant something. Now, not so much. 

19.  Will we ever come to a consensus on Interstate 81?

I'm afraid our conversation will reach the end of its useful life about the same time the highway does.  At the same time, though, I'm glad that voices are being heard and that DOT is listening.  (Ryan McMahon, pay attention...)

20.  The State Fair is almost here.  Where did summer go?

A good portion of it went (as always) to work, weeding, and writing.  This year, we have to add in widing our bikes and dodging waindwops.

How would you have answered the questions? Share your responses in the comments.

The Update Desk: 4/13/13

Updates and random thoughts:

First,  We Deserve a Vote, and we're going to get one.

On Thursday, the Senate voted to go ahead and begin considering new gun control legislation.  The vote that killed a possible filibuster was 68 -31, with 29 Republicans and 2 Democrats voting against the measure, and sixteen Republicans, 50 Dems, and 2 Independents voting in favor.

There's absolutely no guarantee that any legislation will pass (including a bipartisan take on background checks) once they start considering the actual proposed laws -- and that's perfectly OK.  The point is that the Senate will at least allow the measures to be considered, and that they will put their decisions on the record.  We all win when that happens.

Meanwhile, back in NY, I just found online that Preet Bharara, the US Attorney who's working on cleaning up Albany one dirty politician at a time, made the Time magazine list of the World's Most Influential People for 2012.  According to the article, written by Georgetown law professor and Bharara friend Viet Dinh, he's quite the guy:

What sets Preet, 43, apart is his ability to see the next battleground — witness the takedown of members of the Anonymous and LulzSec hacker networks. What sets him above is the patience honed by principle. For years, as others clamored for scalps after the global financial crisis, Preet resisted the temptation of a sloppy kill and instead waited for the facts. His 58-0 record for insider-trading cases bodes ill for the bankers whom his office has charged with reckless lending practices or inflating mortgage values.

And finally, here in Syracuse, we learned that SU sophomore point guard Michael Carter-Williams is entering the NBA draft. While not surprising, it's disheartening. I naively hope that the kids will realize that very few players actually make it in the NBA; SU in particular doesn't have that great a track record turning kids in to pros. Most of them would have been better off staying in school, getting a degree and having something to do for the rest of their life.

Almost immediately after SU's loss to Michigan in the semi-finals, reporters started asking MCW what his intentions were for the future, whether he'd take his 12 points and 7 assists per game to the next level; left unsaid of course was the part about him giving up on getting an education. Initially he said he wasn't thinking about that, but very quickly made the decision to go, where he's projected to be a lottery pick, depending on who else decides to declare for the draft.

I know the reporters think they are doing their jobs when they throw the NBA question to underclassmen at the end of the season; but boy, what I wouldn't give for someone to ask not the obvious question, but something along the lines of this:

The first game of the season was months ago, back on November 1st.  You had a great run, but tell me -- aren't you looking forward to being able to get back to your studies full time, now that the season is over?

Ah well, maybe someday.

Thank you, Nancy Cantor

Syracuse University photo

Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor announced this past Friday that she’ll be leaving SU at the end of her contract, which runs through the 2014 school year. 

Over the next several months, there will likely be countless articles on her tenure, some of them positive and some less so, depending on the perspective of the writer or the scope of the article.  Today, I want to share my one and only interaction with the Chancellor, one that I think speaks volumes about her.

Flash back to late October/early November2010, when  Syracuse was going through a bad stretch of violence, including, ironically, at a rally to stop the violence.

I had done a couple of posts on the violence (here and here), and then on Tuesday November 16th, I was sitting at home thinking about everything that was going on, and I had a hare-brained idea and decided to act on it. 

At 8:38 that night, I wrote an email to Chancellor Cantor and asked for her help.  Here are excerpts from that email:

Our city is currently in the midst of a horrible spate of violence, most of it violence by youth against youth... We had shootings on Halloween, we’ve had a murder caught on tape, we’ve had shots fired at a peaceful ‘stop the violence’ gathering. All of it is disturbing, all of it is frightening, and all of it is disheartening. Our city is better than this.

Police Chief Frank Fowler, Mayor Stephanie Miner, and community leaders such as Mary Nelson are reaching out in every way they can, trying to engage local pastors and local organizations, encouraging them to do what they can...in homes, in workplaces, on buses and shops all over town, people are talking, and thinking, and trying to come up with answers...

An idea that occurred to me was to ask members of the SU community...if they’d be willing to appear in short public service announcements calling for an end to the violence. We know that kids look up to famous people, and around here there aren’t a lot of folks more famous than the SU family, both those currently on the Hill and the alumni that we claim as our own.

Is this outside the realm of possibility? Is this something that could be undertaken by students at Newhouse, in cooperation with folks from Maxwell? Does this type of effort fit in with your vision of Scholarship in Action?

