MsKreed

1 hour ago, Chris said:

What kills me about this is a “confirmation bias” of sorts from the public. It may as well say: “We realize they used a loophole to avoid paying taxes and conducting business like everyone else has to, but we liked this place so it’s okay.”

I agree, for a lot of people there’s an instinctive compulsion to defend and rationalize things we enjoy.  Like the Arena, it seems like fans of The L are dismissing/justifying the factual issues of tax status, zoning and business permits. 

And some are sticking to their guns that the noise complaints were an excuse that the Town just made up to go after them.

25 minutes ago, LocalSportsGuy said:

So to basically confirm what was already reported "The L" is no more. 

So the rumors, rumors and more rumors were......factual reports?

PepsiCo is responsible. 

Because Nestle, The Coca-Cola Company, and Kraft Heinz don’t produce and package beverages and snack foods “that mostly come in plastic containers meant to be thrown away or recycled once they are empty.

And we have some special concern about the Buffalo River. Because the the PepsiCo litter somehow doesn't turn up in the Hudson and every other river in the state?

Seems oddly specific. Thanks for your diligence, Tish.

I do find some humour in the thought that we likely have some wackadoodle neighbours in NYS who are so afflicted with “green psychosis” that they will try to rationalise this waste of taxpayer money and cheer this virtue signaling.

2 minutes ago, Adam said:

i thought they previously approved the 875k and this round was an additional 500k?

I had originally thought that....but the way it was outlined to me is this:

$375 was paid out last year. Then $500k was listed as part of the Executive's "ARP Plan"......which was voted on and approved by the Legislature and included in the 2023 Budget. (Bringing the total to $875k, that I assumed was done and paid).

However, actually transferring funds for each project in the "ARP Plan" requires its own "final" voting process (first in the Budget Committee and then the full Legislature). So only the first $375k was all that had been fully approved, and paid out to the IDA until now.  

The Fairgrounds Building project was also listed as part of the Executive's "ARP Plan" in the budget, but will go through the vote process again when the time comes for it to be paid out. 

57 minutes ago, Chris said:

I haven't had time to watch the meeting. How many voted to fund the arena and for how much?

Resolution 23-568 to transfer of the $500k that had been added to the budget in December was unanimously passed by the (10) legislators who voted. Donovan, Pickering and Stermer were absent from the meeting; Chalk and Margeson recused themselves from voting.

This brings the total ARP funds paid to IDA for the Arena to $875k.

Before the roll call vote, Morse (who has expressed reservations about the IDA on several projects) thanked Mr. Margeson and ‘others’ for answering her many questions and going over the Business Plan during ‘many discussions’. She said she is pleased with what she’s hearing and supports “changing the mindset from hockey to a Community Center and doing more that our community can be involved in; there’s more potential here”.

I look forward to the IDA openly and transparently sharing that Business Plan with the public.

1 hour ago, LocalSportsGuy said:

I mean I don't know if you guys noticed but Comic-Con brought in a lot of business for the Food Courts this weekend. They were jammed packed on Saturday and even busy on Sunday.

Dang, didn’t hear/see anything advertised about that.  I'm glad they had a good turnout.

1 hour ago, LocalSportsGuy said:

Big events in the event center could bring in extra business. The mall needs to fully reinvent themselves.

Absolutely. Not just in the "event center".....but all through the Mall to encourage window shopping (which leads to actual shopping).

And they need to get away from the mindset of trying to generate profits directly from the events.

If they return to the concept that the events can be a wash (or even carry some cost to the Mall management), then the traffic will result in their tenants being profitable enough to warrant the premium rents.

That is exactly what drew the crowds that made the individual businesses (and The Mall) thrive in the past as seen in THIS Album. 

If they don’t make some changes, it will continue to bleed tenants and something other than a Mall (and hopefully not just another vacant behemoth) will need to takes its place.

37 minutes ago, Zapp Brannigan said:

I find it hilarious she pointed out the fact that she was using British spelling 

Do you suppose it was to preemptively “defend” against igner’t yankees who'd think it’s misspelled could be inclined to criticise?

