Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Editorial: Teamwork vital on brownfields

Monday's Brownfield Redevelopment Workshop at Broome Community College drew a good cross-section of community residents, and they were rewarded with useful information that could generate additional momentum for economic recovery in the region.  

Brownfield sites -- once-thriving locations now abandoned or idle due to real or perceived pollution -- are scattered across the Greater Binghamton region. There are about 80 of them, occupying some 1,800 once-prosperous acres with access to utilities and roadways -- retained potential that could be tapped again for a new generation of productivity.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, during introductory remarks at the workshop she put together with the National Brownfield Association, noted that land reclamation and re-use are essential because new land cannot be made or grown, and we cannot keep paving over rural fields. The problem Greater Binghamton faces is not unique in what was once the industrial northeast. It exists in portions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and across New York -- not just upstate but on densely-packed Long Island as well.

Clinton has made brownfield recovery and redevelopment a focal point in her effort to bring jobs to New York, and is working at the federal level to streamline that process. This workshop was part of her continuing effort to give local officials, real estate developers and citizens the information and encouragement they need to work at the grassroots level.

The third level, of course, is the state -- and that is where things too often bog down in New York. Presumably, every elected official in Albany has the interests of the state (or at least the home district) at heart, and brownfield restoration is an issue that cuts across all district lines and party affiliations. But nothing moves swiftly or smoothly in Albany, where all issues seem to be regarded as "bargaining chips" in the annual budget debacle and subsequent legislative sessions.

What Albany needs to do is streamline the state process for assessing and overseeing brownfield cleanups. That means keeping the red tape to a minimum and establishing clear and reasonable guidelines that let everyone -- property owners, potential developers, community officials, neighbors -- know what must be done to restore a property to practical use.

As always, local officials and constituents are required to prod the state officials to action. But they also ought to be prodding the property owners, corporate or individual, who may be "mothballing" brownfield sites -- letting them sit idle rather than investing in the cleanup that would make them much more valuable and attractive. Putting such properties back into play has got to become a priority.

The people who attended Monday's workshop heard about this, and lots more, from National Brownfield Association representatives and others. The prevailing theme was that recovery requires a team effort, what Clinton called "a non-partisan effort, because those properties aren't Democratic or Republican or Independent." Neither are they strictly a public sector or private sector issue.

The Greater Binghamton Coalition is a good team, and it's following the BC Plan for economic recovery which also targets brownfield recovery as an essential component of revitalization. But even a select group of movers and shakers won't make much headway if the community isn't willing to invest in its own recovery.

The turnout at Monday's workshop -- and the generally positive response to it -- indicates that the community is indeed willing to get moving. Now it has to sustain the momentum.

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© 2003 Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

Join the team
If you agree that brownfield reclamation is a key to the region's economic recovery, you should let your representatives in the New York Legislature know. Urge them to push for meaningful brownfield legislation this year. Neither this community nor the state can afford to waste any more time.

Even more important, given the way Albany operates, you should express your views to the two most powerful legislators, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan. It is they who decide which pieces of legislation ever make it to the floor for a vote.

Here are the lines of communication:

* Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, 809 Legislative Office Building, Albany, 12247. Phone: 518-455-3191. E-mail: bruno@senate.state.ny.us.

* Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, LOB 932, Albany, 12248. Phone: 518-455-3791. E-mail: speaker@assembly.state.ny.us.

* Sen. Thomas W. Libous, 512 Legislative Office Building, Albany, 12247. Phone: 518-455-2677. Local address: 1607 State Office Building, 44 Hawley St., Binghamton, 13901. Phone: 773-8771. E-mail: senator@senatorlibous.com.

* Assemblyman Robert Warner, LOB 940, Albany, 12248. Phone: 518-455-5431. Local address: State Office Building Floor 17, 44 Hawley St., Binghamton, 13901. Phone: 723-9047. E-mail: warnerr@assembly.state.ny.us.

* Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, LOB 545, Albany, 12248. Phone: 518-455-5741. Local address: 21 Liberty St., Sidney, 13733. Phone 563-7981. E-mail: crouchc@assembly.state.ny.us.