Proposals and Initiatives
"Reviving The Heart of Plattsburgh"
HOUSING
-Current Core Opportunities-
Plattsburgh's residents continue to voice concerns over rising rental prices and an unstable housing market. Plattsburgh is in dire need of more housing diversity, as well as more rehabilitative and regulated housing initiatives.
-Solution Proposals-
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Affordable housing is picked over primarily by people with higher median incomes who are paying premium rates for standard rentals causing an inflated market. By developing a wider range of housing tiers within the city, we can encourage those with higher incomes to move to luxury housing spaces with more amenities, ultimately freeing up affordable and middle-class rentals while driving down the average rental cost.
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AirBnB is a growing concern regarding multi-family units in the downtown area. As a preventative measure, we need to put limitations AirBnB rentals on multi-family buildings with 3+ units. A percentage of these spaces should be dedicated to long term renters, ensuring that landlords are not driving out permanent residents in exchange for short term rental income.
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Encouraging homeowners to build accessory units through more relaxed zoning laws and regulations will ultimately create more housing opportunities in the center city. Our zoning board is currently working towards a solution similar to this, and I want to continue to push this agenda.
Photo by Jerry Cadieux
Supporting Information
The average cost of housing within the city of Plattsburgh remains relatively affordable/ mid-tier according to the "Rental Price" map, so why does it seem like everything is so expensive?
The "Household Income" map reveals our biggest opportunity. Higher income households are likely paying a higher rate than fair market value for affordable/mid tier housing which ultimately causes the rental market to inflate. Because Plattsburgh city virtually has 0 high-end housing within city limits, affordable housing is primarily occupied by an residents who ultimately could afford a tier above what is currently available. More high end housing would likely encourage these high income earners to relocate to spaces that offer more amenities, freeing up more affordable spaces for low-mid income earners.
The "Desirability" map is a wake up call that we need to do more to make our city more appealing. How is it that a Lake Front city is deemed primarily undesirable? Geographically we have a premium location with direct access to two large cities so we should be far more in-demand. Plattsburgh's future depends on the ability to attract tourists as well as prospective new home owners and businesses.
Source: BestNeighborhood.org. (2019). Best neighborhoods in Plattsburgh, NY. Retrieved April 22, 2024, from https://bestneighborhood.org/best-neighborhoods-plattsburgh-ny/
Photo by Jerry Cadieux
Historical
-Current Core Opportunities-
Plattsburgh's history is a key strength that is not being utilized anywhere near enough. Our city is in desperate need of more signage, tourism campaigns, attractions and events that help to boast our unique history and add intrigue to the city overall. Events like the Battle of Plattsburgh are at risk of being cancelled going forward due to lack of funding and volunteers. Tourism centered around our city's heritage and history is only promoted once or twice a year instead of rebranding the city as a historically rich hub full of culture year 'round.
-Solution Proposals-
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Plattsburgh's historical character needs to be preserved at all costs. By providing grants and other resources to historic building owners, we can help preserve the historical roots of Plattsburgh for generations to come.
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The Battle of Plattsburgh is not currently managed by the city, and the non-profit overseeing this incredible tradition is need of help to keep the event going. The city should be offering up more resources to help plan and promote one of our most defining moments in North Country history. Restoring our city's recreation department can help feed into initiatives to help fundraise and expand upon BOP, making the event a larger-than-life celebration of our city's history and heritage.
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The "Lake City" needs more lake related tourism attractions. The city should be seeking out investors willing to create historical boat tours centered around historical events as well as public access to Crab and Valcour Islands. I also suspect our trolly tracks may still be intact and would be a perfect way to merge public transportation with historical interest.
Supporting Information
The charts below reference a myriad of studies centered around the benefits of historical preservation over the last 2 decades. Regardless of the type of program, the benefits were relatively consistent. Historic preservation related programs ultimately added jobs, increased median incomes, increased property values and helped to increase the availability of affordable housing in communities where there programs were initiated.
Source: Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. (2018). Economic impacts of historic preservation. Retrieved April 22, 2024, from https://www.achp.gov/sites/default/files/guidance/2018-06/Economic%20Impacts%20v5-FINAL.pdf
Recreation
-Current Core Opportunities-
Did you know Plattsburgh City currently does not currently have a Recreation department? There are many significantly smaller municipalities that have fully functional Parks and Rec departments that are running circles around us....It's time to bring back our Recreation department! Our residents are bored and unhappy with the lack of family-friendly programming and activities. Plattsburgh can easily become a hub for entertainment to our residents and other surrounding communities.
