Southern Tier Economy

CALLING FOR REAL CHANGE IN TIERS:

The time has come for upstate New York to change the way it does business, builds communities and educates its children.

That's the message Jack Benjamin, president of Three Rivers Development Corp. in Corning, delivered Wednesday in Beecher Hall at The Park Church in Elmira in the final discussion in a three-part series on creative communities.

“I'm talking about the social capacity to create an environment where people can function and a place where people want to be,” Benjamin told an audience of more than 40 people.

Benjamin said New York state and, more specifically, upstate New York hover at the bottom of several lists on taxation, development and population retention.

“We can't afford this type of government,” he said.

Benjamin's statistics showed that Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties have about 210,000 people and 76 local governments, or one government for every 2,700 residents. Population is expected to continue to decline and the fastest-growing portions of the economy are educational and not-for-profit entities, which doesn't bode well for the region, he said.
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Building on suggestions offered Tuesday by author and economist Richard Florida in a lecture in Corning, Benjamin said the region must reach out and embrace its under-40 population and work with local colleges in a 60-mile radius to retain talent and encourage new graduates to stay in the region.

Communities must make young people feel welcome — they are the future drivers of the region, he said.