The City of Batavia lost out to the City of Geneva in the regional competition for $10 million in grant money to assist with downtown redevelopment.
Here's what the governor's office said about Geneva:
Over the last decade, Geneva has emerged as a major employment center, boasting over 200 firms and nearly 1,500 jobs in the central business district alone. Geneva’s historic walkable downtown is poised to become a vibrant retail, dining, cultural and entertainment destination for the burgeoning workforce and for students at the three local colleges. Under the DRI, the City will focus on the rehabilitation of key buildings; diversification of housing and retail options; access to healthy food; and building entrepreneurship in the downtown area.
It would probably be spent on
It would probably be spent on something unneeded or that didn't benefit the long term needs of the city. Example the sculpture that was in front of the mall then moved to GCC. Now there is a sundial that one day won't fit the taste and will be sent to someplace else.
Geneva has maintained the
Geneva has maintained the classic downtown look with its old store fronts and tradition businesses. Batavia is stuck with it's white elephant of the downtown mall.
I have to second what Tom
I have to second what Tom Hunt said the "white elephant" of the mall.
Too bad, part of that $10 mil
Too bad, part of that $10 mil would have gone towards the mall.
My girlfriend and I were
My girlfriend and I were living in the Town of Batavia and just left for Erie County, our jobs were in Buffalo and Rochester, and now they're both in Buffalo. It's a great community, some of the greatest people I've ever met but there's simply not enough places to work here. I also find that we obviously have more recreational, entertainment and cultural opportunities where we live now, some of that's just due to the fact that it's a larger county, but other parts of it are the lack of effort often paid to those issues. Take Fourth of July weekend, we had our choice of literally a few dozen festivals and firework displays. Want to go shopping? We're minutes from any store we want to attend rather than close to an hour. The movies? We have 5 theaters in a 10 minute radius. I'm from Batavia, she's from Orleans County, we didn't really want to move, but there's a heavy effort on the part of the City of Buffalo and the suburban towns to do more to attract 20 and 30 somethings, both from an economic and cultural perspective. We like the diversity and expanded opportunities. I really hope that Batavia can get its skin back in the game, it would be sad to see another great community devolve into a place that missed the boat on the rust belt re-inventing itself. Maybe there can be some learning on what Geneva is doing right.