Hideous Saratoga City Center plan

Another thing about Joe Bruno: A not small amount of the huge vats of pork he secured for his district is indigestible. (No doubt the same principle will apply to the federal stimulus, too.) The Saratogian today unveiled the design for an expanded City Center at the north end of downtown Saratoga Springs, which would be paid for, the story tells us, "all at no cost to taxpayers, since the $16 million project is primarily funded by New York state." The mayor attended the unveiling with someone described as Authority Chairman Michael J. Toohey, who said: "The community must recognize that we are at the start of a new century." I guess someone must have finally completed Bill Clinton's bridge to a 21st century. The building has "a modern, iconic look," we are told, and business owners are quoted cooing about about all the new tourists it will bring in. Only if they admire tired knock-offs of 50-year-old New Jersey shopping mall architecture. If public money is available for Saratoga, then use it to save and improve its rail service, and the area's dairy and horse farms. Don't build blight on Broadway. Take it away, Jim Kunstler.

Comments

[Brian]

"all at no cost to taxpayers, since the $16 million project is primarily funded by New York state."

This mentality is why taxes and wasteful spending are so high in this state. To say that it is all at "no cost to taxpayers" is sheer ignorance. Who do they think funds "New York state"?

Locals thinks cash from DC and Albany is free money. If they make the connection on April 15, apparently they've forgotten by April 16.