Editorial: It's time to rise from the ashes

Part of the foundation for Greater Binghamton's revival already exists -- under the ruins of its past. What we need is a comprehensive effort -- call it a Phoenix Project -- to reclaim and re-use existing commercial and industrial sites in prime locations that have the utility connections and good access roads that foster success and growth.  

There were at last count 83 so-called "brownfield" sites in Broome County -- places where businesses once thrived but are now known or presumed to have some form of environmental contamination that must be removed or at least neutralized. These are not Love Canals which pose dire health threats, but properties which could be cleaned and rehabilitated and then redeveloped for any number of uses.

Where possible, the polluters should be accountable for that cleanup (as IBM appears willing to be in the current review of Endicott properties). In cases where the polluter cannot be held accountable, the government must act. Making the purchaser of such property accountable for cleanup only serves to inhibit buyers.

Both federal and state governments have programs to help determine the scope and nature of contamination, but the programs are underfunded. Given the budget deficits now afflicting both levels, that's not likely to improve any time soon. But local representatives must pursue whatever funds they can, and at the federal level Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says she's making it a priority.

Meanwhile, the state also has issued guidelines for a Voluntary Cleanup Program that lets developers know exactly what the state wants done to clean up a site so that the developers can figure the costs into a project.

Reclaiming brownfields is in everyone's best interests, because no community can afford always to "build new" and use up remaining green spaces. Greater Binghamton cannot degrade one of its primary assets -- an attractive natural environment -- or enhance its "quality of life" by reducing it.

The state helped when it established Empire Zones, with tax abatements and other incentives to help market older commercial and industrial sites, but it also hindered when it let its Superfund program lapse. The program was designed to clean up polluted sites, at least to the point where workers and customers are safe.

As we seek help from Washington and Albany, the community must also do what it can to revitalize sites that are not polluted but simply deserted. There are vacant buildings throughout the urban core that could be converted from retail to residential space or from grocery to art gallery (or other specialty shop). That means encouraging, and supporting, entrepreneurship. You never know when an idea can catch fire.

And you never know when or where a phoenix might arise from the ashes.