Hollywood Never Came
‘H ollywood comes to Onondaga,” Gov. Cuomo declared back in 2015. “Who would ever have guessed?” Well, no one except Cuomo and his minions — and they “guessed” wrong.
Hollywood never did come to the Syracuse-area film-production complex built with $15 million in taxpayer funds. Indeed, the Central New York Film Hub has been virtually empty since it opened; the promised 350 jobs never materialized.
And now nearly $1 million in unpaid rent has it facing eviction from Cor Development, the firm that won the state contract to build it. Meanwhile, two Cor execs face federal charges for allegedly bribing Cuomo aides to get such contracts.
It was a foolish idea from the start — but apparently no one around Cuomo had the guts to make him see it, even as others in his circle profited from the boondoggle.
Nothing about it ever made sense. Why try to create a film industry where none ever existed — in the worst possible location, widely described as “the middle of nowhere”?
What movie talent would want to go there (other than Harvey Weinstein looking for a place to hide)?
The hub opened with no equipment and no locally available pool of freelance movie professionals — forcing any producer to import technical staff at enormous expense.
Its anchor tenant was a small start-up firm headed by an inexperienced former police detective. Only a couple of low-budget films ever got made there — and the state kicked in 40 percent of their costs.
Typical Cuomo, in other words: A grandiose pie-in-the-sky announcement that ends in disaster when reality crashes to earth — leaving taxpayers stuck with the tab.
And it explains why upstate remains in such dire straits despite the billions Cuomo has thrown at “economic development.”
The $750 million SolarCity plant in Buffalo has only a skeleton crew working and little hope of better, since Team Trump is ending Obama-era solar subsidies. The gov’s StartUp NY has spent over $650 million to produce just 1,000 jobs. And his new casinos are already seeing revenue shortfalls.
Cuomo is big on vision, promises and public investments. Too bad he comes up short when it comes to common sense.