State of Upstate address - $100 mill Housing Fund

I'm still finding myself rereading Governor Spitzer's State of Upstate address from yesterday. Here's one thing that Buffalo might benefit from.

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Housing Opportunity Fund

The third major component of our Fund will be $100 million for Upstate housing and community development, which is part of our proposal to create a Housing Opportunity Fund.

Our Upstate communities have a range of housing needs. Some communities need new affordable housing. Most Upstate communities, however, need funding for housing rehabilitation.

Yet, whether we’re talking about building workforce housing or rehabilitating existing housing, our investments need to be strategic. By that, I mean they must always be designed in ways that catalyze further development.

What we’ve done in Watertown is a good example of this strategy. Working with our partners in Congress and at the local level, Lieutenant Governor Paterson and I waged a successful campaign to bring a new maneuver enhancement brigade—1,500 new troops—to Fort Drum.

We won the new brigade because we were the only State to go to the Army with a comprehensive economic development package articulating the specific steps we would take to accommodate the additional soldiers. The centerpiece of that package was $10 million dollars in funding to ease the affordable housing crunch in Watertown.

Another example of a strategic housing investment can be found on the Near West Side of Syracuse, a project that has long been supported by Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, where we are not only building low-income housing and lofts for the city’s growing community of artists; we are connecting it to the jobs, shopping, recreation, education and cultural facilities that form the building blocks of a sustainable community.

This is the kind of model we need to replicate across Upstate, which is why our Fund contains a $100 million Upstate housing commitment to provide significant new funding to meet all of these needs, and to build vibrant neighborhoods, and sustainable communities, for the next generation of New Yorkers. We estimate that our funding will result in about 10,000 units of new or rehabilitated housing for our Upstate communities.

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yes upstate is demolishing thousands of homes and we have a national glut of new housing because of the subprime lending market has crashed and his priorty is new home construction

gotta say....not one of his smartest initiatives

I don't get it. I really don't.

Ppl will swear up and down about how downstate gets everything, now that something is finally coming to us here in upstate and so many are unhappy about it.

I think that perhaps it may be better if we weren't promised anything from our governor. :(

"Building lofts for artists"? WTF kind of program is that?

So, that is the States' idea helping communities...Build little shacks for lazy flamming people to hang out and get high, then unleash the enforcers to bust them had throw them in jail and rehabs to show the need for tax increases.

And then you wonder why people complain?

If the State is going to extort taxes the only thing it should provide with that money is roads and utilities. Thats right, Free Energy, Waste Disposal, and Roads!

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Originally Posted by woodstock

I don't get it. I really don't.

Ppl will swear up and down about how downstate gets everything, now that something is finally coming to us here in upstate and so many are unhappy about it.

I think that perhaps it may be better if we weren't promised anything from our governor. :(

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It's not that we are getting something, it's that we are not getting something we need.

Buffalo has a surplus of housing that is abundant in affordability, why would we want more? We need money for infrastructure, housing demolitions, site preparation, economic development......and we get housing development.

Elliott just doesn't get it.

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Originally Posted by Sylvan

"Building lofts for artists"? WTF kind of program is that?

So, that is the States' idea helping communities...Build little shacks for lazy flamming people to hang out and get high, then unleash the enforcers to bust them had throw them in jail and rehabs to show the need for tax increases.

And then you wonder why people complain?

If the State is going to extort taxes the only thing it should provide with that money is roads and utilities. Thats right, Free Energy, Waste Disposal, and Roads!

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I'm a hell of a finger painter and at playing stinky finger---Now where in the hell is my loft???

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Originally Posted by CSense

It's not that we are getting something, it's that we are not getting something we need.

Buffalo has a surplus of housing that is abundant in affordability, why would we want more? We need money for infrastructure, housing demolitions, site preparation, economic development......and we get housing development.

Elliott just doesn't get it.

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The amount stated in this (topic) is part of the over all Billion dollars coming to upstate.

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Originally Posted by woodstock

The amount stated in this (topic) is part of the over all Billion dollars coming to upstate.

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And where does this money come from? Are they going to stop spending money somewhere else and transfer it here instead. If not, we are just going to go deeper into debt.

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Originally Posted by WNYresident

And where does this money come from? Are they going to stop spending money somewhere else and transfer it here instead. If not, we are just going to go deeper into debt.

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It's all coming from the State budget, and it sucks that now we're finally getting much-needed attention from our state leaders and everyone is belly-aching over it. :rolleyes: This is all of our tax dollars that could just stay downstate, instead it's said to be coming upstate... and no one seems to be happy about it.

I swear (w/o bypassing filters ;) ), it's like no please you ppl.... you'll bitch that we have to go without, and you'll complain when something finally comes here. (not specifically "you" Rez).

There is just no pleasing you ppl, I swear. :(

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Originally Posted by WNYresident

And where does this money come from? Are they going to stop spending money somewhere else and transfer it here instead. If not, we are just going to go deeper into debt.

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In the end the money comes from us, no matter how you look at it!

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Originally Posted by Velvet Fog

In the end the money comes from us, no matter how you look at it!

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That is the truth no matter how you look at it every penny the NYS government has come from the people who live and work within the imaginary lines in the sand.

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Originally Posted by woodstock

It's all coming from the State budget, and it sucks that now we're finally getting much-needed attention from our state leaders and everyone is belly-aching over it. :rolleyes:

This is all of our tax dollars that could just stay downstate, instead it's said to be coming upstate... and no one seems to be happy about it.

I swear (w/o bypassing filters ;) ), it's like no please you ppl.... you'll bitch that we have to go without, and you'll complain when something finally comes here. (not specifically "you" Rez).

There is just no pleasing you ppl, I swear. :(

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You just don't get it. Use a little common sense please. If a bank were to give you a loan to fix up your house, wouldn't you want the right to make the decisions?

Say last year you fixed your windows before the loan, but now the bank says you can only spend the money on buying new windows, when you really need a roof. You'd say what the f**k?

Get it? What good is the money if it doesn't address your needs?

I don't need Bush, Spitzer, Collins or Brown telling me what they are going to GIVE ME! I want them to stop TAKING and let the people decide what they will do with their money! Sometimes we need government to back off and let nature take its course instead of constantly churning everything up!

Unfortunately, that doesn't buy votes. The "mindless sheep" love it when their wonderful politicians say things like "rebate", "grants" and "give backs".

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Originally Posted by CSense

You just don't get it. Use a little common sense please. If a bank were to give you a loan to fix up your house, wouldn't you want the right to make the decisions?

Say last year you fixed your windows before the loan, but now the bank says you can only spend the money on buying new windows, when you really need a roof. You'd say what the f**k?

Get it? What good is the money if it doesn't address your needs?

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I do get what you're saying. While housing may not address my needs specifically, there are other areas of the COB of where funding would been needed. Michele can tell ya.

I hate that the only infrastracture of the COB in the Upstate address outlines waterfront development.

I do understand, but this housing section is just one peice detailed in the Governor's Upstate address, funding for other things are in the speech as well.