Why my hometown is fading away

It would be interesting or know how many jobs were lost since the sixties when the following industries closed and/or migrated away. Railroad, Acco. Shade Roller, Diamond National paper company, State Hospital, Augsburg Corp., other oil companies that had tank farms along Ogdensburg’s shore line from Patterson Street to western city limits, Newel manufacturing, Agway (probably in part by the loss of the small family farms in the surrounding area,) and lumber companies. With the loss of industry and resultant population loss we start seeing the closure of small businesses: Hackett’s Hardware, furniture stores (Hess, Sperlings, Clickner’s,)dozens of restaurants, motels, and taverns, jewelry stores, clothing stores, Montgomery Wards, Sears, fish hatchery, Bakeries, Shoe stores, and all the local small businesses along Ford St., The Crescent, and Lake St.

Let’s look a few miles down the road to Massena, once the industrial jewel of the north country and the loss of Reynolds, GM, and downsizing of Alcoa.

The list of reasons for this loss of jobs is as long as the above list, but it’s fair to say that the tax environment in NYS is at the top of the list; it’s nearly impossible for a small and larger businesses to survive in this State. And the prime motivation for larger industries to flee.

With the exodus of population we see a dramatic decrease in our school’s student population and a corresponding decrease in teaching jobs. Without job prospects a large number of our children are forced to seek good paying jobs away from home. And let’s not forget the loss of Mater Dei College.

Our airport has expanded, making it easier to find better lives elsewhere.

It’s not just Ogdensburg. Take a look around the north country; Massena as I mentioned but even Canton and Potsdam have seen decreases in businesses and if it weren’t for the colleges and university there they would be a bad off as we are.

For the foreseeable future our best chance of “rebirth” is the tourist industry and , as I see It, that’s where local gov’t needs to focus it’s attention.