21 minutes ago, Adam said:

Interstellar is a must-watch, aside from being a good movie, the science apparently was pretty spot on

Thanks! I will add it to my watch list 🙂

47 minutes ago, Chris said:

When it comes to “imagination”, my own imagination sees this giant indoor area filled with local businesses who are paying a far more reasonable price for the space they’re leasing. And I understand that once upon a time that square footage was gold, but is it anymore? Obviously not. So why not drop the price, get some storefronts open and bodies in there?

Exactly..... If they want to demand the steadily increasing rents, they'd need to bring back the benefits that they removed over the last several decades that had made that square footage "gold" in the first place. 

From the time the Arnot Mall was built until somewhere in the mid-late ‘90s, it operated with the basic recipe/formula that made other malls across America thrive (and justifying the higher rent costs to their tenants).

Free Events like pageants, art shows, parades, etc drawing consumers into the facility.

Non-Competition clauses in their leases that promised tenants that they wouldn’t have to fight over customers for identical goods and services right down the hall.....while providing consumers with a Wide Variety of shops & services.

Anchor Stores comprised of large, popular, national retailers with traffic from a consistent customer base.

Then we saw some of the “ingredients” in that recipe being skimped on (or completely omitted) in order for the Mall Management to squeeze more profits......

Instead of hosting free events, they began charging vendors to participate (like the Farmer’s Market Chris mentioned). Eventually, they just offered up corridors full time to any fly-by-night junk dealer who wanted a booth.  

There was also no longer any attempt to protect older tenants from competition. Any new booth or storefront can come along and sell the same stuff as the next guy. And with the rent being too damn high.....a lot of those new tenants don’t invest in any remodeling or refacing of the old business. They just throw tarps up as walls and use temporary banners for signage.  

Whereas people used to show up for themed free events, no one goes to the Mall for the enjoyment of browsing a dozen cheap booths and trashy stores full of the same Chinese junk they can get at Dollar General.

So...less traffic. And less traffic means more of the businesses leave– so raise the rent of course! Because going back to the business model that was successful would just be crazy. 

A millennia of fiction writing proves that ‘imagination’ is limitless. However, realism and pragmatic solutions are constrained by actual real-world boundaries.

5 hours ago, Chris said:

Humor us, and name three. 

And remember that we’re talking about hypothetical uses for a privately owned, commercial property (that once hugely contributed to financial prosperity in the area).  

Unless one's “imagination” includes a fantasy world where tax revenue is not needed, and hinges on the expectation that the owners should just surrender their asset for “the public good”....those three ideas would need to be at least analogous in that they are profitable and produce more jobs and tax revenue. And in the interest of distinguishing mere ‘imagination’ from realistic scenarios.....each concept should include cited examples of anyone, anyplace actually achieving them for some realistic length of time.  

There are plenty of criticisms we can throw at the current Mall management for its deteriorating role in the local economy. Wanting it to be even less economically successful seems like the antithesis of a solution. It’s beyond asinine to suggest reducing the Mall’s business revenue when the local economy needs the opposite.

We already have a surplus of underutilized publicly owned and completely vacant/derelict private properties that are currently less beneficial to the community than they should be.....even less so than the mall.  The Arena, Erie Plaza, Hills Plaza. While it’s still probably an impractical idea to invest millions of dollars into re-inventing those places as public resources like community gardens and municipal centers....at least doing so would not eliminate existing business revenue potential.

32 minutes ago, Elmira Telegram said:

As he [Hawking]  pointed out: “The best evidence we have that time travel is not possible, and never will be, is that we have not been invaded by hordes of tourists from the future.”

If we really want to go all-in with extreme sci-fi, theoretical concepts......perhaps “hordes of tourists from the future” are indeed visiting on a regular basis, but their very presence creates a “new” timeline history that erases events (like their presence) from our consciousness in the new timeline? LOL

24 minutes ago, Chris said:

Which gets me thinking about the age of characters in popular sci fi movies like Star Trek and Star Wars. They're out there slinging around space like you and I drive to Wegmans. They probably have no idea how old they are or are a different age on every planet they visit. 

