‘Friendliest Town’ Future Promising, Mike Long Says

Edition of: June 6, 2014

By JIM KEVLIN

Syracuse did it with Armory Square.

Rochester, with Corn Hill.

Buffalo and Albany are following suit.

All these cities see quality housing in city centers as the key to downtown revivals, Oneonta’s first city manager, Mike Long, said in an interview on his last day in the city.

If anything, Oneonta is ahead of the wave. “Projects like Bresee’s” – completed this spring and immediately fully occupied – “are starting to hit cities this size,” Long said.

The Sarkisian building on the west end of Muller Plaza? The former Newberry’s, 229-231 Main St., where developer David Lubin is trying to put together the financing for rehabilitation? These are among a number of candidates for “The Next Bresee’s,” Long said.

“As people start to live downtown, they support businesses downtown,” he said, adding, “Oneonta is a very walkable city.”

The revival of housing downtown is just one of many positives Long sees in what he called “the friendliest place I’ve ever seen.”

While some $3 million in grants came to City Hall during his 18-month tenure – some he takes credit for; others were already in the works – he said his most important contribution was a system: Develop the plan, demonstrate the need, then apply for the money.

“It’s not a hard formula,” he said. “It just takes time.”

During his tenure, Long oversaw the development of a Neahwa Park plan and the downtown streetscape plan that demonstrate varied needs. These will be the basis, in part, for $11 million in CFA and CDBG grants City Hall will submit in the next month.

Long has spent 33 years in municipal government, 28 in Auburn, where he was city planner, then city manager. And the past five as city manager in Poughkeepsie and, for the past 18 months, Oneonta. He advised Mayor Miller in late March of his intent to retire, and May 29 was his last day.

Even that last day was a busy one.

He’d organized well-attended presentations on the state Historic Homeowner Tax Credit Program at Ristorante Stella Luna, in the afternoon for commercial property owners; in the evening for homeowners, explaining how historically certified renovations can garner 20 percent tax credits.

The next day, he already had new business cards ready – “consultant,” not “city manager” – as he headed off to his new life in Auburn. He has already been contracted to help guide a further renovation of the historic Schine’s cinema there. And he will be consulting with Oneonta through June on the round of grants.