Thanks for listening, and thanks for anything you and the SU community can do to help us.

The next day, I received both an email and a voicemail from Henry Wildhack, then an Associate Athletic Director, who had been asked to contact me about my idea.  After a few phone conversations and email exchanges, there was a script in my hand for review - all within 48 hours of my initial email to Cantor. 

The gist of the message was that kids need to stop and think before they pick up the gun, before they get involved with a gang, before they make a mistake that may leave them “six feet under” or behind bars – and yes, those words and images were included in the end product, which was put together by Roger Springfield’s media team and included coaches and players from the football team and both the men’s and women’s basketball teams. The script and resulting video perfectly captured what I had hoped for, and was pretty powerful.

If you attended any games at the Carrier Dome that fall/winter, you may have seen my video on the big screen.  If you watched the news on local television during that time period, you may have seen my video, which ran as a PSA for a period of time on several stations.

I say 'my video' mostly in jest – sure, I had the idea, and planted a seed with Chancellor Cantor.  But she was the one who chose not to ignore the email, who handed it off to the people who could make it happen.  And she did it immediately, when we were still reeling from what was going on, and her team cam through in a big way.

Yes, there’ll be much said about Nancy Cantor and her time here in Syracuse. For her response to my idea back in 2010, I'd like to offer this belated thank you.

Got Stimulus?

There’s so much stimulating talk these days, ideas to stimulate the economy, stimulate job growth, stimulate spending, stimulate savings – it’s enough to make you think we’re a nation of Viagrans or Cialins or Levitrans. We’re not quite at the point where we are completely defined by a couple of bathtubs on a hill overlooking an ocean with a glorious sunset off on the horizon, but it seems like we can’t get out of our own way with all of the different ideas that have been floated around about how to get out of this recession, or depression, or whatever it is.

While I don’t yet know if any of these plans will give us either lasting economic strength or only the short term day-to-day benefits we see advertised, I have to wonder if any of them will do us any good if we can’t stop arguing about them, whether they’re too much, or too little, or too soon, or too late. Here are some random thoughts on all this mess from a ‘Jane-the-person-who-just-cut-back-her-401(k)-contributions-because-she-can't-stand-watching-her-money-disappear’, in case anyone’s listening to my specific demographic:

(1) When all is said and done, is there really that much difference between an ‘earmark’ and a ‘stimulus’? Back in the day when everyone was flush with cash, and could have afforded to fund their own studies, it would have made sense to complain about things like the stinky pig manure study, one of the member items in Obama’s stimulus plan that’s discussed with wrinkled nose by John McCain as wasteful spending. Actually, in a weird way it’s kind of interesting; here's what Scientific American has to say about it. But, if the purpose of the stimulus plan is to get money into the economy and keep people employed, shouldn’t scientists be able to benefit? To say nothing of Iowans and anyone else who lives near a factory pig farm?

(2) Does it make sense that we use new stimulus money to plug holes in our state budget, rather than using it to put new money into the economy and put people to work? New York is facing a huge budget gap and our Accidental Governor is proposing that $1.3 billion of the Empire State's portion of the Obama plan be used to replace some of the new taxes he had proposed to close the gap. New taxes aren’t one of my favorite things, but neither is delaying the inevitable by not making the real hard decisions we should be making. If we use stimulus money this way, when it’s gone, we’re still going to be on the high wire, but without a net.

(3) If a government entity, university, or business has already planned on doing work and has a way to pay for it they should not be eligible for stimulus plan funding for that work. Use new money for new things, use existing money for existing plans. Period.

(4) Shouldn’t modernizing the power grid be more important than broadband computer access and digital TV? The stimulus plan includes $4.4 billion for the grid, but $4.7 billion for broadband and an additional $650 million for digital TV. Call me silly, but if a tree falling in Ohio can shut down power to 50 million people and cost upwards of $4 billion as it did in 2004, whether I’m unable to watch the Not Bad, Considering... Nightly News in analog or digital won’t matter all that much to me.

(5) Anyone who received any return on their investment with Bernie Madoff should not be eligible for any future settlement, and if they're lucky they won't have to pay anything back. Anyone involved in refusing or failing to investigate Madoff should be prosecuted just as fully as Madoff. We have regulators for a reason, and if they ignore multiple reports of actual or potential wrongdoing over several years, they should go to jail.

(6) Here in Syracuse, there’s been nothing as stimulating as this week’s Big East basketball tournament since, well, 2003 when the Orange won the whole shebang. Thursday night, SU played the UConn Huskies and ending up winning in the sixth overtime. Friday night’s game against West Virginia was another nail-biter, with SU winning again, needing only an extra five minutes. Sadly, after a great start against Louisville, they came up short, but down the road what people are going to remember the heart of this team, and that game on Thursday. This shirt sums it up perfectly.

Here’s hoping your stimulus plan is half as exciting as this week was for us.