Excellent point. 

There aren’t a lot of time travel movies that I don’t enjoy. The premise of time travel lends itself to so many infinite “original” storylines, that it’s one genre that doesn’t fall victim to the (same ol’ - same ol’) regurgitated plot formulas we see way too much of.

From Planet of The Apes, Terminator, Back to the Future, Quantum Leap.....to Groundhog Day, and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.  The potential for creativity is endless.

For instance.....I just watched The Tomorrow War on Prime, and found it to be a refreshingly original story.

Apparently, it was released during the pandemic while I was dealing with real life drama.....but I can’t believe I hadn’t heard about it sooner.

For most things in my own life, I absolutely prefer a practical approach of reusing and repurposing.  

But million+ square foot commercial properties aren’t like old sinks that can be painted a new color and used for some completely different function, like a kitschy planter. 

It’s one thing to add non-structural walls to a relatively small building and create office space and/or studio apartments, etc. However, the larger the property that was built to accommodate a specific enterprise, the more impractical it is to “revamp” to another use. 

Yes, third world countries (that do not have the means to start over) are often forced to try things like turning abandoned factories into hospitals. But those “repurposed” facilities are not by choice. They are substandard and far inferior to their practical and functional counterparts that were built to serve as hospitals.

Example: Over its 25 years of dormancy......it was painfully clear that the A&P Plant as it stood, would never have been practically suited for anything other than what it was built for. No amount of retrofitting and redecorating could have ever turned it into some other use that would be modern, operational, and profitable.....like a Walmart, a hotel, a medical center, a truck plaza, or an apartment complex, etc.

Period.

And the Mall, as it stands, will never be practicably suited for any of those uses either.

1 hour ago, KarenK said:

CCIDA wants a truck stop hub in that area in the worst way.  

I didn't support the truck plaza at the Sperr Park location.

But having one could be a good thing in the right spot. (And at the full expense of its developers- not IDA taxpayer funds).

And honestly....flattening the mall for a Bucky's type plaza isn't necessarily a terrible idea.

4 hours ago, KarenK said:

They also do not make the the new tenants all stay open specific hours but the older places have mandatory mall hours.

This explains a lot. 

I attended a car show this summer. 

Outside, there was maybe 150 entrants parked by the vacant Sears location. But inside over 75% of the businesses were closed. Many empty....but a huge number of those that were still in business were not open for business.....5pm on a Friday.

If there are older tenants forced to pay staff when the place in a tomb and they're paying higher rent?? Why TF wouldn't they be scrambling to get away?

4 hours ago, Chris said:

The mall is pricing themselves right out of tenants. Mooneys will be far better off in a location they own. Right off the highway too.

4 hours ago, KarenK said:

Yes, they lose a tenant so increase the rents on the others to make up the difference.  Not super smart. 

Yeah, that's not smart at all. 

It's a no-brainer that, as tenants flee, the other storefronts lose their value. So punitive rules and jacking up their rent to drive them out sooner is a ridiculous idea. 

I can't help but worry that the CCIDA will reward their shitty business practices. As far as I know, the hotel plan was scrapped before the IDA handed over any money..... but that doesn't mean they won't revisit their plan to shovel tax money at them. 

Was anyone else able to get audio with the Budget Meeting and Presentation ?

I tried on two different devices while it was live streamed and again after the recording was archived. 

1 hour ago, Ann said:

I thought mail in ballots were counted on Election day.  How can they declare winners if there are still ballots to be counted?

The "absentee" were mailed in and included....I'm not sure what "Affidavit" refers to?

Here's a race that should be a lesson that answers the the question "does every vote count"?

2 hours ago, Chris said:

I have to say, I’m a little surprised. I had a feeling it would pass, but thought it would be a lot closer than this.

I'm not. 

When the matter was in a Committee three years ago that was strongly opposed & successfully quashed the idea......Legislator Strange and the Elmira Telegram both did informal online polls that had over 90% in favor. 

And when I did some research, I found every other county that put it on the ballot passed overwhelmingly. I am still absolutely disgusted by the false information that Bryan Maggs gave the previous Legislature. 

