It’s Not All Bad Here In Western New York

There was recently sad business news when the New Era Hat Company announced that it was closing its manufacturing plant in Derby. Yet, the very next day, there were comments from other manufacturers in the Buffalo area indicating that they had potential job openings for those workers who were losing their jobs.

I was especially encouraged that one of those comments came from a young man I know who grew up here and now owns a manufacturing business in Buffalo. It shows you that there can be a future in Western New York for our young people. They might not always come back to Chautauqua County, but they could be close by in Erie County.

When you look at the nation at large, Buffalo is really a small town. Yet, Buffalo and the Western New York area as a whole support an NFL and an NHL team, have a large research University, a very diverse population, and remain a good place for manufacturing. When you add to that the relative low cost of living and housing, and fewer traveling headaches than if you lived in a Chicago or New York–it can be a magnet for getting some of our kids to come home and live here.

I don’t think that Western New York will ever suffer from the urban sprawl of a Los Angeles or Chicago, but that is one of its strengths. Yes, the winters can be bad and you might not be able to command as big a salary as in Silicon Valley. But, in terms of livability and establishing a home…it is a pretty good place to be.

There is another real plus and that is the cost of education. Many of my friends’ grown children live in large urban areas and spend a lot of money sending their kids to private schools. Around here, you can find very good K-12 public schools. Yes, we have too many school districts and school taxes are high. Yet, you get something for it. You can graduate from a public school in Western New York and be accepted into the finest universities in the country. That is a good thing.

We have our problems. We have poverty and sometimes our infrastructure gets old and out-of-date. Because we are an older area of the country and a bit off the “beaten path,” we have not experienced a lot of growth and so we have to fix up the old as we build the new.

If global warming is a worry, remember that we live on high ground and the water all goes downhill from here!

Yet, the bottom line is that there are reasons to be optimistic about where we live. When you read about the fires in California and the hurricanes in Florida, maybe living through a few snow storms in Western New York is really not at all that bad. Also, if global warming is a worry, remember that we live on high ground and the water all goes downhill from here! It is probably my age, but the longer I live in this region of the country–the better I like it.

Rolland Kidder 

This article first appeared in The Post-Journal on December 16, 2018

End of an Era in the N.Y. State Legislature

New York State Capitol Building, Albany NY

When I was a member of the State Assembly (1975-’82,) I served with long-time State Senator from Bemus Point, Jess Present. What I quickly found out is that, in Albany, being in the majority party in the legislature makes a huge difference.

Since Jess (a Republican) was in the majority in the State Senate and I was (a Democrat) in the majority in the Assembly–we could get a lot of legislation passed. Being in the majority also meant that we had significant input into the annual state budget, including funding of items important to our districts in the Southern Tier. Despite our political differences, Jess and I maintained a strong personal friendship.

Until now, the Southern Tier West counties of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany have nearly always had at least one representative in the legislature in the majority party. For most of our recent history, Senator Cathy Young has been that person. That meant we had a meaningful say in the state budget and in legislation coming from Albany.

However, the situation in the state legislature significantly changed on the evening of November 6, 2018. Though Senator Young is well-liked and easily won re-election here, the Republicans lost the State Senate majority… and they lost it big. The Republicans went from having 31 State Senators to now having 23. Had the loss been less severe, they could have retained some hope of retaking the majority in 2020. However, in my view, because of the immensity of their loss… they will probably not regain the majority in the State Senate, especially since there will be reapportionment after the 2020 census.

In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by two to one, the Assembly already has a Democratic super-majority and the state Senate is now close to that. That means that New York will slide into the category of states like Massachusetts and California where the Republican Party has generally become noncompetitive on the state level and is now the permanent minority party.

If one were to base the election of 2018 on results from Chautauqua County, it would have been a banner year for Republicans. Not only did we overwhelmingly re-elect our Republican Assemblyman, State Senator and Congressman — the GOP candidate for Sheriff was also elected and now Republicans hold all county-wide offices (except for DA) and have a commanding majority in the county legislature.

Though the GOP remains strong around here, it has almost become irrelevant in some of the more urban areas of the state.

However, New York is a very diverse state and the further east you went this year, the weaker the Republican Party became. On Long Island, which was represented by seven Republican state Senators–after November 6 there were only three left. Though the GOP remains strong around here, it has almost become irrelevant in some of the more urban areas of the state. It also seemed rather odd to me that the remaining Republican state Senators chose John Flanagan of Long Island, whose party was crushed in the suburbs around New York, for minority leader over Cathy Young from Upstate where the GOP did quite well and still maintains a strong political base.

Of course, our concern out here in the “forgotten corner” of New York, is how do we now retain effective representation in Albany when both our Assemblyman and State Senator are in the minority and will likely remain so? It won’t be easy. Yet, it is something very real and a matter to which we should pay attention. A new era in the state Legislature has begun.

Rolland Kidder
This article first appeared in The Post-Journal on December 12, 2018