The Renaissance Men

I must have missed the ‘handoff’ – the part where everyone sort of gave up making their own decisions and just decided to let the town bureaucrats take another shot at planning the economy.

It seems that the same people who created the conditions that supposedly beg for revitalization in Huntington Station are now declaring that they finally have a solution.  “This one will really work.  Trust us, what can go wrong?” they say.  Unfortunately, these are the same bungling bureaucrats who have been downzoning just about every part of Huntington and then go on a shopping spree for open space in order to save the town from all the downzoning that’s going on.  Brilliant!

The Hidden Truth

But what they’re really not telling you about the Renaissance Downtowns Huntington Station project is that you, the taxpayer, are footing the bill this time – for everything.  So, just forget all that nonsense about a public/private partnership.  This is strictly a toxic mix of crony capitalism with a socialist chaser.  Here’s the way it works:

• A private company lobbies for state and local funding in order to create a new ‘Renaissance’ in their target area
• Sensing a photo op, local officials fall all over each other trying to cut the ribbon at one of the many grand openings that promise “good times are a ‘comin”.
• Local residents are then lobbied and made to feel part of the process – ‘Crowdsourced Placemaking Program’ it’s called.  “What would you like to see?  We’re here to take your order”. (or at least put it in the cue with the negative comments)
• Then, a ‘holistic’ plan (not the chaotic, competitive market process) is christened as the company’s ‘Unified Development Approach’, which is also launched to maximize ‘social and economic returns’.

Let’s Stop Right Here

Since when, in a supposedly free market society, do we allow for such nonsense to happen?  If there is anything we have learned over the last few years is that government cannot create prosperity and anything it does create is usually the opposite of what it was intended to correct in the first place.  No ‘Master Planner’ or ‘New Urbanism’ can create prosperity.  If there was such a demand for building in this area, it would have been done already with private money.  Profit trumps ‘vision’ all the time.

The false promises of Renaissance Downtowns, Vision Long Island and the town board need to be challenged.  The talk of creating environments for the ‘creative working class’ and ‘Boutique Cities’ is a joke.  Hint: If the Republicans and Conservatives can find candidates before October, this would be a great campaign issue. But, don’t hold your breath.

Utopia Has Arrived

According to the Renaissance Men, there is no downside to this development. It’s all good.    

However,  

• What happens when there is an increase in demand for town services because of all the new businesses and residents in this area?  You guessed right.  More government hiring and higher taxes to support the future public pensioners.
• What will it do to the commercial vacancy rate in the rest of the town?  Up, is a good guess.
• Who pays for the extra traffic lanes, lights, sidewalks around the perimeter?  Certainly not the politicians who approved this project.
• Who bears the risk and ‘change order’ cost if it is being built with our tax dollars? (obviously that’s us)

The Renaissance Men are looking for nothing but tax dollars in order to sustain their business safari. The ‘public/private’ partnership they are talking about is “public money – private profit – public loss.”  Also, when they start crowing about ‘letters of intent’ from potential occupants, that’s a clear sign more BS is about to follow.

If you didn’t like Avalon Bay, you certainly won’t like Renaissance Downtowns.  Their attempt to goad the town board into granting them a development monopoly (funded by the taxpayer) and request relief from the existing laws, should be cause for an ethics investigation.  Somebody’s getting paid off and it sure isn’t us!

Further, when economic power is combined with political power it means the loss of social power.  In other words, a loss of freedom and a reduction of property rights.  (But that’s another post)

Sprawl Doesn’t Work Well With Smart Growth

But, don’t just take my word for it, I’ll let you read a few paragraphs from the Renaissance Men’s own brochure and let you be the judge:

“Another critical component of a comprehensive approach to downtown planning and redevelopment is the increased opportunity to receive significant federal funding assistance for efforts that could range from the construction of structured parking, rehab/revitalization of historic buildings, economic development grants and significant pools of money to enable the successful implementation of large scale, well planned and coordinated downtown redevelopment efforts.” 

“With this in mind, a comprehensive downtown redevelopment designed to meet these objectives stands a far greater chance of receiving significant funding dollars and/or resumption of rail than smaller, isolated efforts. In short, the government is not looking to provide just streetscape grants and sidewalk benches - they are looking for transformative projects focused on our nation's downtowns that will serve the triple bottom line of social, economic and environmental responsibility.

An example of how to successfully leverage private investment to procure significant funding is Renaissance's Glen Cove Waterfront Redevelopment plan, which has garnered nearly 140 Million dollars in public funding for infrastructure and remediation work, along with funding slated for the construction of the City's ferry terminal.”

(Renaissance Downtowns will appearing at the VFW tonight on Pulaski Rd., Huntington Station at 7pm)

Peter Nichols is co-founder of SaveHuntington.com