14 hours ago, Adam said:

it passes, in 8 years ole Joe is gonna have to go out and get a REAL job or Two

He "should" have only one term left to serve.

If you recall, this could have made it onto the 2020 ballot if Maggs had not repeatedly advised the Legislature that a voter referendum/proposition on term limits was unquestionably, 100%, with no exceptions, unconditionally and completely forbidden by NYS Municipal Home Rule Law. 

If everything hadn't shut down, I would have kept pursuing that falsehood at the time. 

Who knows if it's the same lady? As of the time to file petitions, the one who is running must have been legally registered to vote with Maple Ave as her address for the BOE to put her on the ballot. 

And (according to WETM) she has been a member of the Chemung County Republican Committee for decades....so it's a safe bet they verified her eligibility also. 

Sounds like a very bitter opponent is grasping at straws. LOL

10 minutes ago, Chris said:

And guess what? They’ll get that $500k, you wait and see.

If it passes the Budget vote tonight, it will go before the full legislature next Monday. 

Hopefully word will get out by then and we'll see some similar public comment as the IDA's plan for the Sperr Park Truck Plaza after Nick Dubina covered it.

🤞

1 hour ago, Chris said:

No one seems to know anything the CCIDA is doing with this place. Anthony Pucci has some thoughts about that.

I wonder if the illegally convened "Executive Session" was discussion about asking for another half a million in ARP funds.

The Agenda for tonight's Budget Committee meeting (HERE) vaguely notes "Resolution authorizing agreement with the Chemung County Industrial Development Agency on behalf of the Chemung County Executive".  

A little digging on the NovusAgenda page (HERE) reveals the contents of said "agreement":

FFS....we already quietly gave the IDA $875k for the Arena, they're secretly grubbing for more???

WTF are they thinking??? The Arena had the least support out of all the possible expenditures for the $16M ARP funds that the public was polled on in 2021:

2 hours ago, Chris said:

The new documentation from the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office sheds light on two occasions when it was notified of concerns about Robert R. Card, who shot himself and was found dead days after carrying out the deadliest mass shooting in Maine’s history.

As scary as the two day manhunt had to be for the entire community......I'd have to think the family who'd reported him had extra terror wondering if he was out there coming for them. 

18 minutes ago, KarenK said:

But yet somehow it's still the guns fault.

And when bureaucracies repeatedly fail to apply existing flag laws.....somehow there aren’t enough laws and we need more. 

23 minutes ago, Adam said:

then to complain about speaking times in yet more cartoons as a measurement of importance of characters;

I know, right??

The main plot point of The Little Mermaid was literally....that the title character was unable to speak. 

Also.....they seem to overlook (or perhaps never bothered to learn) the fact that to avoid paying authors for screenplays...... much of Disney's cartoon movie content was sourced from works that are public domain from centuries old stories. 

News flash: in fairy tales of past centuries, "damsels in distress" was a common theme. 🙄

1 hour ago, KarenK said:

I'm sure his family is devastated but certainly it was eventually inevitable that something like that would happen.    It's more than likely sheer luck that he didn't take another person out with him.  

When I saw the report, I shook my head and couldn't help but silently think of the quote: "play stupid games, win stupid prizes"

1 hour ago, KarenK said:

Those crotch rockets speed by my house so fast that all you hear is a high-pitched whine when they go by in a blur.  We keep waiting for something like that to happen.  More likely by a deer in this neighborhood.

I have the exact same worry when they zip past my house.

Hopefully it would "just" be a deer and not some unfortunate resident turning in/out of their driveway. Either way..... the aftermath images are a not something a bystander should have to live with.

46 minutes ago, Chris said:

”The investigation revealed that the Chevy began to merge left due to the right lane ending. The Ford then sped up in an attempt to get around the Chevy, making contact with the rear of the Chevy and trailer, causing it to lose control and travel into the southbound lane.”

To me that indicates he had room to merge had she not sped up. And even if he misjudged, she could have backed off the gas and just let him over. Though we know there’s countless drivers out there who’d never do such a thing.

I'm picturing the same.