-Solution Proposals-
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Plattsburgh needs a year round entertainment complex/Amphitheatre that can accommodate large acts like popular bands, traveling off-Broadway, sporting events, etc. This would be an excellent replacement for the Crete Center.
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The annual event calendar should be packed with city wide events, as well as the expansion of First Friday programming to boost downtown traffic.
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We need to be actively seeking out investors looking to repurpose some of our larger buildings for museums and interactive attractions while expanding upon outdoor recreation as well. In particular, I could foresee the YMCA being an excellent STEM museum for children or an art gallery. We could work with the township closely to try and bring in an investor that could turn the Clinton Community College building into a resort/ indoor waterpark as another example.
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Plattsburgh has a large number of young families here, so more activities for families/ children would should take priority. I would love to see more playgrounds and city programming centered around educational opportunities for Plattsburgh's youth.
Photo by Jerry Cadieux
Photo by Jerry Cadieux
Geographical
-Current Core Opportunities-
The "Lake City" needs to reclaim its title. We have very few community developed spaces on lake-front property. The city beach deserves further development as well. Though talks of a bridge to Burlington continue come in and out of focus, there may be other short term alternatives to help speed up travel times.
-Solution Proposals-
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More waterfront green spaces and development of the City Beach Boardwalk would bring more interest to the area.
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Plattsburgh does not have a single full service hotel within city limits. The development of a waterfront hotel would be a huge economic driver to our area and our small businesses.
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Partnering with investors or the ferry company to provide a pedestrian water taxi service from the downtown marina straight to Burlington's port would be a wildly successful and popular mode of transportation with potential requests for island access to Crab and Valcour.
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Given Plattsburgh's history as a military base and the large number of manufacturing plants, there are many concerns regarding spaces polluted by chemicals. Studies and remediation efforts to protect our environment and our community should be prioritized.
Supporting Information
Parks and unique outdoor destinations are helping to boost local economies across the country. Though Lake Mead is in Nevada, this graph helps show what visitors are spending their money on most. I believe this information could be scaled down to better reflect potential visitor spending in Plattsburgh City. The key takeaway?— Hotels were the largest affected sector benefiting from tourism and were a key component in bringing these tourists to the area. Developers are rushing to these spaces to build unique lodging experiences, yet Plattsburgh remains neglected. This helps drive the idea that Plattsburgh desperately needs a waterfront hotel to help other sectors in our city thrive.
Source: KTNV. (2024). Lake Mead visitor spending drops by $94 million in one year, according to report. Retrieved April 22, 2024, from https://www.ktnv.com/news/lake-mead-visitor-spending-drops-by-94-million-in-one-year-according-to-report
Source: TripSavvy. (2021). How to find the best hotels near national parks. Retrieved April 22, 2024, from https://www.tripsavvy.com/hotel-near-national-parks-5183853
Culture
-Current Core Opportunities-
Plattsburgh is city full of artistic energy and charm. Residents are hungry for more community driven projects— especially centered around downtown beautification efforts. We also need spaces to better highlight our creativity as a community. The disruptive behavior of SUNY students has plagued downtown neighborhoods for decades. It's time we help rebuild relationships between residents and SUNY students through initiatives to target socially unacceptable behavior and to help generate more empathy.
-Solution Proposals-
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A community driven beautification committee can be created to residents help design, reimagine, and maintain downtown spaces. These can be spaces "for the community, by the community" and would be strictly volunteer driven and funded through fundraising efforts.
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Working with existing artist groups to expand on/ maintain city murals as well as public art activities and programming.
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Plattsburgh would benefit from a small permanent community stage downtown where local artists can feel empowered to share their talents with the public.
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A community outreach program between SUNY, the city, and residents can help rebuild relationships and decrease disruptive and destructive behavior downtown. Not only does a program like this help generate more empathy from the student body, but it also helps with collaboration efforts involving students for future community oriented projects. "Empathy is the most powerful renewable resource" and helping to correct behavior on a social and peer level, I believe, will squash this issue that has been negatively impacting the community for decades.
Supporting Information
Spaces like Trinity Park should be redesigned to put our best foot forward. When people come into our community, they should be wowed by the character of our city. We definitely need to push for more visually interesting spaces downtown.
