Casino project offers hope to NY’s struggling Southern Tier
OWEGO, NY: Chris White didn’t listen to the naysayers, the ones who said it would be foolish to start a business in New York’s struggling Southern Tier, where antique shops peddle artifacts from a richer past and economic malaise hovers like fog over the Susquehanna River.
“Everyone said I was insane,” said the former construction worker from Long Island, whose Redneck Boot and Western Wear shop in Owego was doing brisk business this past week. “We took a huge chance. But if you have a meager attitude, that’s the kind of life you’re going to lead. We need small businesses here, not just liquor stores and antique shops.”
The Southern Tier, a broad swath of south-central New York nestled against Pennsylvania, was once home to big factories and high-tech manufacturing. Most closed long ago, taking jobs and population with them.
Now, plans to expand a racetrack and slot parlor into a full-scale resort casino with 1,000 new jobs are generating a glimmer of hope, though many here say it will take a lot more than gambling to make up for what was lost here.
“I’m sure more people will come if we get a casino, but I don’t know how many,” said John Ghinger, 81, of Johnson City. “We lost a lot of paychecks.”
Binghamton, the area’s largest community, once earned the nickname “Parlor City” because of all the fancy homes owned by wealthy capitalists. The first modern flight simulator was invented here, and in their heyday, IBM, military contractors and the Endicott-Johnson shoe company employed tens of thousands. But government contracts dried up, factories moved out and between 1980 and 2005, manufacturing jobs in Binghamton dropped more than 55 percent.
The loss of industry and years of perceived indifference in Albany took their toll. A Gallup survey published last year ranked Binghamton dead last of 189 American metropolitan areas when it comes to civic optimism, with only 36.5 percent of respondents saying life in their city is getting better. Binghamton had 80,000 souls in 1950 and has 46,000 today. That’s one reason the city’s unemployment rate of 5.4 percent in August was only slightly higher than the state’s 5.2 percent rate, despite thousands of lost jobs. People have left.
“We raise children, we educate them, and then they can’t find jobs,” former Broome County executive Barbara Fiala, now a candidate for the state Senate, said in her campaign office in a once-grand downtown bank building that’s now mostly vacant. “The region must work to retain existing businesses while attracting new ones small, medium and large. We didn’t get into this position overnight. It’s going to take time.”
Local leaders hope Tioga Downs’ plan to expand into a full casino, complete with a 161-room hotel, new restaurants and a concert venue, will draw tourists while creating new jobs and generating tax revenue. Tioga’s plan was endorsed by state gambling regulators on Wednesday, after an initial rejection last year was met with an uproar that prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo to ask for a do-over.—AP