Letter from Ellen Pope

'Roll Up Your Sleeves'

I write in response to the September 4 editorial, “Industry and Housing: If Not Here, Then Where?” which discussed local opposition to several proposed housing and industry projects and asked, if not here, when housing and new business development are in short supply, then where would these projects be welcome?

As with most things in life, the devil is in the details. The projects cited—Bassett’s Averill Road housing project in Cooperstown, the proposed Manocherian subdivision in Otsego and Springfield, the Rehabilitative Support Services housing project in Oneonta, expansion of the Nader Regional Airport, the proposed EcoYotta data center—present very different “solutions” to our affordable housing crisis, transportation, and economic development needs, and raised concerns on different grounds.

The Averill Road housing development, which was to have provided much-needed housing for Bassett employees, and RSS, which was to have provided assistive housing for low-income people with mental health and substance abuse treatment needs in addition to affordable housing, were both defeated by opposition from neighbors who objected to their being built “in their back yards,” or front yards. Yet these are precisely the types of housing that the county really needs and were strongly supported by those who deeply understand what is required for a strong, healthy, and sustainable year-round local economy, including Otsego 2000.