SUNY Student behavior impacts Plattsburgh City more than most people realize. There were 565 crime related incidents in 2019. If these instances each just involved one student, that's roughly about 11% of the SUNY student population committing crimes in our downtown area. These crimes also damage our area's reputation. When I first moved to Plattsburgh a few years back, Plattsburgh was a super-safe A+ rating for crime. Suny student incidents have greatly contributed to a now extremely low safety rating of 13 out of 100 (100 being the safest).
Source: College Factual. (2019). Crime & safety at SUNY College at Plattsburgh. Retrieved April 22, 2024, from https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/suny-college-at-plattsburgh/student-life/crime/
Source: NeighborhoodScout. (2024). Plattsburgh, NY crime rates and statistics. Retrieved April 22, 2024, from https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ny/plattsburgh/crime
Photo by Jerry Cadieux
Commercial
-Current Core Opportunities-
Our downtown area has an abundant number of empty storefronts and a lack of business diversity that detracts from the city's overall presence. The Farmer's Market is not easily accessible or seen at it's current location either. Lastly, Plattsburgh's labor market desperately needs expanded upon, bringing higher salaried opportunities to the area.
-Solution Proposals-
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A business incubation program designed to help encourage more business diversity and provide more opportunities to local entrepreneurs can be created. A partnership/matchmaking program as well as more strict storefront regulations can be implemented to encourage landlords to have storefronts lease ready and up to code. Resources and incentives can be offered to assist with this.
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The farmer's market should be at a central location with large amounts of foot traffic for improved visibility and accessibility.
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We need to pitch Plattsburgh to large corporations willing to set up offices/businesses in the area to provide more jobs to a wider range of people with different skillsets.
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More training and apprenticeship programs to create more pathway opportunities for higher paying jobs.
Hot Topics
Durkee Street Development / PRIME
I believe that higher tier housing would be greatly beneficial to our area, however the execution of this project was a slap in the face to community members. Initially I believed the proposed idea was created with community interests in mind, however the end result was disappointing— all citizen interests were stripped from the project and the building in question became a "get-richer" scheme for an already established multi-million dollar developer. The 4 million dollars going into the project, the $1 sale of premium land, and outrageous tax breaks were further insult to injury. It feels like city leadership bent over so far backwards, they broke their spines trying to get this developer to to take on this project. The city "cut off its nose to spite its face" forcing development that ultimately no one wanted to begin with. I believe Plattsburgh is in desperate need of development projects, but the execution of this will be a failure talked about for decades. I already have plans in place to prevent this situation from happening ever again. I believe the city should have a mandatory minimum of 2 bids for smaller projects and a minimum of 3 for larger scale projects. If 3 bids are not received withing a specific time frame, Common Council can vote to reduce this number down to 2. I would also like to see any committees related to city affairs be mandated to follow Open Meetings Law guidelines.
Paid Downtown Parking
Paid parking was a mess from the start. Poor communication of the project led to public outrage and mass confusion. The city put the "Chariot before the Horse" regarding paid parking and I am curious to better understand why this seemed like such a pressing matter. Businesses were already struggling post-Covid and the city further stunted business growth through this initiative. Though I don't believe paid parking is out of the question forever, I do think this was a premature effort. There simply is not enough downtown to justify paid parking at this time. I believe all city residents should be able to apply for an affordable annual or monthly park pass, and I believe businesses should be provided with parking passes for employees working in the downtown area. It's criminal for people to pay to go to work and have to move their car once every two hours.
City Manager Position
If you already don't feel represented or heard by our elected officials, an appointed city manager will only make things worse. I believe that a city manager position will further disconnect the Mayor and Common Council positions from the needs and concerns of the community. It's the mayor's job to manage the city. I don't want to make the role as mayor a ceremonial position. I believe we as citizens have the right to elect leadership the represents us.....the city manager position is a loop-hole designed to take that representation away from the public.
Photo by Jerry Cadieux
"When I relocated to Plattsburgh, local residents often asked me 'why would you move here of all places!?'. It didn't take long for me to notice that the community has lost a lot of passion and trust in the municipal government. My #1 goal is to reignite that passion and excitement in our community, and unify as many people as possible in the process. I believe that collaboration, transparency, hard work, and innovation, along with a new-found love for our city by our residents, can push Plattsburgh into a new prime. People mourn the loss of the base and feel like that was the death of our community, but everything that makes Plattsburgh special never left. We've shifted our focuses away from our best strengths and assets which has caused Plattsburgh to go dormant. I plan to work tirelessly and commit fully to wake Plattsburgh up to a new era of prosperity and growth."
—Iris Cain